Do you have your phone set to require a pass code if not used after so many minutes?
If so, what brand and how long a wait?
Lastly, does your phone show your number?
I ask because my iPhone does not show my number when locked, meaning that if I ever lost the phone and someone found it, they wouldn’t be able to know my number and alert me that my phone was found. Seems like a bad omission on the part of Apple (or is it?).
Some suggestions on another board say to activate Voice Control (which is possible with the phone locked) and speak a random name until the phone recognizes and calls that person. Then hopefully that person will give your number to the person who found the phone.
Anyway, I have the iPhone set to lock after 3 minutes.
My iphone locks after 5 minutes. I never thought about the issue of someone not being able to call me if they found it. I am more worried about all the data I keep on there being used than losing the phone itself though (although losing the phone would really suck!)
I just checked the app store and there seem to be apps for that. The first one I looked at lets you send a custom message to your phone so if you think someone has it you could send your number. It also tracks where your phone is with GPS.
My iPhone 4 is set to lock. It’s a requirement if I want to use Exchange to get work email on it. This is setup on the back end. If I turn it off, work emails will stop. I believe it’s set to three minutes which is also a work email requirement. If work didn’t require it, I wouldn’t use it.
My Crackberry locks after 20 minutes. The phone is tied to our coprorate BB server and the lockdown is part of the security policy pushed to the device. I have no say in the matter. Well, aside from quitting and I don’t feel that strongly about it.
ETA: I’ve set my preferences so that when it’s locked it displays my name and “If found please call [desk phone]”
My husband locks his phone all the time (otherwise I’d get pocket calls all the time), but he hasn’t set a pass code. It just unlocks by pressing two buttons at once and it says right on the phone what to press.
I have a personally-owned Palm Centro and don’t get work email on it, so I don’t have to worry about policies being pushed down upon me.
I do not have it set to automatically lock - I’ve thought about it and decided the hassle of unlocking it every time I wanted to use it was a bad tradeoff. (I do have the keyguard enabled, which prevents pocket dialing - but that requires no passcode and thus isn’t what I’d call “locking.”)
However, my office is in a “no cell phones” area of our building, so like many of my co-workers I regularly leave it for hours at a time in a cabinet just outside that area. For these times I have a hot-key programmed to take me directly to the manual locking screen, and I generally leave it there locked.
I get to choose the text message that appears when the phone is turned on while locked. It shows my name, my home number, my office number, and my wife’s cell number.
I never did until the iPhone- it has so many of my otherwise password protected accounts accessible with the touch of a button that I just can’t leave it without the lock on…
I tried, but I actually found myself freaking out about leaving it somewhere at random times when it was in my pocket, so I just set it for two minutes and deal with the hassle of unlocking it every few minutes if I am having a slow text conversation…
Gets old faaaaast, though.
I would rather not have the phone number on the screen- people could then tell their buddies what stolen cell phone to call, and if I wasn’t near a hardwire phone, I might not be able to cancel it for a few hours… Besides, how would having your number on your phone help you if they have your phone? I haven’t ever seen a phone that had some OTHER phone’s number displayed on it…
I’m a phone leaver, I’m constantly losing my phones- I get them back though. I have my husband’s number on the back of it so if it’s found they can call him.
I lock my iPod touch which functions for me like an iPhone would. I use a passphrase rather than the 4 digit numbers and it’s set to auto-erase after 10 tries.
You can get wallpaper apps which can be customized to show your contact info. There’s also some which you can customize with your medical alert info, which I thought was pretty neat. But it’s probably easier just put your card in phone’s case or something similar.
My iPhone is always locked. I manually lock it when I set it down by habit (it does have a timeout, but I don’t remember exactly what I have it set to at the moment). If I lose my phone, I’m far more concerned about someone getting access to my data than getting the device back. I have Mobile Me to try to find the phone (which also allows sending a message to it), but really I’m not that concerned about it. I’ve never lost a phone, though (and I’ve been using cell phones since the mid 90s). I guess if I lost my phone frequently, I might feel differently, but I still feel like the data is a lot more valuable than the phone.
I recently lost my smart phone, and had a lock on it, because I didn’t want people to be able to access my pictures and videos on it. But I lucked into getting it back, because the bus driver turned it into lost and found.
I thought about it, and realized, what if I lost it on the street and there WAS no metro lost and found, it would be impossible for someone to give me my phone back unless they could contact someone I know. So now I keep my phone unlocked.
My Dad left his phone at the airport a few years ago. A guy found it and called my number. I then called him at home and he was able to get the phone back within a few hours.
I just created a black screen, then in Preview wrote my email address. I now use this as my lock screen. Hopefully if it’s lost then the person will email me. But then, I’ve never lost a phone fingers crossed
I have a Palm Pre ( horrible phone for me) and don’t lock it. It is not supposed to allow pocket dialing; you have to swipe the screen to get to the keyboard, but it randomly calls people on my contact list anyhow.