BlackBerry Protect, RIM’s free add-on app for backing up your BlackBerry data online, has finally been made available to users in the Asia-Pacific region, which includes all us Indians. BlackBerry Protect offers features very necessary in this day and age for all smartphones and mobile devices – it backs up all your contacts, messages and other data online in the cloud, it lets you locate your lost phone on a map so you can go get it back and, in case you can’t get to it, it also lets you wipe the device clean of all the data, so the thief has no access to it.
Another interesting feature of BlackBerry Protect is with switching devices. Previously, if you wanted to switch from one BlackBerry to another, you’d have to use the BlackBerry Desktop Software to read data from the old device and put it on the new one. If you lose your old BlackBerry, then the device switch isn’t possible unless you have a local backup and face it – not all of us are really very punctual with those! With BlackBerry Protect, since all your data is backed up in the cloud on a daily basis, you can simply use BDS to restore that onto your new device and continue on from exactly where you lost the phone. Call it Remote Device Switch, if you will!
BlackBerry Protect doesn’t protect EVERYTHING. Media files such as photos, videos and music aren’t backed up and neither is third-party application data, such as Nimbuzz settings or WhatsApp preferences. So a regular, local backup is absolutely mandatory, even if you do it once a week.
BlackBerry Protect is available for smartphones running BlackBerry OS 4.6 and higher. Now, while that includes most classic phones in use in India today, such as the Bold 9000, Curve 8900 and the Storm 9500, it leaves out two very popular phones – the Pearl 8100 series and the Curve 8310 series. These phones are going for peanuts in the used market and a lot of people have them. It’s unfortunate that they won’t be Protect-ed!
I’ve been using the beta of BlackBerry Protect for almost six months on my Bold 9700 running OS 6.0 and I’ve not faced a single problem with it. Of course, I’ll only know if it did it’s job or not if I actually lose my phone…
Get BlackBerry Protect 1.0 from App World for free right away – every BlackBerry user needs to do this!
Update: It’s still in the App World Test Centre, so some of you may not be able to download it. Try clicking on the link and then scan the QR code at the bottom of the page that opens – that worked for me.
