BlackBerry Balance to balance work and play on your BlackBerry phones

Folks who are tired of having to charge two devices every night just because they need a BlackBerry phone for work and one more for their personal lives, will be glad to know that RIM has officially announced a solution for them. BlackBerry Balance was rumored about earlier this year, and at the BlackBerry World event today, RIM made it official.

BlackBerry Balance is a new app that allows companies to set restrictions on their employee’s BlackBerry phones, letting them use certain features and giving them permission to access data while only in “work mode”. This means that when users are using their BlackBerry phones in “personal mode”, they won’t be able to access secure data to share over Facebook/Twitter or similar apps, and prevent accidental access or intrusions by people who use the BlackBerry device without permission.

If a person leaves a company, administrators can also wipe out all the business information from the device, leaving his/her personal contacts, files etc intact. No more letting your kids accidentally deleting important work data or having any fears of a thief gaining access to company secrets if they steal your phone – important data can also be wiped remotely.

Restrictions and access permissions can be set via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server or BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express, which will obviously be handled by the IT administrators and management. BlackBerry Balance will be built into BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express 5.0.3 for Microsoft Exchange or IBM Lotus Domino, and will require devices to be on BlackBerry 6 operating system. Head over to the BlackBerry Balance website for more details.

George Wong
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: BlackBerry, business, RIM