FYI the Blackberry 8800 is out, and available at some Cingular stores. That is some are selling them others are holding onto what they have and only allowing new customers to get them with a sign up. But if you want to shell out the dollars you can get them at full retail price. Around $500.00 give or take . Think I will wait until they become more readily available and prices come down. Link to one review of the new device, a "must see" according to the reviewer http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17171115/
Bobolito posted the info on it here: http://forums.wirelessadvisor.com/434222-post317.html and thought it would be good to have it here too. copy of his post: BlackBerry 8800 (Released!) FEATURES -Networks: GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 -Screen: 320x240 LCD 65K Colors -Weight: 4.73 oz -Size: 4.49" x 2.60" x 0.55" -Battery: 1400mAh; 5 hrs talktime; 24 days standby -Memory: 64MB flash memory + MicroSD slot -Platform: BlackBerry -Speakerphone: Yes -Connections: Bluetooth 2.0, miniUSB 2.0 connector, 2.5mm headset jack MULTIMEDIA -Camera: No -Ringtones: MP3, MIDI -Games/Applications: J2ME -Graphics: GIF/JPG Wallpapers -Audio/Video: BlackBerry Media Player for music & videos APPLICATIONS -Phonebook: Up to available capacity -Predictive Text: N/A -Messaging: BlackBerry email, BlackBerry Instant Messaging, SMS, MMS -Tools: GPS Navigation (Telenav), Push-to-Talk (Kodiak RTX for Cingular), View Microsoft® Word, Excel®, PowerPoint®, and Adobe® PDFs, calendar, alarm, calculator, to-do list, voice dialing -Web Browser: HTML Browser I will post my own quick review on it later today. I attended the into party made by RIM and AT&T in NYC and they have another meet tonight in SF.
OK, Here is my short review on it: after 24 hrs with it now. I have since modified the OS to show other vendor themes. The unit did not come with the Blackberry maps or telenav, downloaded telenav via OTA, google maps, berry 411, info search (a middle of the line GPS search software that is for free), opera mini and IM+ for instant messaging. Overall the 8800 seems to surpass the 8700c and it does out do the Pearl with the sound and loudness. Ringer sound is exceptionally loud and I found my self setting it to medium and that was still louder than the loud setting on the 8700 or the pearl. Call sound quality in and out was above par as compared to the other 2 as well as the Moto V3i. Speaker phones is loud and clear. Email functionality is typical BB. The key board at first was uncomfortable but after a whole day of use I got used to it (I had the same happen with the others). The device is an EDGE device so I will not comment on this. Video quality is good and music quality is also good even from its own speaker. Voice dialing worked as expected and was not different than what was in the Pearl. all application ran with one exception being infoseek which gave me some issues (that I understand as it is still in beta). Screen is excellent and very bright even in direct sun light it seems to be even better than what is on the 8700 and the Pearl. The bad part as I said the BB Maps (which is a free GPS without sound) was not loaded despite things being in the unit as it would have made sense as it has an internal GPS chip which is not network dependent but connects to the sats. After looking around had to modify OS install files to bring it, did the modifications for the other provider/vendor themes to show and the list went from 4 to 9 themes. Use feel is very good and it seems to be better than the 8700. Build quality seems to be excellent. This is a brief review and if more come up I will post an update.
Post on other forums indicate that BB Maps is forth coming from cingular, evidently they will include it in future OS releases. Here is a link with more info http://www.blackberryforums.com/gps...w-bbmaps-temp-till-updated-vers-released.html Also Berry 411 is a third party app?, you should be able to simply download and install that again. Glad you like it, I will have to wait for T-Mo releases it. Considered buying an unlocked one on E-bay till I saw the prices
Yes, I have been in regular contact with Stinson about these items. he did not get his 8800 so I test and he updates. May be today he will have his on hand and he will do the same as I did and he tests from his side. So far InfoSpace looks good on it but it still has some issues. As to BB maps, I would not use it while driving and the reason for that is because it has no voice guidance and that could be bad. Walking wise it would be good or being a passenger to guide the driver. I have to say they did get the battery good on this one, it went 2.5 days so far and it is only down to 34% and that is with use and a lot of testing taking place. I am not sure if Cingular might even let them put BB maps back on as Cingular has a thing with Telenav which is $9.99 per month. What you see in that link is something that I have already done. But with testing BB Maps I think I know why they left it out and the reason for that is that it seems to be slow in updating while driving. One can be a block away before it catches up and I am in a full reception area. It was not like this on the 8700 or the Pearl. I actually had the 8800 running side by side with the pearl and the pearl was dead on. As of now, I can say I do like the 8800 and from looking around it sure looks now that a lot of companies are going to write more things for it which is good. What I would hope they do is get one to work for editing word and excel docs as of right now we can only view them. May be with the Micro SD card ability, now some will come up with one. hardware side, it is a solid piece and for sure is a keeper 9(well it is a keeper for me since I got it for free at the Rim/AT&T intro meeting in NYC. What i said above is that if one has the 8700 then one should wait for the next one to be released by RIM as it seems the next one will also have Wifi built in (it might be in this one but they could have it disabled as the Euro ones seem to have it).
Good to read, have to get my hands on the 8800 when it becomes available for T-Mobile. Realize I could buy an unlocked one off of e-bay, but the prices are nuts, around $1000.00 and up. Whats kind of weird is T-Mobile has the 8800 available in Germany, but not here. But I am sure they will eventually carry it in this country too.
Was able to get my hands on one, found it at Lets Talk for $349.00 Phone Only. Got it yesterday, had it unlocked so my T-Mo SIM would work in it. Was able to switch my SIM out of my Pearl late last night. Everything is working well. Also re-installed the handheld OS with new Blackberry ALX files to unlock all the themes that are pre-installed.
Nice, and i am sure you will like it. Did you do teh maps ALX too? Becuase out of the baox, BB maps is not in there. By the way make sure you read Stinson's tip and guide book. Also I don't know if you have seen what I posted last night but here is a new Tip: Go to the message folder, menu, options, general options, scroll all the way down to the end. You will see an entry titled: SMS and email In boxes. In that one if one selects separate (instead of theme dependent), it will show an icon in the home screen titled SMS/MMS and will separate the emails from SMS/MMS. (I have not tried it on other themes and I am using the BB Dimension Today theme and it was confirmed that it also works on the Cingular theme). This is not available in the Pearl OS.
I am familiar with Stinson's tips, as I am a regular on Blackberry forums. And I already like the 8800 and listed my 8100 on E-bay today. I did load the map.alx also. I have noticed that and might go ahead and do that which I think is a neat feature of the new OS. One thing I did notice is, and not sure if it is the OS or some setting that changed. But on all my previous BBs the newest messages were always at the top when you opened the folder. For some reason they are at the end on the 8800. Drove me nuts at first as I woud get an alert for new message, open the folder and could not find it becuase I expected it to be on top. Have not found a way to change that either. Guess it gives me a good excuse to clean out the folders. Thats about the only issue I have found. There are some third party apps that don't seem to work yet with the new OS, blackberry alerts for example, but just like Vista, they will eventually catch up.
Mine is the newest first. I will have to check it out and see and will let you know if I find a way. Edit, what theme are you using ans is it doing the same in other themes?
Don't kill yourself, looks like the problem pretty much resolved itself. Maybe becuase I switched SIMs pretty close to midnight last night, as well as re-sent myself the service books, and updated my PIN, and IMEI on T-Mo's site, etc. Maybe it just got confused for a little bit.
So far I like it a lot. If I had one suggestion to RIM it would be to loose the chrome side pannels. I would rather see rubberized sides, like the material used in the Siedio rubberized case for the Pearl. Give you better grip, and show less fingerprints and stuff. But other than that all is great. Waiting for more third party apps to become available for it though. I used blackberry alerts on my Pearl, but on the 8800 gives me an exception error. So I removed it. I am sure the developer will catch up. Going to down load the spell checker you recommend and try it out.
Just want to add the info site link on it: http://www.blackberry8800.com/ as well as the getting started site: http://www.blackberry.com/knowledge...ing_Started_Guide.pdf?nodeid=1313534&vernum=0
Here is how to get BB Maps Working! Got this over at BB Forums: Yes. Here's the exact instructions. Download and install Desktop Manager 4.2 Service Pack 1 from: https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads/entry.do?code=A8BAA56554F96369AB93E4F3BB068C22 (Cingular only has version 4.2 as far as I can see) Download and install BlackBerry Handheld Software (v4.2.1.109 - firmware version 4.2.1.72) from: https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads/entry.do?code=577BCC914F9E55D5E4E4F82F9F00E7D4 (this is the same version as I got on the device, but...) Once you've installed the firmware from step 2, go to the directory: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\8800-v4.2.1.72_P2.3.0.54 and rename the file LBS.alx to LBS.alx.ORG Download the file LBS.alx.txt from: http://www.blackberryforums.com/att...software-v4-2-1-109-multilanguage-lbs.alx.txt (found in the post: http://www.blackberryforums.com/457179-post25.html) and save it as LBS.alx in the directory noted in step 3. Run Desktop Manager. The first time I did, it wanted to update the firmware - not sure why, but if it doesn't, just run the Application Loader. BlackBerry Maps will appear in the applications list unchecked. Check the box and proceed with the application loader. BlackBerry Maps will now be installed. You have to turn on GPS under (Settings) Options --> Advanced Options --> GPRS and refresh your location if you're outside. In Maps (the name of the app), go to Options and make sure it had GPRS set to Internal GPS, and you may want to change the Disable Backlight... percentage from its default 100% of battery power! One thing. There's a function to Copy Location within the application which puts a URL into the clip board which (I assume) is supposed to display the location you're at so you can email it to someone. However, it brings you to what I can only assume is BlackBerry Map's web site, but all you get is the home page. Guess that will work sooner or later!
Well I would love to start something here about unlocking the themes but it would be too much. In the same site they show how to unlock other vendor themes: http://www.blackberryforums.com/rin...packaged-theme-installation-4-1-4-2-only.html which requires editing the blackberry.alx file (which is already edited by Jibi and posted for all to download. Also it seems that the Plazmic theme builder for the 8700 will work to build new ones for the 8800 (build for the 8700 an send to the 8800). I have not tried it or you can say I am a bit lazy to do that.
