![]() ![]() “People are used to surfing the Net with at least a 15-inch full-color monitor, animation, sound and killer apps like instant messaging and e-mail,” Rubin said in a 2001 USA Today interview. ![]() Initially known as Hiptop, the Sidekick was conceived as a compact computer. Nearly a decade before Apple premiered its inaugural iPhone, the creators of the Sidekick were leading the charge on what we now consider smartphones. Eventually, the trio would bring in Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Sidekick’s parent company, Danger Research Inc., was started in 2000 by three former Apple employees: Matt Hershenson, Joe Britt, and Andy Rubin. It’s not hyperbolic to compare the Sidekick to the iPhone. It was the first time that our online personas weren’t tied to our desktops, and could be ignited with one (very cool) swivel of a screen. For a bunch of kids who grew up with dial-up modems, T9 texting, and “free minutes” after 9PM, Sidekicks were the first time many of us could be online and mobile. This era, which feels slightly prehistoric considering that phones no longer have keyboards, is the predecessor of the inescapable internet world we’re living in today. Once Sidekicks trickled down to the hallways of my high school in Jamaica, Queens, they were a status symbol (hence, robbing season)-even if you had no status at all. The Sidekick was the it accessory of the early-aughts seen on socialites like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, and it replaced rapper’s affinities for the equally trendy two-way pagers. ![]()
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