I Lost My Blackberry, now what?

While visiting a customer today, I noticed a flyer posted near the elevators that read something similar to this....
"Blackberry 9730 Lost near Dilworth Plaza this past Monday. Device is locked.
Visit room 796 to claim it. Must be able to unlock the device."

I immediately checked to make sure I had both of my Blackberry devices (don't ask) even though I don't have a Storm. Once I knew my "babies" were safe, I thought about the proactive measures I have used over the years to ensure the safe return of my devices.

1. I set a password for all my devices (Options - Password) with the number of attempts set at 5 instead of the default of 10. I also set it to lock when I holster it.

2. Under the Owner section, not only do I put my name and company information in, I also add the statement, "If found, please call for reward: ###-###-####"

3. I set the Security Timeout to 5 mins as well.

4. Finally, I make sure I back up my device weekly so that if it is lost and is accidentally wiped due to 5 incorrect passwords, at least I have the information that I can restore to my replacement device.

I am sure that if you have lost your device, the first thing you did was place a call to it to see if someone answers. I had a consultant lose his device and we called it every 15 minutes for 8 hours until someone finally answered. Turns out he left it on a bus and the driver turned it in to the dispatcher. She answered because the ringing finally annoyed her. LOL

I urge you to think about these tips and if you have a corporate Blackberry on a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), remember that your device can be wiped remotely by the BES Administrator if it has been lost and no one calls for the reward.

Also, the BES policies may override the settings mentioned above. Check with your BES Administrator if unsure. His/her job is to ensure the safety of the corporate information on your device so the BES policies at your company may be more stringent that what I recommend.

By the way, the reward should be reasonable and worthwhile considering the fact that replacing a lost Blackberry that is still under contract can cost between $300 and $500.

If you find yourself in this situation, let me know. I have a few spare devices I can loan you until you are up for renewal.

LNS

P.S. Check back next week when I post my results from my 30-day trial of my Sprint HTC EVO. Will it replace my Tour and my 4G WiMax Card??? Time will tell.

And the Winner in the "Text-to-Speech Blackberry app" category is.....

...VLINGO!!
I have been using Vlingo since WES and I love it!!
I heard a competing product has improved since I last tested it but I am not compelled to give it a second chance. Vlingo is my choice for reading text and email messages.
My only problem is remembering to turn the SafeReader off when I get home. I have placed my Blackberry next to the bed and have startled everyone in the household when my midnight server status email messages arrived. I have changed me left convenience key to activate Vlingo so I simply press it, wait a few seconds then say "Safe Reader Off". Sasha, the name I gave my Vlingo's female voice, replies with "Safe Reader Off" and I know I am "good to go".
Try Vlingo yourself and let me know.
I upgraded to Vlingo Plus and can dictate email messages but mainly use it to dictate short text messages.

BTW, my right convenience key is assigned to Quick Launcher which I will tell you about in another post.

Lonnie

Disclaimer....I am in no way compensated by Vlingo or any other app developer. :-)

Using Vlingo and loving it!

I have been using the free version of Vlingo since returning from WES and I love the SafeReader feature.
While driving, the feature reads incoming text and email over my Bluetooth visor speakerphone. With the paid version, I can dictate messages that can be sent with a push of a single button. The free version let's you test the feature and I found the speech recognition to be decent. I have one other email reading app to test before I make my decision but right now, I am leaning towards paying for Vlingo Plus so I can dictate messages and keep my hands on the wheel.

LNS

DirecTV now has a DVR Scheduler App for the Blackberry.
I have used my Bberry browser for a few years now to schedule my home DVR while on the road. Hopefully this app will be easier and faster.
It took me less than 5 mins to install and setup. It allowed me to store my DirecTV login information. It also allows you to set a filter so it will only show search results based on the channels you subscribe to.
The real test will come when my wife asks me to schedule something...let's hope it works.

LNS

"Consumerization" of IT is here."

This morning, I heard that from Laurent Philonenko of Cisco at this AM's WES session.

Employees are being given the choice of what device they want to use for mobile access. In most cases, businesses no longer pay for the bill or at best, reimburse some of the cost. For example, we know of a business that reimburses $30 towards an employee's data plan if they use their own Blackberry. They started off by providing employees with a corporate liable device which only had DATA service, no voice. Employees didn't want to carry 2 devices so the personally-liable devices were introduced to the enterprise and are now supported on the BES.

To support "Consumerization", I am researching apps that will track business vs personal use of a device based upon tags on address book entries, i.e. all email, sms or calls to and from jsmith@clientx.com will be tagged as business related and can be reported on. This will allow businesses to see exactly what percentage of usage they are actually reimbursing employees for. It sounds labor intensive but firms that currently bill-back time to their clients (lawyers, engineers) will love this approach.
Also, any company that is mandated to look at saving costs in the corporate liable model will be able to see if they are getting their "money's worth". They can also make an quantitative decision regarding the rate of payout for corporate liable devices. For example, if the reports show that you are using your device on a 60/40 business/personal rate, then the company will continue to pay for your device. However, if the rate is 40/60, you may be converted to the personal liable plan with a 40% reimbursement or no reimbursement at all.

If these types of "usage tracking" apps interest you, let me know. We are looking for pilot groups that will allow us to deploy the tracking tools for 3 months so we can analyze the reports and share them in our white-paper on personal vs. corporate devices that we are developing. We will pay for the apps along with the services to load and train your users.

Let me know your thoughts!!

Lon

BES Express Update

I misstated earlier. BES Express CAN support over the air(OTA) enterprise activations (EA) if the device is on a BES data plan. If the device is only on a BIS data plan then it cannot do an EA; the option will not even exist on the device.

I asked RIM if they thought the carriers would find a way to "up-charge" on the BIS like they do with BES. The RIM guy said that it is not possible in the RIM network to do that. The carriers will probably be happy that a BIS device on BES Express will actually generate more data in the long run as the user moves from push email only to full sync of email, calendar, address book and all the other features that BES with MDS brings.

NOTE: MDS is supported on BES Express but not MVS.....mobile voice services. It took me 2 days to finally have someone clarify that they were saying "V" and not "D".

I also clarified a user limit issue. The rumor was that BES Express could only support 75 users. That is false. It is "recommended" that if you install/run BES Express on the same server as your mail server(Exchange Server or SBS Server), then you "should" only put 75 servers on it.
If you run it on it's own hardware, either real or virtual (VMWare), you are not limited by the number of users it can support. In that instance, the number is the same as with the standard BES. A company can now expand their BES usage and offer the BES solution to "personally liable" devices; devices that users pay for out of their own money.

I will have another post discussing a round-table discussion that I participated in regarding Personal vs. Corporate Liable devices.

NOTE: We have already starting piloting BES Express. I installed it in our test environment last weekend but have not added any users. I will say that if you plan to install in on the mail server or SBS server, you should NOT install the Administration Service (BAS) on there unless you have a "beefy" server. I will quantify that in the next few weeks. Running BAS spiked my CPU so I plan to install in on its own box but will keep BES Express on SBS.

Lon

BES Xpress

BES Xpress...it doesn't have Enterprise Activation over the air, but if you normally do the EAs for your users anyway, its a no brainer. Use the 5.0 WEB Desktop Manager or tether to the server to activate. You'll have their device for an hour tops! I'm sure they'll live.
Also, no more carrier up-charges for BES since it uses BIS. I'll have more info after 2morrow's session but I have a few customers that I know will expand their Blackberry device count since BES Xpress software and CALs are free. Lon

Chalk Pushcast Software

Check out their demo

This app pushes multimedia content to the Blackberry using their server and their app that sits on the device.

It can be used for training on other Blackberry apps or for HR new employee intros. The helpdesk can use it to show users how to perform certain tasks on their Blackberrys.

Pretty cool app. You can control who gets the content, when they get it and when it expires. The content cannot be forwarded and with SD card excryption, cannot be copied to another device. There is a web client so that content can be created once and delivered to both Blackberry and non-Blackberry users.

The content is created in PowerPoint using a Chalk add-in and supports embedded audio and video.

They claim that payback is quite short.
I'll check the pricing out and get back to you guys.

Lon

Unrelated Windows 7 Trick

This is unrelated but I was working on a proposal on my Windows 7 laptop last night and accidentally pressed Tab and the Windows key. What a cool effect. Perhaps I was the only one that did not know that trick. LOL

BlackBerry 6 sneak peak at WES 2010

Just found a cool app at WES. Vlingo brings speech commands to the Blackberry. It is a free download on AppWorld. It also reads incoming text and email and for a one-time $20 fee will allow you to dictate email and text messages. Stay tuned for my review as I compare it to Drive Safe.ly. Lon

WES Announcements

I am headed to the Solution Showcase at WES 2010.
Aside from the food and fun, there is sure to be some great products.
It normally takes me 3 days to visit all the vendor booths that interest me.

If you are looking for a specific product or solution, reply to this post and I will research it for you.
In the meantime, check this out!

WES 2010 starts today for partners with the Alliance Summit. We get a first look at the future of Blackberry before the customers.

On my way to WES 2010 in less than 48 hours..Lon