Are there any plans to add a timed lockout option. Every time the iPhone display fades out the phone auto-locks up. In addition, the wallet locks out as well and I have to re-enter my password every time. Would you consider adding a timed lockout option. Maybe an option to lockout anywhere from 30secs to 10mins. So if the iPhone auto-locks the wallet doesn't lock until 2min have past if I set that option.
Hello Kyle.
There are no such plans. We have purposefully avoided adding configuration options to the app in order to make it as simple as possible to use and to have as few "knobs" as we can get away with. The idea is that people who do not need lock-out don't have it, but those who do need it set it once for the entire iPhone and don't need to set it for each application. Fewer knobs - less confusion.
Can you explain why do you want to have the app lockout few seconds after the phone lockout?
Even though I am currently not inclined to implement your suggestion I'm glad you took time to write it down. If many people write with the same idea we might have to find a better compromise than what we have right now. Thanks!
"Can you explain why do you want to have the app lockout few seconds after the phone lockout?"
Sure. Even though there are no plans to add this feature, I will gladly explain why.
As you know the iPhone does not allow users to adjust the "Slide to Unlock" with the screen off. When the screen fades out the iPhone auto-locks. I went to a store to purchase something and I couldn't remember my new pin on my card, so I pulled out the iphone and pulled up Memengo Wallet to get the pin (glad to have Memengo). I had to enter the passcode to enter the wallet (which is excellent extra security). But after i put the phone back in my pocket i remembered I had to get more info. I had to slide the unlock and pull up the wallet and enter the passcode in again. Though the timed lock feature is not a major option needed, it would have been nice to have because it can be a bit annoying at times when I have to enter the passcode in every time the iPhone locks. Thanks for listening and thanks for explaining why you chose not to add a timed lock option.
Thanks for explaining your scenario, Kyle. We'll keep it in mind for our design revisions.
I'll proffer a good reason for a timed lockout: I store a lot of confidential client notes, not just passwords and such. I may be editing or browsing a client note and need to jump out for a second to check an email or send a SMS, whatever - then when I come back I have to enter the password again. This may happen repeatedly, making for a real PITA with a long encryption key. Consequently, and contrary to your advice, I am using a very short key. A configurable lockout timer would solve that.
I appreciate your desire to keep things simple, but adding such features behind an "Advanced" button would not unduly confound beginners. Besides, people who take the time to find, purchase, and install a relatively specialized app such as this are already smarter than your average bear.
Please consider.
Also, the what is the maximum card length? Some of my notes are long.
Thanks!
Your case seems to be more compelling, Robert. (No offense Kyle :-)). I can see how this can get tedious, yet there is no workaround you could take.
Off the bat I could not come up with a solution that would preserve current level of security, but I will keep looking into it. I'll post the update to this thread.
Could you please create separate thread about card length? I'd like to keep things neaty organied so that other people can find them with ease. Thanks.
Regarding a way to preserve current security while outside the Memengo app. Might I suggest writing a time stamp into the wallet, or other file, upon exiting the app. When relaunching the app, simply check the time stamp to see if the lockout time has elapsed.
(No offense Kyle :-)) None taken. I'm glad Robert gave an even better senario. I also go though that situation as well and it is annoying.
With regard to Robert's comment,
Based on how I believe the app works:
It's not as simple as just checking a time stamp, because the app should never know how to decrypt your data. The only way it knows how to decrypt the data is by using your pass phrase. Thus the pass phrase would need to be saved somewhere, which is a security risk.
If you want to leave the app and return to it, it means the key would have to be stored somewhere on the hard drive most likely. This would present a security risk because someone could then read the key from the hard drive. While it is unlikely that someone would be able to get your password using this method, it is possible. If it's really that important and enough users request it, I guess it could be a setting (disabled by default). That way only those that are willing to take that risk can have that feature.
You got it exactly right. In order for the wallet to open up automatically within e.g. 5 minutes of you closing it we would have to store the key somewhere. And if we do, there is nothing preventing the thief from dialing back the clock and pretending that he is opening the wallet moments after you closed it. Even if they didn't know the exact time they could find out with about one hour worth of work and the right tools. It's risky.
It would have been a lot easier if we could ask the iPhone OS "hey, store this for me but delete it in 5 minutes, ok?". Alas, it doesn't seem that OS supports that.
While I agree that not every application should have an override of the global auto-lock setting, I think that this application is one of the few exceptions that should. The reason is because of the fact that an auto lock is so severe in this app as opposed to how it is in other apps. In other apps you simply unlock the screen and you are back to where you were, no harm done. But in this one, you have to enter your pass phrase again which gets annoying.
In fact, the only reason I have an auto-lock timeout of 2 minutes instead of 1 minute is because I use Memengo Wallet.
I think the best solution would be to have an "Auto-lock" setting that can have one of the following values: Default, 1 Minute, 2 Minutes, 3 Minutes, 4 Minutes, 5 Minutes, Never. Where "Default" would behave exactly as it does now, i.e. it let's the iPhone auto-lock as it normally would based on the user's settings. Of course, the settings should be in the global "Settings" app like how it is in most applications.
There's an additional benefit to this as well, imagine someone that doesn't use auto-lock at all on their phone, but decides that because they have all this sensitive information on the screen, they want it to automatically lock the wallet after 2 minutes if they haven't touched the screen. This setting easily allows them to achieve that.
In other words, not only would this setting be useful in preventing the screen from auto-locking. It would also be useful in auto-locking the screen on purpose.
The app is great, it's just that with a few more improvements, it will be even better.
Ok, so it seems there are actually two different requests here:
1. you don't want the app to close immediately after screen lockout
2. the app should to retain the key for X minutes after a different app is started.
The former is a lot easier to do since we can just keep the app running. I'll look into it.
Yeah, I guess this is a different feature than what they wanted.
Actually now that I think about it, maybe you could let the iPhone lock as it normally would, it's just that when the user unlocks it, it would see if the specified amount of time has passed or not. If too much time has passed, then exit the app. Otherwise, let the app remain open. For some reason I was thinking that once the iPhone is locked, it means that Memengo has to exit. I forgot that it can remain open, lol.
The only issue I see with this is if your auto-lock setting on the iPhone is 5 minutes (for example) and you set the auto-lock of Memengo to 2 minutes. It basically means that you want the app to exit after 2 minutes of inactivity. This would be a brand new feature that would need to be implemented. You don't necessarily want the iPhone to lock, you just want the app to exit. This part of the "Memengo auto lock feature" is not that important to me, because my iPhone lock will be lower than my Memegno lock. It would only be an issue for those with a high iPhone auto-lock and would want a lower auto-lock for Memengo.
So now it basically sounds like 2 distinct features that need to be implemented as opposed to the 1 feature I originally thought would need to be implemented in my previous post. While it does seem like more work than my original thought, it does seem like the correct solution though. Because what you want to control is when Memengo should close, not when the phone should lock.
So basically you would need to implement:
• if memengoAutoLock <= iphoneAutoLock: Create a timer that checks for user inactivity and exit the app once enough time passed.
• if memengoAutoLock > iphoneAutoLock: When the iPhone returns from locked mode, check to see if too much time has passed, and if so exit Memengo.
Unless there is a way to execute code while the phone is locked (via a timer for example). In that case, you would simply exit the app when the inactivity time is reached and you wouldn't need the above two scenarios. It would just be one neat little function for both parts of this feature.
btw, because it would no longer force/prevent an iPhone lock, I really should have called the feature something else like "Timeout" instead of "Auto-lock" to avoid confusion. Also the first value it could be set to would be called "On iPhone Lock" instead of "Default". This would allow you to retain the way it currently works.
I hope that makes sense, and sorry for the long post.
Yes it makes perfect sense. I coded the change as you described, it will be in the next update.
Kyle, this should make you happy as well.
Robert, your request is still on my mind.
Wow that was quick, thanks for listening to your users. Keep up the great work. Any ETA for the next update?
I can push it out at any time, but I try to batch up several new features together so that people feel they got something with the new update. Right now there is not many changes to be pushed - this one, plus font changes for better readability.
Actualy, let me ask you this - would you rather see more frequent updates with fewer features in each, or less frequent updates with more features?
Just got the new version… very nice implementation of the feature. Thanks, now I can use 1 minute auto-lock again.
Sorry it took so long. I am juggling two products at once (the other one is http://geetasks.com) plus Apple is taking their sweet time to approve updates. I promise to make it faster next time. Would you be interested in Beta-testing future versions of the Wallet app?
Thanks Thanks Thanks Denis!!!! I haven't been here in quite a while, but I definitely appreciate the upgrade with the timeout option. It makes a big difference on how I use the application now. I've been extremely busy over the months so I couldn't thank you earlier so I'm thanking you now. I like the other features as well. Thanks again.
