March 2007
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Bluetooth Proximity Detection on OS X
One thing that I’ve been playing with off and on for some time is a small efficient little solution for handling basic Bluetooth proximity detection, specifically for being able to perform certain actions when a cell phone or other Bluetooth device is in range of my Powerbook.
As an IT Consultant, I am frequently working in various locations at different clients’ sites, and it’s nice to have my Powerbook secure itself when I’m away from the machine. In addition, my other objectives are to keep the OS X Address Book application connected and to iSync my phone whenever it moves back within proximity of my machine.
Ideally, I would want to activate the OS X screen saver and enable the password protection when I move away from my computer (out of Bluetooth range), but otherwise I’d prefer to keep the screen saver password off for normal use, as it gets quite annoying when I’m working near the computer to have to continually re-enter my password after I’ve diverted my attention elsewhere for a few minutes (which happens frequently, as often the Powerbook sits to one side of other systems that I’m working with, rather than being in constant use).