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Wireless carrier T-Mobile plans to shine the spotlight later today on its not-yet-released Sidekick II smartphone at a Hollywood-style premier.

While celebrities and sports stars will get a chance to play with the eagerly awaited mobile device now, regular folks like you and I will have to wait till the Fall when the Sidekick II is officially launched to get our fix.

Based on Danger's hiptop platform, the Sidekick II, like earlier models, lets you make phone calls, surf the Web, send and receive e-mail and SMS messages, take pictures and more, from what can best be described as a BlackBerry for the consumer set.

Like Research In Motion's BlackBerry handhelds, Sidekick's main role is to support mobile messaging and communications, with a QWERTY thumb-keyboard to boot. Unlike BlackBerries with their businesslike, utilitarian design, Sidekicks are decidedly sleeker and more colorful - clearly designed to appeal to the young and hip.

John Clelland, a Senior VP at T-Mobile, claims "with customers ranging from celebrities to 22-year-olds just out of college, the T-Mobile Sidekick II enhances the experience people loved with the original Sidekick."

Though it is called Sidekick II, the new version is really the third generation of the platform. The first edition used a monochrome display, while the second model added a color screen (read our review). Sidekick II promises to deliver much the same features as the first two, but in a more compact and powerful package.

According to T-Mobile, Sidekick II will be 25-percent smaller than the current model. It will also integrate its camera as well as a flash to make picture taking more user-friendly. (Snapping images with earlier Sidekicks required an awkward camera attachment.)

Sidekick II maintains the hiptop platform's distinctive swivel design, whereby its display slides open to uncover its QWERTY keyboard. T-Mobile bundles a number of messaging applications to keep Sidekick-users' thumbs busy.

Software includes a free e-mail account and the ability set up three external e-mail accounts for delivery on the Sidekick II. There is 6MB of memory for storing e-mail and other documents. Users can view attachments too, including Word, image, and PDF files. Lastly, Yahoo! Messenger is now available for download in addition to the previously supported AOL Instant Messenger service.

Phone-wise, T-Mobile and Danger added a speakerphone to Sidekick II. In addition, several buttons on the outside of the device make it easier to use as a mobile handset, while a separate keypad has been inserted within the QWERTY keyboard for dialing numbers. The companies promise 4.5 hours of talk time from a single charge of the battery.

T-Mobile will offer customers a myriad of ways to personalize their new Sidekicks, such as downloadable ringtones based on chart-topping songs, voice messages from music celebrities announcing incoming calls, and games over-the-air. Taking its cue from other mobile device vendors, T-Mobile will sell seven color bumpers to customize the Sidekick's appearance.

T-Mobile plans to sell Sidekick II for $300. The company will also offer unlimited data service--Web surfing, e-mailing, and instant messaging-for $20 a month on top of a qualified voice plan.

Las week, Danger took an important step towards its stated goal of getting out of the hardware business with an agreement with Sharp Corporation.

Under the partnership, the companies plan to work together on the development, manufacturing and distribution of hiptop devices in North America and Europe.