Epic phone FAIL: MS kills the SideKick/Hiptop

[DarkAudit]

Credit to Zen for pointing me to this story.

The Hiptop, more popularly known as the T-mobile SideKick, was suffering a server outage over the last couple of weeks. The SideKick is a "thin client", where all the user's data like contacts, messages, and calendars, is kept on external servers. That data appears to be permanently lost.

Here's the twist of the knife: Microsoft (the new owners of Danger) did an equipment upgrade of their servers, and FAILED TO HAVE BACKUPS.

I should consider myself fortunate to not have T-mobile as a mobile provider in my area, although they're as much a victim of this as any of their users. They aren't the one's responsible for keeping the data safe.

Also, There was this reply to the situation on Slashdot:

Yesterday,
All those backups seemed a waste of pay.
Now my database has gone away.
Oh I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,
There's not half the files there used to be,
And there's a milestone hanging over me
The system crashed so suddenly.

I pushed something wrong
What it was I could not say.
Now all my data's gone and I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.

Yesterday,
Need for backup seemed so far away.
Seemed my data were all here to stay,
Now I believe in yesterday.

 

[DarkAudit]

There is a bright side...

Perez Hilton loses 2000 contacts in his Sidekick. 2000 people to meet in Griffith Park for biggest group hug ever.

 

[ZenMonkey]

I had a Sidekick for a long time, because it was de rigueur in the deaf community. One thing I never liked was how my data was all stored on the servers.

Really fucking glad right now that I have an iPhone whose data is backed up on two of my own computers. (Not to mention an external hard drive.)

I'm kind of surprised this didn't happen sooner, but I don't have any Schadenfreude, just feel really sorry for everyone who got screwed by this.

 

[ZenMonkey]

What should I dooooooooo....

Not get one.

 

[kaykordeath]

My wife has a sidekick and she still has all of her contacts/emails/buddy lists....

 

[DarkAudit]

Although Microsoft bought Danger, the SideKick/Hiptop is not a true Microsoft product. It's a competitor to their Windows Mobile platform. So Microsoft really has every reason to want to kill it.

This fiasco may not have been intentional, but it could prove to be just the excuse they need...

 

[DarkAudit]

Actually... now there is speculation that this was intentional.

Stay classy, Microsoft.