Auto lock your BlackBerry for convenience and battery life

Last week, after sitting in Madison Square Garden for three hours while watching Iron Maiden and Dream Theater, I got a call from a good friend. I had just seen him that past weekend, which made the call seem odd. Did he forget to tell me something? Were we in some kind of trouble? I picked up with caution, but that wasn’t necessary. It turns out he was calling to see what I had called about. What? I hadn’t touched my phone since well before the concert. I told him it must have been an accident. After checking my call log I realized that yeah, I had pocket dialed him. I had also called the number ######## and had also pocket dialed another friend. It was time, I knew, to get an auto lock program. Thankfully, we’ve covered a free auto lock app in a few of our features, most recently our top free BlackBerry apps list. The AutoLock application is easy and it does exactly what it advertises. Once your backlight turns off, your keyboard locks. You can also set a delay, so your keyboard locks, for example, 10 seconds after the backlight goes off. You can also set the timer for your BlackBerry backlight. Just go to Options, then Screen/Keyboard. The backlight can stay lit as long as two minutes, or as short as 10 seconds. That will help you fully customize the AutoLock app. I’ve got mine set for 30 seconds backlight timeout, 10 seconds delay. I haven’t had a pocket dial incident since. You can get AutoLock for free at geekandproud.net. I’ve noticed a few keyboard lock applications in the BBGeeks Store. The Wheel Lock has a neat unlock function where you roll your trackball in three random directions, and the BIEKS Keyboard lock utility performs the basic functions, but I can’t really justify paying for them. AutoLock is a good app and it’s free. Why pay for something that probably should be included natively in the OS anyway?

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.