Hi, my name is Michael – and I use a Mac.
I’m no Cupertino fanboy, but be assured that I was tempted by the ability of the MacBook to run all Mac/Linux/Windows software on one hardware platform. And I’ve been pleased overall.
I appear to have found a small bug with Front Row. Like many others, I have a password on my account and setup my computer to require it when I shut the lid. In public areas/meetings this makes it easy to simply shut my lid and step away for a few minutes.
One day I was experimenting with the Apple Remote Control. For those of you fortunate enough to play with one of these toys, you can easily bring up iMovie, iTunes, … all while sitting on your couch … or in your office chair. So during my “testing” I noticed that if I pushed the Menu button (which launches Front Row) and shut my lid, something interesting happened. No screen saver. No password. Just Front Row.
Not scared yet? Here’s the kicker. By default a MacBook (I have the nice black one) will receive input from any Remote. We tested it here multiple times and I could Front Row a computer from 10-30 feet, then the screen saver/password feature was overridden.
So here’s the scenario: Someone is using their laptop and about to walk away and shut their lid to “lock” their computer. You aim and click the menu key at their laptop just before they close it. They walk away – you open their lid, close Front Row and have unadulterated access to their machine. Scary.
Anyway, I did some searching in the blog-o-inter-web-o-sphere’s and didn’t find any details about this. Why would an app like Front Row negate the security on the OS? Ask Steve.