Cydia Tweak: How To Unlock Your Mac Computer Using Touch ID
One of the latest and most interesting jailbreak tweaks to take advantage of Apple’s Touch ID is UnlockID, a new package that allows iPhone 5s users to unlock their Mac computer using the fingerprint scanning Home button. You can pick up the new jailbreak tweak in the Cydia Store for $2.99, and it’s compatible with iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks.
UnlockID works using the battery life-friendly Bluetooth low energy (LE), and it searches for and maintains a wireless connection with one’s iPhone 5s using a free Mac utility. As such, you’ll need to have enabled Bluetooth on both your iPhone and Mac, and installed this utility in order to set UnlockID up. Once you’ve got everything installed and enabled, UnlockID on your Mac will generate an authorization code, and at this point you’ll need to switch to iOS.
Over on the iOS side, UnlockID adds a preferences pane to the built-in Settings app, and here you can enable or disable the jailbreak tweak outright. More importantly though, UnlockID’s preferences pane allows users to input the authorization code generated by the jailbreak tweak’s Mac utility; this then establishes the connection between one’s iPhone 5s and Mac.
From here, all users need to do is hold a recognized finger against Touch ID on their iPhone 5s, and their Mac will unlock. Clever, right? This is definitely one of the most interesting jailbreak tweaks to have been released for iOS 7, and it has us excited for the time when our desktop computers, as well as our iDevices, ship with Touch ID sensors built in.
Until that happens, jailbreakers can enjoy the next best experience using UnlockID. It requires iOS 7 and is compatible with the MacBook Air (2011) or newer, the Mac mini (2011), the MacBook Pro (2012) or newer, the iMac (2012) or newer, and the Mac Pro (2013).
How do you like UnlockID?
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