Limiting your kids' iOS use

From TUAW:

By Christopher Breen

Jan 21, 2013 6:30 AM

Concerned parent and reader Frank Reilly seeks a way to control his kids’ device use. He writes:

My two children each have an iPod touch and they spend a lot of time with them on Facebook and Instagram. My wife and I try to keep an eye on the time they spend, but we don’t want to be police either. I’ve looked at the iPods’ restrictions but they don’t do what we want, which is to limit the hours they can use these services. Any suggestions?

At the risk of offering parenting advice, the first step is to evaluate how much time the kids are really spending and then determine the harm it’s doing. If it’s interfering with more important activities—homework, chores, exercise, and time spent with the family and friends—it’s time for The Talk. And The Talk, in this case, emphasizes that while this technology is very cool, there’s more to life than staring at a screen and interacting with virtual friends. Then try to set up a schedule where social networking is placed in the context of a recreational pursuit.

If The Talk doesn’t take and the kids are spending more time than you’re prepared to allow, there are sterner approaches you can take. One of the harshest is to set up a system where the kids have to “check out” the devices during certain times of the day. When that time expires, they have to turn them over to you. Very few teenagers will put up with this approach, plus it puts you in the position of being the iPod cop.

A gentler technique that achieves much the same results is to limit your network. (To avoid pouting and/or poison looks, let your kids know you’re going to do this.) The kids can keep their iPod but they'll lack the means to get on the Internet. This is easily done if you have an AirPort-based wireless network. Like so:

“Borrow” your kids’ iPods and on each navigate to Settings > General > About. Write down the numbers and letters you find listed after the Wi-Fi Address entry. This is the iPod’s MAC address, which is the unique identifier for that device.

Now move to your Mac and launch AirPort Utility. Select the base station connected to your Internet source and click on the Edit button. Click the Network tab in the resulting window and then click on the box next to Enable Access Control. Click the Timed Access Control button that is now active.

Limit device access within AirPort Utility

In the sheet that appears click the Plus (+) button and enter the name of the device in the Description field (“Junior’s iPod,” for example) and the associated identifier in the MAC Address field.

In the Wireless Access Times area use the pop-up menus to choose the times you’ll allow the iPod to have access to the Internet—weekdays between 3 and 5 PM and weekends from 10 AM to 12 PM, for instance. Then click the Plus button once again to add the other child’s iPod and configure that one as you wish. (You can configure different times for each device.) When things are configured as you like, click Save and allow AirPort Utility to update your base station. The limits you imposed are now in place.

How to use the iOS Reminders app

Click here for a great article from MacWorld on the Reminders app!

Twenty-six percent of European doctors use an iPad professionally

From TUAW:

European readers who visit with their doctors have a good chance of seeing an iPad in use during their appointments. According to a new survey of physicians, 26 percent of 1,207 practicing physicians in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the UK said that they own an iPad and spend 27 percent of their work online time using the iPad.

Manhattan Research carried out the Taking the Pulse Europe study in the fourth quarter of 2011, and found that 40 percent of doctors surveyed plan to purchase an iPad within the next six months. The adoption rate of iPad usage is the same for primary care physicians (general practitioners and doctors of internal and family medicine) and specialists (ophthalmologists, rheumatologists, etc...).

What are all of these doctors using their iPads for? The survey showed that they're using them primarily to browse medical articles on the web, watch videos, and look up information. The European doctors are also showing a lot of interest in "using iPads to manage and educate their patients."

An article in pharmaceutical blog PMLiVe noted that some large companies like AstraZeneca, Jannsen, and Vertex have created iPad-specific apps targeting healthcare professionals, but that Pfizer had to pull an iPhone app last autumn when errors were found in its Rheumatology Calculator. The situation brought up the question of whether or not pharmaceutical apps should be considered as medical devices, which could slow down the development of new and useful apps in the future.

By Steven Sande
Feb 15th 2012 at 4:15PM 

iPads for Madison, WI schools purchased with Microsoft lawsuit settlement funds

From TUAW:

A total of about 1,400 iPads are heading to schools in Madison, Wisconsin during 2012, indirectly paid for by none other than Microsoft.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that the school district is acquiring iPads as they are less expensive, easier to use, and more portable than the usual computers purchased for educational use. Bill Smojver, the director of technical services for the Madison School District, referred to Apple's recent educational announcements about iBooks Author, iBooks 2, and digital textbooks as a "significant development."

Deputy superintendent of schools Sue Abplanalp said that Madison administrators found that students using tablets were more engaged in the classroom, as evidenced by a demonstration they witnessed in the Chicago Public Schools.

The school district will get the iPads through a traditional Apple educational discount for about $479 each, with the final tab being paid for with part of a nearly US$80 million settlement between Microsoft and the state of Wisconsin. That 2009 settlement was the end result of a lawsuit that alleged that Microsoft cheated consumers by overpricing its software for years.

By Steven Sande
Jan 30th 2012 at 8:30AM 

How the iPad is succeeding in Heathcare

From TUAW:

Wired has posted a profile of one Afshad Mistri, an Apple employee whose goal is quite focused. As the medical market manager, he's tasked with connecting medical professionals and Apple's technology. Mistri couldn't chat with Wired for the article itself (Apple's less-than-press-friendly reputation is upheld), but according to medical personnel he's working with, Apple is pushing hard on the healthcare industry by setting up iPads and other brand new tech in medical workplaces.

That's interesting, as Apple traditionally hasn't aggressively pursued the enterprise, leaving most offices to companies like Microsoft and RIM. But the medical market is different. In addition to Mistri's behind-the-scenes work and stories about organizations using the iPad, Apple has featured medical apps during several public presentations

It's not a big surprise, since the medical industry is tech-friendly (which is right where Apple wants to be) and has deep pockets to fund upgrades. But it is interesting that Apple has chosen to actively pursue medicine. We can probably expect to see more universities and hospitals embracing the iPad and Apple's devices moving forward.

by Mike Schramm 

The iPad's incredible effect on the PC industry is only beginning

From TUAW:

We already know based on Apple's latest quarterly earnings report that the iPad is pretty much eating the PC industry's lunch. Writing for Forbes, Bob Evans points out that as impressive as the iPad's effect on the industry has been thus far, we've only begun to see the sea change Apple's tablet device is triggering.

Evans offers five reasons why the iPad seems to be taking over the industry, and in each case he believes the iPad's real disruptive potential has yet to be realized. First, he repeats Apple COO Tim Cook's remarks from the last financial call, where he stated that while Apple was seeing slight cannibalization of Mac sales because of the iPad, the effect was relatively small compared to the devastation present in the rest of the PC industry. Mac sales were up 14 percent last quarter, but growth in the rest of the industry is a far smaller 2.6 percent.

It's not just everyday consumers driving the iPad's growth, either. Multiple studies have come out showing how eagerly businesses are adopting the iPad for enterprise applications, and the recent launch of Apple's B2B volume purchasing program is likely to drive even greater adoption of the iOS platform. As Evans points out, part of the reason enterprise adoption of the iPad is so high is that businesses are finding uses for the device that Apple never expected.

Apple's retail stores are another reason Evans offers for the iPad's success. Apple Stores arguably made the Mac, iPod, and iPhone more successful than they would have been otherwise, and it's no stretch to say the same is true of the iPad.

Perhaps the most important predictor of the iPad's future success is iPad use by children. Young kids in particular are growing up in a world where touchscreen tablets are a fact of life. I grew up with the Apple II already part of the toolset in my kindergarten, so it's almost impossible for me to comprehend a world without personal computers. Will today's kindergarteners feel the same way about hardware like the iPad? It's entirely possible.

As Evans says, the iPad has been on the market for less than a year and a half. We're only seeing the beginning of its effects on the industry. Think back to the mid-80s, when the Mac first came out, and consider how long it took before GUI-based computers became a home appliance every bit as "necessary" as the T.V. Or think back to the early 2000s, and how many years it took before the iPod supplanted both CD players and other mp3 players as the king of the portable music player industry. The iPad has already had a huge impact, but it's only the beginning.

By Chris Rawson
Jul 27th 2011 at 1:30AM 

iPad 2 Smart Cover-compatible cases

Own an Apple Smart Case but want a cover for the back too? Check out this article from TUAW:

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/12/smart-cover-compatible-ipad-2-case-roundup/

Consumer PC sales growth declines for first time ever: iPad the culprit?

Here's a great link to an article in The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) from Business Insider about the iPad being a possible reason for PC sales declining:

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/29/consumer-pc-sales-down-for-first-time-ever-ipad-the-culprit/

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