mobileu.co.uk

Sidekick sales on hold after data-loss disaster

T-Mobile has frozen sales of the Sidekick smartphone after hundreds of thousands of customers lost personal data because of a "server failure" at Microsoft subsidiary Danger.

In a development leading many to question whether Microsoft can be trusted to run a cloud computing service, the system backing up Sidekick data on a storage area network is said to have malfunctioned.

On Saturday (10th October), representatives for the software giant said the data – including contact details, photos and calendar appointments – was "almost certainly" lost for good, though they were working "around the clock" to try to recover it.

The problems were compounded by Sidekick owners attempting to reset their smartphones to restore functionality. Doing so clears the device of stored data, which would ordinarily be backed up on Danger's servers.

"Recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible," Microsoft told customers in a statement two days after the malfunction.

"We will continue to keep you updated on this front; we know how important this is to you."

As well as halting sales of the device until the problem is resolved, T-Mobile has offered affected individuals a month's free data use.