Gossip

So, what is Danger boss Hank doing in Europe this month? HipTop Tipping?

One of America's most popular "cult phones" is the Danger-designed HipTop, otherwise known as the "Sidekick" from T-Mobile - and when the colour version was announced last month, Americans went wild, asking when the International version would ship.

So the Hunky Mouse was intrigued to notice that on 23-24 September at the Mobile Commerce World show in London, one of the speakers will be Hank Nothhaft, CEO of Danger.

What is he doing in London? After all, the first place the tri-band HipTop is likely to be announced will be in Europe, where it is needed, rather than in America, where most users will never travel overseas.

Friends of Hank say it's not something to read too much into. It's a "routine trip" - and actually, he's been in London before that, this month; it's his second trip.

Fascinating! Two trips in two weeks. What can he be planning? How is the project going?

Hank was tight-lipped: "We have made great progress since we spoke," he said cagily. And that was that!

We're not inclined to read too much into this, even though it would be nice to be able to. We expect Hank to launch the HipTop in Germany, through T-Mobile, or possibly at the forthcoming ITU comms conference in Geneva. But it's worth remembering that NewsWireless.Net actually saw a working tri-band HipTop back in February, at the 3GSM Congress in Cannes.

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