Laplock

Laplock

Leave your MacBook unattended, worry free.

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Laplock is a nifty little app developed at our TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon in London. At heart, Laplock is a menubar app for your Mac.
Laplock gallery image
Launch tags:
Productivity•Menu Bar Apps•Tech
Launch Team

What do you think? …

Holly
Works great! I leave my Mac sitting out in cafes regularly during quick trips to the bathroom or downstairs to order another coffee. Taipei cafes are fairly theft-free, but this can add a little peace of mind on the off chance that some baddie decides s/he wants a new Mac. Some things not mentioned in the app description: 1. Works even when the Mac is muted (turns the sound back on automatically) 2. Won't work with the lid closed/machine sleeping, but there's a screen lock feature in the dropdown 3. Won't work with earbuds plugged in (well, you'll get an earful if you're wearing them). Common sense, yes, but probably easy to overlook. 4. It's easy to enable/disable from the menu bar. Probably best to leave it disabled until you need it, in case you accidentally set it off. 5. The sound is super annoying. Let's just say your team members aren't going to be too pleased if you keep testing it in the office.
Martin Saint-Macary
Maker
@taispy Thanks for the details 1) will be fixed in the beta version 2) we're actively working on this 5) That's kind of the point :-)
Tyler Hayes
@saintmac @taispy How do you solve for #2? cc @willimholte
Martin Saint-Macary
Maker
@thetylerhayes @ shennyg we're actively working on 2), it's a bit tricky but we're almost there and are confident we will do it
Holly
@saintmac For #1, perhaps an option? I kind of thought it was a good feature! I keep my Mac muted when out in public, so I might forget to turn the sound back on before walking away from the computer. For #5, absolutely! Good for attracting attention to criminals stealing your stuff. Just not as good for maintaining good relationships with your colleagues -- especially engineers :) PS: Would love to see an iPhone version. Less worried about my Mac, but have had an iPhone stolen before, right under the nose of the friend who was supposed to be watching it!
Martin Saint-Macary
Maker
@taispy #1 will be released today #5 haha, Don't forget to disable it before packing up your laptop at night ;-) iPhone: Not sure it can be done. It's doable with Android though. But then how would you be getting the notification that your phone is being stolen, on your watch? :-) What is probably doable would be to also "secure" the iPhone to the mac via a lightning cable, and have the mac go crazy when the iPhone is unplugged. Would this be a good use case for you?
Marc
Hunter
In alpha, but I tested it and it works perfectly. Not sure I'd trust it for the intended use case. Would make for some great trolling though ;)
Tori Bunte
I get anxious just thinking about stepping away from my Macbook - but this looks great for those who are more trusting.