Here's a neat little tidbit i bumped into the other day (while stumbling around www.mobilecrunch.com):

<Alpha-numeric Passcode on your iPhone and iPod touch>

Basically, we use our device and just surf to
http://9to5mac.com/9to5mac.mobileconfig
and then follow their onscreen instructions.

One complaint i have is that the passcode must contain both numbers and letters... but they do provide a link to a geeky roll-your-own methodology:

<How to Set a More Secure Alpha-Numeric iPhone Passcode>

Though i downloaded and saved all that info too, i wasn't inspired enough to go that laborious route... so i just settled for 9to5mac's profile config. (other than typing out that green url by hand on my iPod touch, the whole thing took 10 seconds).

EDIT: of course, doing this requires us to trust 9to5mac to a certain extent. Being my iPod, i'm not terribly worried... and i think they would have been found out by now, if they were up to any funny business. (their motivation to do good may not be that much [beyond attracting clickers to their ad-servers]... but i don't see what they'd "gain" by doing anyhing bad).

I saw this tidbit as well and was equally intrigued. I would recommend that anyone considering this option also read the comments that are posted after the article in the link provided by Hal.

Out of the 41 comments there, the one indicating that iOS 3.x is required seemed to be somewhat useful (inasmuch as it offered factual information not already present in the article itself).

Which comment(s) did you find useful?

[i have to ask because: most of what's said there is either kind of dumb (and/or rude), kind of obvious (in the form of questions about something already explained), or simply repeating what's already been said (by me, here). FWIW, everything in that green link (post #1) is fully visible to the world (we can even view it with a regular browser). Out of 2764 chars, only about 1310 aren't plain text. If there was any "there there", 9to5mac would be nailed by now as the stupidest site in the Mac community.]

Ahh, this is the old Hal we all have come to know and love!

You need to realize that your style of processing information is not the same as everyone else. Some people need to see the same information multiple times in different modes to better understand what is being presented. Just because your post summarized the details from your perspective does not mean that others could not benefit from reading what other people had to say, even if they are not plain text or appear to be repetitive.

Let people filter and decide on their own. That was my whole point.

Right. Okay, so -- to re(para)phrase my question(s) -- :
What have you decided, and what did you base that on?

Wouldn't sharing that be more to the point of your point?

[or is it a secret? ]

Not a secret.

I decided not to go with the alphanumeric password version. I am comfortable with having about 10,000 choices for a password to my iPhone itself. However, I do us an App that has a more secure system for storing other personal data on my iPhone.