After a few days of using my iPhone 3G, I felt that it was not really safe to leave it without any password protection.
I did not think it was a good idea to leave so much private details exposed without any firewall. After all, the iPhone does not only contain contacts and SMS information, but it has details of my blogs (I set up Wordpress App on it, which I will discuss in another post). I also set up my email addresses with my passwords already for a one-touch access, so I would be totally uncomfortable with anyone who is not authorized viewing its contents!
I also had a long list of To-Do tasks and my Safari browser has saved bookmarks in them. I certainly do not want anyone to access these information, although I have nothing much to hide. No kinky pictures or what though, in case you are thinking along that line. Haha.
I found the Passcode Lock function of the iPhone 3G which can do a basic job of password protecting it. To activate the function, go to Settings –> General –> Passcode Lock to set your four-digit passcode.
You can choose to turn it off anytime, or change to another passcode whenever you like.
Set the Auto-Lock to your desired time to put the phone to “sleep” after a period of inactivity. The iPhone will prompt for the passcode to be entered before anyone can access the main menu.
At least if the iPhone is ever lost or misplaced (touch wood!), the next person who picks it up will never be able to use it while you are tracking the phone down with it’s unique IMEI identification number.
In my opinion, Passcode Lock is sufficient if you only require simple password protection, but it’s not flexible enough if you wish to customise the protection for certain apps. I am looking for an utility that can allow me to protect the apps that I specify, especially my Wordpress and Email apps, yet allow my iPhone to be shared around (sometimes for photos or games).
That’s why I still guard my iPhone 3G like a hawk now, hehe, and avoid passing it around unnecessarily. I hope others don’t misunderstand why I am so protective of it though. Haha.
by gerald, on November 21 2009 @ 9:49 pm
Thanks for the tip.
just set mine.