VAIDIK, J.
After trial, Hape learned that, during the jury’s deliberations, jurors were able to turn on one of the cellular telephones taken from him during the search incident to his arrest. Id. at 588. Text messages were saved on this telephone, including the following text message from “Brett”:
Hey man do you think that you can do something 4 one of what I gave you the other night. I could care less about ours right now but my other dude keeps asking & I don’t even have the funds to pay him back guess I will freakin tell him to get it off the water tower.
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Hape’s first argument, that the jury should not have been exposed to incriminating text messages saved inside of a cellular telephone admitted into evidence without objection. He argues that this error warrants a new trial. [Footnote omitted.]
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Hape contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to poll the jury about the effect that the text messages had upon the verdict. He argues that the trial court’s denial of this motion “deprived [him] of his ability to question and poll jury members on the issue of prejudicial error.” . . . Indiana Evidence Rule 606(b) provides for the polling of a jury as part of an inquiry into the validity of a verdict in limited circumstances. The rule provides, in part:
Inquiry into Validity of Verdict or Indictment. Upon an inquiry into the validity of a verdict or indictment, a juror may not testify as to any matter or statement occurring during the course of the jury’s deliberations or to the effect of anything upon that or any other juror’s mind or emotions as influencing the juror to assent to or dissent from the verdict or indictment or concerning the juror’s mental processes in connection therewith, except that a juror may testify . . . on the question of whether extraneous prejudicial information was improperly brought to the jury’s attention[.]
Ind. Evidence Rule 606(b). Thus, as a general matter, a jury’s verdict may not be impeached by evidence from the jurors who returned it. . . . . However, “extrinsic or extraneous material brought into deliberation may be grounds for impeaching a verdict where there is a substantial possibility that such extrinsic material prejudiced the verdict.” . . . .
Hape argues that he should have been permitted to inquire into the validity of the jury’s verdict by asking members of the jury about the prejudicial effect of the discovery of the saved text messages in his cellular telephone. The State contends that the text messages did not constitute extraneous prejudicial information and that Hape therefore fails to meet his initial burden in attempting to impeach the jury verdict with testimony about the messages.
Hape’s argument fails because the text messages are intrinsic to the cellular telephone. The jury discovered the text messages at issue by turning on a cellular telephone that was admitted into evidence without objection. In Bradford v. State, our Supreme Court addressed a defendant’s claim that jurors improperly obtained and considered extraneous evidence by conducting extrajudicial experiments. The Court cited with approval the rule that experiments conducted by the jury improperly inject extraneous information into deliberations when the results “amount[] to additional evidence supplementary to that introduced during the trial.” Bradford v. State, 675 N.E.2d 296, 304 (Ind. 1996) (quotation omitted), reh’g denied; Kennedy v. State, 578 N.E.2d 633, 641 (Ind. 1991) (citing In re Beverly Hills Fire Litig., 695 F.2d 207 (6th Cir. 1982)). Here, turning on the telephone did not constitute an extrajudicial experiment that impermissibly exposed the jury to extraneous information. First, the text messages themselves are not extraneous to the cellular telephone. We agree with the State that text messages are intrinsic to the cellular telephones in which they are stored. “Intrinsic,” as defined by Black’s Law Dictionary, means “[b]elonging to a thing by its very nature; not dependent on external circumstances; inherent; essential.” Black’s Law Dictionary 842 (8th ed. 2004). We conclude that the text messages at issue here are part and parcel of the cellular telephone in which they were stored, just as pages in a book belong to the book by their very nature, and thus they are intrinsic to the telephone. Indeed, Hape concedes that “the messages are inextricable from the phones themselves.” . . . Further, we decline to characterize the simple act of turning on a cellular telephone as an experiment that might yield extraneous information. Turning on a device that is made to be turned on constitutes a permissible examination of the evidence before the jury. Pursuant to Indiana Evidence Rule 606(b), Hape may not impeach the jury’s verdict with affidavits regarding the text messages. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Hape’s motion to poll the jury.
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To lay a foundation for the admission of evidence, the proponent of the evidence must show that it has been authenticated. Bartlett v. State, 711 N.E.2d 497, 502 (Ind. 1999). “The requirement of authentication or identification as a condition precedent to admissibility is satisfied by evidence sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims.” Ind. Evidence Rule 901(a). Indiana Evidence Rule 1002 provides that an original writing or recording is admissible in evidence to prove the content of the writing or recording. Letters and words set down by electronic recording and other forms of data compilation are included within this rule: “Writings” and “recordings” consist of letters, words, sounds, or numbers, or their equivalent, set down by handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostating, photographing, magnetic impulse, mechanical or electronic recording, or other form of data compilation. Ind. Evidence Rule 1001(1). Writings and recordings must be authenticated pursuant to Indiana Evidence Rule 901(a) before being admitted. See Bone v. State, 771 N.E.2d 710, 716 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002) (reviewing whether data from defendant’s computer was sufficiently authenticated).
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We next examine whether the text messages required a separate authentication from the properly admitted cellular telephones. The parties have not directed us to any Indiana cases involving discussion of the authentication of text messages generated and stored in telephones, and our research has not unearthed any such cases. However, we have previously discussed the necessary authentication of data contained within a computer in order for the data to be admissible evidence. In Bone v. State, the defendant took his personal computer to a computer repair shop. The repairperson stumbled upon files containing child pornography and contacted the police. On appeal from convictions stemming from his possession of these computer files, the defendant alleged that the computer files, or their data contents, were inadequately authenticated. We agreed with the State that “the authentication requirement [of Indiana Evidence Rule 901(a)] is satisfied by a showing that the images contained in the exhibits were recovered from [the defendant’s] computer.” Bone, 771 N.E.2d at 716. Requiring “testimony before the trial court . . . sufficient to establish the authenticity of the exhibits as depicting the images contained in [the defendant’s] computer equipment,” id. at 716-17, we indicated that authentication of the data saved in a computer is a condition precedent to the admission of the data recordings.
We see no reason why the writings or recordings generated and saved inside of a cellular telephone should be exempted from the same authentication requirement. The proponent of a piece of evidence has to decide the purpose for which the evidence is offered. Even though we have determined that a text message stored in a cellular telephone is intrinsic to the telephone, a proponent may offer the substance of the text message for an evidentiary purpose unique from the purpose served by the telephone itself. Rather, in such cases, the text message must be separately authenticated pursuant to Indiana Evidence Rule 901(a). See also Lorraine v. Markel Am. Ins. Co., 241 F.R.D. 534, 546 (D. Md. 2007) (observing that federal courts have recognized Federal Rule of Evidence 901(b)(4) as a means to authenticate electronic data, including text messages); Dickens v. State, 927 A.2d 32, 37 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 2007) (reviewing whether text messages saved on a cellular telephone were properly authenticated); State v. Taylor, 632 S.E.2d 218, 230-31 (N.C. Ct. App. 2006) (reviewing whether the State properly authenticated text messages).
Here, had the State intentionally offered the text messages into evidence, the purpose for doing so would have been for an evidentiary purpose different than that of the cellular telephones. The telephones were offered into evidence for the purpose of showing that Hape possessed them. The purpose of offering the text messages would have been to show that Hape communicated with certain individuals or to reveal the content of his communications. Nevertheless, the presentation of the text messages to the jury without proper authentication did not rise to the level of fundamental error because the jury’s exposure to the text messages was harmless error. . . . .
KIRSCH, J., and CRONE, J., concur.