First off, here is an article that discusses the checking of Sidekick serial numbers of people being arrested to see if they macth a database of stolen Sidekicks.  

In September, a study by the Urban Institute, a respected research organization in Washington, suggested that iPods were partly responsible for a nationwide increase in violent crime in 2005 and 2006. Now a different gadget — T-Mobile’s Sidekick line of cellphones and music players — appears to be a rising target in robberies in New York City, especially among younger people.

The Police Department’s top spokesman, Paul J. Browne, acknowledged today that Sidekick phones — which also serve as digital music players and cameras — have been “specifically targeted for theft” and are “often the only property taken in robberies.”

 Click Here for the rest of the story.

And The other story is about 36, 000 T-mobile phones, worth an estimated 8.2 Million dollars, being stolen from a warehouse.  A large percentage of the stolen phones were Sidekicks.  So be aware of buying a brand new sidekick from somebody beside a reputable dealer in the weeks ahead.  T-mobile has the IMEI numbers and will not activate any of the stolen phones.  So be careful and don’t buy and expensive paper weight. 

 From the article: ” Wanted to let you all know that one of our warehouses was broken into over the weekend and some 36,000 phones were stolen (worth about 8.2 Million). The most significant phones stolen were the Sidekick phones. Please make sure you inform the dealers who like to purchase gray market handsets that we are aggressively working with law enforcement to prosecute anyone who has these handsets. We do know the IMEI’s of the stolen phones and once they end up on our network we will go to the dealer code that activated the phone. So if your dealers get a call about Sidekicks and the deal is too good to be true, you will know why.”

 Read more here.

So do you have a sidekick that you are having issues with?  Post a comment here with a detailed description and I will see what I can do to help.  I have been working on a new site called RepairmySidekick and have been reading up on repair tips and repair sites.

I might not have the solution you need but I  probably will be able to send you in the right direction.

Thanks and feel free to post your Sidekick questions.

Oh and if you are looking for a good sidekick skin, check out shop.sidekickskin.net

Disassemble Your Sidekick

Please be aware that disassembling your sidekick will void your warranty.

Why would you want to disassemble your sidekick?  The main reason is to make a repair yourself.  Sidekick Repair Parts can be found fairly cheap on Ebay.

Or some people like to take the sidekicks apart so they can make a custom paint job, whatever the reason,  these handy links have great illustrated guides to help you disassemble your Sidekick II or Sidekick 3.  As I find more,  I will update this page.

Sidekick II

Sidekick II Disassembly

Sidekick 3

Sidekick 3 Disassembly

Have been adding more items to the Sidekick Skins Shop.

Some of the new sections added are:

Sidekick 3 Skins

Baby Phat Sidekick Skins

Swarovski Sidekicks
TinkerBell Sidekick Skins

We also added a section for Cell Phone Straps and Sidekick Repair Parts.

Drop us an email if you need something that you don’t see in the shop.  sidekickskins@gmail.com

So I have been seeing a lot of people looking for a fix for this issue.  This is the cheapest work around available.  It’s going be about 40 dollars total but it will allow you to use your sidekick 3 again.

The Sidekick 3 has a charging issue that crops up after awhile. The unit will fail to charge at all even though you may get the charging light.  Not all models do this, but I have seen enough people asking about it on Yahoo Answers and Fixya to know that it is a widespread problem.

If you are under warranty, great! Send it in and get it fixed.

If not, buy an extra battery and a Sidekick 3 charging cradle . This will cost about 40 dollars but it that is a lot better than the 100+ it will cost to fix it!

When looking at a cradle, make sure it says it has a spare battery charger. Some of the Sidekick Charging cradles don’t.

If you decide to go this route, make sure to power down your sidekick 3 before changing batteries.  This will  save the data to the flash memory and  prevent it from being lost.  If you remove the battery while the sidekick is on, it will do a hard reset and your data will have to download again from server, and will take awhile.

Check out the Links below to find batteries and charging cradles.

Sidekick 3 Battery

Sidekick 3 Charging Cradle

I hope this helps you with your Sidekick 3 battery charging issues.

Browsing around yesterday, I found the Sidekick 3 still available from T-mobile.  You can only buy it for prepaid plans.  The cost?  399.00!  Ouch, you do get a free 25 dollar prepaid card.  If you need one, I would get one from ebay.

Sidekick 3 Skins is the place to go if you need some skins for your Sidekick 3.

The Slide is still not available again.  It is supposed to be relaunched this week.  They better hurry up!!

I added more sections to the Sidekick Skins Shop.

Camo Sidekick SkinsDiamond Sidekick Skins

Flower Sidekick Skins

Kei Stylist Sidekick Skins

Also added a section for Sidekick ID Bumpers as requested!