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T-Mobile rolled out the red carpet for the Sidekick 3, at posh celebrity-fueled party highlighting the introduction of the long-anticipated 'BlackBerry' for the young and hip last week. While the likes of Paris Hilton got to play with the most recent Sidekick (her Sidekick II famously got hacked a while back, actually driving up sales)—she was flaunting her brand-new Crystal Icing colorful bejeweled Sidekick 3—most 'ordinary' people must wait until July 10th for a chance at the device.

As expected, however, T-Mobile subscribers are now able order the new Sidekick today. The smartphone is now on sale at TMobile.com and at the carrier's New York City and Santa Monica, Calif. stores, where long lines of people reportedly formed this morning in wait for an early chance at the Sidekick 3. You can also call the operator's customer care number from your current handset.

The Sidekick 3 goes for $299.99 with a two-year extension, $349.99 with one-year added and $399.99 without any additional time piled onto your subscriber agreement. Sorry, but it doesn't seem like T-Mobile is offering previous Sidekick users any type of trade-in or discount for upgrading to the new smartphone.

One eBay buyer seemingly couldn't wait until July 10th to buy a new Sidekick, only a couple of weeks away, like most people. The person, who won an auction for one this week, is supposedly willing to fork over $4050. While the auction appears legit, who knows if, in the end, the winner will follow through and pay that much for a device he or she should be able to pick for $300 to $400 in the not too distant future. Hey, the shipping alone adds an additional $35.

More on Sidekick 3
Like RIM's BlackBerry handhelds, Sidekicks support mobile messaging and communications, with a QWERTY thumb-keyboard to boot. Unlike the BlackBerry models that feature keyboards, with their businesslike focus, Sidekicks are generally sleeker and more colorful - clearly designed to appeal to the young and hip.

The most obvious improvements to the new tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE edition (T-Mobile doesn't offers 3G service, hence its topping out at 2.5G EDGE) of the Sidekick brings Bluetooth 1.2 (with support for wireless headset use and vCard exchange), a 1.3 megapixel camera with LED flash, a removable/rechargeable longer lasting battery, 64 MB of RAM, an ARM processor, and - importantly for a device with an improved MP3 player - the addition of a miniSD card slot for up to 2 GB of additional storage.

It is also 20 percent smaller than its predecessor (at 130 x 59 x 21.8 millimeters and 6.7 ounces), which itself was 25-percent smaller than the previous model. There’s also a new trackball for one-handed navigation. As with the Sidekick II, the new smartphone maintains the hiptop platform's distinctive swivel design, whereby its display slides open to uncover its QWERTY keyboard.

In addition to a phone with speakerphone, the smartphone provides text messaging, a Web browser, e-mail and built-in support for the three major instant messenger clients - AIM, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger - for the first time.

Hilton's Hacked Sidekick
Early last year, millions of people became privy to the socialite's personal images, memos, and data—not to mention many a celebrity phone number when her Sidekick II (really the network holding her information) was hacked. Interestingly, reports of the invasion into Hilton’s privacy, instead of hurting Sidekick sales, actually increased interest in the smartphone. So much so, in fact, T-Mobile stores in New York sold out of the device.

In September 2005, the Massachusetts teenager who hacked Hilton's Sidekick was sentenced to 11 months in juvenile detention by a judge with the U.S. District Court in Boston.