Blackberry ER: A Recovery Utility

PocketMac has a long history of useful applications, and now they offer a tool to help you recover a lost Smartphone- Blackberry ER. Considering how much personal info there is on the typical Blackberry, this is potentially a very handy tool.

I will do a lot of things for a review- even to frying eggs on a hard drive- but I am not real keen on loosing my Blackberry to test it out, so this review is based on other sources. Besides, I have a CDMA phone- more on that later.

What Blackberry ER does is relatively simple- when some evil person takes your Blackberry, they will generally change the SIM card. Once they do, the Blackberry sends a signal to a designated cell phone with enough information to help police recover the phone.

There is not much in the way of controls or settings- you can turn it on, set the contact number, and set the message sent. There is not a lot of documentation with the program or on-line… but seriously, what do you need?

Does it work? It seems to do a perfectly good job based on most reports. Of course, most of the reports are not based on an actual recovery either.

One interesting point- the site does not clarify that this product needs a GMA phone with a SIM card… so my Sprint phone cannot use it (Sprint is CDMA, click here for an explanation of the differences.)  You enter your Blackberry’s model, but it does not ask if it is GMA or CDMA, and you sort of have to notice how it works in the rather vague description to figure it out on your own.

Another interesting point- you will get a free copy of a pdf called “47 Things You Wanted to Know About Your Blackberry, But Did Not Know Who to Ask” with chapter headings like:

1. How to save up to $26,000 on your cell phone bill…
2. What to do if you drop your BlackBerry in the toilet
3. How to do hands-free Dialing when you’re driving
4. How to deal with “BlackBerry Thumb”
5. How to maximize the battery life of your BlackBerry
6. How to keep from being bored waiting for a meeting to start
7. What to do with your BlackBerry when you carry an iPhone, a Cell Phone, and a BlackBerry

Some of the articles are quite short and rather obvious, others are rather clever and interesting. The pdf may be worth the price of the software for some users.