Tech Time: Protecting Blackberry Data

BlackBerry's are the number one smart phone in Jamaica.  We store a treasure trove of both business and personal information on our handsets, so protection of that data should be important.  Yet, all too often, you hear of someone saying that they lost their phone and in many cases, their livelihood along with it.

Fortunately, RIM has provided two ways to backup and store your most precious data.

BlackBerry Protect
Similar to services long since available to iOS and Android users, BlackBerry now offers a free remote backup service that is integrated with the handset.  If the app icon is not available on your screen, then visit the BlackBerry website and download it.

After the download, you can configure your account to backup your contacts, calendar, tasks, memos, bookmarks and texts.  Unfortunately, you can't browse this data online, but you can restore it to a handset when needed, like after a catastrophic crash or after replacing a phone.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager
To backup your media and third party apps, download and install the free BlackBerry Desktop Manager for both PC and Mac.  This software allows for a complete syncing with your organizer and media, a complete restore of all settings including passwords, it facilities software and OS updates, it manages apps and if you ever need to switch a device, this is the way to do it.

Both options are free and easy, certainly much easier than loosing all your data and having to start over from scratch.


Tech Time airs every Tuesday morning on FAME FM at 8:00 AM EST    www.CarletteDeLeon.com | www.fame95fm.fm

In less than a decade, Facebook has amassed over half a billion users and has become an integral part of our lives. Many of us spend hours on Facebook for business and pleasure. But there was time before Facebook, and most importantly, there will be a time after.

Social networks have been around for as long as there have been people. There are countless social groupings big and small that cater to both niche and general needs. When traditional social networks went digital, an opportunity was created for sites like Hi5, Bebo and MySpace.

Sites like YouTube and Flickr embedded social networking features into their platforms. Then came Facebook, which arguably claimed the social networking space, soon to be joined by Twitter. But despite the dominance of these platforms, there are other social networks poised to be the next big thing.

Using geolocation tools, FourSqaure and Gowalla have made an impact on social networking. Taking it further, Groupon uses both geolocation and social integration to offer shopping deals. And LinkedIn has emerged as a Facebook for grown-ups looking exclusively for business networking.

Some social networking sites have already made their impact such as: Plaxo, Tagged and WAYN. Some never did, like Microsoft Spaces and Google Buzz. While others remain popular, if under the radar like Flixter, Ning, StumbleUpon and Yelp.

No one can predict if a social networking bubble is approaching, but for now, the trend remains strong.

Tech Time airs every Tuesday morning on FAME FM at 8:00 AM EST www.CarletteDeLeon.com | www.fame95fm.fm

Tech Time: Banned from Facebook

Half a billion users take advantage of Facebook as a social media platform for both personal and professional reasons. With such a diversity of people, it’s hard for Facebook to fulfill its mandate to, “strike a balance between giving people freedom to express their viewpoints and maintain a safe and trusted environment.” Sometimes, good people get ‘banned from Facebook’.

Unfortunately, a Facebook account may be suspended or deactivated with or without warning from the administrators for various reasons.

Spamming and Phishing

To prevent users from taking advantage of the platform, Facebook routinely deactivates the accounts of users who send too many friends requests, post too many identical wall posts, poke too many people or post too many promotional links. Problem is, no one knows how much is too much, or too much too soon.

Offensive Content

Facebook's rules state users “will not post content that is hateful, threatening, or pornographic, or that incites violence, or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.” But this interpretation can be very broad. Facebook has been known to censor images of persons post surgery, naked babies in a tub, pregnant women inspired by Demi Moore and even classic art.

Other violations

Having multiple accounts, using a fake (or celebrity name even if its your real name) or posting material that is in violation of copyright laws will also get an account ‘banned’.

Facebook routinely monitors as many pages as it can to identify and ‘punish’ offenders of its policies, but it also relies on its users to report offensive and inappropriate content. Every user is empowered to tag content as inappropriate with the simple click of a mouse. Unfortunately, this too can be abused.

Suspended accounts can be restored, but it is not a simple or fast process. Worse, the process is not guaranteed. Users must email Facebook and plead their case in the most eloquent way possible. Emails to Facebook are routinely not answered (in part because of the sheer volume), so banned users must be prepared to send multiple, personalized emails over time (because multiple generic emails all at once will be considered spam and not considered for a response).

It is then decidedly better not to have an account deactivated, rather then try to have a suspended account restored.

Tech Time airs every Tuesday morning on FAME FM at 8:00 AM EST. www.CarletteDeLeon.com | www.fame95fm.fm

Tech: IT Easy - There's An App for You

I am sure you've heard the expression, "there's an app for that!" It's the tag line for the Apple AppStore. The AppStore is filled with over 350,000 apps (small software programmes designed specifically for smartphones), apps for games, for business, for learning, for everything!

Moving from Apple to Android, the Android Market is expected to eclipse the AppStore in just a few months. Nokia's apps store, Ovi, is likely to give way to the Windows Phone Market, which also boasts thousands of premium apps.

Apple, Android? What about the BlackBerry? Jamaica is BlackBerry territory. Based on the sheer volume of BB handsets in use on island, we think BlackBerry is the best (and only) smartphone out there. So, BlackBerry's App World must have the best apps, right? Wrong.

RIM introduced App World in 2009 to create a space for easy distribution of platform-specific applications from third-party developers to handsets. The store is filled with cool apps like Twitter for BlackBerry, FourSquare, Facebook for BlackBerry, Whats App, Windows Live Messenger, Documents to Go, and useful tools. Of course, App World is a an app itself and it's free with every BlackBerry handset.

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