T-Mobile USA Inc., the folks who deal in wireless voice and data services, is releasing its T-Mobile Sidekick all-in-one wireless device today. With it you can surf the Web, send and receive e-mail, chat using AOL Instant Messenger service, play fun games, take and e-mail pictures and talk with others.
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The T-Mobile Sidekick is the first commercial delivery of Danger, Inc.’s hiptop Wireless Solution. Danger was founded in January 2000 by former Apple, WebTV and Philips execs, Andy Rubin, Joe Britt and Matt Hershenson. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is on the board of directors and advises the company in engineering and entrepreneurial matters. T-Mobile and Danger entered into an agreement in August.
You can buy the T-Mobile Sidekick at the 650 T-Mobile owned retail stores, CompUSA, and online at the T-Mobile Web site. It retails for US$199 after a $50 rebate. The introductory price plan of $39.99 a month gives customers unlimited data usage, plus 200 anytime voice minutes and 1,000 weekend minutes, all with free long distance. The T-Mobile Sidekick operates on T-Mobile’s nationwide, all digital GSM/GPRS voice and high-speed data network, which covers more than 200 million people in 8,000 cities.
T-Mobile Sidekick users can send and receive e-mail and attachments from up to three POP3 e-mail accounts. It has a 2.6-inch backlit monochrome screen, a full HTML browser and a clickable scroll wheel to facilitate browsing. The monochrome screen swivels up to showcase a full QWERTY keyboard.
The Sidekick comes with a fully integrated version of AOL Instant Messenger service and the ability to keep instant messaging (IM) active in the background while surfing the Web. You can capture and send mobile snapshots directly from the device to others’ e-mail accounts. And the Sidekick is, of course, a mobile phone, too, with custom ring tones, blinking lights, and caller ID icons.