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Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

knocktounlock.com

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Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#131

Post by aroch »

mikeash wrote: post #103
mbreese wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I disagree on the disagreement. :) If I download a dmg file, I assume the author knows how to write software for a Mac. If I download a zip, I assume they don't. At least they need to change the name from "latest.zip" to "Knock for Mac.zip" or something like that. Even better would be having it in the Mac App Store. Since you need to download the iPhone version from the App Store anyway, it would be better to kee…

Right, companies like Rogue Amoeba, Flying Meat (Acorn), and Running with Crayons (Alfred) don't know how to write software for a Mac. Sure! I'd buy the argument five or ten years ago. But times have changed.

I don't know, my xcode builds 'release' builds directly into a customized DMG that has background / README / some extras + layout all set.

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#132

Post by Karunamon »

pornel wrote: post #101
CGamesPlay wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can sign the app within the zip, true. The advantage of using a dmg is to control the presentation, which seems like a strong desire for this particular product. Downloading a file named "latest.zip" that had an unsigned binary in it was by far the worst part of the excellently designed experience of installing the software. Apparently the iTunes link thing is a bug https://twitter.com/jschloss/status/39778394974…

Please, don't use DMG. Just .app in a plain .zip please. The nifty "presentation" adds a several needless steps and pitfalls to running an application: • Mounting and verification of DMG is slow (Zip CRC and Developer ID signatures give you verification too). • "Nothing happens" after clicking DMG — user has to find DMG mount on a cluttered desktop. • Clicking app icon in the DMG window is tempting, but generally it'…

The average Mac user is using Safari.

Mounting and verification is slow: Perhaps. Enough to matter?

Opening a DMG is a two-click operation from either the download progress bar on the top right, or two clicks (which visibly floats to the Downloads folder and bounces again when done). Hardly "finding DMG on a cluttered desktop". The mounted DMG pops to the front, at least on my system.

Many applications, if they detect they're running from a DMG, will offer to restart and copy themselves to the applications folder. This deals with the next 3 problems. Even then, it's possible to put text in the window saying "Drag this to the applications folder". It's a dance that anyone using a mac for a reasonable amount of time is familiar with.

I'd say, overall, the presentation on a DMG is so much better than an anonymous zip file dropping an anonymous app in the downloads folder.

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#134

Post by Karunamon »

woutervdb wrote: post #118
vinautomatic wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you want me to terminal to find something the latest i've downloaded in my folder? should just be named correctly, professionally.

Personally, I think you should already have your downloads sorted by date, not alphabetically. No matter what the file is called, you can always just assume it's the first/last file in your downloads. I agree the filename should be changed though: latest.zip seems like something you send your friends to give a proof of concept.

The first thing I always do on a new mac is change the downloads folder on the dock to sort by date added. It makes further customization and downloads much easier.

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#136

Post by aroch »

pornel wrote: post #101
CGamesPlay wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can sign the app within the zip, true. The advantage of using a dmg is to control the presentation, which seems like a strong desire for this particular product. Downloading a file named "latest.zip" that had an unsigned binary in it was by far the worst part of the excellently designed experience of installing the software. Apparently the iTunes link thing is a bug https://twitter.com/jschloss/status/39778394974…

Please, don't use DMG. Just .app in a plain .zip please. The nifty "presentation" adds a several needless steps and pitfalls to running an application: • Mounting and verification of DMG is slow (Zip CRC and Developer ID signatures give you verification too). • "Nothing happens" after clicking DMG — user has to find DMG mount on a cluttered desktop. • Clicking app icon in the DMG window is tempting, but generally it'…

> • Mounting and verification of DMG is slow (Zip CRC and Developer ID signatures give you verification too).

It takes a few seconds, hardly that much slower than opening a zip

>• "Nothing happens" after clicking DMG — user has to find DMG mount on a cluttered desktop

1) Unless you've really fobbed up your view settings, mounted drives show up, in alpha order, in the farthest right row.

2) DMG's have a bless value that makes them spawn a finder window on mount, the below command is run when my xcode spits out a new release build

    'bless --folder /Volumes/$Application --openfolder /Volumes/$Application'
>• Clicking app icon in the DMG window is tempting, but generally it's a no-no (some apps don't mind, but some ask to be moved to Applications, and some throw "error -13 read only volume" kind of errors).

Really a non-issue and only apps built on an old SDK should have this behavoir any more (more recent SDKs will let them shove things in /tmp while run from a mounted dmg)

>• User is expected to copy the app to Applications folder, with instructions given in form of non-localizable non-accessible text-in-image, and it's trickier when sidebar with shortcut to Applications folder is hidden (and remember "Applications" folder name is localized and sounds nothing like it in many languages).

The user also has to drag the zipped app to applications. You can also solve this "problem" by including a finder shortcut to the Applications folder in the the DMG. Finder automatically localizes the Application's folder alias because it's a special URI

>• User has to unmount and delete the DMG, but that gives non-obvious behavior when the app is running off the DMG.

User has to delete the .zip and sometimes a, now empty, folder.

>• It gets super confusing when user has pinned app in the Dock while it was running off the DMG

No it doesn't, the DMG is automatically mounted and the app run if they do this

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#137

Post by bgar »

joshstrange wrote: post #129
mronge wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is NOT true. It does in fact use the real login window

Please provide some proof. My tests using the built in lock hotkeys and trying to unlock with my phone say otherwise....

I locked with Ctrl-Shift-Power and was able to unlock with my phone. Does Knock use this shortcut to lock with its own lockscreen, or is it using the real lockscreen? I'm not sure.

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#138

Post by joshstrange »

bgar wrote: post #137
joshstrange wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please provide some proof. My tests using the built in lock hotkeys and trying to unlock with my phone say otherwise....

I locked with Ctrl-Shift-Power and was able to unlock with my phone. Does Knock use this shortcut to lock with its own lockscreen, or is it using the real lockscreen? I'm not sure.

I just tried this and yes I see the Knock login screen. There is a possibility that I am wrong but I have seen apps that do this sort of thing before and they can't lock using the system lock because there is no way for an app to unlock the system lock. I would guess that Knock just hooks that hotkey combo and shows their screen (Which again, is just a fullscreen app at it's core). I have never locked using that hotkey combo before so I'm not sure. I always use Alfred to lock.

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#139

Post by batemanesque »

doesn't work for me - I've installed & opened Knock on both Mavericks & iOS7 & Bluetooth (which, to be fair, is through a Belkin USB stick) & the PC doesn't recognize the iPhone, simply telling me to install it from the App Store. I love th concept so would be grateful for a fix...

Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac

#140

Post by dylan604 »

alimbada wrote: post #14
guptaneil wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could use iCloud to remotely wipe your phone if that happens.

How do you do that before the thief is able to get into your Mac and steal all your data when you've just lost all your devices?

This assumes the thief is techy enough to know that Knock To Unlock is installed, and then know how to use it. Granted, it's not a great situation to be in having your stuff stolen, but thieves doing rip-n-runs aren't typically high tech users.
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