I have spent some time this morning playing with Kiosk Pro Lite and constructing my own kiosk. I will have to wait a little longer to use all the tools of Mokimanage, as I am waiting for them to send me my registration code. This was no problem, as Kiosk Pro Lite was able to keep me plenty entertained.
The administration tools of the Kiosk Pro Lite system are incredibly intuitive. The app opens up to a series of options that control the user experience. When you are satisfied with what you have chosen, you simply click on the "Run Kiosk Presentation" and you are in kiosk mode.
I am happy that I was able to play with the app because the kiosk function does not work as I imagined. I thought I would be able to create a "home page" arrangement for the kiosk with links to the different website and videos for which I was permitting access to. Instead, The Kiosk Pro Lite version of this app had me choose one website as the home page and allowed me to permit access to other websites. I had to allow the URL toolbar to be shown or else there would be no way for me to navigate to permitted sites. I checked, and both upgraded versions of the app let's you create up to six navigation links to fix this problem. If we decide we want more than six links, we can always create a website whose sole purpose is to have links to the other sites that we want and make this new website the kiosk home-page. In fact, doing so would allow us to create an aesthetically pleasing home screen for users to navigate from as they explore the kiosk.
The administration tools of the Kiosk Pro Lite system are incredibly intuitive. The app opens up to a series of options that control the user experience. When you are satisfied with what you have chosen, you simply click on the "Run Kiosk Presentation" and you are in kiosk mode.
I am happy that I was able to play with the app because the kiosk function does not work as I imagined. I thought I would be able to create a "home page" arrangement for the kiosk with links to the different website and videos for which I was permitting access to. Instead, The Kiosk Pro Lite version of this app had me choose one website as the home page and allowed me to permit access to other websites. I had to allow the URL toolbar to be shown or else there would be no way for me to navigate to permitted sites. I checked, and both upgraded versions of the app let's you create up to six navigation links to fix this problem. If we decide we want more than six links, we can always create a website whose sole purpose is to have links to the other sites that we want and make this new website the kiosk home-page. In fact, doing so would allow us to create an aesthetically pleasing home screen for users to navigate from as they explore the kiosk.
While playing, I was also able to discover a new way to "escape" from the kiosk mode. By pinching my fingers on the iPad I was able to close the app and gain access to the entire tablet. I spent some time trying to find a fix to this hole and discovered I could turn off this function in general settings of the iPad itself. If users are able to discover other loopholes, than the kiosk application serves little purpose. While I could not find any other ways, we will need to be sure that the home button is the only way to get out of the kiosk mode before we decide on using Kiosk Pro Lite as our app.
Overall, I was pleased with the success of the app. By allowing me to control which menu items are hidden when browsing the internet, I can make room for a larger browser screen. Also, I chose Yahoo.com as my homepage because there are many ways to access other website from the site. I was able to explore all of Yahoo, but when I hit a link on the webpage or from a web search that was not under the Yahoo domain, a notification popped up explaining "sorry, this site is not allowed" and I could not access it. Again, the only issue is that the app never lists which sites are in the "YES fly-zone."
Overall, I was pleased with the success of the app. By allowing me to control which menu items are hidden when browsing the internet, I can make room for a larger browser screen. Also, I chose Yahoo.com as my homepage because there are many ways to access other website from the site. I was able to explore all of Yahoo, but when I hit a link on the webpage or from a web search that was not under the Yahoo domain, a notification popped up explaining "sorry, this site is not allowed" and I could not access it. Again, the only issue is that the app never lists which sites are in the "YES fly-zone."
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