MacID

Category

Description of App

Unlock your Mac with just your fingerprint, passcode, or wrist – without even unlocking your iOS device.
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MacID requires a Mac with Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) running OS X Yosemite or later, and an iOS device with Bluetooth LE running iOS 8 or later. Please make sure your devices support Bluetooth LE before purchasing MacID for iOS.
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FEATURES:
<ul>
<li>MacID works with multiple Macs at once.</li>
<li>Unlock your Mac using Touch ID, device passcode, and now your wrist with MacID for Apple Watch!</li>
<li>Apple Watch Glance for super quick access.</li>
<li>Interactive notifications – you don't even have to unlock your iOS device.</li>
<li>Control your Mac's audio; works with iTunes & Spotify!</li>
<li>Manually lock your Mac or start the screensaver remotely.</li>
<li>Auto-lock when you're away from your Mac.</li>
<li>Proximity waking and automatic unlocking when returning to your Mac.</li>
<li>Notification Center widget; unlock your Mac from anywhere on your iOS device.</li>
<li>Share clipboard text between your Mac and iOS device.</li>
<li>Choose between MacID's standard colours or a more high-contrast UI.</li>
<li>Authorise with Touch ID for tasks like moving protected files to the Trash on your Mac. (Admin accounts only)</li>
</ul>
<strong>INTERACTIVE NOTIFICATIONS:</strong>

With MacID you don't even need to open the app to unlock your Mac. MacID intelligently notifies you when one of your connected Macs is woken up, which you can authorise and unlock directly from your iOS lock screen using either your fingerprint or passcode.

<strong>AUTHORISE:</strong>

MacID will even notify you when tasks require your OS X password, like moving protected files to the Trash or changing a setting in System Preferences. (Admin accounts only)

<strong>AUDIO CONTROLS:</strong>

You can also play, pause and skip iTunes & Spotify on your Mac remotely, as well as change the volume. Simply long-press on the audio controls to toggle between track and volume controls. Audio controls work anywhere the physical keys would on your Mac.

<strong>CLIPBOARD SHARING:</strong>

Ever needed to quickly share a phone number or piece of text between your Mac and iOS device? Clipboard sharing is built right into MacID; share anything up to 4000 characters. And now you can do it right from the Notification Center.

<strong>AUTO-LOCK:</strong>

Enable auto-lock in MacID for OS X and your Mac will automatically lock when your iOS device moves away from it. You can even get notified when your Mac locks itself.

<strong>PROXIMITY WAKING:</strong>

Enable proximity waking in MacID for OS X and your Mac will wake itself when your iOS device gets near. Then simply authorise from the interactive notification MacID sends you to unlock your Mac, or enable automatic unlocking to have MacID do it for you.

<strong>WIDGET:</strong>

MacID includes a handy Notification Center widget, which will show all your currently connected Macs and give you quick access to lock and unlock them from anywhere on your iOS device. You can even start a Mac's screensaver or share the clipboard; right from the Notification Center!

<strong>MacID is:</strong>
<ol>
<li>Secure: your OS X password never leaves your Mac, and iOS never discloses your fingerprint data or passcode to MacID.</li>
<li>Trustworthy: MacID doesn't ever connect to the Internet.</li>
<li>Simple: designed to be as easy to use as it is beautiful to look at.</li>
<li>Power friendly: MacID uses the latest Bluetooth Low Energy technology to use as little energy as possible, no matter how much you use it!</li>
<li>Fast: MacID for iOS and MacID for Apple Watch have been built with speed in mind.</li>
</ol>
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<strong>Macs that support Bluetooth LE:</strong>
<ol>
<li>MacBook Air from 2011 & newer</li>
<li>MacBook Pro from 2012 & newer</li>
<li>iMac from 2012 & newer</li>
<li>Mac Mini from 2011 & newer</li>
<li>Mac Pro from 2013 & newer</li>
</ol>
Check if your Mac supports Bluetooth Low Energy by clicking on the Apple menu > About This Mac > System Report > Bluetooth.

MacID for iOS needs to be paired with the MacID for OS X companion app, which you must download from http://macid.co/get

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MacID was featured as EE's "App of the Week" in the UK, and one of Time Magazine's "5 Apps Not To Miss"!
***

Version

1.2.1

Free or Paid

Paid

Apple Watch Support

Yes

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

8.3

Accessibility Comments

The app works very well on the iPhone, however the Apple Watch app has unlabeled buttons when you tap to see connected devices from the glance or when using the MacID app itself on the Watch. However, the interfaces are the same for the glance and the app, so you can simply tap the second unlabeled button to get to buttons which have labels on them to unlock/lock. The first unlabeled button locks your Mac if it is unlocked. The developer has said this will be fixed in the next update after WWDC.

Audio controls also do not read with VoiceOver in the iOS application. While they show for each connected device, VoiceOver does not know they are there. The developer is aware of this problem.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads most page elements.

Button Labeling

Most buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

There are some minor accessibility issues with this app, but they are easy to deal with.

Other Comments

Right now, even the iOS application will show options which may not be applicable. This can include lock/unlock buttons when the Mac is not in a locked/unlocked state, however this is being considered and may change. I decided to mention comments regarding the Apple Watch here as it is rather relevant. The app works very well. You can show signal strength to your iOS device from your Mac by holding ALT key and showing the status menu item, though this does not seem to work with VoiceOver on OS X. Instead, you can use <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lightblue-bluetooth-low-energy/id557428110?mt=8&quot; target="_blank">LightBlue</a> to see the signal strength of Bluetooth devices connected.

Developer's Twitter Username

MacIDHelp

Recommendations

1 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Nicolai Svendsen 8 years 8 months ago

Options

Comments

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, June 28, 2015 - 06:37

I read about light blew (I think I'm misspelling the app wrong) but i don't quite understand what that does along with the app reviewed here. good job on the review.

LightBlue as I mentioned in the app comments shows signal strength between your Mac and peripheral devices. This is handy because, while MacID does the same thing, it is not currently visible to VoiceOver, at least not by any methods I have tried so far. Of course, I am happy to be corrected on this with the current version of the application.

The application is similarly great for discovering which Auto-locking setting works best for you, or whether you need to use a custom DBM signal setting for some reason. Some signals appear weaker than others even when the connected device is nearby on some Macs, so the application can also help you to narrow down false positives.

I mentioned it here primarily because the information is not seemingly available to VoiceOver right now within MacID itself, but the information is actually very important in some instances.

By David Goodwin on Sunday, June 28, 2015 - 06:37

It should also be noted that the audio controls mentioned in the description of the app are visually present on the iOS app and usable by sighted users, but these controls are not seen by VoiceOver.

Hi!

Thanks for the reminder. I forgot about that. I'll put it in there.