The Danger Hiptop is a GPRS cell phone with wireless Internet capabilities and some functionality similar to a PDA. The Hiptop is sold by T-Mobile in the United States under the name T-Mobile Sidekick. SunCom also sells the device in some parts of the US, and Fido is the exclusive Hiptop carrier in Canada. = Appearance =
The Hiptop is a gray, slightly rounded rectangle just small enough to fit in the palm of an average-sized hand. On the front of the device is an LCD screen that flips around and rotates 180 degrees to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard underneath. There are two large rectangular buttons on the left side of the device ("menu" and "jump") and one on the right ("back"). Also on the right is a transparent scroll wheel with multicolored LEDs behind it that light up to signify certain events, such as an incoming phone call or the arrival of a new email message.
The Hiptop has two speakers. The phone speaker, which is used when the Hiptop is acting as a telephone, is located in the top right corner on the front of the device. There is another speaker on the back of the device on the left side, which is used for ringtones and all application and OS-related sounds. The microphone for the telephone is located between the "menu" and "jump" buttons on the front of the phone.
A panel on the left edge of the phone snaps off to reveal a SIM card slot. Along the top edge of the phone is an infrared port (currently not used by the device) a power jack, and a mini USB port. The right edge of the phone contains a jack that can be used either by the hands-free headset or the camera attachment.
= Specifications =
The LCD screen has a resolution of 240x160 pixels and displays either 16-shade grayscale or 16-bit color depending on which model you buy.
The Hiptop's firmware contains several bundled applications including a web browser, email client, AOL Instant Messenger client, address book, calendar, to do list, notepad, and several games. Also included is a photo gallery application that can be used to take pictures with the included digital camera attachment. The resulting postage stamp-sized color JPEG images can be attached to emails sent from the device.
= Data Storage & Desktop Syncing =
One of the most unique things about the Hiptop is the way it stores data. Despite having 16MB of built in flash memory, the Hiptop stores most of your data on Danger's remote servers. One benefit of this is that if you ever need to perform a hard reset or replace your device with a new one, you can retrieve all your data simply by entering your username and password. In addition, a security feature of the Hiptop allows you to set a password that must be entered when the device is turned on. If someone enters the wrong password four times in a row, the device erases itself completely. Later, if the correct password is entered, it will restore your data from the remote backup.
While the Hiptop doesn't come with tools for syncing your data with a PC, you can view and modify your data via the Desktop Interface, a secure website that reproduces the functionality of almost every application on the Hiptop (with the exception of the web browser and the games).
In addition to storing user data remotely, the Hiptop can also receive over the air (OTA) firmware updates. To date, only two OTA updates have occurred. The first happened on March 6, 2003 and was sent to all phones, while the second happened on June 26, 2003 and was sent only to Hiptops with color screens.
= Included Software =
The Hiptop web browser requests pages through a modified AvantGo proxy running on Danger's servers. The proxy does most of the heavy work of resizing images, reformatting tables, and cutting out things the Hiptop browser doesn't support such as JavaScript and Flash animations. The browser itself supports XHTML 1.0 and CSS. In addition, the browser has a bookmark feature, URL history and page caching.
The Hiptop email client supports multiple mail accounts with folders, and can display attached images, PDF files and Microsoft Word documents.
Officially, the client only supports POP3 mail accounts. However, the configuration dialog allows you to specify a mail server port to use, and if you specify port 143 (for IMAP) or port 993 (for IMAP/SSL), it will succesfully connect and download email, although it doesn't support server-side folders and it treats your IMAP inbox just like a POP3 inbox.
Of course, the client also sends mail, although it doesn't allow you to specify an SMTP server to use, so all sent mail goes out via Danger's SMTP servers.
In addition to checking your own mail accounts at regular intervals, purchasers of Hiptop service plans receive an email address that pushes mail to the device instantly, much like an alpha pager, only without a size limit.
Unlike the AIM client built into some other cell phones, the Hiptop's client actually communicates with the network via TCP/IP rather than via an unwieldy and slow SMS-style protocol. It supports server-side buddy lists, of course.
While there is no built-in support for protocols other than AIM, you can log in using an ICQ UIN and password and the AIM client will function as an ICQ client. Your server-side ICQ contacts will be supported, although you'll see their UINs instead of their nicknames in your contact list. Still, it's a useful bonus brought about by the fact that AOL owns both networks.
= Developing for the Hiptop =
The Hiptop's operating system is based on J2ME, a scaled-down version of Java optimized for handheld devices. Danger has developed a proprietary API for the Hiptop, but they've made the API documentation publicly available free of charge via their developer website.
Third-party developers can write applications for the Hiptop and test them in a Hiptop emulator that will run on any Java-enabled computer. There isn't yet a way to actually install third-party applications on the Hiptop except by using a special developer operating system that Danger makes available to certain developers. Currently, there is speculation that Danger will release an OS update in late September, 2003 that will allow users to install third-party applications.
Many intriguing third-party applications such as spreadsheets, instant messengers, IRC clients, and SSH terminals have already been written.
= Hidden Features =
There are quite a few hidden features on the Hiptop.
The following features can be accessed by pressing the specified key combinations while on the "Jump Settings" screen:
While on the main Jump menu screen, pressing Menu + Shift + F will cause the scroll wheel to light up with the white LED, like a flash light. Pressing the key combination again will turn the light off.
Pressing Menu + Shift + T while in the web browser will cause the title bar to disappear, allowing full-screen browsing. Press the key combination again to bring the title bar back.Web Browser
Email Client
AIM client
A hidden game called "Snowbored" can be accessed by going to the "About Device" screen and pressing Menu + Shift + 8.
