Sidekick Debacles - Cloudy Future For Cloud Computing

By now, you've got a friend or a teenager who has been crying for days over the lost data from their Sidekicks from T-Mobile.  To be more precise, these are not merely lost data that will magically reappear after connection between the devices and the cloud are reestablished.  In some cases, T-Mobile and Microsoft aren't saying much at this time, the data are gone forever.  Poof!

Microsoft you ask?  That's right.  Microsoft bought Danger, the maker of Sidekick, and they're the folks responsible for the services.  Here's what I didn't know until this happens.  Once connection to the cloud is lost, these Sidekicks are almost wortheless without connection.  

And for cloud advocates, this is not what they want to see.  For mobile advocates, this is not what I want to see.  This made me think back to when Apple was tripping all over itself during the MobileMe launch.  Okay, Apple fans, I know.  Microsoft's Sidekick thing here is a lot worse.

Still, it only shows much how further we have to go to really establish true connectivity with redundancies, backups, and alternative means to access data when wireless connection are severed.

This is the latest developments so far on the Sidekick outage:

• Some data are lost and cannot be retrieved.  
• A lot of answers are still missing and there is speculation that it was an insider job.
• T-Mobile is prepared to compensate users for their troubles.
• T-Mobile has halted Sidekick sales.

More information:

• Danger
• CNet
• T-Mobile Oops Page
• T-Mobile Forum For Sidekick (Must visit for SK users):  Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power