Remote Wipe Your Phone (Not You, Android)
Ever wonder if you're still alive? Curious to see if your blood can still get pumping like you're 14 years old and in the presence of your all-time biggest crush?
Here's what you do: take your smartphone, the one that's loaded with the names and numbers of everyone you know and do business with, set up to seamlessly access your email and voicemail accounts, and packed with other personal information (throw in an unencrypted file with your bank passwords for good measure), and misplace it.
If that doesn't get the old blood pumping nothing will. And don't tell me you aren't just a bit in denial on the topic, either. You're not really thinking about what might happen if you misplace your phone, are you? And you may not want to deal with having to use and unlock code every time you want to use your phone, making your game of chicken just a little more serious.
Well, the "I lost my phone and I'm going to DEFCON 1" procedure is about to have at least a couple of new options that might help set your mind at ease: both Microsoft (for Windows Phone 7 phones) and RIM (for BlackBerry) are about to introduce remote wiping software.
The RIM solution, announced yesterday, is called BlackBerry Protect, and allows users to remotely lock, wipe and/or message a lost, stolen or misplaced phone. It also allows you to remotely backup and restore your device to a web-based interface, remotely assign a new password, post an on-screen message in case someone finds it, activate a loud ring to greatly irritated whomever has it, and even locate it using GPS.
The Windows solution was announced today at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, and will include a Windows Phone Live website component that will take care of both sync (including transfer of photos and OneNote information in addition to traditional items like contacts, etc.), and the lost/stolen scenario. It will include remote wipe, locate, lock, and "ring like crazy," as does RIM's offering.
The Windows solution should launch concurrently with the new phone OS, late this year, and the RIM solution is currently in beta, with no firm release date scheduled beyond "later in the year."
Soon, if you lose your phone, all you'll have to worry about is coming up with another four or five hundred bucks to replace it.
Follow Technorati