Show HN: Sesame, the wireless Mac lock | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Sesame, the wireless Mac lock

atama.io

43 pointselmarto75550 comments

At first I thought this was similar to a bike lock so that your Mac can't get stolen. But that doesn't appear to be what this is. I don't see why simply "locking" your screen with something as simple as configuring a Hot Corner (all I do when I leave my Mac is swipe my trackpad to the bottom left) and it locks the screen. Logging in again isn't a problem no matter where it is. The fear is that if I'm in a coffee shop, my entire device will be stolen.

Yep.

A friend brought up another scenario, where you have to get up fast. If the Hot Corner is not fast enough, you can always just close the lid.

On the other hand, a fob like that seems unreliable in comparison. Aside from "steal the fob" (which, arguably, is similar to "steal the Mac, get info from Mac"), what is the operating envelope? At what range will it shut it down? At what range will it reactivate? How reliable is it?

For $40, my return on investment is paltry. I understand why it cost that much because of the hardware, but for that amount of money I could do a lot more than buy a screen lock.

The range is configurable. One of the things this adds is a button. A button-press can be required to unlock the screen in addition to being nearby. It's very reliable.

You can lock the screen with control-shift-eject (if you have an eject button).

cmd-opt-eject is also an option

Edit: this is actually to sleep the whole machine I think

I never knew that... thanks!

Or ctrl-shift-power if you don't.

And on Windows, it's just Windows-L.

> steal the fob

And this is why this is worse than a phone-based solution. With a phone, it could require you to unlock the phone before it can be used to unlock the computer. Sort of TouchID-by-proxy. With a fob, it can't authenticate you.

Even worse, the 'lock device' has a built-in battery that is replaceable. Your battery died while you are in that coffee shop? Well, you are just going to have to get a new battery somewhere so you can login to your computer. No, there is no usb port on this device so you couldn't just power it that way.

I hate to be that guy, but hasn't this idea been around for a while, but using the bluetooth on your phone? Aside from using Bluetooth 4 (LE), what would the advantages be to this?

I'd also caution against marketing this as a "Mac lock"... I at first thought it was going to be an alarm for the physical device, not the OS.

Yep, I used it before on Windows - the problem was that the Bluetooth range was too long :-). But it works great without the need of yet another piece of hardware on you (that you need to charge I think?).

I ran into the opposite problem with Bluetooth, although on not-so-recent hardware. A little while ago I wrote a bunch of shell scripts for Linux to active Motion [1] on my home computer and laptop whenever I (or rather, my Bluetooth-equipped phone) was away. It would then record any detected motion as video and pictures (uploaded offsite in real time in case the computers got stolen -- that, I thought, was a neat feature) and alert me. In practice the system ended up producing too many false alarms when it failed to detect my phone for up to several minutes when I was around and generally had a very unstable range.

[1] http://www.lavrsen.dk/foswiki/bin/view/Motion

Sesame uses a CR1620 battery.

Good idea, but presentation is a bit iffish.

First, that the opening title about the coffee thing - I had to re-read that section twice to realize it wasn't referring to someone getting a refill in a coffee shop and wondering why the heck would they leave their precious Mac behind.

Second, I would strongly consider redoing photos that have woman's hand in them. As odd as it may sound, the nail polish color is annoying and distracting. It has this old lady feel to it. Also there's something altogether wrong with the second from the bottom photo, it is just ... gross.

Also, the fob seems to be just a tad too big. I can't help but to compare it to the Fitbit. That's the baseline for size and it's got the wireless proximity sync and an incredible battery life. It may not have crypto support, but there are few simple ways around it (e.g. preloading one-time pad during paring over a wire).

All in all though - very cool. I'd rather see one project like yours than a hundred of Jekyll JavaScript icons for MongoDB on Bootstrap or what have you :)

Good comments.

Here's a photograph of fitbit next to Sesame. They're about the same size.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55147661@N03/10578659116/

Oh. Well then, yet another reason to redo the photos, to provide a better sense of scale for the fob as it looks big.

Software dev here -

First time writing mac software instead of iOS, throws up some interesting new challenges! Any questions i will do my best to answer!

Looks great! I don't really suffer from the possibility of people snooping whilst I'm away, but it'd be a great convenience device.

I'm an iOS developer as well, but I haven't delved into OS X development. What makes the device compatible with newer MBP's but not older ones (i.e. my 2009 model)?

Its the Bluetooth Low Energy chipset (part of bluetooth 4.0) in the modern macs that lets it talk to Sesame.

Thanks for the support!

I would imagine it's not compatible because of Bluetooth 4. I had a similar issue with my MacBook vs iMac using that Authy two-factor authentication app that was talked about a couple of months ago.

I hate to be that guy, but this already exists as a stand-alone iOS app http://www.imore.com/iphone-proximity-sensor-locks-mac-keyca...

I did this with my phone using a wireless hotspot and some bash scripting. Basically you're paying 40 euros for closed source hardware that works only with Mac, when you could do it with some scripts and your smartphone ;)

To quote form an earlier thread -

you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

You forgot the original:

  > Apple Releases iPod

  No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

    - CmdrTaco

http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ip...

I think the time cost of implementing this would be more than 40 euro, unless I enjoyed the process of writing it -- and it's pretty safe to say that most products are marketed to people who wouldn't enjoy spending their time reimplementing them.

Why isn't it possible to just use your iPhone or any other Bluetooth (4.0 low energy) device, they should have a unique mac address and could be used for something like this.

I am curious too. It has me looking at apps like: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tokenlock/id402433482?mt=12

How/why is this better?

iPhones have this habit of running out of battery. That could be inconvenient. The battery in the key fob probably lasts on the order of months because that's its only purpose in life.

That's one way of seeing it... Usually when I am at work or work with my Mac most likely my phone is either with some decent battery % or being charged. So if I leave for a few min, my phone usually always goes with me thus will work fine without another device.

I just scan around and there is another app in the Mac AppStore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keycard/id578513438?mt=12

And some tutorial: http://mac.tutsplus.com/tutorials/security/use-your-phone-to...

which reference another open source project -which seems left in the water for the past few years.

Anyway the concept overall is good but I think I am not the target market: not really interested to add one more BT devices that I need to carry.

Good luck to the team

control + shift + eject/power.

But really, I'd prefer this to be an app on my phone instead of a keychain. I usually walk away from my computer with my phone but I'll leave my keys on my desk because they're more uncomfortable in my pocket.

Flashback to 2005 and the Security DR 90105 00 PC DEFENDER Wireless Screen Lock Data Protection. Hope Sesame put more effort into wireless security and the client software!

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Coding4FunSomeAssemblyRequired...

http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/PC-Defender-Wireless-PC...

I thought this was going to an alternative to a physical lock, which seemed impossible, but on my way to click on the link it occurred to me you could setup the Mac so it sounded an alarm if moved, unless you unlocked it with your password. Which would be also be a cool idea. (Since I am at a cafe I guess my mind went more towards physical security.)

Aside from the other comments that the functionality could already be replicated with a mobile phone, it would be cool if the device could have some kind of screen effect as though the machine is powered off. (ie. the power pendants in the TV series Revolution)

This looks cool, but I would really hate to have to always have the device on me for this to work. I can just as easily hit Control+Shift+Eject to lock the screen when I get up.

To me, it's more of a convenience factor. You could walk away and have it lock automatically and come back to your computer and have it unlock automatically. The manual option is always there.

I have looked for a solution do doing this before but they haven't worked exactly the way I had expected.

I don't have an eject key on my Mac. No DVD drive, no eject.

It goes on the same keyring as my house key.

replace the eject key with the power button and the same key combo locks your screen

On Mavericks: Just tap the 'shutdown' button. That will turn of the screen and lock your laptop. Problem solved.

This looks like one of the ideas that could be patented all over. Have you guys done any due diligence on that front?

Why isn't this just an iPhone app?

Not sure that anyone wants to be updating the battery in something so simple every few months?

I fail to see what value this really adds:

If you have a laptop, just close the lid. By default (on a Mac) you have to log in again when you return.

If you have a desktop, what kind of environment are you going to be in where you need to guarantee the screen locks when you are away even momentarily?

Closing the lid will put it to sleep, which is not always what you want to do.

Hotcorner screensaver?

Yes, that is what I use.

Open desk work environment -- having code up on the screen sometimes means you have to lock your computer whenever you leave, just out of precaution.

Serious call centres are red hot on data protection, at least here in the UK. I can imagine these being useful there. That said, with 200+ of these little things in one building i can imagine the bluetooth range might get a tad busy!

Got one

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