Keeping T-Mobile Sidekick Despite Data Disaster, Trying Android

Digital entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is known in some tech circles for one quirk: In the age of the iPhone and BlackBerry, he still uses a T-Mobile Sidekick. (And has been for years. Here’s an interview I did with him for Forbes about his Sidekick II in early 2006.)

So how is he dealing with the datacenter disaster at Microsoft that wiped Sidekick owners of their phone contacts and other data? (Data is being restored.)

Mark tells us he’s going to keep the Sidekick for now. (We saw him thumbing it as he was leaving the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco this week, which led to our question.)

But Mark tells us he has also ordered a Google Android-powered Motorola CLIQ — he wants to see how it does.

That’s a happier tone than earlier this month, when the Sidekick data loss news broke. “Need to replace my sidekick,” Cuban tweeted on Oct. 11. “Any ideas on which has the closest keyboard for a 2 thumb typist ? And if there is a class action suit.. Im in.”

No iPhone?

Cuban tells us he has an iPod touch for apps access — he hates the on-screen keyboard, he has said on Twitter — and a “mi-fi” device, which turns a 3G signal into a wi-fi signal that the iPod touch can use to get on the Web from anywhere. – Businessinsider

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