While T-Mobsters are happily thumbing away on their new Sidekick 3s south of the border, we poor Fido users up here in the Great White North have to settle for an over-the-air software update that’s about six months overdue.

If you’re not up to scanning the ten pages of posts on the subject over at the hiptop.com forums, here’s what I think about the OTA update:

The Good

• Add-on apps can now be temporarily deactivated to make room on the device for new purchases from the built-in software catalog. This is great news for me as I’ve been dying to try out the hiptop drum machine!
• Fido has thoughtfully included a free multimedia messaging app, bringing my hiptop up to spec with the Sony Ericsson handset I was using two years ago.
• The web browser now supports javascript, so I can click through to the comments on Ray Deonandan‘s blog—w00t!
• The same browser no longer mangles multi-column websites, like this one!

The Bad

• There were all kinds of rumours about MSN and Yahoo! chat clients coming with this OTA; sadly it didn’t happen. A bit weird considering Fido’s heavy marketing campaign for the IM services on their new phones…
• Though the browser now sports javascript, I still can’t use mobile.aircanada.com!
• The browser will now select and copy text, but it’s all or nothing. And phone numbers on sites and search results can’t be clicked on and dialed—a bit retarded for a smartphone!
• Again with the browser… It still can’t display WAP sites.

Despite the gripes, this latest OTA update is a welcome addition to what I maintain is the best handset and service available in this part of the world—w00t!

Just after midnight last night (or this morning, for you time Nazis) a flurry of hiptop/Sidekick 3 reviews showed up on my favourite gadget sites. Here are the best pics from the bunch:

• Engadget: T-Mobile Sidekick 3 hands-on!
• Gizmodo: T-Mobile Sidekick 3 Hands-on

Along with some video:

• CNET: T-Mobile Sidekick 3
• MobileBurn: T-Mobile’s Sidekick 3 Launched, Reviewed, and Videoed
• PC Magazine: T-Mobile Sidekick 3 Video Review

The official T-Mobile SK3 site is, surprisingly, nothing special. Even worse, there’s been nary a peep from the only Canadian carrier that sells the device…

It doesn’t look like much, but this grab from Industry Canada‘s website is huge news for Fido hiptop users… What it means is that the hiptop3 has been approved for sale in Canada!

It’s a bit of a shocker, as the hiptop3’s very existence was confirmed only two days ago by documents online at the FCC. Here’s what it looks like, courtesy of Engadget Mobile:

Improvements over my current hiptop include a 1.3 Megapixel camera, Bluetooth connectivity and removable memory. If it were up to me I’d nix the Bluetooth in favour of UMA, so I could make roaming-free international calls using my hotel internet connection on the road. But I guess this’ll have to do…

I should have known that my trusty hiptop, which requires a persistent connection to the internet, wouldn’t make the best companion for my trip to Bermuda.

Here at home—in fact, anywhere on the continent, plus Hawaii—I can check email, surf the web and sync my personal info to my heart’s content, all for the same flat monthly data charge. But not so anywhere else, Bermuda included. Even with all my graphics and attachments disabled and one or two short online sessions a day I still managed to rack up a hundred-dollar data roaming bill from Fido.

And no, I wasn’t downloading porn!

As of midnight last night, my original Fido phone number is no more. You may remember that I dumped my landline and switched to City Fido last September; that switch also allowed me to liberate my home phone number from the clutches of Bell Canada and use it as my primary means of contact.

Since then my original Fido number has languished, so I finally laid it to rest last night. Anyone wishing to follow in my footsteps will be pleased to know that number portability will be available for everyone later this year.

For now, you can officially wipe 416-893-4945 from your address books. And if you don’t know my new number, that’s probably because I didn’t give it to you…

Somehow I’ve managed to squeeze six days worth of changes into one duffel bag (and one gay backpack—see previous post). I couldn’t have done it without leaving my beloved Powerbook behind.

This is actually the first time I’m going overseas without a laptop—since I’ve had one, anyway—and it’s really only because there won’t be a high speed internet connection where I’m staying. Still, it will prove to be the biggest test ever for my Fido hiptop and the Danger data servers. I’ve got all my calendar, contact and confirmation info stored on the little critter, and if it crashes on me… Well, it won’t be a total disaster, but I’ll be plenty pissed off.

The photo above, by the way, is a record of a brief moment when yours truly had three hiptops in his possession, due to somebody’s screw-up at Fido. Unfortunately, I did have to send the other two back…

-> Chatter 1 enters

Chatter 1:

??????????????????

??????????????????

??????????????????

??????????????????

??????????????????

??????????????????

??????????????????

??????????????????

??????????????????

Me: Very nice…

Chatter 1:

Chatter 1: Now where da females at???

Chatter 2: Wud up man, no byrds in heeere, go round some up

Chatter 1: Holy I had diss phone 4 6months no fido brids pop up

Chatter 1: Cheap bitches

Chatter 1: ????(CHATTER 1)????

Chatter 1: HOLLA

Chatter 2: Chatter 3…. U work for fido?

Chatter 3: No just love the product?

Chatter 1: If u do holla

Me: Holla

Chatter 3: Who here works for Fido?

Chatter 1: Back door holla at yr boy

Me: Back door holla? Is that an anal sex reference?

Chatter 1: Kay ban dat nigga

Me: Come on, I’m white as german snow here! Can’t you tell?

Chatter 1: Lol

Me: Seriously, so I know, what’s a back door holla?

Chatter 1: I ment put sum hiptop2z out da back door

Me: Ok. Gotcha.

Chatter 1:

Me: (Chatter 1), are you on your ht? You’re pretty fast on that thing

Chatter 1: Yeeeeeeeah maaaaan

Chatter 1: I use diss shit erry day gotta be fast on msn or da bitches think u hollaing at 50 chicks

… So if anybody ever axes yu 4 a back do holla, pleez don’t make the same mistake I diddy!

Yesterday I got this secret email from Fido announcing the forthcoming availability of the hiptop 2—the very same device owned by no-talent Paris Hilton, and compromised by someone who hacked into her T-Mobile database.

Am I worried that my own personal data won’t be safe? Hell, no! First of all, the hiptop itself is relatively hack-proof, provided that you lock it down with a passkey. It’s T-Mobile that’s clearly to blame here, as their web servers have been infiltrated before.

And I could be wrong, but I somehow don’t think that anyone would be all that interested in seeing candid topless photos of me…

I’ve had a hate-on for Bell Canada ever since they casually added an extra two hundred dollars to my phone bill, simply for flicking a switch to activate the already-installed jacks in my new condo. At nerd school I learned how they choked the speed of their residential high-speed internet service, just so they could charge more for the real thing.

But my biggest beef has been their overpriced landline service. Each month I’ve had to fork out forty of my hard-earned dollars just to get a dial tone. Well, no more!

I was thrilled to hear the announcement of City Fido in Toronto this past April, and equally disgusted by the junk offer put forth by Telus to steal its thunder. Because I believe in Fido so much, I’ve signed up for a two-year contract and given them the go-ahead to liberate my home phone number from Bell.

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, I’m free at last!

If you’re interested, here’s what was happening:

When someone tried to call me, the call would go from my Bell landline to Fido to the AT&T network here in Bermuda. If I didn’t answer, the call would be routed from AT&T back to Fido, but in that routing my Fido number would be lost, so when the call got back to the Fido voicemail system it wouldn’t know what mailbox to go to.

This makes sense, because call display isn’t working for me down here, indicating that AT&T network can’t route back to Fido for the caller’s ID.

The solution? If I turn my phone off when it’s not immediately available the call will never leave Canada, and go straight from Bell to Fido, without ever leaving the country.

Neat, huh?