This article describes what to do in order to make sure your Viira data is transitioned successfully when you upgrade the device software (OS) on your BlackBerry.

Many of you are “taking the plunge” and upgrading the OS on your BlackBerry devices. While there are many benefits from doing this, the steps below will ensure that your Viira data follows you along on your freshly-upgraded BlackBerry.

It is important to keep in mind that upgrading the OS on your BlackBerry starts with erasing all data from your device . A new OS version is essentially a fresh start, and the new OS versions require a clean blank slate to start from. This is why it is critical to perform a full device backup before upgrading your OS. Otherwise, your old data may simply be lost forever.

Here are the steps to take in order to ensure your Viira data is restored correctly on your upgraded device:

1. Backup Your Viira Data. The BlackBerry Desktop Software performs a quick, one-click back up of all your device data which will automaticlly back up your Viira data in the process as well. More information can be found from our Backup/Restore How-To Article.

Note that data backup/restore is only avaialable on the full version of Viira.

2. Perform the OS upgrade. We won’t provide much details here. You know what you are doing here.

3. Re-install Viira. After your OS upgrade is complete you will need to install Viira on your newly-upgraded device. The backup file contains only application data and not the applications themselves, so performing a data restore will not re-install Viira.

Restoring your Viira data (step 4) requires that Viira is properly installed on your device, otherwise the restore will not take effect.

You can download the latest version of Viira by pointing your BlackBerry to our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb, or by visiting the downloads section on our site.

4. Restore your Viira data. At this point your can either perform a full restore all of of your pre-upgrade device’s data, or select only to restore Viira’s data. It really depends on what makes most sense in your case. You can select to to restore only Viira’s data by using the advanced backup/restore tips we describe in our Backup/Restore How-To.

As version 6.0 of the BlackBerry Deskopt Software introduced significant changes to the backup/restore UI and workflow, below is a screenshot that should give you a good visual idea of how to perform selective, Viira data-only restore on BlackBerry Desktop Software 6.0:

With your BlackBerry plugged in to your computer via USB, open the backup file you created in step 2, clicking “Select device data and settings” then click on “Viira 2″.  Pressing Restore will restore your Viira data to your BlackBerry.

Outlook 2010 support is now available in the Viira Outlook Suite! As promised earlier to many of you upgrading to MS Outlook 2010 or about to upgrade in the coming months, you can now take full advantage of the only fully-synchronized BlackBerry-Outlook GTD organization system using the latest version of MS Outlook.

You can download the latest version 1.0.5 of the Viira Outlook Suite Outlook plugin from the Viira Outlook Suite downlod page and install the Outloook Suite BlackBerry client OTA by pointing your BlackBerry to our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb/outlook.

***IMPORTANT*** To install the Viira Outlook Suite Outlook plugin, you must uninstall any previous versions of the plugin from your computer (via Control Panel->Programs and Features)

While we are still actively working on the Viira Outlook Suite 1.1 and you will be seeing the results within a matter of weeks, we wanted to make MS Outlook 2010 support available as soon as we completed the work on it. Those of you that have Outlook 2010 can continue to apply the principles of Getting Thigns Done day-to-day with your BlackBerry and Outlook!

We always strive to find new ways to help you stay on top of your schedule, make the most of your BlackBerry and have the most comprehensive, portable GTD system at your fingertips. With that in mind, we are excited to bring another powerful feature to help you get things done - action links.

Action links allow you to easily embed actionable chunks of information, such as phone numbers, email addresses and website links inside any task in Viira. Simply enter the phone number, email or URL in a task and Viira will automatically detect it and highlight it for you. Calling, sending an email or viewing the website link is then just a click away!

Action links are available in Viira 2.2.2, which can be downloaded OTA from our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb.