Locking apps on iPad

I wasn't planning on chiming in, but your comment was really insulting. My desire to want to individually lock apps has absolutely nothing to do with my ability to parent. Either understand that or don't. There, I feel much better now.

You realize, don't you, that you're responding to posts made almost a year ago? Martin_UK hasn't posted on the forums in almost that long. I doubt he's paying much attention to your comments.

I'm not sure how that's relevant, but yes I do realize I commented on an old post. I don't particularly care if Martin ever sees this or not. His comment was ignorant (IMHO) and I simply felt compelled to say so.

Seems rather pointless to me but, hey, if it made you feel better.....

So Martin...sounds like either you have no clue or you are ignorant to the fact that these devices can be used in many many different ways. I own 4 iPads, i have one, my wife has one and both my kids (5 and 4) have one each. Now they both use then to play educational games, that involve learning about math, reading, and writing. Many schools use them with the students, also if the parents are able to purchase these products they have recommendations for what apps to download for the kids. Now in my opinion it sounds like you are somewhat ignorant towards the benefits of technology and your kids will probably end up like you too. I think the real failure in parenting is with you.

As noted above, Martin doesn't seem to have been active in these forums for almost a year. I suspect he no longer cares what any of you think of his opinions on parenting. Personally, I find the fact that at least two of you are so exorcised by coments that old really amusing.

The fact that people are still posting on this thread means that there are still plenty of people looking for a similar solution. And, yes, I have submitted feedback to apple about this twice now. There is no reason to slam people for posting here or call them out as obvious newbies because they want to chime in. The people who are acting (cough) "exorcised" are actually people who seem to make a lot of sense.

1.) iPad could be an amazing tool if enabled with multi-user functionality just like any desktop or laptop.

2.) iPad is a fantastic teaching tool that would be vastly improved with functions such as: "locking" icons so kids cannot disrupt the organization of the pages, protecting email by password, and the ability to lock certain folders.

In fact, what most have requested for children would also be awesome in a corporate environment. For instance, if I hand Sally my iPad to look at a .pdf or presentation or some kind, but had to step out of the room, it would be nice to know she couldn't dig around in my email. To wit, there are a lot of really useful applications for this idea.

It's confounding that so many people here want to resort to petty bs.

No, the problem is that many newbies (yes, you're a newbie) don't understand the product that they've purchased. Apple does make a product that does exactly what you want but the iPad is not it. It doesn't make one bit of sense for Apple to create multiple products that do the same thing and satisfy the same wants and needs of potential customers.

Apple has announced that in the next OS update (in the fall) many of the functions this thread addresses will be included, thanks to feedback from users.

Where is the announcement, please? Can you provide a link?

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2012/06/12/apple-disability-friendly/15835/

It was also covered at the WWDC keynote.

Thanks for your reply---I think I do get it. I'm super revved up about this product, am amazed at how fast my children have learned things on it, AND (OMG, HOLD ME!) have frequent presentations where I pass mine around and I'm all, "please to not snoop through my apps even as I see how awesome you think having this device that you don't own is."

I am a long time Apple devotee, and I think my comments (and others') are pretty simple tech fixes in the scheme of things. We're just asking for product tweaks...for some minor modification in functionality that we think would improve something already amazing. We don't want another product...we just want added features be it through apple or 3rd party app. Truly, one of the best tools Apple has are these forums. What better way to learn what loyal customers are talking about and use it to monetize on products that are already insanely profitable?

win.

BTW, what kind of apps do you want to lock? While iOS doesn't support operating system-level locking of individual(!) third-partty(!) apps, a lot of high-end apps have built-in password / encryption features making them useless for people not knowing the master password. For example, iCab Mobile, the best Web browser, even has a dedicated "guest" kiosk mode (more info at http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/how-you-can-disable-browsing-any-non-company-n on-children-etc-website-your-idevice ). GoodReader, the best multimedia players etc. too allow for passwords.

this is what i'd lock:

mail

messages

oh, and i'd make something that would keep my bossy toddler (cue the bad parenting comments!!) from moving icons around.

that's it.

i'm easy.