Online service helps customers access, share and manage their cell phone data through secure personal Web portal
Best Buy Mobile, the mobile specialty retail unit of Best Buy Co., Inc., announced today the launch of mIQ, a new Web-based service that will transform the way customers use, manage and engage with mobile content and smartphone features. Best Buy Mobile will offer the new service for free beginning October 12.
The mIQ service allows smartphone users to take the information captured on their mobile devices and access it from an easy-to-use Web interface on any computer. Once a user signs up for this free service — contacts, text messages, calendar events, calls, photos, videos, and phone settings — are seamlessly uploaded from the mobile device and safely backed-up in a personal mIQ account in the “cloud.”
“Smartphones allow our customers to do some pretty amazing things, but sometimes all the great features can be overwhelming, as a result, customers have a hard time getting the most out of their devices,” said Best Buy Mobile Director of Business Development Mark Mosiniak. “mIQ creates significant value for consumers by allowing them to easily manage their data, share their mobile experiences and get the most out of mobile technology.”
Key Features
- Data backup & management: Upgrading to a new phone used to be a hassle. With mIQ, all content that lives on the mobile device — contacts, text messages, calendar events, calls, photos, videos, and voicemail messages — is automatically uploaded and safely backed-up on a personal Web-based mIQ account making it easy to sync, search, interact with, share it or transfer it from one phone to another. Since the mobile phone is constantly connected to the Web, mIQ automatically syncs any changes from the Web to the mobile device and vice-versa, instantly.
- Contacts: mIQ helps users easily manage and track the communication with all their contacts. Contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and other sources can be imported into the mIQ account and synchronized with the mobile phone. Users can then add, edit, or delete contacts from the personal mIQ account — the changes will be instantly pushed to the mobile phone and backed up on the web. Additionally, mIQ enables users to easily view text messages and calls associated with each contact.
- Enhanced text messaging: The mIQ Web platform provides an instant message-like experience by organizing SMS text messages into a conversational format. mIQ automatically uploads text messages to an inbox in the personal mIQ account where they can be read, forwarded, or responded to from any computer. Unlike other Web messaging solutions that deliver texts from random phone numbers, mIQ sends the text messages through the user’s mobile phone, ensuring that the recipient will always know who the message is from.
- Calendar: Instant access to appointments and events is important whether sitting in front of a computer or on the go. mIQ automatically uploads appointments and events from the phone calendar to the Web. Users can then add, edit, or delete calendar entries from either the mobile phone or the mIQ account and changes are automatically synched between the two platforms.
- Photos and videos: mIQ enables users to do more with the memories captured with their smartphones. mIQ automatically uploads photos and videos from the mobile phone to the personal mIQ account — as soon as they are taken — making it easy to organize them by adding titles and descriptions, share them through email and text messages and post them to social networking sites.
- Social media connectivity: Social networking on mobile devices has taken connectivity to a whole new level. Updating friends on the latest happenings no longer requires a trip to the computer. mIQ features instant connectivity to popular social sites like Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed and Twitter, helping users share their mobile experiences — status, photos and videos — directly from their smartphone, wherever they may be.
Pricing & Availability
mIQ, available October 12, will come standard for any new Best buy Mobile smartphone customer as part of the Walk Out Working free in-store smartphone setup. Other smartphone users can also sign up for the free service. See http://miqlive.com/tour. The service includes 1GB of storage and is currently compatible with smartphones running BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 operating systems like the BlackBerry 9700, Bold, Tour, Nokia E71 and N97, HTC Pro 2, Samsung Omnia II, and T-Mobile Dash 3G.
Apple’s iPhone is not supported.
