LockItNow!- Bluetooth Phone Proximity Shutdown for the Laptop
I recently told you about a new software product from Phoenix that uses a Bluetooth phone for laptop security. Once the phone was paired with the laptop the software would shut down the computer when the phone got a configured distance away from the laptop. Our readers then discovered that the software was not free and had some other restrictive features. Never fear, as reader James McCorn has discovered an alternative program, LockItNow!, that does the same thing for only $15.
LockItNow! pairs the Bluetooth phone with the laptop; when the owner walks away from the laptop, it is automatically locked down to prevent unauthorized use. It can be used without a phone, too, but that kind of defeats the purpose, in my view. When you walk back to the laptop it is automatically unlocked via sensing the phone’s proximity. This could be very useful for those who work in coffee shops and outside offices a lot.
The program is shareware so you can try it before you buy it. If you pick it up let us know in the comments how well it works for you.
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I think this is a bad idea for folks who work in open areas. If you’re worried about unauthorized access, you probably shouldn’t leave your laptop unattended. That’s far worse security practice than leaving your screen unlocked. I wouldn’t encourage that anymore than I would ladies leaving their purses unattended. A more practical use would be for folks who work in offices and don’t want co-workers (or rivals) seeing what’s on their screens when they leave their desks.
Loaded and appears to be functioning well.
I had to restart my computer after pairing with the phone so that the LockItNow program could see the particular COM port the phone was using.
After that, I changed the lock time, (time from where the program no longer senses my phone to when it locks the screen), from the default of ’2′ to ’1′ which means it takes around 20 seconds to lock, but it unlocks in less than 5 seconds on picking up the signal again.
There is a password override which can be used to unlock the screen if you start up the computer when your phone is not around. When this happens LockItNow then appears to default to a timed security mode where it locks after a set period of inactivity.
If you then switch on the BT phone, the program automaitically goes into BT proximity mode. This is a nice feature.
I am using this with BT mouse with no issues or conflicts.
Only time will tell if it is ultimately helpful or annoying, but they are good enough to give a reasonable trial period… However so far, I think I will be purchasing it.
I *never* leave my laptop unattended at a coffee shop. By “unattended” I mean going to the bathroom or elsewhere where I can’t see it. I do go to the counter, but keep an eye on it.
Any idea what this does to the cellphone’s battery life? My iPhone’s battery isn’t great to begin with; wouldn’t want to drain it because it’s now telling my laptop every five seconds that yes, I am still sitting here. :)
Battery Life is my concern as well… so am looking at that closely. However the app can be switched off in the taskbar for those times you are not needing this type of security.
I think as Sumocat says, this will be most useful for those more secure environments such as an office, where you do not want people accessing the machine whilst you nip to the toilet.
Another quick point is that I am also using a BT headset with the phone without conflicts
It is a cool idea, but I had a freeware program like this years ago on my old laptop.
It must still be out there. But I must admit, I can’t seem to find it.
I like the idea of this software for an office environment, but I couldn’t get it to work with my iPhone. The software offers 2 modes of operation for detecting phones. 1) The iPhone won’t establish a serial connection over Bluetooth, so that mode won’t work. 2) Detection mode only works when the iPhone is in the Bluetooth settings screen (in discoverable mode.)
This is more of any iPhone limitation than anything else, but unfortunately, the two don’t work together and I uninstalled LockItNow.
I tried this out with my Vista 64 bit, It did install and kinda worked. Kinda like half of it worked. Ok so install was pretty easy. I uninstalled this software due to it not staying locked if left it in the standard configuration. It would lock but then in a few seconds it would unlock it self, then lock, then unlock, and it would repeat this cycle. Totally defeating the whole reason why i wanted this. I could get it to stay locked by enabling the feature that allows you to lock it with the windows default login screen. That works but then i have to keep unlocking my computer by password, or really i use my fingerprint dilly. But i mean, i don’t want to do that, i just want to use my phone to unlock it.
I don’t know though, it could be my phone. My phone freakin sucks, i’ve been wanting to get a new one, but i’ve been waiting for the HTC Hero to come out. Oh yeah i have a DARE, from Verizon. That could be the problem. I imagine maybe the 64 bit has some kinks in it, maybe the 32 bit editions have no issues. I guess thats my fault to trying to the 64 bit.
Everything else works as advertised and really is or would be really awesome if it worked for me. Could be really usefull, just right now, its not for me.