T-Mobile Sidekick
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The Danger Hiptop, also sold as the T-Mobile Sidekick, is a GPRS/EDGE mobile phone with wireless Internet capabilities and some functionality similar to a PDA. The Hiptop is sold by T-Mobile in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Austria. SunCom used to sell the device in some parts of the U.S., and Fido is the exclusive Hiptop carrier in Canada—sales in Canada were discontinued after Fido was bought by Rogers Communications, at the end of the hiptop2's life; this is partially because the Hiptop is a competitor to Rogers' BlackBerry business. In Germany, the Hiptop service is also offered by E-Plus including a flat rate tariff. In Australia, the Hiptop device and service are sold by Telstra.
The Hiptop software was originally designed by the company Danger, Inc., which is located in Palo Alto, California. The original Sidekick hardware was designed by Danger and manufactured by Flextronics. The Sidekick 2, 3, and iD are manufactured by Sharp Corporation in Japan and designed, respectively, by Danger and then Danger in partnership with Sharp. All versions of the Sidekick were developed in close partnership with T-Mobile. Danger provides the Hiptop OS software and back-end services for the device. These include a catalog of downloadable software applications, email hosting, instant messaging and web proxies.
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Revisions
The Hiptop has had five revisions. The original looked like the Color (pictured at right), but had a greyscale screen. The color screen was the second revision. The Hiptop 2, now replaced by the Hiptop 3, added an extra front button, two SEND and END keys which also function as page up/down keys, dedicated volume keys, two top buttons (for phone and camera use), a speakerphone, and a VGA camera. The Hiptop 3 is most advanced model featuring a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, EDGE, a mini SD slot, removable battery, hard gel keyboard, and a mini Mp3 player. The fifth and most recent edition is the Sidekick iD, which is missing Bluetooth, the EDGE network, a mini SD card slot, Mp3 player, and camera. This is odd because the Sidekick iD was made after the Sidekick 3. Some people say it is more of a downgrade, but was clearly made to make the raw features of the Hiptop more affordable. This hiptop is way better than the sidekick 3 in many ways.
There are also two nopey limited edition variants of the T-Mobile Sidekick II: Juicy Couture (Pink) and Mister Cartoon (Black). These are different case colors with the same hardware and operating systems. T-Mobile Sidekick 3 has three limited edition variants all with the same hardware and operating systems (Released on October 30, 2006): Diane von Furstenberg (Black with Pink Lips), Lifted Research Group (Green with Tree Logos) and Dwyane Wade (White and gold with a basketball texture, Released February 21, 2007), the latter co-inciding with the February 17 NBA All Star game. These special edition Hiptops are more sought after now since production of them has stopped, thus making any of them very hard to find and much more expensive than when they were originally on sale.
Hardware
One of the defining features of all Hiptops is the LCD screen on the front of the device that flips around 180 degrees to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard underneath. There are two large rectangular buttons on the left side of the device ("menu" and "jump") and one on the right ("back" and "cancel"). The left side houses a directional pad and on the right side a scroll wheel (Hiptop 2) or track ball (Hiptop 3). The Hiptop 2's directional pad contains internal multicolored LEDs used in ringers and notifications, while the Hitptop 3's track ball contains internal multicolored LEDs used in ringers and notifications. The right side also has two phone buttons: dial (also page-down) and hangup (also page-up). The top of the unit has two shoulder buttons (application-specific). The bottom has volume controls and a power button.
Hiptop
Back and cancel are the same button, D-pad is under the screen, no top and bottom buttons. The outside speaker is used for device sounds but not speakerphone. The top edge has an infrared jack which is unusable. The headset jack is also used for the accessory camera. Was available in two versions: a first-released monochromatic color scheme and then a color model.
Hiptop 2
Back and cancel are different buttons, D-pad is on the left side of phone and lights up. Left and right shoulder buttons were added on the top, as well as volume and power on bottom of phone.
The Hiptop 2 has two speakers; The phone speaker built into the D-pad, and a speaker on the back of the unit (near the VGA camera) for sounds, alerts and speakerphone calls.
The microphone is located near the end-call button, right side of the phone there is a power jack, a mini-USB port (usable only by developers, not for the general public) and hands-free headset jack. Scroll Wheel Still the the same place
The dimensions of the Hiptop II are 133 mm x 66 mm x 23 mm.
Hiptop 2 AU
On October 9th 2006, The Australian Hiptop 2 was released through Telstra. The Australian version is basically the same as the Hiptop 2 in America but re-constructed for the Australian audience - it has MSN built-in as the default messenger and Yahoo which is downloadable from the catalog.
Hiptop 3
This version is larger than the Hiptop 2. With the 3rd Generation of the device, the finish changes from gray to a black and silver design. The Scroll Wheel from the previous versions has been replaced with a six-direction trackball that lights up. This replaces the D-pad's ability to light up. The dimensions of the Hiptop 3 are 130 mm x 59 mm x 22 mm.
New functionality includes: Bluetooth, a 1500 mAh removable battery, a miniSD slot, a 1.3 Megapixel camera (capable of resolutions up to 1280 x 1024) upgraded from a VGA camera (resolutions supported up to 640 x 480) and an MP3 player built in. The Hiptop 3 enables the use of the mini-USB port to End-users and appears as a USB Mass Storage device on PCs and Macs (in conjunction with the miniSD card) to store music and photos. USB is version 1.1 so an external memory card reader is recommended for large file transfers. Danger also enabled the ability to change backgrounds on the main screens (4 changeable backgrounds come pre-installed on the device). An undocumented feature discovered after launch enables users to add themes via the miniSD card to enable changes to the background, icons, the flip open and close sound and main menu graphics.<ref>http://www.hiptop3.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=608</ref> An online theme generator and user-generated themes are available. A guide to making your own theme is found here
Sidekick iD
The Sidekick iD is a smaller version of the Sidekick 3 with fewer features.. Released April 25, 2007, this Sidekick is more affordable, at a starting price of $149 on release, and now just $49 with a 2 year contract. It does not feature Bluetooth, an MP3 player, or a camera. However, it still access to T-Mobile's GPRS services. This new edition to the Sidekick line also features bumpers and skins for customization. Despite the lack of a built-in camera, it still features the Photo Album with pictures saved to the device sent from other Sidekick models. Owners can add new themes via the Download Catalog, but cannot make their own due to the lack of an external memory card slot. The only way to fully customize your Sidekick iD is through the hidden USB port, located just underneath the wrist-strap holes, and opposite the charger. You need a USB 2.0 mini cable, exactly like the one used for the Motorola Razr, and a few applications. With the sidekick ID you are able to change the bumpers, meaning you can change the color of your sidekick.
Sidekick Slide/Hiptop Slide
The Sidekick Slide is a currently unreleased device manufactured by Motorola and to be supported by T-Mobile. Going by the product name of the Motorola Q700, it features an upgraded operating system (rumored to be 4.0), a Transmissive 2.4-inch, 320 x 240 pixel screen, and is smaller and slimmer than the Sidekick 3 (Dimensions: 118 mm x 62 mm x 17.5 mm). It is also said to have MMS support, a USB charge option, but still features the same SMS character limitations and 1.3 MP camera. Its design is an assisted slide. A review of a test device was leaked early. The Sidekick Slide will be released on November 7, 2007. <ref>http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2007/07/11/sidekick-slide-zante-hands-on/</ref>
Sidekick LX/Hiptop LX
The Sidekick LX was released on October 17, 2007 (via internet and 5 special locations) for existing T-Mobile customers, after reserving one, and to new customers on October 24, 2007. It is available in two colors: midnight blue and espresso brown. The Sidekick LX includes a wider, more high quality screen, mood lights, a lighter frame, multimedia messaging, and an updated OS. It also includes new mood lights which are on the four sides of he device and change to the music. The Current price with a two year contract is $299.99. Suggested retail is $399.99.
Software
For more on this subject, see Hiptop Included Software.
Web browser
The Hiptop Web browser requests pages through a proxy running on Danger's servers. The proxy does most of the heavy work of resizing images, reformatting tables, and cutting out content the Hiptop browser doesn't support (such as Flash animations, videos, music, etc). The browser itself supports XHTML 1.0, CSS 1 with some CSS 2, JavaScript (Hiptop 2 and 3 only) and CSS 3 (Hiptop 3 only).
Email client
The Hiptop email client supports outside mail accounts as well as the vendor-provided one, and can display attached images, PDF files and Microsoft Word documents.
Officially, the client only supports POP3 mail accounts. However, the configuration dialog allows you to specify a mail server port to use, and if you specify port 143 (for IMAP) or port 993 (for IMAP/SSL), it will successfully connect and download email, although it doesn't support server-side folders and it treats your IMAP inbox just like a POP3 inbox.
You can use the Email Client to send picture messages since you can't through the regular SMS, there is a chart of addresses here.
IM client
The Hiptop offers AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo! Messenger, and MSN Messenger clients. The AIM client is built-in, while the Yahoo! client must be downloaded to the phone on the Hiptop 2 device. However, all three are built-in on the Hiptop 3. There is also some reason to believe that Jabber support, which includes GTalk, is in the works since the Hiptop 3 provides Jabber (also AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo!) as a known instant messaging service in the Address Book app. The AIM client can also connect to ICQ (also owned by AOL), and it has hidden support for AIM chat rooms (menu+J). A user logged into AIM from a Hiptop has a miniature device as their icon, rather than the standard mobile phone-shaped "mobile" icon.
The Yahoo! Messenger client is similar to the AIM client with some minor differences.
Tips, Tricks, and Hidden Features
- When pressing a button sequence, hold all buttons at once, and let go only the last button.
- Mirror (The screen will black out so you can see reflections. Works best in sunlight brighten areas) ~ Menu + Shift + M (Will only work at the jump screen)
- Flashlight (The trackball will glow so it can be used as a light) ~ Menu + F (Will only work at the jump screen)
- Screen Shots (The current screen you are at will be captured as a photo, so you can email it to someone as a regular JPEG image) ~ Menu + Shift + Right Shoulder Button (Will work at any screen)
- Diagnostics Test (Lets you run a test on your Sidekick so you can see what buttons/features work and don't work) ~ Menu + Shift + D (Will only work at the System Info screen)
- Full Screen Web Browser (Will take away the title bar of the Web Browser) ~ Menu + Shift + T (Will only work on the Web Browser)
- SnowBored (Hidden Game) ~ Hiptop|Sidekick 3-Menu + Shift + 8/Hiptop|Sidekick 2-Menu + ALT + 8(Will only work at the About Hiptop|Sidekick® 2, 3 and iD screen) (To play, avoid trees by holding down the trackball/scroll wheel to snowboard up and releasing to snowboard down)
- Soft Reset (Resets your Sidekick 3 ~ 1 + @ + 0 (Will work at any screen)
- Browser Link Context Menu (Pulls up a context action menu for browser links) ~ Hold the trackball while highlighting a link
- Toggle Browser Colors (Turns on/off background colors on webpages) ~ Menu + Shift + M
- Extended System Info (Displays your system info; versions of software, i.e. ~ Menu + M (Only works at the System Info screen)
- Display IP Address ~ Menu + M (Only works at the Network Info screen)
- AOL Instant Messenger Chat Rooms ~ Menu + J (Only works in the buddy list window)
The Hiptops/Sidekicks also have a small selection of emoticons that can be used in Hiptop or Hiptop MSN conversations.
- @(oo)@ ~ A monkey face.
- @(^v^)@ ~ A monkey kissing face
- @(^o^)@ ~ A monkey smiling
- ~:^ ~ A cockatoo
AutoText
The AutoText feature to type text quickly and accurately, as opposed to T9 (predictive text) on a standard 12-keykeypad, due to the quickness of the full QWERTY keyboard.
Automatic Word Replacement ~ Menu > Settings > AutoText. AutoText screen appears.
The screen offers automatic formatting and word replacement options you can select. Open the menu to discard or create rules.
Uncommon contraction rules that aren't commonly used in written modern 20th Century American English Today:
- hed -> he'd
- howd -> how'd
- thatd -> that'd
- theyd -> they'd
- theyll -> they'll
- whatd -> what'd
- whatll -> what'll
- whatm -> what'm
- whatre -> what're
- whens -> when's
- whered -> where'd
- wherell -> where'll
- whyd -> why'd
- whyll -> why'll
- whys -> why's
- youd -> you'd
Usage of the Special Unicode Characters utilize other languages for example French. Using AutoText can quickly spell out common abbreviation and/or without going through selecting special characters.
- svp -> s'il vous plaît
- dsl -> désolé
- abt -> à bientôt
- deja -> déjà
Usage by the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
The Hiptop (in all versions) has become closely associated with the Deaf/Hard of Hearing community, and has been used by many who are unable to hear/speak. The device has replaced the use of many standard TTY/TDD machines (allowing those who are Deaf to still be able to keep in contact while not at home), due to its versatility in being able to communicate via text messaging (SMS), instant messaging, e-mail and web browsing. A feature that has been added to the device by third-parties is the use of device side TTY software provided via IP-RELAY and i711, which allows users who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing to still place calls and have a relay operator serve as a "go-between" for them (see Telecommunications Relay Service and 7-1-1). The software for this is provided at no additional charge in addition to the normal data plan, though the i711 client provides extra services to the Deaf at an additional fee (such as sending TTY messages {similar to an SMS}, AAA roadside services, and finding Open Captioned movies, etc). Many Deaf users sign up for the "data only" package, saving the money normally spent on voice time. Some local Deaf non-profit groups in the US will either pay all or part of the cost of the device/monthly service fees for the user to keep them "connected". Some groups have even set up a "discount" program (in place of the non-profit group paying for the service), where if a certain number of Deaf users sign up, each will receive a discount on the cost of the device and a discount on the monthly service fee.<ref>[1]</ref>
Developing for the Hiptop
The Hiptop operating system is largely based on Java. For hiptop development, Danger has its own proprietary APIs. Danger introduced support for J2ME, the Java language optimized for mobile devices, to its hiptop OS with the release of OS 2.3.
To aid third-party software design, Danger has released a comprehensive Software Development Kit (SDK) that contains a Hiptop simulator, development installation utilities, and Danger API information. The SDK is available without charge from Danger's development website, and is supported on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. [2].
There isn't a way to add applications to a standard Hiptop device without the use of the Download Catalog (also called the Download Fun catalog on Sidekick II devices). This is ostensibly done to ensure only tested and compatible software is capable of being installed on a production device.
Application developers can bypass this functionality by using the included programs in the Danger Hiptop SDK to install user-written applications to the hiptop device directly. To do this, you must apply for a special software key known as a Danger Developer Key. The Danger Development Key is a special security certificate that is provided by Danger that enables the device to be used as a Development Device. This will allow the installation of user-written applications to the device, but will void any software warranty provided by Danger and/or your wireless carrier. Any applicable hardware warranties should still apply.
While the hiptop OS uses .jar files for applications, they are uploaded to the device in special files called "bundles". Bundle files have the extension '.bndl'. Each bundle file is encrypted to a specific operating system version and build number. For example, a bundle file for v3.4/155053 (T-Mobile Sidekick 3) would be denied installation on a v3.3/149695 device (T-Mobile Sidekick iD). Installation of bundles require a developer key to be installed on your device if you are using a Production OS. Internal OS builds do not require developer keys.
Japanese-language support
Since the OS 2.3 update in 2005, Japanese in UTF-8 encoding has been supported in the browser, email, and IM clients.
