Last week I decided to try a new app from Foozoo Design called Lockdown. Lockdown is security software app that locks your mac, allowing no-one but you to use it. Once enabled Lockdown’s motion-sensors, keyboard-sensors, external device sensors and MagSafe sensors prevent all co-workers, thief’s and family members from using your mac. When your mac […]
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Lockdown Your Mac & Never Use it Again!

Sep 8th 2008 by

Last week I decided to try a new app from Foozoo Design called Lockdown. Lockdown is security software app that locks your mac, allowing no-one but you to use it. Once enabled Lockdown’s motion-sensors, keyboard-sensors, external device sensors and MagSafe sensors prevent all co-workers, thief’s and family members from using your mac. When your mac detects a unauthorized user, the computer sounds an alarm, preventing the system from being muted or put to sleep. The software will even take a snap shot of the user with your iSight and email directly to your account.

Sounds cool huh? I thought so too, until Lockdown locked me out of my own computer. Yes, things were looking good for Friday afternoon. I was going to relax, watch some movies, but silly Ben…I decided to try out the new Lockdown.

All went well with the installation of Lockdown and I was ready to test it out. I pressed the enable button and waited to be identified as a ‘unauthorized user’. As a hit the keyboard, the alarm went off; frightening everyone in the house. Make it stop, make it stop! Shaking doesn’t work, pressing the keyboarded doesn’t work, nothing works! Unless of course you have an Apple remote. Something I didn’t have with me at that time (being away from home). The only option was to manually force my mac to shut-down, hoping that it would turn on again normally when I got home.

It didn’t…..

I couldn’t start the computer in safe mode, i couldn’t start the computer in normal mode. What a headache it had turned out to be. After checking the website (on a PC) I realised there was no user feedback or instruction manual. No fix for my problem anywhere. Only a few people reporting the same issue on Mac forums.

So, I guess your wondering if I got my mac working again. Yes, I did. Thanks to the staff at my local Mac shop I was advised do an OS reinstall. Fortunately I kept all my data and the whole experience merely cost only a few troublesome hours. No thanks however, to the Lockdown team. I’m still waiting on a return email regarding a fix to my problem.

Lockdown is unnecessary software. Any security program that doesn’t have an easy to use disable method isn’t worth using. There are plenty of other software alternatives out there, similar to Lockdown, yet better.

WARNING: Avoid Lockdown.

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