By show of hands, who has ever wanted to give their cell phone the finger? Just like I thought, the majority. Well, now you can! Beginning with the iPhone 5S, Apple introduced Touch ID. Touch ID is a fingerprint recognition feature that allows a user to hold their finger on the phone’s (or iPad’s) home button and unlock the phone without the need for entering a passcode. A number of fingerprints may be saved, allowing you to give your phone whichever finger, on whichever hand, you’d prefer. Today, we’ll show you how to save your own fingerprint, plus how to create an even more secure passcode to prevent prying eyes from accessing your personal information.
To set up your own fingerprint, tap “Settings”. Scroll down to “Touch ID & Passcode”, then enter your current passcode. Tap “Add a Fingerprint…” and your phone will advise you on what to do next. Basically, you’ll be resting your finger on the home button, then adjusting its position so your fingerprint can be read when you don’t have it exactly in the “sweet spot” of the home button. Repeat the steps above if you’d like to add additonal fingerprints…or if your wife would like to add her own…like mine did on my phone. Why bother fighting it?
Have you ever painted your house and tried to use your fingerprint to unlock your phone after? I have, and if you don’t have every microscopic bit of paint off your finger, it won’t work! For that reason, you’ll want to set up a unique passcode to unlock your phone. Most people set up the passcode first before the Touch ID, but did you know it was possible to make your passcode even harder to crack? Originally a passcode was always four digits. With modern iPhones and the newest software updates, six digits is now the norm. It’s now possible to create a passcode that consists of characters. Numbers AND letters can now be used! If you’re interested in beefing up your security, once again tap “Settings”, then “Touch ID & Passcode”. Enter your current passcode, then tap “Change Passcode”. You’ll again be asked for your current passcode for verification purposes, then you may create a new passcode. To create a passcode with letters and numbers, tap “Passcode Options” and then “Custom Alphanumeric Code” and tap away. If you’ve changed your mind and want to go back to strictly numbers, tap “Passcode Options” and then “Custom Numeric Code”. There are two more settings that you should be aware of. Back on the “Touch ID & Passcode” screen, look at “Require Passcode”. If you tap the word in gray to the left (in my case Immediately) you may change the time that you’re asked to enter your passcode. If you’re connected to an exchange server at work, the only setting will be to require the passcode immediately. The other option to consider is again on the “Touch ID & Passcode” screen: “Erase Data”. If you turn this setting on, all of the data on your device will be erased after ten incorrect passcode entries. This is excellent for security reasons, but if you’re prone to messing this up, you may want to think long and hard about enabling it.
With the creation of smartphones, our entire life is mobile. Just think about the information criminals can gather by a simple glance at your cell phone. And not just your information either – think about confidential e-mails, your contacts, financial websites with saved login information, the list goes on and on. There’s a real need to secure this information, and fingerprints and stronger passcodes are a good start.