If I remove Charge from VZW acct, can it get Gingerbread via Wi-Fi in the future?

[SandraW]

If I remove the Samsung Droid Charge from my VZW acct,

can it get Gingerbread update via Wi-Fi in the future?

(yes, I realize it may be a long wait )

How useful is the Charge as a Wi-Fi-only device?  Will I

have access to the following apps/services over Wi-fi

connection?

(1) Android apps market

(2) Skype, for calling other Skype users

(3) use Gmail to send/receive emails

THANKS!

[Ann154]

The update will not come OTA if the device is not on an active line. You might be able to update through a RUU file if one is released. The RUU usually wipes the phone much like a factory reset.

Yes to applications one and three that you asked about. I don't use Skype, so I have no baseline to know if it works or not.

If you are planning on using the device as a wifi only unit, I would suggest turning on the airplane mode and then turning on the wifi connection whenever you want to use that portion of the device. You'll be amazed at the battery life it has in airplane mode.

Just for reference, I use my Droid Eris as a wifi only device.

[jco23]

never thought about that, thanks for the good idea.

[Developer]

Just to add to what Ann said here, I just did a check for new software on my Droid 2 being used wifi only and it let me do the update to gingerbread over wifi, not on an active account.  It kept all of my settings because it was the same as if I had it active through vzw.  I have used skype on the D2 and it works well and second what was said about the Airplane mode saving your battery life tremendously.

[Ann154]

Here is an example of a wifi only device's battery life.  The battery got to 12% left before it was plugged in.  If you can't read the time on the top, it says 20 days, 3 hours, 10 minutes and 53 seconds.