mTools review

Simon Bisson

We review mTools, the app that lets you sync your BlackBerry with your PC

Published on Aug 19, 2009

Smartphones are useful tools, but they really don’t work in isolation. You may have a powerful computer in your pocket, but it’s nothing without files and data – and most of the files you need are on your desktop PC, or on friends’ and colleagues’ phones.

Once installed you’ll either log into an existing mTools account or create a new one. You’ll need to provide a phone number to register, but the application doesn’t actually support UK phone numbers. You can get around this by dropping the leading zero from your number. Once your account has been set up you can get access to web space where you can host your files, using the BlackBerry application or a browser on any PC.

The mTools BlackBerry software is a suite of applications for managing just how files are shared with the world – and between your PC and your phone. Not every BlackBerry uses BES to share contact information, tasks and appointments and, if you’re using a consumer device, this is a very useful way of transferring information without having to use the BlackBerry desktop software.

If you’re on the road and need to back up your contacts, the mTools service will synchronise contacts with the online service, and you can download the uploaded contacts to your PC at your leisure. The same tools also simplify loading a new device – just install the mTools software on a new BlackBerry and sync within the app to download all your files and contacts. Files are stored on Amazon’s web service platform, so there’s no need to worry about space.

If you’re using a storage card for photographs and music you’ll find that mTools will even synchronise those files for you. The only limitation is your bandwidth allowance! Once files have been uploaded they can be shared with your friends. All you need is an email address. mTools does give online files very unusual names – a photo with a short and snappy name on your phone ends up with a long and quite incomprehensible file name on the mTools servers. Only the file extension lets you know that it’s an image.

mTools is a very simple tool – it’s one of those applications that does exactly what it says on the tin, giving non-BES users access to many of the key BES functions. The only real missing piece is an offline PC version of mTools, but the web application works well enough. It may not have the polish of some Web 2.0 services, but there’s enough here to make your BlackBerry life a lot easier.