Danger Hiptop

The Danger Hiptop, or most notably 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 also sells the device in some parts of the U.S., and Fido is the exclusive Hiptop carrier in Canada—service in Canada is being discontinued after Fido was bought by Rogers Communications. 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 II and 3 are manufactured by Sharp Electronics 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.

Revisions

The Hiptop has had four 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, a camera and a new screen swivel style. The Hiptop 3 is the latest model featuring a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, EDGE, a mini SD slot, removable battery, hard gel keyboard, and a mini Mp3 player.

There are also two limited edition variants of the T-Mobile Sidekick II: Juicy Couture (Pink) and Mr. Cartoon (Black). These are different case colors with the same hardware and OS. T-Mobile Sidekick 3 has three limited edition variants (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.

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) that contain internal multicolored LEDs used in ringers and notifications. The right side also has two phone buttons: dial (also page-up) and hangup (also page-down). 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.

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 smaller 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 five-way 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 1500mAh removable battery, a miniSD slot, a 1.3 Megapixel camera (capable of resolutions up to 1280x1024) upgraded from a VGA camera (resolutions supported up to 640x480) and a 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.

Hiptop iD

Recently, Danger Inc. has announced a more skimmed down version of the Sidekick 3, or Sidekick iD. To be released April 18, this Hiptop will be more affordable, at a $149 price, yet will not have Bluetooth, an MP3 player, or a digital camera. These Sidekicks will also come in blue, yellow, and purple. [1]

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.

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. 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.

Hidden Game

If you hit the "Menu" button (top left) and click settings, a menu will pop up. Scroll all the way down to "About Sidekick 3." Click it and it will start to show the credits. If you press the menu button, shift, and the number 8 at the same time you can play the hidden game called snowbored.

Third-party software and the Hiptop3

The Sidekick/Hiptop 3 device runs a different operating system than the one used by prior versions of the Sidekick/Hiptop device. It is known as Hiptop OS v3. Hiptop OS v3 is comprised primarily of highly optimized ARM ASM and Java code.

Hiptop OS v3 was largely redesigned to provide greater performance, and to provide support for the additional hardware of the Sidekick/Hiptop 3 device. (e.g. Bluetooth, MiniSD card, etc). Despite the changes, it manages to maintain a great deal of backwards compatibility with legacy versions of Hiptop OS (v2.x and v1.x) These include backwards compatibility of the user interface and most system calls used by the legacy OS versions.

While Hiptop OS v3 is mostly backwards compatible, and most applications designed for Hiptop OS v2.x and v1.x should work unaltered with Hiptop OS v3, this is not supported by standard Hiptop 3 devices; it is only supported in developer devices. Ostensibly this is done to ensure complete compatibility with the subtle changes in Hiptop OS v3. As such - the legacy Hiptop v1.x and v2.x applications are slowly being ported to Hiptop OS v3; and newer applications are sure to be developed exclusively for Hiptop OS v3.

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.

Developing for the Hiptop

The Hiptop OS operating system is largely based on Java J2ME, a scaled-down version of Java that is optimized for handheld devices. In addition to the J2ME included API, Danger has also added special proprietary API for use with the Hiptop device.

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 Software Catalog. 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.

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.

Popular Culture

Recently a video of Robbie Williams using a Sidekick II has been leaked onto You Tube. Despite an 18 month sponsorship deal with T-Mobile and Sony Ericsson, Robbie has been seen in public using his Sidekick II.
In Mid 2005, Paris Hilton (who was at one point a spokesmodel for the T-Mobile version of the device), was said to have had the entire contents of her Hiptop2 "hacked". Her celebrity-laden contact list and pictures, several being topless, was posted online for many to see. Investigations found that the compromise of private data was due to the choice of an easily-guessed password, and not a vulnerability in the unit or the service. During the 4th season of The Simple Life, Paris can be seen with a Juicy Couture Sidekick II.
In March of 2006, nude photos of Pete Wentz were posted and spread quickly across the Internet. Wentz posted a response on Fall Out Boy's website and blog asserting that the pictures were stolen from his Sidekick, and that after "feeling badly about this for about 24 hours, I am now ready to get back to laughing."
MTV: While filming many reality-based shows, actors and celebrities are given the T-Mobile branded Sidekick2 to use on camera.
The Hiptop has become a replacement for Two-way pagers for many celebrities. This has given the device some extra free advertisement.
An example of Internet vigilantism involving a lost Hiptop gained attention on Digg, Slashdot and hundreds of blogs beginning on June 6, 2006. Members of a family in New York were accused of taking a lost Hiptop from a New York City cab, and then refusing to return it to the owners who contacted them. Photos taken by the family who found the phone were uploaded to the original owner's new Hiptop via her Desktop Interface (a feature that allows Sidekick/ Hiptop users to view data such as e-mails, to-do lists, calendar and pictures that are stored on the device from any web-enabled pc). They were retrieved and posted online, in an attempt to coerce the finders to return the lost device. The family's identity was eventually discovered, a 16 year old girl arrested, and the Hiptop was retrieved. [3]
In the hit UPN (now CW) drama show "Veronica Mars", the titular character is shown using the Sidekick II in several episodes throughout the second season which you can see is later upgraded to the Sidekick 3 in the shows third season. Wallace has also been shown to have the Sidekick II in a Season 2 episode.
Andrea Sachs uses the Sidekick II extensively in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada.
The 2006 movie Accepted uses the SideKick II, inaccurately, many times throughout as a communications tool.
In the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, Sharpay Evans' phone is a Sidekick II. The Sidekick II is actually Ashley Tisdale's own in which she got as a Christmas gift.
Pink uses a Sidekick 2 in the music video for Stupid Girls.
In "Agent Cody Banks" Cody's CIA cell phone is a Sidekick I.
In "Desperate Housewives", Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) is seen using a Sidekick 3 throughout the shows third season.
In the Disney Channel Show "That's So Raven", Raven Baxter uses the device, but is known in throughout the world on the show as a "Secretech". It also comes with a camera which can also be used as a web cam.
The Sidekick II frequently pops up in "The Perfect Storm" episode of The O.C.. First, a studded version is used by Taylor Townsend to communicate with Dean Hess. Seth buys Summer a pink Sidekick II in order to trap Dean Hess into letting Ryan back into Harbor. Finally, Sandy Cohen uses the device to confront Dean Hess about his relationship with Taylor.
In the Nickelodeon show, Zoey 101, Zoey and her friends sometimes use devices called "TekMates," in reality they are re-badged Sidekicks.
In the CW dramedy show Gilmore Girls, episode 19 in season 6 is called "I Get A Sidekick Out of You" and features Rory getting a Sidekick 2 from her father. In recent episodes she has been shown using the Sidekick 3 both correctly and incorrectly.
In the movie, Just My Luck, Lindsay Lohan uses a T-Mobile Sidekick II.
On season 3 of Laguna Beach: The Real OC, Breanna Conrad shows off her sidekick 2, which her sister Lauren Conrad bought for her.
Singer Janet Jackson was shown with a Sidekick 3 while shooting BET's Top 25 Countdown; Sidekick 3 sound effects can be heard in an interlude after 'With U' on her album 20 Y.O
In the Romeo! series Ashley used a Sidekick II.
In the movie Material Girls, Hilary Duff & Haylie Duff use a Sidekick II.
In the hit television series Heroes, Claire Bennet uses a Sidekick II.
In Jibbs's music video for "King Kong (Ft. Chamillionaire)" Jibbs hangs up on a sidekick 3 when confronted to race cars.
In Date Movie Alyson Hannigan flips open her Sidekick 2 and says "I only have a T-mobile sidekick"
In Vanessa Hudgens's 2006 music video, Come Back to Me, she is seen using the Sidekick 3 with her friend Alexa Nikolas.
In Grey's Anatomy, Meredith uses a Mr. Cartoon Sidekick II.
In the movie, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, G-Girl has a Mr. Cartoon Sidekick II. This is the second time that Uma Thurman is shown with a Limited Edition Sidekick II.
The Sidekick 3 has been prominently featured in the CBS comedies How I Met Your Mother and The Class.
In the very first scene of the Ugly Betty pilot, a model sits down next to Betty and flips open her Sidekick II.
In MTV's new series Dance Life you can see Jersey using a Juicy Couture Sidekick II incorrectly.
In the movie Odd Girl Out Stacey's phone is a Sidekick II.
In MTV's The Hills Lauren and Heidi both use Sidekick 3s in the new season.
Wanda Sykes uses a Sidekick II in the 2005 movie Monster in Law.
On the hit television series Brothers & Sisters, Amber uses a Juicy Couture Sidekick II whilst Rebecca has a Diane von Furstenberg Sidekick 3.
Freddie Prinze Jr. uses a Sidekick II on his TV show Freddie.
The character Silas is given a stolen Sidekick II in the first season of Weeds and is told to scratch out the serial number on the back.
In the first season of The Loop, the lead character Sam uses a Sidekick II.
G-Unit uses a Sidekick I in their music video Stunt 101.
In The Game, Melanie owns a Diane von Furstenberg Sidekick 3.
In The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, London Tipton uses a Color Sidekick.
After her highly publicized fight with Paris Hilton, Shanna Moakler was caught on video using her Sidekick 3 to call the police and report Paris.
Lloyd Banks and Avante use Sidekick 2s in the Karma music video.
Raven Symoné use the Sidekick 1 in the crossover of That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana.
In the 2005 Music Video I'm a Hustla, Hip-Hop Artist Cassidy is seen using a Sidekick 2
My Chemical Romance band member Mikey Way and his wife use hiptop cellphones.
On Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, Jessica Simpson uses a Sidekick 2. Recently, she has been shown to have the Sidekick 3 in several magazines.
Jojo's song titled 'Baby Its You' featuring Bow Wow refers to T-Mobile's sidekick in the line "and anytime you miss me, baby, sidekick page me"
Bo Derek uses a Sidekick 2 throughout the series Fashion House which aired on MyNetworkTV.

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