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Missing: the Danger Hiptop aka T-Mobile Sidekick, with its swivel-up screen revealing a full keyboard in landscape. https://amp.www.complex.com/pop-culture/201

by yafbum 4y ago

Missing: the Danger Hiptop aka T-Mobile Sidekick, with its swivel-up screen revealing a full keyboard in landscape. https://amp.www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/09/history-of-the-sidekick https://amp.www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/09/history-of-t... This thing's software is maybe more interesting than its form factor, due to it being a kind of proto-Android stack (Java VM equivalent with some amount of build-time bytecode preprocessing to accelerate it on devices)

jwilk 4y ago
Non-AMP link: https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/09/history-of-the-sidekick https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/09/history-of-the-s...
consp 4y ago
That thing is from 2002, kind of ancient even by side-swipe-keyboard phone standards. Only got my first one when HTC started offering them on our market around the 2004/2005 time (with windows mobile 5, ymmv). My personal favourite but with shitty keyboard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Blue_Angel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Blue_Angel
codethief 4y ago
Its form factor is also reminiscent of the later T-Mobile G1, the first Android phone. :)
tonywastaken 4y ago
Danger also had a pretty nice App Store model and a nice developer and user community in their phpBB forums. The carriers that supported the Hiptop also had a hosted web interface where you could manage your email, calendar, notes, etc.
- yafbum 4y ago
  That hosted web interface even got famously hacked by a teenager then posted screenshots of Paris Hilton's info https://www.computerworld.com/article/2569592/paris-hilton-may-be-victim-of-t-mobile-web-holes.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2569592/paris-hilton-m...
- latchkey 4y ago
  I'm friends with a few of the super early Danger employees. My buddy and I were trying to use that opportunity to get our app into that store. At the time, you kind of needed to know someone on the inside to get listed on stores, especially if your app wasn't a game or ringtone. We built a small and simple bartender app that had a UX almost exactly like the hiptop address book. You could easily look up recipes for drinks and then we'd let you build a shopping list. It was a fun exercise that was about a month of development time for the both of us. Mostly, it was just cleaning up the recipe data and adding a few drinks on our own. It turns out that T-Mobile wouldn't list the app because they didn't have the ability to make sure that everyone using the app was 21+. We fought with this for months over it and eventually gave up. It was a really frustrating experience. Apple came along with the iPhone and their own store model and while people used to complain heavily about it, I kept thinking at least it wasn't T-Mobile. By the way, the VM was the precursor to Dalvik, which eventually turned into what is now Android... https://medium.com/@chrisdesalvo/the-future-that-everyone-forgot-d823af31f7c https://medium.com/@chrisdesalvo/the-future-that-everyone-fo...
ryanwaggoner 4y ago
I had one of these in college, and it was awesome. It had AOL Instant Messenger built on, and the L/R shoulder buttons would let you slide between your conversations. So quick and satisfying.

by yafbum 4y ago

jwilk 4y ago

Non-AMP link: https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/09/history-of-the-sidekick https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/09/history-of-the-s...

consp 4y ago

That thing is from 2002, kind of ancient even by side-swipe-keyboard phone standards. Only got my first one when HTC started offering them on our market around the 2004/2005 time (with windows mobile 5, ymmv). My personal favourite but with shitty keyboard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Blue_Angel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Blue_Angel

codethief 4y ago

Its form factor is also reminiscent of the later T-Mobile G1, the first Android phone. :)

tonywastaken 4y ago

Danger also had a pretty nice App Store model and a nice developer and user community in their phpBB forums. The carriers that supported the Hiptop also had a hosted web interface where you could manage your email, calendar, notes, etc.

yafbum 4y ago
That hosted web interface even got famously hacked by a teenager then posted screenshots of Paris Hilton's info https://www.computerworld.com/article/2569592/paris-hilton-may-be-victim-of-t-mobile-web-holes.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2569592/paris-hilton-m...
latchkey 4y ago
I'm friends with a few of the super early Danger employees. My buddy and I were trying to use that opportunity to get our app into that store. At the time, you kind of needed to know someone on the inside to get listed on stores, especially if your app wasn't a game or ringtone. We built a small and simple bartender app that had a UX almost exactly like the hiptop address book. You could easily look up recipes for drinks and then we'd let you build a shopping list. It was a fun exercise that was about a month of development time for the both of us. Mostly, it was just cleaning up the recipe data and adding a few drinks on our own. It turns out that T-Mobile wouldn't list the app because they didn't have the ability to make sure that everyone using the app was 21+. We fought with this for months over it and eventually gave up. It was a really frustrating experience. Apple came along with the iPhone and their own store model and while people used to complain heavily about it, I kept thinking at least it wasn't T-Mobile. By the way, the VM was the precursor to Dalvik, which eventually turned into what is now Android... https://medium.com/@chrisdesalvo/the-future-that-everyone-forgot-d823af31f7c https://medium.com/@chrisdesalvo/the-future-that-everyone-fo...

ryanwaggoner 4y ago

I had one of these in college, and it was awesome. It had AOL Instant Messenger built on, and the L/R shoulder buttons would let you slide between your conversations. So quick and satisfying.