BlackBerry – Page 5

Protect yourself and your smartphone with BlackBerry Protect

July 1, 2012 by koalateagirl

BlackBerry Protect is one of the most useful tools available from BlackBerry app world. Not only is BlackBerry Protect a convenient way to backup your data wirelessly (for those times when getting to a computer and backing up data the old fashioned way just isn’t convenient) but if your BlackBerry is lost or stolen, BlackBerry Protect can help you find it.

BlackBerry Protect is not a substitution for backing up your data regularly, but it does mean that if something happens to your BlackBerry, your contacts. memos, text messages, calendar entries, browser bookmarks, password keeper entries and wi-fi profiles can be restored, either to the same device or to a new one.

If you lose your BlackBerry, or it is stolen, BlackBerry Protect can help you find it by showing you the location, making the device emit a noise, or display a custom message on the homescreen. Furthermore if the device is stolen, you can lock the device, change the device password or delete all the data from the device. The only downside is that you can’t use BlackBerry Protect on a device that is associated with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Pretty awesome eh? I’m sure you want to get BlackBerry Protect up and running as soon as possible on your BlackBerry. Here’s how to do it.

On BlackBerry 7 OS devices, BlackBerry Protect is already in your applications folder. If it isn’t there or if you’re not running a BB7 device, you can download it free from BlackBerry App world. Click on the BlackBerry Protect icon.

You will have to agree to the license terms, and enter your BlackBerry ID and follow the instructions on screen. Once you set up BlackBerry Protect, you will automatically do your first backup. After your first backup, when you go into the BlackeBerry Protect app, this is the screen you will see:

You can choose to only back up over wifi, or to be able to back up while roaming. You can also do a manual backup by clicking on the button at the lower left of the screen, or restore from backup using the middle button. The right button gives you access to the BlackBerry protect message centre.

If you press the BlackBerry button on this screen and select “Options” you can set up BlackBerry protect to suit your needs.

I suggest keeping the ‘Prevent Delete of BlackBerry Protect” on. The frequency of backups is really a matter of personal choice – as is what data you want to back up. I am somewhat paranoid so I back everything up daily.

At the bottom of the screen, you can choose if you want your device’s location to be viewable from the BlackBerry Protect website. I suggest keeping this box checked as well. Hopefully you will never need to use it but it’s good to know it’s available if needed.

BlackBerry Protect is one of the best kept secrets of the BlackBerry world – spread the news and help other members of Team BlackBerry protect themselves!

Identify yourself with the BlackBerry ID

June 29, 2012 by koalateagirl

BlackBerry ID falls into the category of things your really need to do first on your BlackBerry. It makes life so much easier. Once you’ve created your BlackBerry ID, you can use your email address and password to log in to any product that supports the BlackBerry ID. For example, you will use the same one on your Playbook as on your smartphone. With BlackBerry ID, you can manage apps that you download from BlackBerry App World and keep them if you switch devices.

Setting up a BlackBerry ID is easy, there are 2 ways to do it. You can either do it from an app that uses BlackBerry ID – it will prompt you the first time you use something with that feature, or you can do it online by going to the BlackBerry ID website and creating one there and then entering it on your device. If you are using the BlackBerry 7 operating system, you have to have a BlackBerry ID. Same goes with the Playbook – it’s not an option. Once you have it though, it makes life so much easier.

The important thing about your BlackBerry ID is to associate it with an email address you check regularly. It doesn’t have to be one that is associated with your device but you need to be able to get to the account if you forget your password because that’s where the recovery information will be sent. You can change the details of your BlackBerry ID once it’s been setup. To do this go to options on the home screen, the one that looks like a wrench.

From the settings box go to Device settings – this is where you can schedule other cool stuff like Auto on / off times (more about those in a later post)

Select “BlackBerry ID” and you’ll get a screen that looks like this (but with your details filled in)

Change the details you want to change and then hit the BlackBerry button and then Save. If you don’t save, it will prompt you to do so before you leave the screen.

BlackBerry ID is becoming more and more integrated into apps, so pick a password you can remember easily or use the password keeper to help you remember it.

What’s the secret (Pass)word?

June 28, 2012 by koalateagirl

A few weeks ago, the social networking site LinkedIn was hacked and millions of passwords were stolen. I dutifully went and changed my password and promptly forgot it. I have too many passwords to remember them all. I’ve tried to follow all the password advice I’ve heard over the years – use a mixture of capital and lowercase letters, use numbers, don’t use real words, don’t use dates of significant events, basically don’t use anything that you’ll ever have a chance of remembering. That’s all well and good in theory but if i can’t remember my password, and I don’t trust my browser to remember my password, what’s a girl to do? Then, while looking in my applications folder, I noticed an icon that looked like a safe.

I clicked on it and to my surprise, it was an application for storing all my passwords. I had to enter a password for the app itself, so i created one that I could remember. After that I hit the BlackBerry button and selected “new” from the menu. I then got this screen up:

I typed in “facebook”as my title, my username, my password, and the website address. Then I hit save. I repeated the process for all of the sites I could remember that I had a password for.

In addition to storing passwords (you can change the default setting to either show or hide passwords from the menu), the password keeper can generate a random password for a site. On the form pictured above, instead of entering a password, hit the BlackBerry button and then select “Random Password” from the list. You will get a random alpha numeric password – the kind that has no meaning to anyone (but at least you’ll have a program to remember it for you!) You can set criteria for the randomly generated passwords too. Just click on the BlackBerry button while in the password keeper app and select “Options” You can set the length of the random password, (default is 8 characters but you can have between 4-16), whether it should include numbers, and if you want it to include symbols. From the options menu you can also decide if you want to allow copying of the password to the clipboard (do you want to be able to copy and paste the passwords or do you want to type them out each time), and how many attempts at the main password you will allow.

This is a great app and one that is easily missed if you’re not looking for it. Yes it takes a bit of time to set up but once you’ve done the initial set up, it’s great – as long as you can remember the main password!

Near Field Communication

June 27, 2012 by koalateagirl

One of the features of my BlackBerry Bold 9900 that I hadn’t explored until recently was the ability to use Near Field Communication or NFC. NFC is used with BlackBerry Tag – it allows you to share apps, files, video, music, voice notes, pictures, and contact information with another NFC enabled BlackBerry by simply tapping them against each other. I have to admit that it’s pretty neat to be able to share pictures with friends simply by tapping my phone to theirs. I keep waiting for more friends to upgrade to Bold 9900s or other BB7 devices so that I can use it more.

Another application of NFC technology is in the creation and use of smart tags. Smart tags are like QR codes but ones that actually work. The difference is that you need to tap your NFC enabled device against the smart tag to engage them and they can contain more than a website address. Smart tags can contain a range of information – phone numbers, websites, email addresses, coupons, media files, and graphics. They’re very versatile. With the Bold 9900, you can create and view smart tags. I have only found 1 smart tag to view but I’m always on the lookout for more! As more and more smartphones have the ability to access smart tags, there will be more and more smart tags around.

To turn on your NFC, go to “manage connections” and select Near Field Communication.

BlackBerry 7 devices come with a Smart Tags app already installed – it’s found in the Applications folder and looks like this:

So have you used the Near Field Communication abilities on your BlackBerry yet?

BBM

June 26, 2012 by koalateagirl

One of my favourite applications on my Bold 9900 is BlackBerry Messenger or BBM. BBM is more than simply a messaging system – it’s an easy way to keep in touch and coordinate events with my friends and family. BBM allows me to share my calendar appointments with the people I need to – I can invite a friend to a concert or my parents to a family dinner. It also allows me to easily send pictures in a compressed format. I use this feature while shopping if i need a quick opinion from a friend on a shirt or a pair of shoes. With BBM connected apps I can chat with my BBM contacts within certain apps such as foursquare or twitter. The biggest advantage BBM has over text messaging is that messages in BBM can be up to 2000 characters long. This means that I can send 1 longer message and get the whole story across. My favourite feature of BBM (apart from it not using any of my data because of the plan I’m on) is that I can see when my messages are delivered and read. I can invite multiple people to join a conversation – which comes in very handy when I’ve been at a large event and want to meet up with people. Adding people to BBM is really easy too – from the “invite to BBM” screen, you can enter the person’s name, email, phone number, or PIN. If you’re in the same room as the person you want to add you can scan their BBM bar code – it’s really neat and easy to do.

Displaying your bar code for others to scan was a bit tricky at first but then I learned that all I had to do was hit the BlackBerry button while in BBM, select “view my profile”, and then scroll down to “personal bar code” and select “show”. Quick and efficient.

A feature that I’ve started using recently is BBM Groups. BBM groups are different from simply having a chat with multiple people in it. For starters you can have people in your BBM group who aren’t on your BBM contact list. You can have up to 30 people in a BBM group. I have one for my football contacts and love being able to make and share appointments and pictures quickly within the group. Joining a group is as easy as scanning the group bar code. You can invite other people to join a group you’ve made by getting them to scan the group bar code as you display it on your phone. I was a guest of BlackBerry at the Manulife Financial LPGA tournament in Waterloo last week, I couldn’t attend the final day (Sunday) due to other commitments, but because I had scanned a BBM bar code from BlackBerry@LPGA I was kept up to date with tournament and scoring information. Several other organizations have similar promotions – you can become a BlackBerry Blue Jays Insider by entering the PIN or scanning the bar code found at Bluejays.com. This gives you access to contests, video content on your device, score updates and more.

To be honest, I never thought I’d use BBM as much as I do. It has become something I just can’t live without.