(Update 22nd of June 2006)

(Update 20th of June 2006) John Biggs of Gizmodo.com has just done a hands on review of the new sidekick 3 phone, he has some interesting stuff to say about it, go check it out.

(Update 20th of June 2006) According to Engadget T-mobile today officially announced the Sidekick3, they said "T-Mobile will be opening up pre-orders to current Sidekick owners first, with the rest of us getting a crack at it sometime around July 10th."

Official specs of the product are:

Size: 130 x 59 x 21.8mm
Weight: 6.7 ounces
240 x 160 pixel, 65,000 color display
Trackball (!)
Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Bluetooth 1.2 (limited to Hands-Fre profile and vCard exchange)
1.3 megapixel digital camera w/LED flash
miniSD memory card slot (supports up to 2GB cards)
64MB of SDRAM/64MB Flash memory
Music player software

(June 8, 2006)

The latest buzz tells me that gadget lovers have gotten their knickers in a twist over the expected release of the Sidekick 3, and have been chomping at the bits to get information about the as-yet-unavailable device. So here's the scoop.

Yesterday the FCC released some details and a partial user manual for the Sidekick 3, as well as pictures. The manual still has typos in it, but I'll grant them a temporary reprieve before I complain, since this isn't the final production version. According to the manual, Sidekick 3 has a trackball on the right-hand side instead of a scroll wheel, as well as a directional pad on the left-hand side. The opening page of the manual lists its features, noting that it can connect to wireless networks, includes a full-featured phone, PIM applications, access to a personal Web portal, entertainment applications, a built-in camera, and a music player.

The camera is a built-in 1.3 megapixel camera, and you can store up to 1.75Mb of photos in the internal memory, or more on the included Mini Secure Digital (MiniSD) flash memory card. You can select between three different photo sizes (1280x1024, 640x480, and 320x240).

The new "Mini Music Player" can play JP3s that have been stored on the MiniSD card. MiniSDs of any capacity can be used, but the same card is used to store both music and photos. The music player looks to be very functional, with a standard interface that is controlled through the trackball. There is a Play queue that you can scroll down, again by rolling the trackball, and you can also jump to a specific place within a song.

As expected, it will support Bluetooth 1.1 wireless technology, so you can connect to hands-free devices, or any device that can receive a vCard via Bluetooth, such as PCs or phones. Other innovations include a better keyboard that eliminates the old rubber-coated model, and a removable battery.