Goodbye Kin, Sidekick and 'Social Phones'

NerdBoyTV NOTE: I agree TOTALLY with this PCWorld article. This is exactly why iPhone and Droid phones are taking off and leaving all others in the dust.

Goodbye Kin, Sidekick and 'Social Phones' - Yahoo! News: "If there's any correlation between the recently killed Kin and discontinued T-Mobile Sidekick -- aside from Microsoft having a hand in both discontinued phones -- it's that they tried to distinguish themselves from both high-powered smartphones and simpler feature phones.

That idea will soon become irrelevant, and here's why:

Social networking is clearly a hot trend in smartphones. Palm's WebOS phones led the pack with Synergy, a program that lumps contacts from e-mail, messaging applications and social networks into one view, while also merging instant messages and SMS into a single feed. Then came Motorola's Motoblur, a user interface that merged Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other networks into a single feed on the homescreen.

Now, it seems like everyone's getting on board. HTC's Sense interface gained Friend Stream, whose function is self-explanatory. Motorola's Droid X won't back Motoblur specifically, but something like it. Down the line, you'll see Windows Phone 7's People Hub, a running feed of status updates and photos from friends. Even the buttoned-up BlackBerry is joining the fun, as the BlackBerry 6 operating system will include a 'social networking feeds' application.

The problem is that smartphones require expensive data plans that turn off people who want less. The Kin, which Microsoft called a 'social phone,' was an outright failure largely because its $30 monthly data plan didn't sync with the Kin's lack of features. The Sidekick had special price tiers that included data and text, and it had a long and healthy run -- last year's data snafu notwithstanding.

Increasingly, it's becoming possible to get a smartphone for the same monthly cost as a Sidekick. Earlier this month, AT&T put an end to unlimited smartphone data plans, but it also introduced a low price tier of $15 per month for 200 MB of data. That's not ideal for watching video or streaming music, but it can certainly handle Facebook and Twitter, thereby making smartphones more accessible than ever. Other networks may follow AT&T; Verizon is already considering it.

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T-Mobile's Sidekick to ride off into the sunset

T-Mobile's Sidekick to ride off into the sunset - Yahoo! News

Once the darling of the youth set and a regular on the red carpet (Paris Hilton, anyone?), the Sidekick has gradually fallen behind the times, and T-Mobile has just announced that it'll stop selling the handset as of Friday.

But while the carrier is holding out hope for the "next chapter" of the brand, maybe it's time to simply give the Sidekick the 21-gun salute it deserves.

As of Friday morning, the most recent Sidekick — last year's LX, which was (believe it or not) the first Sidekick to support 3G — was still on sale, for a deeply discounted $49.99.But after Friday, the Sidekick will disappear from T-Mobile's online and retail stores, the carrier said. (You might find a few stragglers at third-party resellers.)

If you've still got a Sidekick, don't worry — T-Mobile says it'll still offer service and support for your phone. And it coyly adds that we should watch for "the next chapter of our storied Sidekick franchise."

Microsoft says it can restore Sidekick data

By Rachel Metz / msnbc.com (CLICK to read more)

"There may be a happy ending after all for owners of Sidekick phones who thought they might have permanently lost contact numbers and other personal information they had put on the gadget.

Earlier this week, T-Mobile said information stored by many Sidekick owners was 'almost certainly' gone for good following a failure of the computers that remotely stored the data.

But Microsoft Corp., whose Danger Inc. subsidiary makes the phones that are sold through T-Mobile USA, said Thursday it recovered 'most, if not all' of the missing data and will restore it as soon as it validates the information. Microsoft also apologized for the glitch."

When Cloud Fails: T-Mobile, Microsoft Lose Sidekick Customer Data

By Om Malik / Gigaom (CLICK to read more)

NerdBoyTV says, "This happened to my daughter, Alex...and no, she ain't happy."

"If you ever wondered what would happen when a cloud service fails, then you don’t have to wonder much. Earlier today customers of T-Mobile and the Sidekick data services provider, Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft lost access to all their data. There are some who believe that this data wipeout is because of a botched upgrade. Why it happened matters little to those who are unlikely to get their data back, according to a note posted on T-Mobile forums."

Your 3G Sidekick LX questions, answered

Does the new T-Mobile Sidekick have Wi-Fi? What about YouTube videos? Turn-by-turn directions? How much is it without a contract? Read on for the answers.

Any Wi-Fi on the device, or have they still not gotten it together that we want Wi-Fi?
Besides 3G and GPS, Wi-Fi is probably the most-requested Sidekick feature—and sadly, no Wi-Fi on the new LX (check out my hands-on report here). That's a shame, because speedy though T-Mobile's 3G network is, I've noticed spotty coverage on my LX review unit—especially indoors—and built-in Wi-Fi would be a handy addition. Why no Wi-Fi? Good question.

Can you watch YouTube and other videos on the Sidekick?
Yes indeed—just visit YouTube's mobile site on the Sidekick's Web browser, click on a video, and playback begins automatically. You can also transfer MPEG4/H.264 videos onto the Sidekick's microSD memory card.

How is the GPS? Turn by turn directions?
GPS on the new Sidekick is pretty accurate—outdoors, it pinpointed my position right down to my backyard, although indoors the GPS receiver couldn't get a fix. No turn-by-turn directions, at least for now, although you do get Microsoft Live Search for finding nearby businesses and getting point-to-point (if not not turn-by-turn) directions.

...go to linked article for more.

3G Sidekick in the works?

3G Sidekick in the works? : Ben Patterson : Yahoo! Tech

"Long one of my favorite QWERTY messaging phones, the once-proud Sidekick line has been stagnant for more than a year now (save a 'Special Edition' here and there). So it's great to hear the news (or, well, the rumor, anyway) that a full-on update—including 3G, finally—might be on tap.

The Boy Genius Report (via HipTop3) got its hands on a supposed spec sheet—or at least, a fuzzy photo of a spec sheet—that details the 'Sidekick LX 2009.' From the look of the (blurry) product images, the LX 2009—if it exists—looks pretty much like the current Sidekick LX (pictured above, and reviewed here), complete with the signature swiveling display, plastic bumpers, roomy keypad, and a pea-sized trackball to the right of the display."