BlackBerry 8820 with Wi-Fi
by Volker Weber
RIM has finally released a BlackBerry with WLAN support. It looks and and acts exactly like the 8800, but it has a new icon in the status bar indicating whether you are connected to a wireless LAN. There is also a new application which lets you search for WLANs and join them:
You can then save a profile and prioritize WLANs in the order you want the device to join them. It not only stores your credentials but will also let you login to public access points that you find at Starbucks or McD.
If you are connected to both the cellular and Wi-Fi, the WLAN takes precedence over the mobile network. For BES which support WLAN, your device will directly connect over your company network infrastructure.
I have no information which provider will release the 8820 first. The Vodafone theme is no indication, since I just uploaded it to the device with javaloader.
Comments
It feels like I want one. :-)
I'll take the Nokia E90. Has pretty much every feature one can think of and I can live with the size, weight and cost.
I've played with a prototype at the Nokia store in NYC. They say the U.S. market should have it by the end of August.
Frage ist: Was macht man mit WLAN im Blackberry? Die Push-Mail wird sicher zuverlässiger per Mobilfunk laufen. Und bislang war der Internetbrowser in Blackberrys nicht gerade doll. Vielleicht geht's ja mit Opera Mini besser.
@Christian Just:
Guten Morgen Herr Just,
Sie haben Recht, der eMail Push wird nicht zuverlässiger, das ist aber weder nötig noch so gedacht ;-)
WLAN in einem BlackBerry hilft Ihnen zum einen Gesprächskosten zu minimieren, Stichwort VoIP, zum anderen können Sie sich bequem auf größeren Firmengeländen ohne SIM Karte im LAN bewegen und Ihre eMails bearbeiten oder auf interne Resourcen zugreifen.
Viele Grüße, Thorsten Eberhardt
I've heard hints that you can roam on and off wi-fi whilst on voice calls and it'll fall back to the carrier..
I'll have to get my mitts on one to try it out.. ;-)
---* Bill
As you can imagine, your carrier needs to support this. Ask them first.
WiFi wäre schon cool, allerdings zieht ja bei den aktuellen Flatrates so langsam nicht mehr der Vorteil, dass man zuhause umsonst telefonieren kann. Kann man ja mit diversen Tarifoptionen z.B. bei VFD2 sowieso schon. Ich find meinen 8800 immer noch schick.
I believe Vodafone (Ireland at least) are bringing the Curve (8310) device to the market and understand it will have Wi-Fi and GPS......
Question.
Does the wifi stay conneted if you get a voice call ?
Flemming, it appears so.
Sean, I don't think the 8310 will have Wi-Fi. Here is my cheat sheet:
BlackBerry 8310: Curve + GPS
BlackBerry 8320: Curve + Wi-Fi
BlackBerry 8330: Curve + GSM/CDMA
BlackBerry 8110: Pearl 2 (GPS?)
BlackBerry 8120: Pearl 2 + Wi-Fi
BlackBerry 8130: Pearl 2 + GSM/CDMA
BlackBerry 8820: 8800 + Wi-Fi
BlackBerry 8830: 8800 + GSM/CDMA
Thanks Volker.
kinda limited here to what devices we can get :( unless i can find a unlocked one.
Hi Volker,
Apologies, checked mails from Vodafone and (of course) you are correct - 8310 with GPS. Will have to apply some 'corporate' pressure again to get more devices for the Irish market.... Paul knows what I mean......LOL
Cheers,
Sean