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T-Mobile Sidekick hits stores
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By Larry Garfield, Tuesday 1 October 2002  
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Wireless nirvana for consumers, that's what T-Mobile promises. It's a step closer now with the release of the T-Mobile Sidekick, the first Danger device to hit the streets. Best of all, it has a flat-rate service plan.
T-Mobile has announced the release of the first device and service plan supporting the Danger platform, a wireless device targeted at consumers, with an agressive service plan intended to encourage users to use the device; a lot.
 | With always-on, unlimited data access, the Sidekick targets high-end consumers
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The Danger Hiptop device is a data-centric, consumer-targeted wireless device with a 240x160 2.6-inch backlit grayscale display, integrated keyboard, and thumbwheel. The generic device can run on either a GSM/GPRS or CDMA 1xRTT network and uses a Java-based development system on top of a proprietary OS. It also supports voice functionality.
T-Mobile, formerly Voicestream, was the first carrier to announce support for the Danger Hiptop and is now selling the device under the name T-Mobile Sidekick. The Sidekick works on T-Mobile's GSM/GPRS network in the United States, which T-Mobile claims covers 200 million people nationwide. Among the Sidekick's features are PIM applications, support for up to three POP3 email accounts, a full HTML browser, and an integrated version of AOL Instant Messenger. The IM client can run in the background while the user is using other applications. A camera accessory is also available.
T-Mobile has gone a step further in its agressive consumer pricing. The device itself costs $199 USD after a $50 rebate. The basic price plan is $39.99 USD per month for one year, for unlimited data usage plus 200 anytime voice minutes and 1,000 weekend minutes with no additional long-distance costs. Overtime charges are 35 cents per minute. Most data service plans are metered, meaning the user pays a few cents per byte or kilobyte of data transfered. The flat-rate pricing is designed to encourage users to integrate the data features of the device into their lives without worrying about watching every character they send over IM.
The Sidekick will be available from the T-Mobile web site, as well as retail chains such as CompUSA.
High-resolution pictures of the Sidekick are available on the following pages.
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| Hands-on impressions, news, reviews, prices and release dates; now all-in-one-page: |
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