Verizon to offer the Tour with or without a camera
Despite the fact that BES admins can put IT policies into effect that physically prohibit their use, many companies, organizations and governments (and gym locker rooms) flat our refuse to give their employees a BlackBerry that is equipped with a camera. With the 88xx series devices being the only camera-less BlackBerrys still on the market and no new camera-less devices having been announced by RIM, it looks like those who work in extremely security-conscious environments will have to hang onto their antediluvian devices for the long haul, right? Wrong. Having shown up as available for pre-order on Verizon’s website without any sort of official announcement from either Verizon or RIM, a camera-less BlackBerry Tour 9630 has now been confirmed to exist and it will go for the same $199.99 as the camera-equipped model. Just in case you’re wondering — yes, we too think President Obama needs one of these ASAP. Hit the jump for a pic of the camera-less Tour’s backside.
Thanks, Ben!
can you run more than 10 apps on these unlike my Curve? i have an iphone and a work issued Curve and use my iphone for work email most of the time. BB has Apple beat in that they have a view where you can view all the latest emails without going through each of your folders. but for people like me that get 500 server generated alerts every night 99% of which are useless i prefer the iphone email view most of the time.
and the fact that the iphone has a lot more usability and the apps are better and cheaper.
my wife has a camera-less blackberry due to HIPAA regs. maybe now she’ll get this new one as well. they won’t even let her access her work email on her iPhone due to HIPAA
at&t has horrible service thats why they offer the roll over minutes to make up for the sorry service they provide.
back to the tour..i cant wait to get it! rock on tour!!!
lmao 3mbps yea right.. and if you do thats one small area.. i get 2.5 everywhere on sprint
for everyone pissed about not being able to pre- order using upgrade then everyone should call verizon centers and complain and threaten to switch over to sprint or another carrier..if they get enough complaints then they will have 2 let pre-existing customers upgrade
@ATTguy
Wow! impressed you can get those speeds over the crappy ATT 3G network! You should write to Guiness World Records so you can become part of it. (Of course, they will to test the superspeed you always get).
And for the record I have also ATT with all its accesories, dropped calls, dead spots, 3G on the phone though it works more like Edge, etc,)
is the magnum dead???
I am IT challenged but was directed to this site. My question: I almost traded in my trusty 2+ yr old 83 but was told to wait for the Tour because I won’t need an aircard now when traveling by car/rail in Florida? I don’t use for much more than e-mail (company and personal) and don’t download music or files much larger than 2MB. Should I wait for Tour or go with Storm. Verizon reception is no problem for me in FL. Thanks!
dunno what all this talk is about existing verizon customers not being able to pre-order. i did it on the phone in less than ten minutes. as always has been my experience, the customer service folks were quite helpful.
so far as wifi . . . ya, i’ll do that to the extent necessary with my ipod touch. not that i’ve ever needed to do so . . .
Where do you call to preorder ? the store or central #?
linnyd — i called the central 800 number; whoever i ended up with after the menu game transferred me to sales. all very helpful.
Thank u keith..do u have the exact number by any chance?
i would love to see this Tour with wifi but RIM’s specs don’t even show it as available, so there isn’t even a feature to disable then? ah well, i can dream LOL.
so whens it comin to sprint?
You can all rock on w/your tours and the 7 apps you can download (due to poor internal memory on blackberry) @ $10+ a pop!tuh tuh tuh flop!
It’s very difficult to compare one 3G network against another, as it varies according to region. From a Verizon perspective, during a layover at SFO airport I was averaging 2.3mbps according to a series of 5 tests at speedtest.net with an EVDO Rev. A aircard. The same device saw on average of 680kbps in downtown Seattle.
Back on topic regarding the no-camera Tour, expect this one to ship without the microSD card or stereo headset in box.
@Over55andClueless,
I would wait until the release of the Tour, to decide if I were you. When it hits stores in a couple of weeks, try out both it and the Storm to see which you like better. There are some who have owned a Storm and didn’t like it. Also something to consider is if you use Wi-Fi or not. The Tour won’t have it, not too sure about the Storm, and the Atlas will supposedly support it.
Hopefully this helps. It all boils down to what you need from your new device, and what works best for you.