Near Lock

After researching all of the available unlock apps (many of which seem to be abandonware) to see what’s available to unlock a friend’s iMac from her iPhone, I stumbled upon Near Lock, and liked it so much, I paid for the Pro version to use on my laptop & iPhone. BTW, for anyone who hasn’t figured it out yet: long-tapping on your computer’s icon on the main page of the app is the way to lock (or unlock) your Mac: you don’t have to tap on the tiny lock icon (which takes you to a second page) to unlock it. As far as features I’d like to see added in a future update (hence why I gave it only 4/5), a “shake iPhone to lock/unlock Mac” feature would be a slick way to call up Near Lock app when the iPhone is locked, thus unlocking both iPhone and Mac with only one fingerprint scan (or locking Mac with only a shake). (Yes, I know app offers a double-knock feature, but it seems to be used to authenticate vs calling up the authentication prompt page, at which point I’d like to use fingerprint scan to unlock.) I also dinged a star since I reached out to the dev a few weeks ago, but they never got back to me (maybe his sister in the demo video managed to get into his e-mail account, & deleted my e-mail when he walked away from his laptop?).

Very neat little app. I definitly recommend getting the free version and trying it out. I, however, payed for the full version and it does not work as advertised. With the free version you have to have the app open to unlock, not a big deal, it actually brings you a sort of authentication. With the PRO version it says it will work with it running in the background, but very few times have i NOT had to have it open to read. Additionally, the bluetooth distance reader is way off. I would hold my phone further away to test it locking my Mac and the further away i got the closer it said i was (distance meter in the app) i had to walk totally away for it to actually lock the mac. Again, neat little app for a free version but definitely not worth the 4 bucks. save your money.

I've been using Nearlock for quite a while now. When it first came out it worked flawlessly. Then apple changes some things with their iPhone Bluetooth stack and broke it. (They broke a lot of things with that update!) While it was "fixed", it has never been the same since. Now, even with the latest update, every morning when I open the lid on my MBP, the icon is clear (not connected). I then have to open the app on my phone and click scan to get the MBP and phone to sync up. Sometimes I have to restart Bluetooth on both first. I have to do this several times a day in fact. And as another reviewer mentioned, it's becoming not worth the effort anymore. Is there a fix in sight?

I gave it 3 stars because it does more in some ways than Knock does. It’s biggest fault and what kills the app is it’s inability to function, functions great to lock and unlock the Mac after you manually log in. Leave the phone by the Mac over night or come home from work and it will not log in for you 75%+ of the time. Main reason I gave it 3 stars is because even though it has major issues it still has more updates than Knock. Knock hasn’t had a real update in over 2 years and with every new OS it has been getting worse. If Near Lock does an update soon they will have a chance of being better instead of on par.

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So conceptually this is a great idea. You can set the distance from which your Mac will unlock as you approach. It's a free app, but it only works free if you open the app on your Apple Watch or iPhone which is no easier than just unlocking your Mac manually. But for $3.99 it will unlock your Mac without having to open the app. Convenient, so I fell for it. I keep my iPhone in my pants pocket. Which means that my iPhone is pretty much under my desk when I'm sitting at the Mac. As I approach the Mac from a distance it's cool to see it come to life automatically. But when I sit down at my desk the app tells me that my iPhone is 9 feet from the Mac and it turns the Mac off. That's sort of defeats the entire purpose of the app. so I have to either log on manually, or take out my iPhone and leave it on the desk. Just wasted $3.99.