T-Mobile Sidekick Walks Again, What Parents Should Know

The youth-oriented T-Mobile Sidekick has always been a popular alternative for parents to care for children, and many have lamented the imminent demise of the service behind the Sidekick phones. T-Mobile announced the Sidekick 4G to fill the void of this spring, but there are some things parents should consider before you get the new Sidekick for children.

The Sidekick has been a best-selling T-Mobile, both feature the team Sidekick phone. The services of the tag securely stores user data stored on Danger's servers, the company behind the Sidekick bought by Microsoft. The failure last year of these servers, causing the loss of all user data (if restored), probably played a role in stopping the Sidekick service. The T-Mobile forced the owner of the Sidekick product line to go in another direction. This e-Android hardware is capable of Samsung. Colleague Matt Miller has the details on the new Sidekick material, which is produced by Samsung and running Android 2.2.

This new product line is exciting and will appeal to parents looking for phones for children, but it would be wise to be aware of a number of things that differ from the original Sidekicks. First, the Android platform is open, with thousands of applications on the Android Market. You may need to set some ground rules with children before putting them to buy applications at will. App costs can increase rapidly.

4G Sidekick users will be able to buy and rent movies and television programs on mobile through the Samsung Media Hub. T-Mobile shopping States may be charged to phone bill that could lead to the phone bills of a child unexpectedly. This service is especially appealing to children through a fast 4G network, streaming video without pain until the bill arrives. If the billing company is configured, you may want to disable this feature in mobile children.

Last but not least, the new Sidekick 4G has a reception in the chamber and can handle video calls via the Qik application for Android. This is a nice feature that their children use with their friends also have Sidekicks. While the thought of their children in the video chat can be given a break, will likely use a large amount of data in the network. T-Mobile Sidekick not say if the 4G will be a special data plan, but even if no excess charge plan, the carrier is likely to limit the bandwidth once the monthly limit is exceeded.