Thursday, December 19, 2013

How to Lock Down Your iPad or iPhone For Kids

iPads and iPhones give you control over how your kids can use your devices. You can quickly lock your device to a certain app before handing it over or lock down an entire device with comprehensive parental controls.
These features are named Guided Access and Restrictions, respectively. Guided Access is ideal for temporarily handing your iPad or iPhone to a kid, while Restrictions are ideal for locking down a device your kids use all the time.

Guided Access

Guided Access allows you to lock your device to a single app. For example, you could lock your device to only run a specific educational app or game and then hand it to your kid. They’d only be able to use that specific app. When they’re done, you can unlock the device with a PIN you set, allowing you to use it normally.
To set up Guided Access, open the Settings app and navigate to General > Accessibility > Guided Access. From here, you can ensure guided access is enabled and set a passcode.
enable-guided-access-settings
To enable Guided Access, open the app you want to lock the device to — for example, whatever educational app or game you want your kid to use. Quickly press the Home button three times and the Guided Access screen will appear.
From here, you can further lock down the app. For example, you could disable touch events completely, disable touch in certain areas of the app, disable motion, or disable hardware buttons.
You don’t have to configure any of these settings, however. To start a Guided Access session, just tap the Start option at the top-right corner of the screen.
ipad-guided-access-enable
If you try to tap the Home button to leave the app, you’ll see a “Guided Access is enabled” message at the top of the screen. Press the Home button three times again and you’ll see a PIN prompt. Enter the PIN you provided earlier to leave Guided Access mode.
ipad-guided-access-disable
That’s it — whenever you want to enable Guided Access, just open the app you want to lock the device to and “triple-click” the Home button.

Restrictions

Restrictions allow you to set device-wide restrictions that will always be enforced. For example, you could prevent your kids from ever using certain apps, prevent them from installing new apps, disable in-app purchases, only allow them to install apps with appropriate ratings, prevent access to certain websites, and lock down other settings. Settings you select here can’t be changed without the PIN you provide.

To set up Restrictions, open the Settings app and navigate to General > Restrictions. Enable Restrictions and you’ll be prompted to create a PIN that you’ll need whenever you change your Restrictions settings.
ipad-enable-restrictions
From here, you can scroll down through the list and customize the types of apps, content, and settings you want your kids to have access to.
For example, to enforce content ratings, scroll down to the Allowed Content section. Tap the Apps section and you can choose which types of apps your kids can install. For example, you could prevent them from installing apps with the “17+” age rating.
ipad-app-age-ratings
Tap the Websites option and you’ll be able to block the Safari browser from loading certain types of websites. You can limit access to certain types of adult content or choose to only allow access to specific websites. You can customize which exact websites are and are not allowed, too.

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If you wanted to block access to the web entirely, you could disable access to the Safari browser and disable the Installing Apps feature, which would prevent your kids from using the installed Safari browser or installing any other browsers.
ipad-block-access-to-websites-parental-controls
The settings you choose will always be enforced until you enter the Restrictions screen in the settings, tap the Disable Restrictions option, and provide the PIN you created.

iOS still doesn’t provide multiple user accounts, but these features go a long way to letting you control what your kids can do on an iPad, whether the iPad is primarily yours or primarily theirs.
Guided Access and Restrictions will work on an iPod Touch, too. If you purchased an iPod Touch for your kid, you can lock it down in the same way.

Source: how to geek
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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Wii U Gaming Lounges in Airports This Month


Southwest Airlines has partnered with Nintendo to provide Wii U gaming lounges for the busy holiday season at six major US airports. 

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Now Southwest passengers at Dallas Love Field, Chicago Midway, Atlanta, Denver, Tampa Bay, and Saint Louis airports have a new way to pass the time between getting through the security line and waiting to board. Southwest Airlines spokesman Dan Landson said, "These are some of the busiest places for holiday travelers and we want to make sure they are having fun while at the airport." Not just fun, but free fun! The lounges are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and are free to use. Each lounge has several kiosks which feature games like Super Mario 3-D World and other new and popular games. Each kiosk can hold up to four gamers. At each lounge there are attendants on site to assist gamers and answer questions. Another bonus is that there is no time limit for game players at the lounges, but passengers ought to be mindful of the time so they don't miss their flight because they were distracted by the games. 


These lounges were installed just before the Thanksgiving travel weekend and will stay at the six airports until December 22nd. On November 26th, more than 100 passengers on Southwest Airlines Flight 1883 from New Orleans to Dallas received a Wii U console as a gift to kick off the promotional period. Southwest is offering a sweepstakes that will end on Christmas Day. The sweepstakes will award 30 prizes, each consisting of two round-trip tickets on Southwest Airlines and one Wii U Deluxe Gaming System. The idea for a gaming lounge is not new, numerous airports worldwide offer year-round gaming options. 
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