Suren's blog

This question has come up a lot lately, especially in schools. Teachers would like to provide QR codes for students to scan in order to visit websites, or perform specific searches, or provide clues for a virtual treasure hunt (yes, this is true). Of course you can use Mobicip with QR codes. Read on to learn how.

1. When you generate the QR code, make sure to prepend "mobicip://" to the URL. For instance, to generate a QR code for google.com, you would use mobicip://http://www.google.com. See the example below.

You can then save the QR code image and print or embed it on your website or blog to share with your students.

2. Make sure to download and install Scan - one of the most popular free QR code reader apps - on the students' iPad or iPod touch.

3. Launch Scan. Point the camera on the QR code provided. Scan will launch Mobicip and open the URL pointed to by the QR code.

4. Scan also stores the history of previously scanned QR codes. The student could open the history and re-launch the QR code at any time.

Thats it. Happy QR coding with Mobicip and Scan!

If you have setup the Time Limits feature in your Mobicip account, please take a minute to login at http://www.mobicip.com, select Settings > Time Limits, and setup your time zone.

This will ensure your time limits settings are based on the time zone you select and more importantly, account for daylight savings if applicable.

If you do not select the time zone at this time, the time limits you had setup will continue to be applied, but potentially with a 1-hour offset due to the daylight savings time change.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please follow the steps above, and review your time limits settings one more time to make sure you are all set.

We are happy to announce that Mobicip' Safe Browser 2.8.1 is now

If you have previously downloaded Mobicip, you can download the update for free by using the same iTunes account as before. 2.8.1 is an important update as the following critical issues were resolved:

"Open in" feature

This feature has been requested mainly by students and schools. Apparently, students want to open PDF files in their favorite application like iBooks or GoodReader, some of which allow the PDF to be edited. In version 2.8.1, opening a PDF (or DOC, DOCX, XLS, PPT, etc.) displays an "Open in" button at the top right of the screen, like this:

Touch the button to select the application you would like to open the file with.

You should now be able to view the file from within the selected application, like iBooks for example.

iOS 5 Compatibility Issues

As some of you had reported, certain websites were not being rendered correctly on iOS 5. This would not have affected a vast majority of users, but for those who noticed the problem, it could have been very annoying. Luckily, we were able to identify and fix the problem quickly as part of the 2.8.1 update.

Error Connecting to the Network Issue

Many thanks to the users from the UK, middle east and asia who reported a vexing "error connecting to the server" problem when they set the device time to a zone that did not correspond to their location. We did resolve the problem a while ago, but it wasn't a big enough problem to merit an update on its own. The fix finally got out during the 2.8.1. update.

Authentication Crash Issue

Some users ran into an unrecoverable crash during authentication after changing WiFi networks, mostly in school environments. Thanks to all the schools that worked with us, provided crash reports for investigation, and tested the beta version before we rolled out the update. The issue is now resolved as well.

Thanks for your patience as we resolved these issues. Please download the latest update and let us know what you think.

Just posted a reply (reproduced below for your reading convenience) to this article by ZDNet's Christopher Dawson.

Chris:

Your article is very informative and highlights a key oversight by Zeeland. However, your assertion that:

"Most CIPA-compliant systems can filter off-campus devices through a simply proxy setup which can be pushed to iPads through the MDM system mentioned above."

is not correct. MDM systems will allow you to setup a proxy only when the device is on WiFi networks that you manage. Off-network proxy setting is possible if you setup a VPN, but turning off VPN is as easy as selecting Settings > VPN > OFF.

Companies like Mobicip and Lightspeed offer an alternate browser on iOS devices. By setting up this alternate browser and turning off Safari, you can ensure that the kids are offered safe browsing on any network. This is a limitation of the iOS platform and SDK, and Apple has its own justifiable reasons to keep it that way.

The alternate safe browser is a "good enough" solution to the problem, but it does mean turning off Safari and losing some of the conveniences (like weblinks on the home screen, links from emails opening in Safari etc.). So schools end up weighing the pros and cons and some decide to go one way or another. Zeeland obviously took the risky option and ended up being burned by it.

I would fault the school administration for not communicating the hazards and possible workarounds (many schools simply recommend that parents install Mobicip, which is available as a retail product through the App Store), but I think the administration would have been smart enough to setup a proxy through the MDM if at all that was possible. If only the options were that simple...

Thanks for bringing attention to this issue, though.

In other words, the butterfly effect. That is what Dennis Ritchie's work in creating the Unix operating system and the C programming language did to the world. Most people don't know this; it set in motion a whole new industry around computing.

Count me among the legions of programmers who learned their ropes by implementing the recursive quicksort after being challenged by the bible for coders of my generation - "K&R", the popular moniker for The C Programming Language by Kernighan & Ritchie. Mobicip's co-founder, Pradeep, one of the best hackers I know, says, "I think this guy affected the lives of software engineers like us more than any other individual. His book was an inspiration to me and redefined the way I saw programming." And that is an understatement.

Rupert Goodwin writes on ZDNet, "Unix and C's direct and spiritual descendants cannot be counted, but include Linux, Android, Mac OS, iOS, JavaScript, C++, the genius of the internet and a world full of developers."  You can add your microwave, printer, TV, set-top box, smartphone, car and anything that has any firmware to the list. Enough said.

RIP Dennis.

I was told Steve Jobs was ill. I noticed his frail appearance at WWDC 2011 but dismissed the hoopla around his health. I never doubted for a second that Steve would be back in the pink of his health soon. As always I fell hook, line and sinker for his "one more thing" preamble. An icon of my lifetime has passed away, and every person in the Mobicip team feels the loss deeply in their hearts.

I'm sure Steve has influenced and changed many lives, in ways more significantly than he did mine. But that is what is remarkable about this man, and I'm compelled to share this story nevertheless. June 09, 2008. This was the day Steve announced the App Store for the first time. I followed the engadget liveblog franctically, reloading and refreshing to catch the latest morsels thrown at us by the live-bloggers. I watched Steve's presentation after the session ended. I decided to quit my job that very day and Mobicip was born.

Steve Jobs has many remarkable achievements to his credit. One among those is the amazing transition of power from wireless carriers - the likes of AT&T and Verizon - to independent app developers. In the days before iOS, app developers were at the mercy of large carriers and their bureaucratic ways. If the carrier blessed you, and the app made it to the handsets, you had a shot at success. If they decided not to bless you, that would be it. With the announcement of the iOS SDK and the developer program, Apple opened the floodgates in one fell swoop. No more dealing with carriers. Pay $99 to Apple, download the SDK, develop the app, get it reviewed and published to the world. Every self-respecting app developer's life had changed, most certainly mine.

I had been, at the time, working with K-12 schools learning about the need for anytime anywhere learning using a handheld mobile device. When the iPod touch was launched - not the iPhone mind it, but the iPod touch - I felt it was going to satisfy the demand in education for a convenient learning device. When the SDK was announced, it was a no-brainer.

The message was delivered by Steve Jobs with his trademark flourish. And I knew at that instant that this was it. This man was going to change how our children learn. The iPod touch sowed the seeds. The iPad will transform education.

Steve, your legacy lives on. Among the people who use Apple products, among your fans, among your employees, and most importantly for me, among app developers like me whose lives you touched.

RIP Steve.

Occasionally, we get reports that Mobicip crashes - i.e. the app launches and suddenly disappears before or during use - on the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. If you have seen such a crash, please send us the crash log immediately so that we can troubleshoot the problem and resolve it.

When any app crashes, the crash log is saved on the device. The next time the device is sync'ed with a computer, the crash logs are backed up to the computer. Whenever you see a crash, sync the device with the computer. You should then be able to find the crash logs in the following folders on each platform.

Mac OS X
~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/<your iPhone’s name>/

Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter\<your iPhone’s name>\

Windows 7 or Vista
C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\<your iPhone’s name>\

Please locate this file and send it to support(at)mobicip.com. Our dev team will investigate the bug and fix it as part of the next app update.

Suren

Things are unraveling so fast in the tech industry that it is almost difficult to keep up. One day, AllThingsD talks about the poor sales of the HP TouchPad since launch. The New York Times publicizes a report on the near-obsessive demand for the iPad. HP announces the retirement of its TouchPad, followed a few days later by a limited comeback of sorts. With the cheap $99 tablets flying off the shelves, speculation begins that Amazon may be the only player willing to under price its tablet and offer it for $300 apiece, gaining market share against the iPad and helping Amazon spread its tentacles into more wallets in the process. Then comes the shocker – Lenovo announces that it will offer its Android-based tablet for $199. Phew!

The tablet price war has begun, and it is going to reshape the tablet market (ok ok, the iPad market) quickly. However, given how much it costs to make these tablets, and given the low margins in the business, I have a lingering suspicion that Lenovo is under pricing its tablet for the same reason that HP did. Clear its inventory, perhaps, and cut its losses?

For all the noise by these corporations, I think there is only one clear winner so far – the consumer.

HP made big news for all the wrong reasons last week when it announced the demise of its TouchPad, a credible competitor to the iPad aside from Android-based tablets.

Apart from the abruptness and timing of the announcement, I have little to disagree with the decision itself. For all the people who feel HP made a poor choice, I say look at the numbers. In fact, I would hold HP management accountable for not picking up on this earlier than they actually did.

As early as Dec 2010, Marco Arment, founder of InstaPaper, wrote an ironical commentary on his blog, aptly titled, "There really isn't much of a "tablet" market."

There’s an iPad market, and the iPad could be classified as a tablet, from a hardware-centric viewpoint. But the market for non-iPad tablets is about as big today as it was before the iPad, which isn’t nothing, but it’s close enough to nothing that Apple doesn’t need to worry about it.

It would have been just another funny post by an Apple fanboy had it not been eerily prescient in predicting what was to come.

Much has been written about why HP should have given enough time for the TouchPad to gain traction in the market. But you have to credit HP's leadership for taking a hard-nosed look at the numbers, and making a tough choice.

1. In a report published by Robert W. Baird, a wealth management and analyst company, 95% of people who own or are considering purchasing a tablet want the iPad.

2. A report from Nielsen shows that the iPad owns 82% of the tablet market in the US. I say "owns" and not "has captured" only because it shows no signs of frittering away its dominance.

3. Apple has sold roughly 29 million iPads since launch, while Android-based tablets are estimated at about 1.5 million. The HP TouchPad, 49 days after launch, had sold about 25,000 units, prompting AllThingsD to  label HP's non-starter the "OuchPad".

Even if you ignore the survey results, sales numbers don't lie. The writing, they say, was clearly on the wall. In light of the above, some comments from the punditry on the iPad is worth revisiting (thanks to  APPLInvestors for the iPad Death Watch.)

“Apple iPad - failure, joke or fiasco? Pick one”
Linen DeFiller, MillionFace.com, 27 January 2010

 

“The tablet market has only succeeded as a niche market over the years and it was hoped Apple would dream up some new paradigm to change all that. From what I’ve seen and heard, this won’t be it.”
John C. Dvorak, MarketWatch, 29 January 2010

 

“It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.’”
Bill Gates, Microsoft, 10 February 2010

Soundrop has more to offer than meets the eye. It has a very simple interface making it easy for all ages. The screen is black with a white ball dropper. As the balls drop from the dropper the user adds lines to the screen wherever he/she chooses and when the ball hits a line it makes a sound. Lines can be added, removed, shortened and moved to create a personal symphony. Soundrop doesn’t seem educational at first glance, but it is a learning tool by nature. It is great for pattern recognition. Each ball follows the same pattern as the last as it hits the lines on the screen. Not only is the pattern visual, it is also audible since each ball makes the same sound as it hits the line on the same spot.
                                                            
Soundrop also supports cause and effect. The lines cause the balls to bounce so once students discover this the line placement during a game will become more strategic. Last, but not least, geometric shapes are created by adding and removing lines and it makes a musician out of everyone that uses it! A simplistic app that packs a punch!

This is a review from a series on educational apps by Kathy Burdick, an educator for over thirty years. Kathy is an experienced educator and former principal. She graciously agreed to let Mobicip republish and promote her reviews on the Mobicip blog. Kathy has been infatuated by the possibilities of technology and educational content for the K-6 students. Kathy writes about how education is changing due to new technologies and reviews the technologies that facilitate that change. Follow Kathy on Twitter @ iAppleLearner or get more information here: http://mobileieducator.com/