Monday, December 28, 2009

Where's my Blackberry!!!!

So being the techy triplet dad implies two things... Number one I am the father of 4 year old triplets and number two I must be involved on technology in some fashion. I am a self proclaimed gadget guru, or at least I like to think I am and I love technology. Information technology fits my ADD personality perfectly. Its constantly changing so it holds my attention to a certain degree since most things bore me fairly quickly. Well one of the coup de grĂ¢ce in technology IMHO is the ever changing smart phone. It’s like a laptop on your hip. You can surf the web, make a phone call, play a game, navigate your car, ect, ect, ect.... all from this device hanging off your belt. Well my next IMHO is the blackberry is the best when it comes to enterprise smart phone solutions, key word being "enterprise". This is provided your company has a blackberry server also known as BEZ server. If your just a fly by night techy wanna be and your company doesn't have a BEZ server or its just something for personal use then you’re probably just another iPhone candidate. To me web browsing on the iPhone via Safari can't be beat with that large iPhone screen. Having said all this, my wife (who isn't on any BEZ server) loves blackberry pearl I got her a couple years ago. Also she doesn’t use any of the email features on the phone, its strictly texting and phone calls for her. She was a previous palm Treo user and I believe she prefers her BB to the old Treo she had. Now she would probably go banana's if I got her a iPhone. But my point is you don’t have to be a corporate junkie to love the BB.

So before I digress, this post is really about this cool new app I ran across the other day in my BB app store. It’s called "Where's my Phone" by a company names Essare LLC. What’s so cool about this app is it helps you find your blackberry when you lose it. Any this has become a common occurrence at my residence on one too many mornings. With 6 little wandering hands, anything sitting on a counter or in arms reach is fair game to my kids. I wish I would have found app sooner it would have saved my kids from hearing a few mumbled curse words as I stomped around the house in search of my blackberry before leaving for work. Which also I might add was found wedged behind a door on vibrate, so calling the phone was useless in order to locate it. Also looking behind the door on the floor was also probably one of the last places I would ever look. Actually I think I gave up finding my phone and ended up finding it by accident.

Well this software solves all those problems. Using a set of preprogrammed codes, you can locate your phone through a variety of ways via email using the codes. “Where’s my phone” has about all the lost situations you can think of covered. In my situation above I described earlier, what I could have done had I had this app installed? I would have sent my blackberry a email, with a code in the subject of the email. Once my phone receives the email, it would start sending out a loud beeping alarm and also lock the phones home screen. Even if the phone was on vibrate, it would have over written this profile setting and made the phone beep. In addition it will send me back a email to let me know the phone is in alarm mode now and what battery amount is left. Another feature is the phone gets is locked, if anyone finds the phone they cannot use it. However they do have the option of calling me via a link on the phone. In addition I can send a code to my phone to call me at any number and then listen to where ever my phone is to help identify its lost location. There are other multiple tools installed like GPS and other options to help locate your lost blackberry. The GPS location from what I read is spotty, and I am still having issues getting it to work correctly on my bold. But still a cool feature none the less if you can get the GPS reporting working accurately. Just the fact that it locks the BB down for security, sends out a audible alarm (even in vibrate mode), and you can do the call back to locate feature makes it worth the 3 or 4 bucks in my humble opinion. I would have paid $5 that one morning just to find my BB and not be late for work. I am crippled without it. So this is my review on a cool find in the BB app store. Probably one of the coolest apps yet I have found yet.

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