Alternate headline: T-Mobile's Sidekick Service FAIL Outage Affects Thousands Of...Sidekick Users. Because, honestly, who uses these things? Sidekick owners, that's who!

Our tipster exhaustively writes in:

There is a media blackout on this!! Microsoft bought danger, then fired a bunch of those folks. I don't know if it's related but we (every sidekick data user in the country) has been without our internet, IM, mms, facebook and twitter. T-mobile is a trending topic on twitter because of this!

T-moible keeps saying it'll be fixed "soon" But this is day 3!! Help spread the word! we are desperate! You can't just buy a company and forget about legacy customers. If this were the iPhone, there'd be bodies in the streets.

I don't think it's a "media blackout" issue so much as it is a "people still use Sidekicks?" issue, but sure! "Sidekick shit" and "Sidekick fuck" turned up a bunch of awesome results on Twitter. Biz Stone, be proud. Another landmark for you:

BRO. BRO. I TOTALLY FEEL UR PAIN. It absolutely sucks that T-Mobile duped you for three days of service, and that they didn't really give you much of an update until today.

T-Mobile and Danger/Microsoft continue to urgently work to restore impacted services to Sidekick, and deliver them to our customers as quickly as possible. Following is a status update for our valued customers: Web browsing was restored Saturday afternoon, and the teams have been working through the night since the disruption started to enable additional functions such as IM, social networking applications and email as quickly as possible.

While we anticipate a significant portion of data services to be restored by Monday, some richer data services may lag. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and appreciate your patience as we work hard with Danger/Microsoft to resolve this issue. We will continue to keep you updated as we have news to share. Thank you.

Heh. CAN HAZ UR MYSPACE BACK SIDEKICK USURS. Of course, T-Mobile's favorite user is throwing a bitchfit:

George Gombossy, look out. Nice of you to be a consumer advocate and all, Perez, but a bunch of people are already going to be laid off at T-Mobile due to their impending merger with Orange, and you know, the economy's tough. It's not their fault your Sidekick isn't working! It's corporate's! The stock goes down, and those people have an even worse chance of being employed. Think of the kids, Mario.

Perez Hilton: making the world shittier since always. Also: who has a Sidekick? Seriously.

The test was rigged deliberately. That's the kind of thing we've been up against here, and I find it despicable.

Google explained that the wireless microphone frequency was hidden behind broadcast television signals. When asked if Page felt the FCC aided in the subterfuge, Page demurred, blaming broadcasters instead. A spokesperson for microphone manufacturer Shure, Mark Brunner, shot down the accusation, "These tests were open to the public, and those who choose to discount the results — which have not yet been published — had every option to be present and to witness them for themselves." Just remember, Larry: It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

Brin told the crowd how tinkering with the G1 gives him pleasure: "It's just very exciting for me as a computer geek to have a phone I can play with and modify." Page mostly stood there with a silly grin on his face.

Contrast the willy-nilly performance with Apple CEO Steve Jobs's meticulously planned iPhone announcements. It serves as a convenient illustration of the differences between the Apple's mobile strategy and Google's. Apple's iPhone offers millions of consumers a simple, structured experience — just as Jobs's bullet-point keynotes focus on marketable sound bites. The G1 is an open, developer-friendly phone that — like Brin and Page's slapdash appearance — thousands of geeks will appreciate and few consumers will bother to decipher.

"It is still just a phone running on a fourth-placed proprietary network," writes Blankenhorn. He says Google won't realize its full vision for Android — "a handheld Internet client running on a true broadband network" — until Clearwire finishes building a new wireless broadband network, backed in part by Google's money. That's supposed to happen by next year, but even Clearwire CEO Ben Wolf is skeptical: "They say the middle of next year. I'll believe it when I see it." Notice how no one's talking about whether the Dream is actually fun to use?

• The article says, "T-Mobile did not return calls for comment." You know what that means. When a company won't talk, reporters craft a hitpiece.
• Says who? Vague unquoted anonymous sources include "Internet developers and mobile industry executives" and just three named ones — an analyst, music site Pandora's CTO, and an executive at T-Mobile rival Hutchison Whampoa.

These two facets of the story will give Googlers plenty of reason to dismiss the story. The notion that Googler groupthink won't allow them to process: That the article's right in all its particulars, anonymous sources or no. Oh, and have you ever heard a Googler complain when one of their executives is quoted spouting company talking points anonymously to the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal?

High-speed Internet access is so important to the welfare of U.S. consumers that America can't afford not to offer it — free of charge — to anybody who wants it, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin says. Martin would like to use an old $6 billion federal subsidy for land lines to subsidize broadband instead. Only 38% of rural households are broadband customers, and only 25% of households with incomes less than $20,000. A chunk of wireless airwaves known as AWS-3 (Advanced Wireless Services) is due to be auctioned to carriers next year. Martin wants to attach a requirement to reserve 25% of AWS-3 network capacity for free broadband.

T-Mobile paid $4 billion two years ago to buy AWS-1 spectrum, which abuts AWS-3. T-Mobile's chief technical officer says wireless broadband for rural customers in the AWS-3 spectrum would interfere with paying T-Mobile customers. Martin says FCC engineers are studying the interference issue.

Not in USAT's report: Martin wants to content-filter the free stuff. (Photo by AP/Jeff Roberson)

The first Android-loaded phone — the HTC dream, to run on the T-Mobile network — isn't due out until October. It's not certain that when that device does come out that Android will be much to look at. Ever since Google released its last software developement kit only to the first 50 winners of its Android Developer Challenge, the jealous rest of the third-party developers building apps for the OS continue to trash the system's prospects in the press.

I recently purchased the HTC Dash, right before the California Supreme Court struck down as illegal early contract termination fees — otherwise, I might have gone and signed up for an iPhone myself. But I love the Dash since it, too, has real buttons and is slim enough not to disrupt the hang of a jacket. Even at over a year old (which is about 35 in Hollywood actress years), it's still selling well despite two major drawbacks: Windows Mobile and T-Mobile.

Similarly, the iPhone is locked to Apple and AT&T. Want an application? You'll have to buy it from the App Store via iTunes. Want a different carrier? Tough noogies. Apple didn't so much break the lock between handset manufacturers and carriers as much as they inserted themselves as a third gatekeeper. While HTC has close ties to Microsoft — its U.S. offices are based in Seattle, and veteran Windows Mobile developers work at the company — the phone maker won't be leaving Microsoft country. It's just applying for dual citizenship in Mountain View.

Dream buyers will be locked to buying T-Mobile voice and data plans, regardless. While customers wait, the current release is likely off in Germany somewhere being larded up with crappy default applications from Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile's parent, which clings to a desperate Teutonic hope you might be dumb enough to continue using its T-Zones wireless services, baked into every T-Mobile phone.

Google's and Apple's entry into wireless just means that lock-in is getting extended from our phones to the desktop. Getting Windows Mobile to sync with my iTunes on my MacBook and Google Calendar and email was a project that took an entire evening. It still doesn't work over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. My father, who took one look at my phone after losing his own and bought one, had no difficulty synching his Outlook contacts and Hotmail account with his Windows PC. Any bets on how easy it will be to sync a phone running Android with Yahoo Mail or iTunes?

So if you dream of buying a handset based on its hardware features, then picking an operating system to run on it, and then choosing a wireless carrier which works well in your neighborhood, keep dreaming. Google would rather join the wireless club, and lock you into its own set of services. The Googlephone promised to set us free, and the Dream looks beautiful — but it's just another cell phone.

Just buy the minimum prepaid Starbucks Card, and you get two hours a day. Not just that day, but every day you have that card, until AT&T gets greedy again.

We believe it to be a technical issue happening between T-Mobile and the folks who help run our text messaging. We do not believe it to be a policy issue. We've received word this issue has been resolved. We're still hearing reports of "service unavailable" messages for some folks. We're staying on top of this, and will report back when it's fully fixed.

Dear Mr. Mertz:

My name is Marianne Maestas and I am with the Executive Customer Relations department of T-Mobile. I am contacting you on behalf of Mr. Robert Dotson in regards to the email that you sent him yesterday evening.

In your email, you express concerns, as you are not able to use your service for Twitter. As you have been advised, Twitter is not an authorized third-party service provider, and therefore you are not able to utilize service from this provide any longer. You indicate your feeling that this is a violation of the Net Neutrality.

T-Mobile would like to bring to your attention that the Terms and Conditions of service, to which you agreed at activation, indicate "... some Services are not available on third-party networks or while roaming. We may impose credit, usage, or other limits to Service, cancel or suspend Service, or block certain types of calls, messages, or sessions (such as international, 900, or 976 calls) at our discretion." Therefore, T-Mobile is not in violation of any agreement by not providing service to Twitter. T-Mobile regrets any inconvenience, however please note that if you remain under contract and choose to cancel service, you will be responsible for the $200 early termination fee that would be assessed to the account at cancellation.

Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact Customer Care at 800-937-8997. Thank you,

Marianne Maestas,

Executive Customer Relations Specialist,

Office of the President