Limpag: Back up your phone data online
By Max Limpag
Celltalk
Important data. Most people nowadays, especially those who grew up with cell phones, don’t keep phone numbers and contact details in paper organizers. Try asking kids what a Filofax or a Rolodex is and they’d likely give you a blank look.
The ability of phones to keep and organize contact details has made it most people’s default and sole “address book.” People no longer take phone numbers down; they’d either ask that you “miscall” them so that they can save the number or send the contact details via SMS, infrared or Bluetooth.
This reliance on a single device for your contacts database can be risky. If your phone gets stolen, will you still be able to reconstruct your address book? If you’re like most people, you’d likely answer no.
AS EASY AS Z-Y-B. Most new phones come with PC suites, programs that allow you to manage your handset’s data from your computer. This can be very helpful in backing up data. If you’re using a Sony Ericsson phone, junk the CD that came with it and use Float’s Mobile Agent (go ahead, Google it).
The problem with these desktop applications, however, is that you need to connect the phone to your PC regularly if you want up-to-date backups of your data.
This is where zyb.com comes in. The FREE service allows you to backup your phone book and calendar online, without having to connect your handset to the PC. If your phone ever gets lost or stolen, you can just buy a new unit and get all your phone contacts and calendar items by connecting to zyb.com.
If your phone can connect to the Internet and it has SyncML (most likely it has), then you can use zyb.com. The site says you can use “almost any mobile” from Nokia, SonyEricsson, Siemens and Motorola and “some of the newer models” from Samsung, LG and others.
HOW TO. The service is easy to use. The service, however, isn’t for people uncomfortable with storing sensitive data online.
Just go to zyb.com, sign up for an account, enter your phone number and cell phone model and the service will send you a message containing the install setting for your phone. Just follow the instructions on the screen.
To make things even easier, just choose “set up this mobile automatically” and follow the on-screen instructions.
I tried zyb.com using a SonyEricsson K750i on a Smart connection and it worked. The initial synchronization may take time because the entire phone address book and calendar are being sent but you can speed up synchronization later by choosing to sync only the new data.
The synchronization with my Smart unit took less than five minutes and when I checked my prepaid load, I found that I merely spent less than P30 for the transaction.
I then used zyb.com to enter calendar and phone data and then clicked on the Zyb synchronization shortcut in my phone and the data was downloaded to the unit.
It was a different story with my wife’s phone, though. I tried to sync her SonyEricsson T630 Globe unit to the service and it wouldn’t work.
I don’t know if it was a handset problem or a network problem but I tried and failed more than four times. I no longer had the time to do further tests, though, as I had to submit this column.
Celltalk
Important data. Most people nowadays, especially those who grew up with cell phones, don’t keep phone numbers and contact details in paper organizers. Try asking kids what a Filofax or a Rolodex is and they’d likely give you a blank look.
The ability of phones to keep and organize contact details has made it most people’s default and sole “address book.” People no longer take phone numbers down; they’d either ask that you “miscall” them so that they can save the number or send the contact details via SMS, infrared or Bluetooth.
This reliance on a single device for your contacts database can be risky. If your phone gets stolen, will you still be able to reconstruct your address book? If you’re like most people, you’d likely answer no.
AS EASY AS Z-Y-B. Most new phones come with PC suites, programs that allow you to manage your handset’s data from your computer. This can be very helpful in backing up data. If you’re using a Sony Ericsson phone, junk the CD that came with it and use Float’s Mobile Agent (go ahead, Google it).
The problem with these desktop applications, however, is that you need to connect the phone to your PC regularly if you want up-to-date backups of your data.
This is where zyb.com comes in. The FREE service allows you to backup your phone book and calendar online, without having to connect your handset to the PC. If your phone ever gets lost or stolen, you can just buy a new unit and get all your phone contacts and calendar items by connecting to zyb.com.
If your phone can connect to the Internet and it has SyncML (most likely it has), then you can use zyb.com. The site says you can use “almost any mobile” from Nokia, SonyEricsson, Siemens and Motorola and “some of the newer models” from Samsung, LG and others.
HOW TO. The service is easy to use. The service, however, isn’t for people uncomfortable with storing sensitive data online.
Just go to zyb.com, sign up for an account, enter your phone number and cell phone model and the service will send you a message containing the install setting for your phone. Just follow the instructions on the screen.
To make things even easier, just choose “set up this mobile automatically” and follow the on-screen instructions.
I tried zyb.com using a SonyEricsson K750i on a Smart connection and it worked. The initial synchronization may take time because the entire phone address book and calendar are being sent but you can speed up synchronization later by choosing to sync only the new data.
The synchronization with my Smart unit took less than five minutes and when I checked my prepaid load, I found that I merely spent less than P30 for the transaction.
I then used zyb.com to enter calendar and phone data and then clicked on the Zyb synchronization shortcut in my phone and the data was downloaded to the unit.
It was a different story with my wife’s phone, though. I tried to sync her SonyEricsson T630 Globe unit to the service and it wouldn’t work.
I don’t know if it was a handset problem or a network problem but I tried and failed more than four times. I no longer had the time to do further tests, though, as I had to submit this column.
posted by eager2wander at 9:31 PM
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