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Show HN: Smartlock your Mac with any Bluetooth device, not only the Apple Watch (gadgetish.com)
7 points by rrebelo 1881 days ago
2 comments
rrebelo 1881 days ago
Hi all, author here.

On macOS (Mojave, Catalina, ...) you can lock/unlock the computer with an Apple Watch by proximity. But I don't want an Apple Watch...

So I made a program to replicate this feature. It connects to any (classic) Bluetooth device and keeps monitoring the intensity of their Bluetooth signal (rssi). When it is below a threshold (defined by the user) it locks the computer. When it is above it unlocks.

Unlike Apple's version, my program doesn't require WiFi and works even with older Macs that don't support Auto Unlock. However it doesn't handle admin login or does 2-factor authentication, yet. That might come later.

I posted here before a Windows version[0], but it only works with Android phones.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16476882

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bueny 1880 days ago
Is there any version for Windows which works with any Apple Device or any Bluetooth Device besides Android phones?
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rrebelo 1879 days ago
No, there isn't yet. Sorry.

I'd have to create an app for Apple devices to connect to Windows and allow rssi readings. But I don't have the time to do it now.

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ThePowerOfFuet 1877 days ago
The point of Wi-Fi is to measure time of flight.
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shadowsock 1881 days ago
Nice. How does it compare with this? https://github.com/ts1/BLEUnlock
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rrebelo 1880 days ago
BLEUnlock only works with BLE devices with a static MAC address. All Apple devices do that. However almost all Android devices don't do it.

My solution uses classic Bluetooth, which is static MAC by default, therefore you can use Apple, Android, Tizen or even some Bluetooth tags.

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