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Setting a lock code on your smartphone is highly recommended to protect your personal information, but sometimes a lock code can be a bit inconvenient.

What if you could do away with the device lock code, instead locking only the apps you want to keep private? An Android app named App Lock let's you do just that. That's not to say you can't use App Lock in addition to the lock code on your device, adding an extra level of security to your information.

App Lock, free in the Android Market, allows you to set a lock … Read more

Google Wallet users might be wise to start getting a little nervous.

Yesterday, researchers outlined a complicated way to crack the Google Wallet PIN used to make purchases with the smartphone-based payment system. Now there's a new hack that could let a stranger gain access to the funds of Wallet users.

Described yesterday by blogging site The Smartphone Champ, the hack doesn't require extra software, root access, or any particular skills in general.

Instead, all someone apparently has to do it clear the data for the Google Wallet app in the smartphone's application settings menu. The app … Read more

How does a Web site like Pinterest make money? At least one blogger has found and revealed an apparent answer.

The online pinboard lets people share their interests and other "things they love" by pinning a photo or other image onto the site. Users can then respond to that pin by commenting on it, liking it, or re-pinning it as one of their own favorites.

Sounds pretty cut and dried. But as described by blogging site LLSocial.com, if a user submits a pin that links to an e-commerce site with an affiliate program, then Pinterest tweaks that … Read more

Last Friday, CNET's Matt Elliott showed you how to set a stronger iPhone passcode. Today, over at Lifehacker, there's a report suggesting that repeating one number in your four-digit PIN makes for better protection than a PIN consisting of unique numbers.

My question for you: do you use password protection at all?

I don't. Because I work from home and my iPhone is so rarely out of my sight, I'm not that concerned about someone walking off with it. (And if they do, I can always wipe it remotely using Find My iPhone.)

What if I lose the phone? Assuming some honest person finds it, he or she won't be able to bypass the passcode screen to find the "AAA If Found" entry at the top of my address book. So much for getting it back!

Also, if I'm in an accident, the EMTs can't access my ICE (In Case of Emergency) app or address-book entry. So much for notifying my loved ones!

I'm not arguing against passcodes; these are just my reasons for declining to use one. For what it's worth, I keep all sensitive information inside a password manager. You gotta have some kind of security. (But there's one feature I insist on; read The problem with password managers for details.)

Am I alone in thinking passcodes are an unnecessary hassle, at least for some users? Vote in our poll, then hit the comments to share your thoughts on iPhone security.… Read more

Internet Explorer 9 has a lot of cool new features. "Pinned sites" lets you create site-specific browsers on your Windows 7 desktop. Pinned sites by default recolor IE9's Aero glass-style interface based on the color schemes in the site's favicon, which is a neat little trick, and use the site's favicon as the Windows 7 taskbar icon.

If coded properly by the site's developers, a site can customize the jump list links, integrate player controls for streaming media sites such as Pandora, or have a counter display the number of unread e-mails in your … Read more

Firefox 4 hasn't even been fully baked and served up yet, but that's not stopping Mozilla from pushing ahead with plans for Firefox 5.

In this slideshow, we get a sense of some of the ideas that Mozilla is toying with for the next version of the browser, including Mozilla's version of Internet Explorer 9's pinned sites feature, a redesigned add-on updater workflow, and heavy promotion of Firefox Sync.

Microsoft says a small new feature within Internet Explorer 9 is having a big impact on sites that have tweaked their code to make use of it.

"Site pinning," which is new to this latest major version of Internet Explorer, lets users add a shortcut to a site from any page of their own to sit on their Windows 7 task bar. On the surface this would just seem like any other shortcut, except that Microsoft has provided ways for sites to boost the interactivity, like putting site-specific notifications, navigation, and information in contextual menus that sit behind … Read more

Two European standardization bodies have agreed to make micro-USB the standard interface port for smartphones in Europe.

Though Apple currently uses its proprietary 30-pin dock connector for transferring data and charging its iPhone, iPad, and iPods, CEN-CENELEC and ETSI announced yesterday they have agreed that an adapter is suitable for compliance.

The commission "made available the harmonized standards needed for the manufacture of data-enabled mobile phones compatible with a new common charger. This is the most recent development in the process toward a global common mobile phone charger initiated by the European Commission."

Apple, along with mobile phone … Read more

Doodle Bowling is a free, ad-supported, one-player bowling game with a cute, scribbled sketchbook aesthetic.

The interface is attractive but fairly limited: you're looking down a bowling alley with a scorecard in the foreground. You touch the ball to pick it up, and then flick to roll it down the lane, with your flick controlling the direction and speed. Once your ball is rolling, you can swipe right or left to spin it (and the more slowly you send your ball rolling, the more time you have to do this). The physics are fairly predictable, but at times the … Read more