After launching BlackBerry 8820 via AT&T, RIM has joined hands with T-Mobile, to roll out the smartphone in the US. It offers built-in GPS and support for T-Mobile’s HotSpot @Home service for unlimited nationwide Wi-Fi calling.
This “thinnest†quad-band device provides access to location-based applications and services that includes BlackBerry Maps, to navigate between meetings and locate the closest restaurant, enhanced services like TeleNav GPS Navigator to receive audible turn-by-turn directions to reach their next destination.
T-Mobile offers myFaves service for quick, one-click access to five people by instant messaging, e-mailing, texting or calling from the Home Screen and a support for international roaming. Besides, the handset also provides BlackBerry Internet Service support to access up to 10 supported e-mail accounts like the most popular ISP e-mail accounts that include Yahoo! Mail and Gmail.
“Customers want and need to stay connected to the important people in their lives,” mentioned Leslie Grandy, Vice President of Product Development, T-Mobile USA. “With unlimited nationwide calling using T-Mobile’s popular HotSpot @Home mobile service, access to personal or business e-mail, and reliable GPS navigation services, the BlackBerry 8820 from T-Mobile provides unparalleled value for our customers at home, at the office and everywhere in between.”
Users will also receive secure push-based wireless access to e-mail and other data, and features IT policy controls for managing usage and deployments with the help of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server that supports IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell GroupWise. They can also make use of other instant messaging clients, including AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk and ICQ.
The other features of the smartphone is the full QWERTY keyboard, intuitive user-interface with easy-to-use trackball, HTML performance, ultra-bright 320×240 color display with light-sensing technology, media player, stereo Bluetooth and Roxio media manager. It is compatible with MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+ and eAAC+ as well as polyphonic, MP3 and MIDI ringtones.
The Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), noise-cancellation technology and microSD/SDHC expansion slot are also included.
RIM’s BlackBerry 8820 in a midnight Blue color option is available with T-Mobile with the suggested price of $349 (approx. Rs. 13,960). The BlackBerry 8820 smartphone is already available in India.
