Sad, but true. What happens when you let your consumer device loose on your children ... and a question

iThing

Sad, but true. What happens when you let your consumer device loose on your children ... and a question

Mat Newman September 21 2010 05:22:27

I have a client who gave in and let one of their children 'play' on their iPad.

When the client first purchased their iThing, I gave them all the usual warnings: Not a business classs device, designed for consumers, limited application functionality, etc, etc ... and then knowing the client loves gadgets 'Now go and buy the big one, with 3g.'

The client has been keeping the device away from their tech-savvy children, but on a recent trip, gave-in, and let one of them 'play' with it.

Next thing you know there is no mail on the device.

By 'playing' the child had not only managed to delete all the mail, they had also managed to remove the Traveler account from the device. The client noticed the former when the Blackberry started 'emptying' itself of mail. 'Strange' - thought the client, phoning me to see if there was anything wrong with the BES because all their email had disappeared, and the latter when they retrieved the device from the child to double-check the 'disappearing email' issue.

Easy fix. Go into the Mail database on the server and restore all the messages from the trash folder. Reinstantiate the Traveler account on the iPad, and away they went. No biggie. Except the client had 'processed' hundreds of email messages in the preceding day and now had to go through them all again.

Now the question.

Does anyone know how to block access to a specific application on an iThing? I've searched through all the settings and it just doesn't appear possible to password protect even core applications on the mobile Apple OS. Not much on offer from the Apps Store either.

Suggestions anyone?

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1Gregg Eldred 09/21/2010 6:25:23
Sad, but true. What happens when you let your consumer device loose on your children ... and a question

Block access to an application can be done very easily - don't give the device to anyone else.

This doesn't seem like a technology issue to me; it's a management issue.

2Kevin Pettitt 09/21/2010 6:44:06
Sad, but true. What happens when you let your consumer device loose on your children ... and a question

Now Gregg, let's not underestimate the business value of using your iThing to keep your little one quiet while you focus on a conference call or somesuch. ;-)

Seems there should a be a way to "lock settings" similar to the way a Mac does.

3Craig Wiseman 09/21/2010 7:02:40
Sad, but true. What happens when you let your consumer device loose on your children ... and a question

I believe the official Apple answer to this situation is... buy an iThingy for each person.

like, duh?

4Michelle O’Rorke 09/21/2010 8:57:50
Sad, but true. What happens when you let your consumer device loose on your children ... and a question

If you use the iPhone configuration utility to create a configuration profile and password protect it, which will prevent the Traveler account from being removed from the device.

But removing the account from the device does not delete the emails. That must have been done first. Deliberately.

But in general, no - you cannot password protect or add controls to some apps but not others. Their is no concept of 'Do this when I use it, do that when someone else uses it'. iThingy's are definitely single-user devices.

5melissa levy 12/21/2024 22:33:19
Sad, but true. What happens when you let your consumer device loose on your children ... and a question

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Sad, but true. What happens when you let your consumer device loose on your children ... and a question

Mat Newman September 21 2010 05:22:27

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