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Hiptop/Sidekick Sequel Unleashed
powerline22 writes "After years of waiting, the second Hiptop (or Sidekick, depending on the carrier) has been unveiled to the public. After the terrible hardware reliability of the first version, the second one, manufactured by Sharp, looks a lot better, with longer battery life, built-in camera, more buttons, better radio, new software features and more. Also, according to T-Mobile, sync is going to finally be here real soon now. There are reviews at CNet, over at PCMag, and at MSNBC." We recently covered leaked Hiptop II photos.
But still no (real) sync yet. Enough said. Get with the program, Danger.
For years their synchronization solution has been vaporware. It exists, but it hasn't been released. They keep saying "any month now"...
If you buy one of these things, start learning now how to write a screen scraper. It's the only way to get your data if your phone ever breaks.
I'm wishing the next Treos will just get a browser as nice as the SK's. Then they will be a great solution.
Besides, this thing looks HUGE to me, not exactly a svelte device to slide in your pocket or clip to your belt.
Ok, so maybee it is a cheap Treo or Blackberry, but if you are buying a device for robust email access and PDA functionality, then the extra money spent would be well worth it, wouldn't it?
Even as a gaming machine, the Nokia N-Gage would blow this thing away... not to mention the QD.
Maybee i'm too old.... :)
to serve as a portable terminal. (I seem to recall this as a feature in the original model, but I can't find that listed on their site - and I'm on dialup, so I'm not scrounging through their flash hoohah to find it.) If I had something that small that would let me check my email or hop on irc anywhere, anytime, I'd be a happy geek :)
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
Danger seems like a very creepy company. They immediately snapped up the first viable online discussion forum devoted to the Sidekick, and have controlled it almost from day one. They apparently control many of the other Sidekick related sites and photo blogs by giving free stuff to the compliant site owners and nothing to the naughty ones. I've heard about ops in #hiptop even bragging about getting stuff from Danger. Basically legal bribes, if you ask me. If you watch their behavior it seems to be what you would expect from a company where lawyers make most of the decisions. Any company that would build a platform where an upgrade means free applications are removed from the device, has a very disturbing set of ethics. I could go on but it's not worth that much time. Danger creeps me out.
There are, of course, people who need to be on-call at all times, and I don't argue that point. But I see far too many middle managers tethered to their email 24 hours a day. Sorry PHB, but if you cannot do your job during normal working hours, you are not working efficiently. And yes, I say this as someone who leaves his cell phone back in the office when I go out for lunch, who doesn't even bother bringing it to the movie theater, who doesn't check work email from home in most cases. Guess what? I get my work done just fine, and am plenty responsive when I need to be. I'm not in a 24x7 operation, and nobody's life depends on me, so it's cool.
Either manage your time or your time will manage you.
If you want a P910a, buy one. For teenagers who can't afford a cell phone that costs as much as a computer, the Hiptop looks pretty good.
Using a Symbian series 60 device (3650, 7650, N-Gage, etc...), would probably provide a lot more flexibility. That coupled with the fact that you can buy an original N-gage for around $100 factory reconditioned, IMHO, makes the Sidekick pretty damn unattractive. I had seriously considered buying one before settling on my first smartphone (Nokia 3650), and I'm glad I didn't waste the money.
My N-gage, however (original, not the QD, which is basically a more expensive downgrade) is just about the best money I've ever spent. MP3/AAC player, FM radio, USB interface lets you mount your memory expansion card like a pen drive, full featured web browsers, IM clients for any network, IRC, telnet/SSH, ebook readers, interactive maps, tons and tons of games (Symbian, Java, and N-gage, all way more playable with the nice directional pad), and that's just to name a few. It's my electronic Swiss Army-Knife. 'Course you do look like a complete jackass talking into it edgewise...
Over the years, SE released many firmware revisions that addresses these issues, mainly speed and reception. Even to date, the t68i has the best battery life and the best bluetooth implementation, except for the new SE's of course.
:)
(now i'm getting off topic)
The hiptop2 looks great tho, finally they addressed some of the issues the original hiptop had. Mainly size imo. Some say danger should allow you to sync directly with your PC but what many don't know is that part of the hiptop's advantages is that the calendar, phonebook, and a few other things are sync'd up as soon as you login. You can managae your phone over the web via danger's server. It's really neat once you play around with one.
One thing i like to point out is that pcmag's review said you can't connect to a vpn however there is a pretty good SSH client available for the original hiptop. With that client, you can do whatever you want. (ie: irssi for irc, icq in text mode, manage your servers, etc..) Also, t-mobile and fido (canada's hiptop provider) have special unlimited GPRS plans for the phone.
Overall, it's a great toy and a great phone to have in your collection (if you're into that sort of thing)
I've used almost 99% of all GSM phones over the past two years yet the hiptop remains one of my favorite phone for a few reasons (look above). Sure you can ssh with a p900, treo600 and those SPV/xda phones but those costs over 1k CDN.
(and again, this is just my opinion)
A friend of mine has the original sidekick and I am always utterly jealous of it.
I mean, how great is it that I could be sitting at Denny's drinking coffee and doing a crossword and I could pull out my phone, hop on the 'net and find the answer to that really tricky clue.
I've used the original on several occassions and it's not too big, actually it's pretty much the perfect size for a phone.
The only drawbacks I see are explaining to people that "yes, it's a phone." and the awkwardness of dialing. Other than that, I would say this phone is just right.
Sorry, but I think you don't get it. I have had a hiptop for 1.5 years now, and I really like it. This _IS_ the most functional pda/cell device out there. Perhaps bluetooth would be nice, but I don't really care - it would be of no use for syncing, because the device is already connected to the internet. You will sync with danger's servers, not with your device.
Sync is finally coming. This is one hundred percent T-Mobile's fault, not Danger's. There have been several sync solutions ready to ship for quite some time now. The only holdup is T-Mobile.
Last I heard, the new hiptops have triband GSM. Is that not standard enough?
As for the storage slot, all I can think of to do with it (that would be actually useful in any capacity) would be to store mp3s, which I don't care about. I have an ipod for that.
The camera? I truly couldn't care less. Maybe the new hiptop will have a usable camera. If so, great... Whatever.
The hiptop has a very very good user interface, it has a very good OS (I am slightly biased because I know some of the people who wrote it). It sets out to do certain things, and it does them very well.
You are right: it is not about how hip it is, it is about how functional it is. Danger makes it extremely functional, and T-Mobile is annoyingly pushing it as a hip toy for teenagers. To me (and the dozen or so other users in my nerd-universe), it is a highly useful tool in our daily lives. You don't realise how useful it is to have an always-on internet link on your cellphone until you get it. It becomes hard to live without.
"Sorry PHB, but if you cannot do your job during normal working hours, you are not working efficiently"
That is a little niave. You can be working perfectly efficient, but then some decide the your 'only' working 8 hours a day! the nerve. So they give you more work, Now your working 10 hours, then 12.
If they work with a work a holic, then there boss expects them to be one as well.
Now, PHBs do a lot of stupid things, but sometimes our schedule is controlled by others.
"I get my work done just fine..." that great, and so do a million other hamburger flippers...
Just a guess, since you don't mention what you do.
I do agree with you, but more often then you think, middle managers are worked to hard becasue there boss is not effecient.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
May I rant for a moment? Thank you.
The way I see it, phones now have 3 main functions. First is placing and receiving voice phone calls, which my Nextel handset does quite handly. It has a vibrate motor and a headset jack, both essential for me. Second is acting as a modem, supplying my laptop with a pipe to the internet. The hardware is great at this, but the unlimited plan is an arm and a leg. The fact that my current phone can act as an RS232 modem without any drivers is great, I just wish USB support were better. The third function is "Everything else", all the fun toys that the Japanese enjoy for years before American providers make a big deal out of. Cameras and web browsers in the
phone, voice recorders and reasonable calculators and games and all that. This category is where my Nextel sucks donkey parts. The java environment is miniscule, the screen is bad, the web browser is prehistoric and easily confused.
The Hiptop/Sidekick turns this completely upside down. The little sucker was made to be third-category toy, with a great keyboard and screen, plenty of cool software, and an environment to make more. All it needs is a camera. It also appears adequate for voice calling, despite awkward earpiece placement. Where T-mobile drops the ball is that they don't allow the Sidekick to also act as a tethered modem. I'd have one tomorrow if it could replace my Nextel's functionality, but it can't.
The obvious argument is something along the lines of "well, the browser in the phone can only eat so much data per day, so that's why the unlimited data plan is so cheap. If it ran tethered, they wouldn't make any money on data." Okay, but as far as I know, T-mobile does offer the same data plan on other handsets, which do pass it out the serial port and act as modems.
The Sidekick has a USB port and IrDA hardware. It's poised to be the best, most useful handset in all 3 categories, if only T-mobile would support its use as such. Any ideas why they won't?