Click to View

Tomorrow, AT&T will become the first mobile operator to deliver a Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry. This news doesn't really come as a surprise, however. After all, Amazon mistakenly listed the BlackBerry 8820 as being for sale a little over a week ago.

AT&T will sell the 8820 for $299.99 with a two-year contract and rebate.

In addition to coverage on AT&T 2.5G EDGE data network (sorry, no 3G), the BlackBerry's Wi-Fi capablity provides access to hotspots throughout the U.S. and abroad—including in countries where AT&T does not have wide area network roaming agreements—as well as corporate wireless LANs and home Wi-Fi networks.

Although the 8820 is a dual-mode device through the UMA (unlisenced mobile access) standard—allowing for the seamless handoff of voice or data calls between cellular and Wi-Fi networks—AT&T doesn't support this technology, at least not yet.

By contrast, another dual-mode BlackBerry, the upcoming Curve 8320, which is due to soon become available from T-Mobile, will support that carrier's UMA-enabled HotSpot@Home service for that very funcionaility.

Enteprise security features include WEP, WPA, and VPN settings.

As with other recent BlackBerrys, the 8820 includes the same trackball navigation system introduced with the Pearl last fall. It also integrates GPS for location-based services, such as AT&T's TeleNav GPS Navigator and TeleNav Track; both of which cost extra on top of your monthly e-mail access and Web browsing service plan.

Bluetooth 2.0 allows the 8820 to support hands-free headsets (including stereo types), car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals. It can also handle polyphonic, mp3 and MIDI ringtones as well as play music and videos, the latter in full-screen mode.

A new desktop media manager from Roxio is supposed to make it easier for users to manage media files on their desktop and automatically copy or convert pictures, music and videos for optimal playback on the smartphone, according to RIM.

Unfortunately for shutterbugs, there's no camera in the BlackBerry 8820.

The 8820's microSD slot supports both standard and SDHC expansion cards-the former tops out at 2GB, while the later will eventually support 32GB microSDHC cards. Currently, microSDHC is available in 4GB, but 8GB cards are expected to ship before the close of 2007. It has 64MB of internal memory.

In addition to a speakerphone, the BlackBerry8820 offers speaker independent voice recognition for voice activated dialing.

It is also the BlackBerry with thinnest design ever for a full QWERTY thumb-keyboard model, RIM says. The 8820 measures 4.5 x 2.6 x 0.5 inches and weighs 4.7 ounces.

RIM rates the 8820's battery for 5 hours of talk and up to 22 days of standby time.

The new BlackBerry also supports AT&T's $9.99 per month push-to-talk service, in addition to AT&T Mobile Music, which provides access to online subscription music content from eMusic, XM Satellite Radio and more, for a fee.