Slide To Unlock — Your Mac [OS X Tips]

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Slide to Unlock Mac

You’ve been sliding to unlock your iPhone and your iPad since day one. Why not do the same on your Mac? Well, today’s tip will show you how, with a simple app download, you can be sliding and gesturing to unlock your Mac in no time at all.

Lock Screen 2, by iDevelop Co. Ltd, is a Mac app that lets you lock your Mac with a keystroke, and then unlock it with a swipe or gesture known only to you. Sneaky!

Download the app from the Mac App store for $1.99 now (regularly priced at $4.99), and let it load up into your Launchpad. Clicking on the icon to launch Lock Screen 2 will put the app into your menu bar, which can then be accessed by clicking on the little lock icon there.

By default, Command-L will lock your Mac’s screen, bringing up the Slide to Unlock message that can be set in the preferences. I set mine to say, “Slide Trackpad to Unlock.” The picture can also be customized using the current desktop picture, an image file from your Mac, or the default image that comes with the App.

For added security, you can also set up what the developers call a “Passpattern” on the keyboard, which allows you to swipe across specific keys in a row as a password gesture of sorts. You can also enable or disable Trackpad unlocking, which can be further secured by adding specific keyboard modifiers like the Control, Option, and/or Command keys along with a one, two, three, or four finger swipe to unlock.

[Via: Mac Life]

Got an OS X tip? Need help troubleshooting OS X? Drop me a line or leave a comment below.

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