Ever wanted to make a backup copy of your text messages? Have tried several apps to do this, and the one that works best for me on Android is SMS Backup by Christoph Studer. You set it up to either automatically or manually backup your test messages to a folder/label in your Gmail account. I set mine up to backup to a Gmail folder called SMS, and to mark the Gmail messages as “read” as they are stored into Gmail.

It’s free from the Android market, can be downloaded here.

Your BlackBerry contains lots of useful business and personal information - that’s why you bought one. But if your BlackBerry is lost or stolen, that information could be compromised. If you have a corporate BlackBerry connected to a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), your IT folks will almost certainly use its Remote Wipe feature to nuke your BlackBerry remotely in the event that it is reported lost or stolen. If your BlackBerry is not connected to a corporate Blackberry Enterprise Server, you can accomplish the same thing with a little $9.95 BlackBerry App from roblock.

Once this app is installed, you have a number of theft recovery features available remotely should your phone be lost or stolen. You can track it by GPS or cell tower location, can cause it to emit a high-pitched alarm, can disable it, or wipe it. There are also remote backup options available for a monthly fee.

The default location of the icons on a Blackberry are not to my liking. I prefer to change my Blackberry icons by relocating them so that the handful of functions I access most often are on the top row of the home screen. This puts them right at my fingertips. To see how easy this is, here is a walkthrough on a Blackberry Pearl in which we move the Address Book icon to the top row.

1. First, browsing around with the trackball, locate the Address Book icon. In this example it is one of the last icons. After you find it, the icon should appear highlighted.

2. Now, click on the menu button. On this Blackberry, it is the little “paw prints” button to the left of the trackball. This will bring up a context menu. With the trackball, scroll up or down to select the Move option and clik the trackball.

3. The context menu goes away and now we see that the Address Book icon is surrounded by a little box indicating it is under our control.

4. Use the trackball to slide the Address Book icon around until it is in the desired location. If you mess up, just hit the menu button and select Move again.

5. After you have the icon where you want it, click on the trackball and it will stop moving. In my case, I like putting the Address Book as the third icon on the top row.

Before you donate or recycle your blackberry, you should protect your privacy by wiping out all of the personal information on the device. Here is the procedure:

• Remove the SIM card and reboot the blackberry.

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You can customize the layout of icons on the Home screen — including the Dock icons along the bottom of the screen. To rearrange icons:

• Touch and hold any Home screen icon until the icons begin to wiggle.
• Arrange the icons by dragging them.
• Press the Home button to save your arrangement.

More iPhone tips can be found at Apple’s site here

Google Sync for BlackBerry synchronizes your Google Calendar and Contacts with your handheld. Once set up, Google Sync works automatically in the background. Changes to your Calendar events or Contacts will be updated on your handheld wirelessly.

Download it from Google here

Rebooting is a wonderful technique when used properly, especially on sophisticated machines. A Blackberry is actually a sophisticated computing device, more powerful and complicated than the computers used to send Apollo to the moon and back.

To keep your Blackberry in tip-top shape, you should periodically reboot it by removing its battery, counting to 10, and then re-inserting the battery.