Software & Apps

I love a good gadget. And any way to make my life easier with something I already carry around with me, I gotta give that a big “Heck Yeah!” That said, I’m not quite ready to jump on some technology, but I imagine there are a lot of people who are ready to hop on board pretty much anything, such as ditching extra keys from their keyring so they don’t have to walk around with such jangly pockets. For those folks, there is the awesomely-named Lockitron (seriously, it sounds like a new Transformer character; doesn’t it just call for all-caps and exclamation marks?!!).

Keyless entry: it’s not just for cars any more!

Lockitron is a device that attaches to your deadbolt lock and uses Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi or SMS to open your door-lock. In non-acronym speak, that means it uses the proximity of your phone, the push of a button on an iPhone or Android app, or a text from an approved user to let you in. This allows you to remotely lock your door if you forgot (in your pre-caffeinated rush out the door), or to allow guests or your kids in without having to make a separate pair of keys. You can also get notifications when your guests or kids have arrived home. Lockitron is currently taking pre-orders for their latest version.

Being a security wonk, I gotta say Lockitron looks very well thought-out. Their security page made me nod my head approvingly as I read through it. And the fact that it’s installed on the inside avoids the “Please hack me” factor that it might otherwise have if it were visible from the outside. It is pretty danged cool to have a lock that knows it’s you and unlocks when you get near. And the Lockitron is cute or sleek (depending which color you choose) in an Apple-gadget-y sort of way.

As I write this, the power at my house is out, meaning the wi-fi is too. If you had a reasonably recent iPhone, this would be no problem and you could still get inside your house. If you had another type of phone, you could activate the lock by SMS. But if, perchance, you had run out of battery juice and your power at home was out…well, I hope you gave an extra key to your neighbor! A key would still work, of course, but it seems silly to have to keep carrying a spare with you since that would defeat the whole purpose of Lockitron.

Lockitron being used on different phones.

I imagine for realtors or other people trying to show an apartment/house/building, this sort of thing would be incredibly helpful. Or really anyone who has a rental house, or lots of house guests, or some other situation where you need to frequently allow and revoke access to a property. For me, as someone who’s always running out of phone battery juice, it would not be such a brilliant idea. But if we ever get back to the point where we have multi-day battery life on phones again, I would so be ordering one of these.

What do you think of the Lockitron? Is it just the gadget you’ve been waiting for? Or are you wary of tying one more area of your security to your smartphone?