Rumor also has it that the Sidekick ID will be available as soon as this summer and carry a nice, $150 price tag (with a ball-busting contract, of course). –Travis Hudson

T-Mobile to Unveil the Sidekick ID: Slimmed Down SK3 [CG]

Once your SK3 is brought up to speed with Release 3.4, you'll have access to myFaves, an improved "Active" address book, a text message character counter, and the ability to save photo attachments from emails onto your SK3 photo album. The automatic update is rolling out starting today, but will be gradually deployed over a month, so don't worry if you haven't gotten it yet.

– Jason Chen

Giz: Thanks for talking to us today. Why did you decide to go with white and gold rather than red to represent the Miami Heat?

D.W.: Yeah, I thought it was pretty easy. Going off the championship round we had last year all white and then with the championship and the gold. I thought it would be a nice look, something different.

Giz: What other factors played into the unique design?

D.W.: I wanted to find a way to put my name and stuff on it and not be too much. I got the gold threes around on the front part and the screen part. I got my name and my silhouette of myself on the back of the screen, but the most important thing to me was probably, if you pick one up and see the back, it is different, it is more like a basketball kind of material.

Giz: Did you decide on the synthetic basketball from the first half of the season, or the real leather basketball?

D.W.: It does kind of look like real leather. It's a little different than the real leather; it's not real leather, per se. It's not synthetic like the basketballs we played with. It's a little different. It just gives comfort. It just gives a different look.

Giz: Do you ever get sick of the basketball texture? Would you prefer something different like maybe ... a tennis-ball, or raquetball grip?

D.W.: Nah. I stick with what I know.

Giz: So what is your preferred method of communication? Text messaging, calling or e-mail?

D.W.: Actually one of my teammates turned me onto the Sidekick. I've been using it every chance I can get, I don't talk on the phone much. You can ask anybody—I'm always e-mailing and instant messaging. It's a huge thing now with younger people. We instant message a lot, it is just new means of communication. We instant message all the time. It is always in my hand. It's always in my Sidekick holder—it is a part of me.

Giz: Would you ever consider making a special edition Dwyane Wade Blackberry to appeal to the business folks?

D.W.: You know what, haven't got there yet. It is a good idea, though.

Giz: Besides the Sidekick, what are some of your other can't-live-without gadgets?

D.W.: Can't live without gadgets? I'm not really a big gadget guy. Besides the Sidekick, the only other thing I travel with ... got to have my laptop, got to have my iPod. Besides that, that's it.

Giz: Our readers need to know: are you a Mac or PC guy?

D.W.: Neither. I'm a Sony guy.

Giz: What kind of plans do you have for future D-Wade-branded consumer electronics?

D.W.: Right now this is the first thing. It is going to be great. I think a lot of people are getting a buzz already about it. A lot of people have been hitting me up: '"Yo, I heard you have an SK3 coming out." A lot of people are excited because, you know, it's a Sidekick. It's a very hip thing to have. A lot of people, of course, are asking for it. I can't wait for it to come out.

==

So, what did we learn from one Mr. Dwyane Wade? Well, he likes to bling out a phone. He likes his basketball number, three. Unfortunately, he isn't releasing a special edition Blackberry. The man is just like me when it comes to gadgets. All I need is my phone, laptop and iPod to be happy. –Travis Hudson

Monaco Sidekick 3 Cradle [Hiptop3]

Don't fret, pre-existing SK3 owners, you can still send in your phone to get colorized for a fee of $99. I'm going to be brutally honest, this is pretty damn awesome. Good job, ColorWare. So, uh, can I get a hot pink and brown SK3 now, or what? – Travis Hudson

ColorWare PC

What's also interesting is that the T-Mobile guy at that store said he was in the process of getting the stock to T-Mobile workers so they can eBay them for $1,000. Not anymore, compadre! – Jason Chen

LRG Limited Edition Sidekick 3 [Via EngadgetMobile]

Ah, the Sidekick 3, with its IMing, emailing, texting and credit card erasing capabilities. Wait, credit card erasing?

A couple guys started experimenting with the SK3 once they found a pen sticking to it when they removed the former from a bag. They went on to find that the magnetic latch that allows the SK to do the "cool flippy thing" is really powerful. When open, it can hold up a regular table knife. When closed, it's still able to hold up a fork.

So what does this do to that credit card sitting next to the Sidekick in your pocket? It obliterates the stored data. These guys took an expired card and ran it through a terminal to test whether it was recognized—it was. After sticking the card up next to the closed SK3's magnet, subsequent swipes produced absolutely nothing on the terminal. It wasn't even recognized as a valid card.

Someone ought to go try this with the card inside of a wallet and see how thick of a wallet is necessary to protect your cards, driver's licenses and badges. For now, you may want to keep them in separate pockets.– Jason Chen

Sidekick 3 Warning: Sidekick 3's Magnet Will Erase Your Credit Card in Under a Second [The Internet Patrol - Thanks Phil!]

We went. We sweated. We didn't get a free SK3.

Ok. Big change today. We're lucky enough to get two T-Mobile execs, Sam Bell, senior marketing manager, and Jeff Folino, senior manager of product development for the Sidekick, who are willing to tell us all about the SK3. The Skypecast will be at 4:30pm EDT today and the link is here. Sorry for the late notice, but this is one you won't want to miss.

However, with the glitteratti slopping themselves at the troughs of semiconductor bliss so publicly, everyone and their dog needs to have one of these things. I think I still have the sticker that goes on the front of the SK3—I sent the unit back—anyone want to pay me $500 for it? – John Biggs

Auction [eBay via Smartfone]

Here are about 5,000 pictures of the stars fondling their electronics. Very nice. Remember, unless you have a stylist and pet walker, you can't have one until the 28th. – John Biggs

Celebrities Love Their T-Mobile Sidekick 3 [EgoTastic]

Therefore, for me to use and enjoy the SK3 was a big step for me and attests to its value, if not its utility. You all asked me if I preferred the MDA. In terms of being a "real" smartphone, the MDA is far superior. It has a full complement of applications that the Sidekick series technically lacks. However, the SK3 isn't a geeky device. It's a general purpose device, designed for the non-geek. If you go into the SK3 expecting amazing performance, you're going to be disappointed. At T-Mobile's price-point, they're not going to be able to put much more than the absolute necessities into this thing, and those necessities are more than sufficient.

As for the minor annoyances I experienced, I'd like to chalk them up to a pre-release unit. I can't confirm this, but we'll see when these things hit the street how they work. – John Biggs

The first question is this: Should I upgrade to the Sidekick 3? The answer is this: Yes. The second question is: Why? The answer will be found in the next few paragraphs.

Yes, friends, the Sidekick 3 is here. I've sat on this for almost three weeks. I showed it to some people and one person, who shall remain nameless, offered me $3,000 cash for it on the spot. Everyone else was in awe. One guy couldn't get enough. He just kept opening it and closing it like some kind of totemic object, like something that landed from outer space just to give him pleasure. So that's the power of the SK3 and that's why it's so hard to write about.

First things first. I won't go into speeds and feeds, because all that info is already out there. First, it's made by Sharp. Not a big deal. The basic info: removable battery, miniSD slot, Bluetooth, USB syncing, 1.3-megapixel camera, and a beautiful display. Expect to pay about $200 with contract. What doesn't it have? A video recorder (yet), GPS, DRM music player (yet), Wi-Fi, FM tuner, and video playback (yet). Otherwise, you have a smaller, lighter Sidekick with great GPRS speeds and an excellent interface.

The SK3 was designed for email and IM. That's about it. Everything else, even the phone, is kind of gravy. So let's talk about that first. Email and IM work as advertised. IM is simplest. The SK3 supports AIM, MSN, and Yahoo Chat. Type in your username, password, and you're set.

Email is a bit more difficult. Luckily, I have an excellent test bed because all of my Gizmodo addresses are almost completely inundated with spam. Therefore, an IMAP connection is very dangerous because I could end up with thousands of emails per day, a hard task for even some smartphones. That said, set up is just as simple. There are settings for encrypted and unencrypted POP3 and IMAP. Just type in your info and go. The phone picked up most of my emails in batches and the MiniSD card adds extra space for storage, although I often verged on filling up the SK3 with my junk.

Little notifier icons in the top right corner inform you when you have a message in IM, mail, or SMS/MMS. Messages appear in a little bubble for a moment before disappearing, so you can assess the value of emails and messages before reading. There is an airplane mode that turns off the wireless and basically lets you browse your mail like a madman but little else.

The trackball is a real winner. It lights up with all the colors of the rainbow—actually about 10—and is one of the best user interface tools I've seen on a phone. Phone manufacturers take note: Please let this be a rule, not an exception. Use the trackball, if you can. It is very important.

The interface allows you to go forward and back, just with the trackball. The keyboard is a bit cramped but I was able to walk down the street and send emails and IMs, so that's fine. The battery lasted one full day. From 8am until about midnight, it was ready to rock and roll. However, all that work did drain things considerably and Bluetooth chunked out the battery even more.

Voice quality was fine and reception as about as good as can be expected. One pet peeve—it would lose its GPRS connection and only a full reboot would get it back.

The audio player doesn't support any DRMed content yet, but it's nice enough. Nothing special. The camera takes pictures which you can then send to your friends. Big deal. However, unlike your friends, you'll actually be able to get IMs and email using an impressive and intuitive interface.

Is this a smartphone for business folken? No. It is for the young and the young at heart. It is a cool device, less boardroom than the Blackberry and less geekout than the MDA. Buy a gluegun and some sparkles and you can be belle of Paris Hilton's coke party. Wrap it up in some Fiddy skins and you've got a rapper's delight. Have it play some Fall Out Boy and you're ready for the lacrosse team. It is a chameleon, and a charming one at that.

The SK3 will be available to T-Mobile customers on June 28 and to the rest of the rabble in the T-Mobile stores on July 10.

So go ahead and buy it. Go ahead. We won't stop you. If you love the Sidekick, this is a major improvement. If you have an older Sidekick and are thinking about upgrading, feel free. The experience is generally better and worth it. Sure, you won't be able to find it—and no I won't sell this one—and it's going to be the hottest phone of the next few months. Then something else will come along. But won't it be great to feel it in your hand for the first time? To swivel up the screen and cry tears of techno joy? It's rare to have a device that engenders such desperation and such a feeling of fulfillment when it is finally owned. But remember, dudes, it's just a phone. – John Biggs