Ok, so I got my new 8800 and for the most part, it's wonderful. However, RIM really screwed up this time by not making it easy to download files from the browser directly to the media card (how about a Save Link As option guys), which would eliminate the need to restrict downloads to 2.86MB.

Does anyone know of a browser out there that will allow you to save larger files to the media card over the Internet. I download police contracts which are generally in PDF format and can be up to 10 MB. It will take a few minutes to download over EDGE, but with a 2 GB media card it's ridiculous to be restricted to 2.86MB downloads (that entity too large crap is just annoying this day in age).

Please help! I'm hoping for either suggestions for other browsers that may have the Save Link As option that would allow you to select the media card. Essentially, anything I can do to get around the file download size limit would be greatly appreciated.

If no one can provide a work-around for this problem, hopefully someone at RIM will come up with the idea to save directly to the media card and release a revised O/S for these models. This would allow people to download music, videos, everything to their phone from their preferred online stores and would really increase RIM's competitiveness in the consumer market.

What good is a 2 GB media card in a phone if I have to be connected to a computer to use it. It's about being fully mobile guys.

the BB browser is the only one that will allow downloading of anything.

I know that when I download from Opera Mini, it invokes the BB Browser for the download. Does RIM just not allow access to the device for saving files to 3rd party application developers?

i would say you are correct in your assumption

A couple of observations:

--PDF files in the 10MB range? That's either got to be several hundred page files or very heavy graphic files. You might consider optimizing the PDFs to be smaller. My business deals with large, graphic intense PDFs everyday I know how to optimize them so my office can send me smaller PDFs for my viewing on the BB.

--My opinion: A BlackBerry is not the end-all, be-all mobile device for anything you can drop in the kitchen sink. The 8800 is, by RIM's own advertising, a smartphone. You probably should not put your dependence on a smartphone for your complete mobile computing needs. It is not a computer or a laptop, which it sounds like you need, for now. Consider, I could not depend on a Volkswagon Rabbit to carry five tons of bricks. Yes, it can transport you nicely down the interstate, and carry a certain amount of bricks, but it was not designed, with purpose, to transport five tons. Likewise, BlackBerry targets a certain market for their specifically designed product.

--Let's be careful that this thread does not turn into a bash or rant, lest it get moved over to the Rants & Raves section, which it is borderline now, considering the commentary.

Welcome as a new user.

Oh, I don't mean to sound as though I'm ranting, and I don't expect my BB device to do everything my laptop does, but for me personally, the ability to save larger files would give me everything I want out of my device.

As far as optimizing the PDF's, I am downloading these files from other servers, I am not producing the files. I personally don't think a PDF file should ever be over 3 MB unless it is being prepared for a press, but municipal governments don't always know how to minimize file sizes nor care to do so. There are times though, that I am downloading files of several hundred pages (Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports can sometimes be huge). While I only need information from a single page in the file, I still have to be able to download the entire file to get to that page.

Thanks for your response, I'm starting to think I may just be outta luck for now. It's not going to make me move to a Windows Mobile phone yet though, I actually like my device to work most of the time.

Have you considered using BeamBerry? They store the PDFs on their server, which might make it the immediate problem right off the bat. But you can save, view or print from there.

I might be getting excited here. Is BeamBerry somehow not limited by the 2.86 MB limit? Does it not invoke the browser to download the files still?

I'm downloading it now and it looks like it might help with larger files sent by email. Now I may just need something like that for downloading files from a web site.

I don't know about it downloading from a server, but i know it works on emails received. But remember, you will be limited on large emails too, "truncated due to size", etc.

Repligo, also has a similar service, I just don't remember if it is off-BB storage.

Good luck.

Thanks again for the suggestion Jsanders. Beamberry doesn't do what I wanted, but it is a great program for viewing PDF files. I'll keep it on there for sure.