Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Disable the Home-Button on your iDevice!

Okay, so if you've worked with students using an iDevice, you've had the experience of them hitting the home button to "explore" before you were done with the lesson. Oftentimes undoing whatever progress they were making. Very frustrating, and thus creating our Love/Hate relationship with the "home" button!

There are some physical solutions.  Such as the BubCap Home Button Cover.  To be honest I've not used one yet. Seems like a good intervention, and at $6.99 for an intro-pack with 2 BubCaps and 2 BubCaps Ultra, fairly inexpensive!  BubCaps apply like a sticker, and are removable and reusable.

Reviews are generally pretty positive for the BubCap, and so this may be the way to go for many of us.

However, if you'd like a solution that doesn't require another object in your therapy/teaching tool bag (albeit a very small object), here is another solution that is pretty slick.  Install a user profile.

Clicking on the link below, with the browser on your iDevice will allow you to instantly download a user profile that locks you into the first app you open.

CAUTION: DON'T INSTALL THIS UNLESS YOU FEEL CONFIDENT REMOVING IT!

Let's walk through how this works, and I think you should get to the place where you will be confident!

INSTALL: (read through INSTALL and UNINSTALL before doing this!)
Install Profile
1. Open your browser on your iPad (or iTouch/iPhone)
2. Browse to this amazing blog your reading!
3. Click on the "HOME LOCK" link below.
4. Click "Download"
5. Your iPad will open your Settings, and you will be presented with the screen to the right.
6. Click "Install Now"
7. Click "Done"
8. Turn the iPad off
9. Now when you turn it on, the very first app you open will be stuck open! The home button is disabled.

If you want to switch apps, you will have to shut the iPad all the way off, and restart. The next app you open will be stuck open. This may be a little cumbersome, but it's a sure fire method to stay in the app of your choosing!

Remove Profile
Now, your done with the student, and want to unlock the home button. Follow the procedure below.

UNINSTALL:
1. Turn on iPad
2. Open "Settings"
3. Open "General"
4. Open "Profile"
5. Make sure you select "App Home Button" and then
6. Click on the red "Remove" button
7. Turn your iPad off and on, and you should be back to "normal".




Short Cut!
Click Arrow

One last trick to make this a bit more convenient. Open your iPad browser back to my blog here. Click on the arrow in the bottom middle of the browser window, and choose "Add to Home Screen". Now you have a short-cut on your iPad desktop that will bring you back to this app profile easily whenever you want to do a quick install for therapy!




Click here for the App Profile:  HOME LOCK


This incredibly wonderful bit of code comes from Joris Kluivers, my new hero in software writing. He makes it available for free on his interesting technical blog.  

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