RIM has officially announced the long rumored
and anticipated BlackBerry 8820.
The 8820 is the first BlackBerry to include a Wi-Fi radio with support
for 802.11 a/b/g protocols with support for Cisco wireless router
extensions for additional security with the aforementioned compatible
gateway hardware, as well as support for WEP/WPA/WPA2 encryption for
secure transmission of data over the air.
The device also supports UMA
access and services for voice calls and carrrier deployments, and
includes IPSec-based VPN software for access to corporate networks
which require such access which can be used with the wireless or
cellular connection for enterprise users.
Aside from the new Wi-Fi capability, the device is the most feature
packed BlackBerry since the recently launched Curve, featuring a QVGA
landscape display, full QWERTY keyboard, speakerphone, voice dialing,
quadband GSM/EDGE access (850/900/1800/1900), microSD slot with SDHC support for card
capacities up to 32GB, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio support,
media player, and a built-in GPS module which can be used with the
included BlackBerry Maps application.
The device also includes its
usual support for BlackBerry Enterprise, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus
Domino, GroupWise, and up to 10 additional POP/IMAP email accounts.
The BlackBerry 8820 is expected to launch on AT&T sometime
later this quarter.
