As you all know SmrtGuard has launched its free services not too long ago, and we never really touched up on their application as a whole yet.  In this review, Ryan, our new contributing author has touched base on the SmrtGuard, giving us all its ins and outs.

Ok let’s start off by saying BlackBerry is pretty good at security if you were to lose your BlackBerry if you had set it up with a password. So why would you need a guardian? Well a guardian is more than just locking your phone to stop people accessing it. This application runs a free and a pro version, for me the free is great but for some pro (at a cost) is what the doctor ordered. So I’m going to start with the pro as its not everyone’s cup of tea, the pro hits you with remote backup and restore of your data, now we can all backup data at a pc but to be 100% backed up all the time this may be for you.

Now the main part of the software, the FREE bit, you can track, lock, alarm, listen, locate and alert others, that’s just the start. You can remotely wipe, track loved ones (spy) and be alerted when the sim is removed. Wow that’s a lot, still interested? Well let’s get stuck in. So firstly you need to get this bad boy onto your phone so www.smrtguard.com [from you blackberry] or  http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/6143. Great that was easy, now register your account and you’re halfway there. I recommend getting onto a pc to set everything up well as once it is done properly you cannot do what I did which was let someone (burnsie) test it out while I was busy at work, (yes my phone was remotely locked and then making noises by him mailing me! while I was trying to serve customers)

Now, setting up so you want to log in and set up your account, the pc address is the same as from your Berry, www.smrtguard.com. You need to verify your email accounts, you primary one needs to be from your service provider. Now once you verify you email accounts from your berry you nearly ready, you may need to reboot, you will know by clicking one of the items on your dashboard, (NOT SELF-DESTRUCT) and if you get a mail full of odd things then reboot.

Back to our loving Berry for now as I will run through the dashboard in better detail in a bit but we want to have our toy ready, so into the SmrtGuard application you can see a lovely menu, ok stuff what is not free (you have a free trial when you signup) backup and restore. You can set up how often you do a backup, as it is a free trial you can just hit menu, backup now and leave the frequency to never, the good thing about it is the fact that you can actually choose what you want to back up and with ease, also restore is just as easy.

Your data just tells you your data! Have a little look!

Follow me is a great one if you exploring someplace new, holiday for example as You have 2 options by car or walking!  This will track your movements using gps. Where I’ve been will show you your tracked information. You need blackberry maps installed for this. Next we have the personal guardian, when you hold the convenience key you can alert up to 3 people that you may require assistance.

Now you need to set this section up, you can set the time length which you want to hold the button in, I moved mine to 3 seconds as I did not want to spend ages holding onto the phone button. Then you can select the way(s) to communicate, sms, email or phone. I did not like the phone option as. It just calls out and if you in trouble you may not be able to speak. However sms and email you can set up to contact different people, you set up a standard message then when you trigger the guardian it will send your message along with your current location. Next we have sim guardian. You register you current sim by selecting the register button, then if someone puts there sim into your phone sim guardian will email and sms location details of the phone.

Ok we are nearly there now, now on the list screen you go to menu – options you can change your email options for mailing the phone to lock and audio ping, so if you was out and you missed placed your phone you could send a email from say someone’s phone to your specific address and in the subject field you would place what you put in settings (eg lock / alarm) then you can try to find it knowing if you don’t your phone is locked.

Now all this software is no good if your phone is not password protected. For those who don’t know on the phones main menu go to options then password. Here you can set a password, the length of time before it locks and lock on holstering. These are the main ones to do, I have my phone to lock after 10mins and to lock on holster, I always keep it in the case so keys are locked and it’s secure, if you don’t use the case you can always hold down the star key from the main menu and it will lock the phone. That’s it your phone is set up and ready for you NOT to lose!

Now Back to the PC. Once you have logged in you get to the dashboard screen, as you can see it has battery level of your phone, signal strength and a lovely map, you can adjust  your location history in settings, I switched mine to update every 12 hours. Now if we go below the map this is where the good stuff is.

So if you lost your phone or misplaced it and you can get to a pc, you can firstly lock device, then do an audio ping, the noise which I’m sure you have all played with by now goes on for 10 minutes unless stopped. Now you can’t stop it until you unlock it. You can also turn tracking on to get location and even perform a remote listen, to run this you enter the number of a phone you have and your smrtguard login password, this will make your missed placed phone dial the number you imputed into the pc. I would recommend that to listen for background noises only as I did test it by leaving it on the side and dialing into it, shouting hello like a Wally down the phone, no one heard it! Lool so if you dial in and hear your wife singing while driving you know it fell out your pocket and it’s in the car!

Self destruct will do a full data wipe on phone and memory card. You have a list of other items along the top which are pretty straight forward, they are your backup data (contacts, memos, tasks, events, call logs, emails and sms) and you also have your location details, this is where your location is logged, it is accurate when you are gps enabled, when you are not its close but not exact.

I have 2 more things to say about this software, the first one, add a tracker. This is available in the account section. You can set someone up to use basic tracking only with their own username and password. Good for people who don’t trust their partners, set this up on their phone and track them, or you can put  a different spin on it which will get mixed comments,(men v women) you woman can track your phone so when you get home dinner is ready and on the table!!! Lool

Think this tracking software is very good in some respects but could cause problems with some. My final item is they have their own user guide which I recommend you read as I may of missed a few things out or will help you. Overall I think this is a great piece of software and I am using it.

-by Ryan

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