Julie got a new phone last week, and as she was setting it up, I mentioned something I find useful on my phone (and that you might use on a tablet, too)…
…and then I thought to myself “Hang on Tim you twerp, why haven’t you told everyone about this?” So here you go…
Most people have their smartphones set up with some kind of passcode on it, so that when you turn it on you need to type a pass number in, or draw a special shape or whatever. Some phones even check it’s you by looking at your face or fingerprint or even your voice.
And I’d definitely recommend you have something like this set up. It can be a bit of a pain, having to type a number in every time, but it means if you lose your phone or someone steals it, they can’t get at all the things you’ve got on it.
More importantly, they can’t use it to pretend to be you – otherwise they might be able to (for example) email your bank to say to changes the details on your account and if your bank calls or texts you to check it’s really you, they’d simply answer the call or reply to the text.
That’s just an example – there are lots of other reasons you don’t want them getting access to your phone.
It doesn’t matter too much whether you use a number you have to type in or one of the other methods to keep it secure – but the pass number is the most common method.
But as I say, it can be a bit of a pain to have to type it in every time. And that’s where the useful thing I was telling Julie about comes in.
On most phones, you can set a “trusted location” (eg your home). It works on the basis that if your phone is at home, it probably hasn’t been stolen! So if the phone can tell that it’s at the trusted location, then you don’t need to use the pass number. If you’re not there, then you need to use it.
It saves the hassle of typing the number in each time if you’re at home, but gives you the security of having it if you’re not at home.
How you set it up depends on exactly what phone you have – on mine (a Samsung), you go into settings, then scroll to System, then into Security and tap Smart Lock, under Advanced.
Then you can tap on Trusted Places and tell it that where you are at the moment is a place you trust – a place it doesn’t need to ask you for a passcode.
There are a few other options there – if you have a car with bluetooth for example, you can tell it that when you’re in your car it should remain unlocked. But the most useful option (I think) is the trusted location or trusted places one.
It’s not perfect – sometimes it doesn’t realise I’m at home and demands a passcode when it shouldn’t. But I’d rather it was that way round that the other way round.
Anyway, I mentioned it to Julie and she set it up and found it useful – it might be something you’d find handy, too.
In a few hours time…
As I mentioned before, the full information on the new Facebook books will be available at 11am today (UK time). It’ll explain what the books cover, who they’re suitable for and why you should care (including what Facebook is really for in my opinion).
At the same time, they’ll be available to order – but not until then.
Watch out for my email at 11am today…