PhoneView can show you the messages, call logs, and voicemails that iTunes backs up to your Mac.  
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This can be useful if you've lost your iPhone, or deleted an SMS or voicemail since the last time you did a backup.
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To access iTunes backups in PhoneView, use the iTunes Backups menu on the toolbar. Select one of the three choices (View Message iTunes Backups, View Call Log iTunes Backups, or View Voicemail iTunes Backups.)
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You can then select from the available backups. You may see backups from many different iOS devices, such as an iPad, iPod, or an old iPhone you don't even have any more. Also, iTunes creates a duplicate of your backup before performing a restore, so you might see backups named with the date you performed a restore.
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From there, you can view your Messages, Calls, and Voicemails in much the same way as you do in PhoneView when a device is attached.