one question - does this use the real Mac login screen or some less-secure alternative? a lot of similar apps I've seen used the latter which is a dealbreaker from a security POV, & it would be great if Knock differs in this respect
Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac
141–150 of 169 posts
Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Nothing says you couldn't do that with a zip file.
Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know, my xcode builds 'release' builds directly into a customized DMG that has background / README / some extras + layout all set.
Nothing says you couldn't do that with a zip file.
Actually everything says you can't do that with a zip. Custom background images and layouts are folder properties not supported by a zipped directory (or really any directory that isn't a DMG's top-level dir)
Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac
#144A brilliant idea, beautifully executed.
Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac
#145Dear HN. Please stop making a big deal about how you don't like hipster beards. It really makes HN look like pretentious douchebags instead of intelligent thinkers. It makes HN people look like the have no understanding of marketing. If you're going to criticize the marketing, do it from a metrics perspective, rather than being exactly what you're claiming to hate by telling people to stop being hipsters - arrogant.…
> Let people be who they are. Measure them by their output and their product, and the effectiveness of their decisions. Not on whether or not they conform to your taste/style. I would guess that the true point being made is that these people are not "being who they are," because someone else has caused them to "conform to [their] taste/style." Your reaction is actually pointing out exactly the same thinking on their…
> so we get vicariously offended when they see a trend of some group "forcing" their idea of aesthetics on some other group.
I like ties, and I enjoy wearing them. Are you vicariously offended that I might jeopardize my chance to get a developer job at Google or an SV startup if I wore a tie to the interview?
Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac
#146Earlier 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'…
No, don't use a .zip please. The point is to get the user to "install" the app, not open it once. A big aliased "Applications/" folder with a visual prompt to drag and drop the .app is all you need in the dmg. downloading & opening the dmg is a fairly seamless experience from Safari.
From a consumer (end user)'s perspective, you're pretty much wrong on all points except the last two. Those are valid, and i have accidentally done that before. Tis annoying.
Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 th…
> No it doesn't, the DMG is automatically mounted and the app run if they do this
It really does, especially if you're one of the 99.999% of users who deletes their dmg's after installing. Then you just see an app icon with a big (?) in the middle of it.
Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac
#148This seems like magic. What method does it use to unlock your Mac with no password?
It doesn't actually unlock your machine. If you lock your computer it will not work. What it does is put up a page that looks nearly identical to the login page with small changes. It's a cool app (I tried it) but I'm disappointed that I can't find a way to toggle the lock via Alfred/Keyboard shortcut. I can get in the habit of hitting a key combination/alfred command when I get up but having to click the icon in the…
That sounds right. OSX definitely encrypts your keys in memory while sleeping, to further prevent DMA attacks. So this would be tough to do without a kernel extension.
Another major caveat: locking your screen this way is a security risk if you are running FileVault. When OSX puts the computer to sleep and FileVault is enabled, DMA is automatically disabled until the screen is unlocked. If you use this app to lock your screen you will be removing the DMA prevention.
I would also be willing to bet there are other security concerns, as the iphone has taught us - lock screens can be hard :) be careful guys!
Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac
#149Yeah, don't use this. You lose key encryption (done at lock screen by osx) and DMA prevention, which were rather nice security features that the default OSX sleep mode provides.
Re: Tap your iPhone to unlock your Mac
#150This is annoyingly similar to our Thrust to Unlock... https://vimeo.com/78670679