14 DAY TRIAL // Owners of a BlackBerry smartphone have now at their disposal a new service aimed at offering increased protection in the event their handsets get lost or stolen, namely BlackBerry Protect.
Currently available only in an opened beta version, the BlackBerry Protect will offer users the possibility to easily locate devices on the map, activate a loud ring to find the device, or even securely wipe out all data on the smartphone.
According to Research In Motion, the BlackBerry Protect beta is available for North America and some users in Latin America only, but will be deployed on more countries in the not too far future.
It can be installed for free from the BlackBerry App World Test Center, the handset vendor announced, adding that those interested in learning more on the new product can also head over to the BlackBerry Protect web page for that.
Those interested in finding a misplaced BlackBerry smartphone on which BlackBerry Protect was installed would have to go to that page too.
Some of the main features that the BlackBerry Protect comes with include
- Assisting in locating your BlackBerry smartphone on a map via GPS and cell-tower triangulation - Locking and setting a device password - Activating a special loud ring to help find your smartphone, even if it’s in silent mode - Displaying a custom message on the home screen so that anyone who finds it knows how to return it - Forcing an instant wireless backup of data even when you don’t have the smartphone with you - And as a last resort, securely wiping all information from your BlackBerry smartphone, including the data from your SD card.
Moreover, it comes with new wireless backup and restore features, so as to automatically, periodically and wirelessly back up important files on devices, including contacts, calendar appointments, memos, tasks, browser bookmarks, and text messages.
Users can set for the backup to take place only when within Wi-Fi coverage, and they can disable it when roaming. Backed up data can be wirelessly restored to a new BlackBerry smartphone.
Other features of the product would include: - Easier discovery and highlighting of BlackBerry Protect-related system messages - Better clarity in status messages - Unique and improved Loud Ring ringtone - Clearer, simpler and more descriptive UI icons and graphics
