T-Mobile Selling Sidekick Again

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Less than a month after the resolution of the terrible Sidekick data disaster of 2009, T-Mobile is back to selling the troubled mobile once more (via PhoneNews). The 2008 Sidekick goes for $49.99 with an Even More plan, while the 2009 Sidekick LX will set you back $149.99 with the same plan. Pretty pricey for a 3G messaging phone.

Despite last month's horrific debacle, the Sidekick still appears to be as popular as ever. All Sidekick models are currently listed as 'out of stock'. Is T-Mo's site having inventory troubles, or are that many people still in love with the Sidekick as a mobile phone?

Posted on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:46:04 CST | by Robert Evans

Cypress West Bridge Offers Turbo-MTP 2.0 Sideloading Solution

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Many computer designs have used North and South bridge chips on the mainboards for a long time. Cypress has announced a new West Bridge that promises to allow faster movies transfers to external devices like PMPs.

Cypress claims that its West Bridge solution can transfer a 1GB movie in under 45 seconds. That is a ten times speed improvement compared to traditional MTP implementations. The new module also includes drivers for the popular Android OS making it compatible with many different hand held devices. Read more

Posted on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:31:08 CST | by Shane McGlaun

MIT Develops Witty Robot Sidekick (For Your Car)

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Finally. Since I was a kid I've longed for a super-smart robot sidekick to be my best friend and come with me on my adventures. MIT's Affective Intelligent Driving Agent isn't quite that awesome, but it's a big step in the right direction. The AIDA is being built as a smart driving assistant that will make people safer and help them to find more efficient routes.

Essentially an adorable little robot that sits on your dashboard and talks to you, the AIDA is being built to recognize human facial expressions and emotional queues. Basically, they're creating a robot that knows to shut up and back off when you start to get angry at it. If some stupid dashboard droid started criticizing MY driving in the middle of agonizing gridlock traffic, I'd be sorely tempted to bludgeon it to death with my laptop bag.

Posted on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:11:19 CDT | by Robert Evans

Motorola Zeppelin's Backside Spotted

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What's that, over in China? It's a bird! It's a plane! No...it's a zeppelin! Don't worry, you haven't been transported back in time to the mid-30s, and we're not stuck in some weird steampunk alternate universe. Motorola just has yet another Android smartphone coming down the line. It's codenamed the Motorola zeppelin, and it was captured on film by DIGI.QQ (via Gizmodo), a Chinese tech site, very recently.

DIGI.QQ notes that, due to its dual CDMA/GSM compatibility, the Zeppelin could be designed as the world's first Android travel phone. We don't know what hardware it will pack or what it's front looks like, but we do know that it's set to have a 3.1" touchscreen, a 5 MP camera with flash, and HDMI-out. The Zeppelin is set for a Q1 release in China, and a wider release at some vague point in the future.

Posted on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:51:25 CDT | by Robert Evans

Microsoft Starts To Restore Sidekick Data

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The terrible saga of the Sidekick disaster is finally at an end. Electronista reports that Microsoft and T-Mo have started to restore Sidekick data today. There is a guide for owners posted online as well. If you lost data that existed on October 1st, MS and T-Mobile now say you'll be able to get it back.

That's very good news, and could help to stem the tide of lawsuits already brewing amongst the irate Sidekick user community. There's no denying that Microsoft screwed up big time here. They failed to take care of the servers like they were contractually obligated to do, and they had no or minimal back-ups.

Posted on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:10:32 CDT | by Robert Evans

Verizon Set to Offer Mini 311-1037NR Netbook With Subsidy

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Verizon Wireless is set to add a new subsidized netbook to its line called the HP Mini 311-1037NR. The horribly named product will be offered with subsidized pricing in exchange for a two-year contract on a data plan.

The machine has Windows 7 Home Premium, Intel Atom N270, 2GB of RAM, and a 160GB HDD. The screen of the device is 11.6-inches and LED backlit with 1366 x 768 resolution making it HD compatible. The machine also has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built-in. Read more

Posted on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Sidekick Outage Cost Microsoft $700k Per Day?

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The Sidekick data loss debacle stands tall as one of the most extreme IT failures by a major corporation in recent memory. Thankfully the data has been recovered, but that still doesn't mean this story has a happy ending. It now looks like Microsoft could be out a big chunk of change as a result of this whole error. If TechCrunch is correct, we're talking something in the neighborhood of $700,000 a day.

A 'reliable' source has informed TechCrunch that Danger's contract with T-Mobile stipulated that the company would pay damages if they allowed a service downtime of more than 99.5%. When Microsoft bought Danger, they gained that responsibility. We don't know the exact details of the contract, but TechCrunch's source says that, back when the Sidekick user base was 800,000 people, the penalty was 700 grand per day.

Posted on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:00:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Data Recovery for Sidekick Users Successful Says Microsoft

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Microsoft issued an official statement regarding the T-Mobile Sidekick Data Loss disaster. The statement is signed by VP Premium Mobile Experience Roz Ho and says that Microsoft recovered most, if not all, customer data for those Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage.

Microsoft plans to begin restoring personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after the company has validated the data and restoration plan. Read more

Posted on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:28:06 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sidekick Owners: Get A Free Peek Pronto

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Are you one of the legions of Sidekick owners who lost all of your data in the Great Sidekick Crash of 2009? If so Peek, manufacturers of the email and social media handheld device the Pronto, have a deal for you. If you lost all of your Sidekick info in the crash, they will provide you with a brand new Pronto handheld, absolutely free.

Their blog entry (via Engadget) says it all. Send in a picture of you, your Sidekick, and a bill or some other form of hard proof, along with your address. If everything checks out, Peek will mail you a Pronto. All you have to pay is $20/mo for unlimited email and texting.

Posted on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:37:22 CDT | by Robert Evans

Was The Sidekick Data Disaster Due To Sabotage?

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The tale of the Sidekick data loss is one fraught with woe, both for T-Mobile and Sidekick users themselves. Initially, knee-jerk user reactions blamed T-Mo for the debacle, but it's starting to look increasingly like the carrier had nothing to do with the crash.

When Microsoft acquired Danger, they also acquired the responsibility to care for their servers which held the Sidekick data. Though T-Mo still acted as the carrier for the Sidekick, data storage was left up to Microsoft. AppleInsider alleges that it was Microsoft's internal failures that led to the crash. In fact, they state, it might even have been an intentional act of sabotage that lead to the data loss in the first place.

Posted on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:42:10 CDT | by Robert Evans

Lost Sidekick Data May Be Recoverable Says T-Mobile

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T-Mobile has updated their Sidekick customers about the Data loss and service disruption that occurred last week.
T-Mobile is giving Sidekick owners some hope that their data will be recovered. T-Mobile says that recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible. I'm not sure what this means, but it's possible they are using low level disk data recovery software to restore the wiped out data. T-Mobile will continue to keep Sidekick owners updated on this front. Read more

Posted on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:05:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Unhappy T-Mobile Sidekick Owners Get Android Phones?

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The T-Mobile Sidekick data loss disaster is still going on and T-Mobile has not officially updated us on the situation yet. The last statement is from Friday and supposedly a new update on the loss of private data on Sidekick phones is due today.
Hiptop3 reports about Sidekick users getting discounted upgrades to a T-Mobile G1 or MyTouch 3G to stay with T-Mobile.
Others managed to get out of their contract early without penalty. Others report that they were not offered anything. Read more

Posted on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:24:01 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

T-Mobile Sidekick Data Loss Disaster Hits

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T-Mobile Sidekick users are in great danger (pun intended) of losing all the personal data on their Sidekick phones if they haven't already lost it.
On Friday T-Mobile posted an official statement apologizing for the recent Sidekick data service disruption. On top of that Microsoft and Danger said in the statement that personal information stored on your Sidekick - such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos - that is no longer on your Sidekick has almost certainly been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger.
Today Microsoft and T-Mobile plan to issue another statement about the status of the remaining issues caused by the service disruption including data recovery efforts. Read more

Posted on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:30:09 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Flash Player 10.1 Brings Open Screen Project To All Smartphones besides iPhone

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Adobe made an important announcement today about bringing Flash to smartphones today. Adobe unveiled Adobe Flash Player 10.1 software for smartphones, smartbooks, netbooks, PCs and other Internet-connected devices under the Open Screen Project.
A public developer beta of the browser-based runtime is expected to be available for Windows Mobile, Palm webOS and desktop operating systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux later this year.

Public betas for Google Android and Symbian OS are expected to be available in early 2010.
In addition, Adobe and RIM announced a joint collaboration to bring Flash Player to Blackberry smartphones, and Google joined close to 50 other industry players in the Open Screen Project initiative. Read more

Posted on Mon, 5 Oct 2009 00:53:20 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

HP Obsidian & LG Monaco: Heading To AT&T

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Two new smartphones, built around the upcoming WinMo 6.5 OS, will be hitting AT&T before the end of the year. According to a road map Boy Genius leaked onto the Internet, both the HP Obsidian and LG Monaco are set for a November launch. There's going to be a lot of WinMo 6.5 coming down the pipe this holiday season, better start working on those Christmas lists.

The HP Obsidian looks like a pretty bog-standard mid-level smartphone so far. It's got Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, a full QWERTY keyboard, a microSD slot, GPS, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and WinMo 6.5. It can connect through GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA (850/1900/2100MHz). We've got no further information on the hardware or pricing yet.

Posted on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:05:34 CDT | by Robert Evans

Zune HD Not Sold Outside Of US; Microsoft Not Convinced Of Zune HD?

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The new Microsoft Zune HD is an interesting portable media player that is a valid alternative to the iPod touch 3G for many in the United States. Microsoft announced plans to bring the Zune video service to Xbox users around the globe, but there are still no plans to actually make the Zune HD a global product.

What is up with that? It is of course expensive to localize and market a gadget like the Zune along with the Zune service in Europe, Asia and other markets. But we are talking about Microsoft here. Microsoft is a huge global player with their operating systems, application software and of course their Xbox console and Xbox Live service. Read more

Posted on Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story Launches

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Nintendo has announced that Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is now available to purchase. The game is for the Nintendo DSi game system and lets players play with the Mario brothers inside the King Koopa himself.

The game has two story lines to play at the same time letting players take control of Mario and Luigi as well as Bowser as he tries to get control of his castle back from Fawful. Players can switch between the two story lines as they wish. Read more

Posted on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Guidepoint Bluetooth Features Roadside Assist and Emergency Service

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Guidepoint has unveiled an interesting new hands free Bluetooth device for drivers that offers a couple of features we haven't seen before. The device offers hands free connectivity with your Bluetooth phone along with integrated music control.

The new features include access to emergency services and roadside assistance at the touch of a button. The device is designed to sit on the steering column for easy access. Guidepoint has 24/7 call centers that can respond to the needs of users. A white cross button accesses emergency medical assistance when paired with the GPS tracking device provides location services too. Read more

Posted on Thu, 3 Sep 2009 12:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

New Bill Will Give President 'Emergency Control' Over Private Networks

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The federal government doesn't really understand the Internet very well. If that hasn't always been obvious to you, former Senator Ted Stevens' infamous, “series of tubes” comment made it abundantly clear. That said, it can't be denied that our nation's wireless infrastructure represents a crucial facet of our economy, and our culture. It makes sense that the government would want to protect it.

Unfortunately, when you don't really understand how something works, it's difficult to know how to go about keeping it safe. That's why U.S. Senate bill S.773 has so many net neutrality advocates and corporations up in arms. As CNET explains the bill gives the President the power to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” even in regards to “non-governmental” networks. In essence, if the President feels there is a security threat he can exercise power over private, civilian networks.

Posted on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:12:19 CDT | by Robert Evans

FlipSide Wallet Review

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Today I am looking at a cool wallet called the FlipSide Wallet. The wallet is designed to protect the RFID information on your credit cards. The FlipSide is designed to be carried in your front pocket.

FlipSide Wallets are available in black, white, or orange colors and have a secure latching mechanism to keep them closed. There is room inside for several credit cards, money, and photos as well. Read more

Posted on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:57:44 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Sony Rumored To Announce PS3 Firmware 3.0 and New Home Besides PS3 Slim

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As reported Sony will hold its highly anticipated Gamescom press conference today at 6pm local time (noon EDT). For a couple of weeks now Sony has been expected to introduce a new Sony PS3 Slim console along with a major PS3 price-cut.

The Sony Gamescom 2009 media event is scheduled to last for 3 hours. There must be more than a Slim PS3. We found some more rumors and pointers on what Sony will unveil today.
Read more

Posted on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:20:35 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr