Saturday, October 10, 2009

Karmic testing - Bluetooth Proximity (bluesproximity)

During my Ubuntu 9.10 testing, one of the things that I regularly do is crawl through my modified Apt sources list to see what if anything has graduated from PPA into the official repos.  The other benefit is to see what applications have been added to the repos that are similar to the ones I use already.   Change is sometimes good.

Today, I was going using the new "Ubuntu Software Center" to see what I might find that I had been missing as well as to check out the interface.  What I discovered, installed and used (all in under 5 min) was the Bluetooth Proximity application.  This does exactly as advertised.  Any previously paired device can be used, distance for screen locking and unlocking are adjustable.


I have to say it "just works" and locks the screen as soon as I am more than 6 meters away from the computer and doesn't unlock it until I'm closer than 4 meters.  No more forgetting to lock my screen when I step away, and no more typing my pass when I return.  The default screen saver settings remain and the proximity meter can be turned off and on.

I had heard of a way to do this in previous versions that was a bit of a hack and required a collection of scripts.  Now, in one easy to use gui front end, the entire package can be set up.  If you frequently step away from your computer for just a few minutes, I would highly recommend the is application.

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CafeNinja
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting blog as for me. It would be great to read something more concerning this matter. The only thing this blog needs is a few pictures of any gadgets.
John Stepman
Cell jammer

Tom Bott said...

I have to say BlueProximity is a fantastic application.
I've been using it for a few years now, and have noticed a vast improvement with the config.
It used to be a real pain getting the pairing working etc, but now its a breeze.

Tom.