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Its now official, Microsoft spent $500 million on the purchase of Danger. Of course this does not come as much of a surprise, after all that figure was the exact number that was rumored several months back. However, thanks to Microsoft’s most recent quarterly report this number has been confirmed.

Its always interesting to see just how much a company is purchased for, especially something of this magnitude, more important is just what Microsoft plans to do in order to make this a worthwhile acquisition.

Sadly though, even with all that money spent you would have thought they could have come up with a better name for the latest Sidekick to hit the market, which if you remember was simply called the Sidekick 2008.

Lots of people see the Sidekick as less than a threat and something that is marketed to mostly younger and teenage users, but we have to remember they are a rising part of the mobile industry, it will be interesting to see just what Microsoft/Danger will do in the future to hopefully keep their customers from growing older and looking towards a “real” smartphone.

Read [Yahoo! News]

T-Mobile has unveiled the latest model of the Sidekick, once known as the Gekko, it has been dubbed the Sidekick 2008 and is retailing for $149.99 along with a two-year agreement will be available beginning today.

The Sidekick will feature a decent set of specs which include a 2.6-inch 400 x 240 WQVGA display, 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support and a microSD card slot. The handset also ships with a 512MB memory card. The phone itself measures in at 4.7 x 2.3 x 0.7-inches and weights 5.3-ounces, and as expected it also maintains the standard, easy to use IM, text messaging and email capabilities.

In addition to the nice price, this Sidekick also marks the first to have user customizable shells, which sell for $14.99 each and are available from sidekickshells.com. Keep reading if you would like to check out the full press release, otherwise like previously mentioned it will be available today.

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As part of the recent OTA update for the Sidekick LX, those lucky users were given the ability to record video. But with a little disappointment the quality of those videos is not looking all that great, in fact it seems pretty bad. Of course, I am not sure what quality level we were really expecting, because after all the Sidekick still images have not always been of the highest quality either.

The folks over at Hiptop 3 have a few videos they are showing off, as they explain they opted not to post them on YouTube because they come out even worse than they started, that alone should tell you something. However, the videos are small, coming in at just 176 x 144 pixels and can be considered acceptable. They even went as far as doubling the video size, bringing it up to 352 x 288 pixels and although you can see what is going on, its not what you would want to really bother with. For those who are ready to grab that Tony Hawk branded model, the quality does not seem like its going to be anywhere near nice enough catch your hottest skate tricks.

Overall it seems the only place the video does not look horrible is on the device itself, so I suppose if your only intention was to share the video with your Sidekick carrying friends than you may still have something to get excited over. Otherwise you may want to look into an inexpensive handheld video camera such as the Flip mino.

Via [Hiptop 3]

While the official announcement of the Tony Hawk branded Sidekick LX showed us a neat new limited edition model, it also gave up some details on just what every other current Sidekick LX users had to look forward to, most notably the soon-to-come video capture support.

Well the good news is that the update will begin to roll out in a little over a week from now. Coming in the form of an over-the-air update it is scheduled to begin on June 25 and will be rolling out, as opposed to hitting everyone at the same time. Which means that in the past it has taken upwards of 4 weeks to reach everyone, so while the update is well worth the wait, try and be patient if yours does not arrive on the first day.

Aside from the video capture support, there is a whole slew of other features which include the ability to send or receive photos, videos, or music via Bluetooth, QuickFind, and no more restarting after a download. Keep reading to check out the full list below.

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Millions of Sidekick lovers were excited with Microsoft’s announcement of the acquisition of Danger last February.  While the software giant has confirmed that Danger would live in Microsoft’s new Premium Mobile Experiences team and detailed how Microsoft plans to use Danger’s platform, the silence on plans about Sidekick have grown ominous.

“No new phone” has been confirmed at a recent pre-Mobius event.  However, the company seems to be working on synergies between the Windows Mobile and the Premium Mobile Experiences teams.  Some Windows Mobile team members are even joining the Premium Mobile Experiences team, so a saucy Danger ‘component’ shouldn’t be ruled out in Windows Mobile phones in the future.

Integrate Danger’s offerings into the Windows Mobile core would be an interesting task with substantial potential benefits. Danger’s operating system and back-end enables social networking, gaming, instant messaging, and other popular features.

Via [Geek.com]

Microsoft announced that its acquisition of Danger has been finalized. Although the current employees of Danger will continue to work in their current offices, Danger will be integrated into the newly formed Premium Mobile Experiences (PMX) Team of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business unit. Roz Ho, corporate vice-president of Danger said that joining Microsoft’s PMX Team will enable Danger to continue delivering cool, new and fun mobile experiences to its costumers. Let’s just hope that statement proves to be true, otherwise we are going to see lots of angry Danger fans. Other details of the terms and conditions for the acquisition have not been disclosed by either of the two companies, it was however previously speculated that Microsoft paid $500 million.

Read [PR Newswire]

While official details have not been announced on the Danger acquisition, Om Malik is speculating that Microsoft paid $500 million. Further speculation is that early investors got modest returns on the sale, but the later stage investors made out “like bandits.” Om Malik is also noted as saying:

The deal’s big sticker price is intriguing — leading me to believe that Microsoft wants to pull an Xbox on its mobile phone business.

Could this mean Microsoft is preparing to offer up some real competition with Android?

Via [CNET]

While we had posted the news yesterday, it was still a little unclear as the Press Release from Microsoft was up on their website and then taken down for a short while. While terms of the sale were still not disclosed the announcement was officially made during a press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Courtesy of PhoneMag.com we have two short videos of the announcement, the first is the actual announcement and the second is part of the Q&A from the conference. Sadly the details about what will happen once the sale is completed will have to wait, they did not give out that much. They did sound optimistic and mentioned that this would enable both companies to further succeed. Personally I hope Danger will be left to continue to grow their business separate from Windows Mobile, but time will have to tell.

Keep reading for the videos…

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While Yahoo! has rejected the offer from Microsoft, it seems they have followed through with another purchase. This time it is in the form of Danger, the wonderful creators for the software that powers the Sidekick. While it seems a little sad to see one of the “smaller” guys taken over by the “big-bad” Microsoft, it could mean that we will see an actual Sidekick smartphone with Windows Mobile in the future. Keep in mind the actual Sidekick has been made by Sharp and more recently Motorola so the WinMo Sidekick may never actually hit the market, however it should be interesting to see how Danger and Windows Mobile will mix together. Microsoft has plans roll Danger into their mobile division, the sale (as usual) was for an undisclosed amount.

[Update] Microsoft has since pulled the Press Release from their website, we are also still waiting to see a release come from Danger.

Read [Microsoft] Via [Hiptop 3]

You would think that in a time when almost everything is customizable, and the Sidekick target market are artists and other creatives, Danger (the makers of the Sidekick) would allow you to play away. Well that is not use case, until now. There is not a Zipped file floating around the web that allows you to create and manage custom backgrounds and themes for your device.

How to? Well all you need to do is find the file here, modify a text file, drop a few images via USB, and now your SK3 feels like it is yours. You better do this quick because it can be locked up at any point.

Update: T-Mobile offers a Wiki for the Sidekick 3

Via [Engadget Mobile]