T-Mobile Sidekick

[laughs]

... and got my T-Mobile Sidekick stolen.

[laughs]

Dude, this is-

[laughs]

Yeah, we, we were on set-

... at, uh, at, on Z Rock, a show that Big Jay was on.

This ended with the tech recession in 2000, followed by another surge in Internet software with social media.

But in the early 2000s, there was still a critical mass of hardware engineers so that the startup Danger Research created the Danger Sidekick, the first consumer smartphone was there.

What happened to that diversity? That was really what made the Bay Area such a tech hub.

It's interesting.

I don't know what.

My favorite cell phone I've ever gotten in my entire life was a T-Mobile Sidekick.

I've had the T-Mobile Sidekick 1 all the way to the last one.

I had 1, 2, 3, XL.

I was a T-Mobile Sidekick fanboy.

And I've gotten so many bookings on the T-Mobile Sidekick.

When I got it, do you know what it is? No.

Holy shit, dude.

News.

In 2002, the hottest flip phone was the T-Mobile Sidekick.

Everybody wanted it, and it was $200.

Now in 2026, the hottest flip phone is the newly announced Apple Duo, and it is $2,000.

I had—it was an old Nokia little phone.

Then I had the Sidekick.

Then I had the wing phone.

Oh, wow, girl.

You was bougie.

You had money?

No, I mean, I got—I mean, the Sidekick said—okay, so my—this is in my one-on-one show, Call Me by My Name, which I don't do anymore.

But my first boyfriend, Ricardo, he bought me a T-Mobile Sidekick.

Motorola Flip.

Was it after that? That same, and then we had the Sidekicks that came out.

That's before, uh- Oh, I had the Sidekick ... iPhones really got hot.

There you go.

I eagerly awaited the release, but unfortunately it had major issues.

However, Microsoft acquired Danger that year, which was the company behind the Sidekick, which was famously used by Paris Hilton at the time.

So I decided to wait for a potential Windows Mobile version as my first smartphone.

Two years later in 2010, what came from this was not what I had expected.

It was the Kin 1, which was based upon the Danger Sidekick and Kin 2, which arrived and then were cancelled in quick succession, so I wasn't going to get one of those devices either.

However, all was not lost as Microsoft had pivoted and announced Windows Phone 7 series, which would be a new modern operating system for mobile with applications based upon Silverlight.

When Steve Ballmer, then CEO of Microsoft, said that every Silverlight developer could be a Windows Phone developer, I took on the challenge and started learning the platform to have my own apps on my very first smartphone.