BlackBerry Protect protects (you guessed it) your BlackBerry
By Chris Ziegler 
posted July 12th 2010 5:37PM
posted July 12th 2010 5:37PM
You might expect a product with as much enterprise street cred as BlackBerry to offer the best lineup of options for dealing with a lost or stolen phone, but not quite -- devices in a controlled BES environment can be wiped from afar, but for non-enterprise consumers, the options are a little more limited. That's where RIM's new BlackBerry Protect software comes into play, combining a host of services into one product; on top of being able to remotely message, lock, and wipe a misplaced phone, you can locate it on a map and take regularly-scheduled wireless backups that make replacing the handset (if it comes to that) as painless as possible. It's going into an invite-only beta period later this week, after which it'll move to a wider-scale public beta "later this year" at no charge. Considering that MobileMe's similarly-styled features do less than this for $100 annually, the word "free" has an especially sweet ring to it, doesn't it?
Congrats BB users!
@Ninetysix
Hey Chris, I have one sincere question. This is no criticism or anything, just a question.
Is it just me noticing very very late or is it true, that lately we are seeing a lot of content overlap between Gizmodo and Engadget. I mean, I may be totally wrong but even a few months back, Engadget had more "original" (if i may) posts and Gizmodo had its own set of posts. And I used to read both, of course. But lately, I see something on Gizmodo and a few minutes/hours later I see it on Engadget. Was it always like this or just a recent change?
@who said what
And of course, both are tech blogs, so of course there will be some overlap, understandably (duh!). But it just seems more frequent nowadays.
@who said what - How is your comment related to Ninteysix's?
Oh that's right, it's not. You just wanted to be at the top.
@Ninetysix
You know, for the longest time, when ever people would bring up the letters BB, referring to BlackBerry, I always thought it was an acronym for Barbecue sauce.
Dont ask why, but I did..
Ever since I found out it stands for BlackBerry, whenever I hear that name, I imagine a barbecue phone.
@uckApple
lol wtfbbqphone
@Ninetysix I know! Finally, a way to keep beetles away from my precious fruits. /s
@uckApple BBQ = Barbecue. BB = BlackBerry.
BBBBQ = BlackBerry Barbecue, a rumoured yet-to-be-released consumer-oriented phone from Blackberry.
@uckApple For us, Frenchmen, BB stands for Brigitte Bardot. That means glamour...
Can't argue with free can you?
@vstican
Well it depends.
This free not really.
Facebook free... it's debatable.
BB sucks! Evo sucks! Palm sucks! And yes, iPhone 4 rocks!
@Moises1212
Your childlike comments suck...
@Moises1212
enjoy your time in apples walled garden. Dont drop the soap or the iphone 4. Both will either dent or break. i can only imagine where you keep your iphone 4 and your bar of soap. My booty is mine and apple cant have it.
BB sucks! Palm sucks! And yes, iPhone sucks!
ANDROID RULEZZZ!!!!
@vstican
Thanks. I actually don't own a cell phone. Can you believe it?! It's just that all this crap makes me wanna get a metro pcs phone and be like the dude with the $50 phone. You get me?
@Moises1212 - I've gotta say, I never did have signal strength issues with my BBs... Can't say the same for my iPhone 4 (which currently has one bar because I'm holding it with both hands to type).
@Moises1212
OMG WTFBBQ ROFLCOPTER
@Moises1212
Try holding it from the right hand and tell me if it rocks. I feel bad for you since you paid so much for a defective product.
@ftw
agreed, ANDROID RULEZZZZ!!!
@Moises1212
What I don't get is the link between your first "comment" and what you are trying "like" to say here.
@Moises1212
nothing can suck as bad as you and your comment
MobileMe SUCKS!
@derviskemal
MobileMe doesn't suck. It just sucks that Apple makes you pay for it.
@derviskemal The power of saying MobileMe 'sucks' is insignificant to the power of hosting a website on it
@Lord Vader
One thing is certain Lord Vader, your powers are nothing compared with mine.
@Exar Kun Looks like we don't have many KOTOR fans here...
And it will be availible only via appstore... Great another app which we cant get outside the US, Germany, UK and the other 5 countries :(
DOSE any one have any idea how to get in to the beta program for this i would so love to try it out !!!!
@monsoonx
Blackberry Beta Zone www.blackberry.com/beta .
It might be luck of the draw for who ever gets an invite, but they usually come through when I email them and ask to be part of a program.
iPhone Sux
BB Sux
Palm Sux
Android Sux
Winmo7 is the way of future
@yes It's so futuristic, it's not even released yet. iPhone still rules the pack. Palm is dead. Android is lagging behind BB in terms of stuff like BB Protect to backup phones.
@yes
Don't you think it's a bit premature to proclaim victory for a product that isn't even released yet?
@yes
The future
@yes
i like broccoli
It's not fair to compare this directly with MobileMe. MobileMe does a lot that Blackberry Protect doesn't do as well.
Back up Blackberry?
BlackUpBerry? Doesn't quite work...
@Pryomancer ... I used to put my Blackberry Backups in a folder named Blackups.
It's not fair to compare this to MobileMe. MobileMe does a lot more than remote wipe and locating an iPhone. MobileMe is calendar sync, contact sync, mail, web host, photo gallery and a lot more. Congratulations to BlackBerry users (non-Enterprise that is) for this awesome software. I just wish Android had something similar.
@jckchn Yep you're right, it also costs a hundred bucks, which is absolutely ludicrous. I keep trying to convince myself to re-up for some of the features, but it gets harder when I see BB doing this, I'm sure they'll roll complete sync in if there already doing the back ups. Rim really, desperately, sadly, needs a new touchscreen os, on a flagship device to keep the steam going, can't go back until then.
I really thought that Blackberry Protect would protect my Android phone, damn.
MobileMe costs money? Seriously?
Mobile me definitely does more... Nice try though.
And in other news Google nukes apps from your Android phone remotely. Without your knowledge. Good luck, drones.
What what?
Chris Ziegler:
Based on the features in your post, it seems the ONLY feature offered that is lacking in MobileMe is wireless backup. All other features are comparable. Now, throw in the slew of other services offered by MobileMe such as calendar/contact/mail syncing, website hosting, remote storage, and a photo gallery, I find it pretty ridiculous that you would say "MobileMe's similarly-styled features do less than this for $100 annually," while knowingly omitting the rest of the features. Personally, i'd rather not lose all the other features of MobileMe, just to save 27 cents.day.
Anybody that says this site is blatantly pro-apple is completely out of their mind. If anything, they go OUT of their way not to appear too apple-friendly, as to not fire up the many apple-haters around here.
@TomSawyer
According to Crackberry and a lot of other sources, it does include backup:
"OTA Backup and Restore: Contacts and Calendar; Memos and Tasks; Browser bookmarks; Text messages"
@oneshortsleeve
Backup is different than syncing. This is backup, MobileMe is syncing.
There has been an app for the BBs that will do what this new app does for quite some time. It's called "Whereismyphone". I think it costs under $5.
@KenEsq I love this program, it's my favorite application I hope to never use :)
Tons of features and I love that you can do it through SMS.