tmobile

Motorola announced their latest addition, the Motorola Charm. The Charm will be available later this Summer on T-Mobile and will ship running Android 2.1 along with an enhanced version of Motoblur, to better manage your social networks. The Charm has a boxy, square-ish appearance (which seems to be all the rage lately) and comes with a full QWERTY keyboard.

Additionally, the Charm has a 2.8-inch touchscreen with pinch-to-zoom support through its Backtrack trackpad (a laptop-like touchpad located on the back of the phone that allows you to pinch, zoom, and swipe without blocking the screen), a 3MP camera with digital zoom, and video recording capabilities. No specific pricing or availability deets have been announced yet, but I'm definitely interested in seeing the rear-facing trackpad in action.

When HipTop launched the Sidekick II back in 2004, I was 100 percent on board. It was the first phone I bought that let me browse the Internet, check my mail, chat over IM, take pictures and video, and text, all in one easy-to-use device. I wore that phone out and still think fondly of it today. Sure it was kind of a monster truck compared to other phones on the market, but I considered it an accessory, not just a phone.

Reviewing the Sidekick LX took me back to those eye-opening times when I first discovered that I don't have to carry five different gadgets with me, and could always (always) stay connected.

Although I haven't had a Sidekick since, I can spot a lot of fond similarities between the II and the LX. This could be considered good or bad, depending on how you look at it. Find out what I mean when you read more