I was just reading a story on BGR that they picked up from Techdirt that they picked up from BroadbandReports.com about a ridiculous policy that Cingular has when it comes to sites linking to their site.

“Links to the Sites. You are granted a limited, nonexclusive right to create a hypertext link to the homepage of the Sites, provided such link does not portray Cingular Wireless or any of its products and services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise defamatory manner. You may not use a Cingular or Cingular Wireless logo or other proprietary graphic or trademark of Cingular or Cingular Wireless to link to the Sites without the express written permission of Cingular Wireless. This limited right may be revoked at any time.”

How stupid is that? Cingular, now AT&T, is basically saying that you cannot link to them unless you have something nice to say.

I am dead set against anyone making false accusations, allegations, representations, and everything else that is simply not true about a person or company, however, what right does AT&T, or any company for that matter (Verizon), have to tell me the guidelines to which I link to them under so long as I am not telling a lie?

According to this policy I cannot link to AT&T’s site with TRUE statements like:

• Cingular, in my opinion, is, by far, the worst cell phone company that I have ever used.
• Cingular says they have the fewest dropped calls. The problem for me is that they never have a strong enough signal for me to make a call in the first place.
• Cingular’s customer service is almost as bad as Sprint’s, from my experience.

I have been pretty critical of Cingular in the past but haven’t received any letters from their lawyers telling me to stop linking to them. Maybe they only care if you have millions of readers per month as compared to just hundreds of thousands.

Remember back a little while ago when we started talking about a red BlackBerry Pearl? First, the Pearl Red was supposed to come out on T-Mobile, then the Pearl Red wasn’t coming out on T-Mobile.

About a week ago RIMarkable reader Edvin told us that the Pearl Red is coming out, however, not on T-Mobile, but, Cingular.

Two days ago Gizmodo reported the that a tipster, (I wonder if it was Edvin?), told them that the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Red appeared on a pricing sheet at his Cingular Store.

Yesterday the Boy Genius, over on Engadget Mobile, posted an AT&T pricing sheet that has the Pearl Red listed.

From the looks of things, Edvin, was right…

Pearl Red

The Boy Genius is reporting that the upcoming BlackBerry 8820 will have Wi-Fi. Leave it to BG to scrutinize the device.xlm file that comes with OS 4.2.0.109 from Cingular. Notice the highlighted section in the device.xml file above. You will notice that the os radio =”GPRS-WLAN”.

What does this mean? Well, while the details may not be completely clear and one hundred percent correct, but it shows that it will have a GPRS/WLAN radio stack, a first for BlackBerry devices, as well as the customary support for voice-activated dialing and push-to-talk capabilities. Unfortunately, one feature it does not list is the camera, so let’s rule out this device for that 8800 series CameraBerry model.. for now, of course.

So, in English, the BlackBerry 8820 will have Wi-Fi, won’t be 3G, and won’t have a camera. If I were going to get another cameraless BlackBerry on Cingular (no way in the world I would ever do this) I would hold of on the BlackBerry 8800 for a BlackBerry 8820.

BlackBerry 8800, BlackBerry 8820

Customers must sign a 1 or 2-year service agreement, activate on a Blackberry data rate plan and be active on each line after the 30 day return period in order to qualify for the rebate.

Upgrades are eligible. Voice plan activation is not required. Customers may use BIS or BES as their BlackBerry email solution.

Limit of 15 total (Buy 15 and get $500 VISA rebate card)

Not sure that I understand the limit. Are you limited to buying 15 BlackBerry 8800 handsets and getting $500 gift card for every 3 8800s, or, do you only get a one gift card for every 3 to 15 8800s that you purchase?

We will definitely stay tuned to hear more on this one…

UPDATE: RIMarkable commenter J has cleard things up a bit. You get one $100 rebate for every three BlackBerry 8800s that you buy. The limit is $500 in gift cards.

It looks like Cingular may have just updated their web page. You can now order the BlackBerry 8800 on their site and they are offering free guaranteed overnight shipping.

I must say that I have been very critical in the passed past on Cingular’s BlackBerry launches, however, they are proving me wrong on this one. I am impressed.

Cingular BlackBerry 8800

I’ve written several times about how botched the Cingular BlackBerry Pearl Launch was. Looks like AT&T buying Cingular hasn’t improved things much. From what we’ve heard the BlackBerry 8800 won’t be released until the 21st so out of fairness, will give Cingular until then. I will say however, it isn’t looking good so far.

BlackBerry 8800

Now that we’ve had time to look at the features and specifications of the BlackBerry I wonder just how well it will sell? It’s not that the BlackBerry 8800 isn’t a good device and all, but, does it really offer enough over the BlackBerry 8700 or 7130 to warrant upgrading to it.

I know that many business users say they don’t need a digital camera, however, no camera, combined with no Wi-Fi, make me see the BlackBerry 8800 as the device that I pass up on waiting for the next new model BlackBerry to come out.

This is just my opinion, however, unlike the BlackBerry Pearl, the BlackBerry 8800 doesn’t really do anything groundbreakingly different than older model BlackBerrys like take pictures. Sure, the 8800 has a MP3 player. If the BlackBerry Media Player that comes on the BlackBerry 8800 is anything like the one on the Pearl, people really into listening to music on the go will continue to carry their Ipods.

Other than that, you can continue to send and receive email like you can on any other BlackBerry. The 8800 is much thinner than any other full QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry but I don’t imagine too many BlackBerry 8700 users saying that they are going to switch because the 8800 is so thin. I admit that the removable memory is kind of cool, but, once again, not enough to make me move to the 8800 now when all rumors indicate that a newer version is just a few months away.

Maybe this isn’t a good analogy but, to me, the BlackBerry 8800 is to the BlackBerry 8700 what the BlackBerry 7105t is to the BlackBerry 7100t. If I were on Cingular and about to get a new BlackBerry with a full QWERTY keyboard I would get the BlackBerry 8800. I wouldn’t, however, upgrade from a BlackBerry 8700 and I definitely wouldn’t switch carriers to get it.

BlackBerry 8800

In partnership with Research In Motion, we will begin selling the model on Feb. 21. The product will include the TeleNav GPS Navigator™, a built-in global positioning system, which is a first for a BlackBerry device that we sell. With a new trackball navigation system, the 8800 supports our Push To Talk service, provides a media player and a microSD expandable memory slot for storage of music and videos.

Thanks to BlackBerry Forums member nike30, you can read the full Cingular Inner-Office Memo here…

BlackBerry 8800

There is no mention of when the BlackBerry 8000 will become available, however, you can request to be notified via email.

BlackBerry 8800

 
Do you remember when Steve Jobs officially announced the iPhone back in January? Cingular had information about the iPhone, them being the exclusive carrier and all, moments after Jobs’ Macworld 2007 keynote introducing the iPhone began. Up until last week or so, the picture of the iPhone you see above was the one plastered across Cingular’s website… All this for a device that isn’t coming out until June and, at the time, hadn’t even received clearance from the government to be sold in the US.

Who does Cingular really love?

I ask this question because Research in Motion officially announced the BlackBerry 8800 today. I fully admit that the announcement of the BlackBerry 8800 pails in comparison to that of the Apple iPhone, however, with Cingular being the exclusive carrier and all, you would think that you would be able to find a “Coming Soon” link at the least somewhere on Cingular’s site.

Surely someone at Cingular must have thought that if RIM announced the BlackBerry 8800, and, on their BlackBerry8800.com website, list Cingular as the carrier through which you can get a BlackBerry 8800, someone may have actually followed the link.

 
Maybe not…

Who does Cingular really love?

BlackBerry 8800