Have you ever been in that situation where you wish you had a backup but don’t? As a member of BlackBerry® Technical Support’s Social Media Support Team, I see this happen all too often! The good thing is, backups are quick and easy to do with all versions of BlackBerry® Desktop Manager.

In BlackBerry Desktop Manager 6.0 for the PC, just click on the Back up now button (note: in previous versions of BlackBerry Desktop Manager you can click on “Backup and Restore”). On the next screen, make sure Full is selected then click on Back up. You also have the option to encrypt your back up file, that way, if someone gains access to it, they can’t restore it without the password.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the BlackBerry® Desktop Software v6.0 sneak peek and officially kicked off our first-ever BlackBerry Desktop Software for Windows® limited public beta program. Your amazing feedback and comments on the post have been truly inspiring to both me and the teams working on the product!

Today, I have some more exciting news for you as well as a more detailed walkthrough of key user interface and feature changes in BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0. Read on to take a closer look at BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 and learn when it will be available on a PC near you!

Connecting a new BlackBerry® smartphone

Something that is one hundred per cent new in BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 is a very simple set-up wizard which you will see when you connect any of your current BlackBerry® smartphones for the first time with BlackBerry Desktop Software. This set-up wizard will help you to automatically transfer all your data and settings from your BlackBerry smartphone. It doesn’t matter if you’re a novice or expert – with just a few very simple steps, you will be fully set up and be able to run the new BlackBerry Desktop Software. Among other things, you can even give your BlackBerry smartphone a nickname and specify which tasks you’d like to be done automatically when connecting with BlackBerry® Desktop Software.

Summary and Device Options

As some of you have noted in your comments, the BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 layout and Device Summary are now much more similar to what many of you have seen and loved in our Mac version of Desktop Software. In addition to device information and an indication of when the BlackBerry smartphone was last synced or backed up, the summary screen also provides an easy way to kick off a new backup if you opted out of the automatic option, as well as the option to update your BlackBerry smartphone when updates become available.

Any settings configured during set up can be updated at your leisure from Device Options menu, also accessible now from the Summary:

New Interface to Add/Remove Applications and Configure Organizer Sync

As with previous versions of BlackBerry Desktop Software, you can manage applications to install BlackBerry Device Software-optional applications to your BlackBerry smartphone (like support for new languages), or remove any third-party apps you may not want to use anymore. Removing or adding an app is just a matter of clicking on the ‘+’ or ‘X’ buttons in the action column, and the Application Summary screen will be updated to reflect what will happen after you select ‘Apply’ for the changes.

Once your Organizer settings have been configured, the new user interface provides an easy way to control what specific data you would like to sync next time. In addition to previously supported organizer applications like Microsoft® Outlook® Express, Windows® Vista Address Book and Calendar, Microsoft® Outlook® 2003 and 2007, with BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 you can also sync with Microsoft® Outlook® 2010 (32bit mode).

Integrated BlackBerry® Media Sync!

All BlackBerry® Media Sync features are now integrated natively in BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0, with plenty of improvements and new features including Wi-Fi® Music Sync for BlackBerry® smartphones (with BlackBerry® 6). Vikram has covered the features of BlackBerry Media Sync 6.0 in detail in his great blog post, but here is a quick summary of the key enhancements:

• In addition to playlists, you can now also sync by artists or genres
• You can now sync videos from your computer to your BlackBerry smartphone and import new videos from your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer
• New pictures and videos can be automatically imported as part of autosync when your BlackBerry smartphone is connected

BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 is available starting today, so existing BlackBerry Desktop Software users should start getting auto-update notifications later today. The rest of you can visit www.blackberry.com/desktopsoftware. Post a comment and let us know what you think!

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Today I am very happy to share some exciting news about the upcoming BlackBerry® Desktop Software v6.0 release this summer. We did some major changes to the product inside and out, all to make it a true part of the overall BlackBerry® 6 experience. The first invitations to join our BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 Limited Beta will start going out today to some of you who have already joined BlackBerry® Beta Zone. If you haven’t joined BlackBerry Beta Zone yet, sign up at www.blackberry.com/beta.

Stay tuned for more posts here at Inside BlackBerry from myself and Vikram, where we will dive into the detailed feature sets and user interface walkthroughs for all the new goodness we added in BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0. For now, here are a few screenshots to give you an idea of the new look and feel of the software – let us know what you think!

In case you haven’t heard the news, the first update to our BlackBerry® Desktop Software designed for the Mac OS platform is now available. The last two weeks since the release of BlackBerry Desktop Software v1.0 have been very exciting and we received lots of great feedback. It was also very exciting to hear how great the product works for so many of you. The v.1.0.1 update is designed to provide enhancements to data and music sync and is just the first in a series of planned updates. We value your feedback and comments very much so please keep them coming!

Download BlackBerry Desktop software v1.0.1 (Mac OS)

Mac and Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.  

Update: BlackBerry® Desktop Software for the Mac OS platform is now available!

BlackBerry® Desktop Software is now compatible with the Mac OS platform, and the upcoming release is just around the corner. We’d like to take this opportunity to share some details about the key features included in v1.0. We know many of you are waiting anxiously for the product to be released, and the wait is almost over! Before I dive into the details, I wanted to thank you all for the great comments and feedback you left on my initial post announcing this upcoming release of BlackBerry Desktop Software. Knowing how anticipated the product is was the best motivation the team could have. Read on for a detailed walk-through of the key product features.

The Welcome Sheet

Once BlackBerry Desktop Software is installed and connected to a BlackBerry® smartphone via USB, users will be presented with what we call the Welcome Sheet. The idea behind the Welcome Sheet is to ensure users can customize important settings defining their experience with the BlackBerry Desktop Software going forward. Anything defined here on the Welcome Sheet can of course be changed later on via various options (also covered in this post).

One important feature I’d like to spend some time talking about is the option to select whether a BlackBerry smartphone syncs with one or multiple computers, a new feature to BlackBerry Desktop Software. Want to sync with one computer at home and another at work? Change the setting to “Safer Sync” and you’re all set. Your sync times will increase (how much depends on the amount of data stored on the smartphone), but this feature will help keep data on your Mac and BlackBerry smartphone in harmony.

BlackBerry Desktop Software will also tell users where their music will be synced to. If your BlackBerry smartphone has onboard memory (like the BlackBerry® Storm™ or BlackBerry® Bold™) you’ll have the option to choose whether to sync music to the onboard memory or a microSD™ card. Reserving memory is also very helpful and a nice way to save some space for documents, movies or even apps with the new archiving feature introduced in BlackBerry App World™ 1.1.

Summary Screen and Device Options

The Summary Screen provides a quick overview of the information about the connected BlackBerry smartphone. The information provided about the last sync and backup will help users make sure their smartphone is backed up and synced regularly if they opt against using the automatic options. Speaking of which, to configure some of the more advanced settings in BlackBerry Desktop Software, the Device Options menu button is displayed prominently on the Summary Screen.

Two additional options in the Device Options menu over what is displayed on the Welcome Sheet are the ability to sync automatically when the BlackBerry smartphone is connected and to check for software updates.

Within the Device Options menu, users can choose whether their BlackBerry smartphone should be backed-up automatically and what data should be included in the backup file. Excluding messages or information data (that may be stored on the Mac already) can significantly decrease the time it takes to back up the BlackBerry smartphone.

The media options provided under the Device Options menu are mostly what is displayed on the Welcome Sheet, but the option to “Delete all music…” requires a bit of attention. We added this feature to provide users with an easy way to remove the tunes transferred using the BlackBerry Desktop Software; it’s a great way to keep your music selection fresh day to day! Any music transferred manually to the smartphone will remain intact

Synchronizing

Because synchronization is one of the most important features in this release of BlackBerry Desktop Software, our focus was on making it solid with an intuitive set up. We wanted to ensure users have all the key options and information when setting up their sync preferences, while at the same time keeping the interface clean and simple. For this reason, all information categories are listed on the left, and the right panel reflects the settings for each category. The alternative of having everything on the same page and listed sequentially seemed a bit cluttered to us.

Users can sync their BlackBerry smartphone with the iCal application, Address Book, Apple Mail (for notes) and any other software that can talk to Apple’s Sync Services. For example, to sync with Microsoft® Entourage users simply need to check the option to sync with Sync Services in Entourage preferences.

Updating Device Software

As with Windows® BlackBerry Desktop Software v4.7+, users won’t need to install anything on their computer to update their BlackBerry device software. Every time the BlackBerry smartphone is connected, BlackBerry Desktop Software will automatically check for updates. Users will see a notification when a new update is available:

We’ve learned a couple of lessons from the years of experience with our version of BlackBerry Desktop Software for Windows®, and as I mentioned previously, we focused on making the update experience as simple as possible. Keeping the update process lean on extraneous options and features also ensures we can focus on quality. All in all, BlackBerry smartphone users will still have an option to specify whether their data should be backed-up (including third-party applications) and encrypted, but that is as far as the options go. Once the update options are selected, it’s simply a matter of hitting the “Start Update” button and grabbing a cup of coffee while the BlackBerry Desktop Software takes care of business.

Installing and Removing Applications

With the number of applications for BlackBerry smartphones growing by the day, it is important to ensure users can easily install or remove BlackBerry optional applications like support for other languages or any third-party applications they may have downloaded in the past and don’t use anymore. Simply clear the check box to remove previously installed applications; the “+” sign is for adding new applications.

Back Up and Restore

When backing up data, users have the option for a full or a partial backup and also the ability to encrypt their backup file. An important item I’d like to mention for those who may be familiar with the Windows® BlackBerry Desktop Software is that backup files now have a new extension, .bbb, which stands for BlackBerry Backup file of course! The current version of BlackBerry Desktop Software stores BlackBerry data in an .ipd file and the contents of on-board memory in a .cab file; while there are benefits to this approach, our experience is showing that keeping all information in one place provides a more convenient overall experience.

While the new/upcoming version of BlackBerry Desktop Software will store backup files in the new format, users will still be able to restore any .ipd files made from previous backups using the current version of BlackBerry Desktop Software.

BlackBerry Desktop Software is very focused on providing the key functionality that we know Mac users have been waiting for. If you haven’t yet, make sure you sign up to be notified when this product is released on www.blackberry.com/mac. Stay tuned for another overview on some other cool features I did not have a chance to touch on here shortly after we release.

Comment away and let me know what you think about what you’ve seen so far!

Mac and Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Here are some key features the initial release will include:

• Sync your iTunes® playlists, calendars, contacts, notes and tasks
• Add/Remove applications
• Update your device when new software becomes available
• Backup and restore your device data with such features like automatically scheduled backups and optional encryption (security is #1 as always… )
• Manage multiple devices

And it will support Mac® OS 10.5.5 and above.

Make sure to check out www.blackberry.com/mac and sign up to get notified when the software is available, and stay tuned for more posts from me here on Inside BlackBerry as we get closer to the release date.

As promised, here are some screenshots (click to enlarge) – let me know what you think!