Android

How to Setup Parental Controls on Android

Submitted by Suren on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 02:42

 

The wait is over! Mobicip Safe Browser (beta) for Android is now available!

Here is a step-by-step guide to setup parental control restrictions on Android smartphones and tablets like the Kindle Fire and Samsung Galaxy tablet. iPhone and iPod Touch users can find a similar tutorial here and iPad users can find one here. Though this page is long, the steps are generally intuitive and easy to follow.

Mobicip Safe Browser Setup

Mobicip offers a best-selling alternate browser that enables parental controls on your child's Android device. It is simple to setup and works anytime anywhere! The Mobicip Safe Browser is protected by a mobicip.com account setup by the parent (If you don't have an account yet, visit the Mobicip for Android page and click Get Started to create a free account.)

The Safe Browser is in beta mode and is not available at the Android Market yet. Follow the steps below to download and install the Safe Browser.

1. Before you can install an app outside the Android Market, you will need to temporarily allow apps from "Untrusted Sources" to be installed.

Android home screen - launcher icon    Select Settings

Select Settings > Applications    Allow apps from unknown sources

2. Launch the browser and visit this URL: http://bit.ly/mobicip-android-beta3. This should download and install the Safe Browser app. If it doesn't work for some reason, try the alternate approach at apkinstall.com.

3. If you have successfully installed the app, you should be able to find it in your app launcher.

4. Launch the browser and login using your Mobicip.com account. Select the filtering profile you wish to apply to this device. You will then see the Mobicip home screen with a set of useful links. You can tap the URL bar at the top of the app and browse to any website.

Login screen    Select filtering profile

Mobicip home screen    Mobicip navigate screen

Visit www.mobicip.com from your PC to upgrade to the Mobicip.com Premium web application. Mobicip.com Premium is a web-based parental control application that can be accessed from any browser. The Premium application allows you to setup custom Internet filtering settings and policy, and monitor Internet usage on the iPad that uses Mobicip as the primary browser.

General Parental Control Restrictions Setup

The Mobicip app includes the ability to block Android apps through your Mobicip password. The goal is to disable the Android browser and any other apps that allow unrestricted access to the web, and ensure that Mobicip is the only safe browser available.

1. Launch Mobicip and select Menu > More > App Blocker.

Select Menu    Select Settings > App Blocker   

2. Select the apps you wish to block.

Select app to block    Block the app

3. At a minimum, you should block the default Android browser and any other browser apps. The apps you block will not be removed from the device. It will simply require you to enter your Mobicip account credentials.

Select app to block    Blocked message

That is it! You can be rest assured that your child will have a safe and secure Internet enabled device that he/she can use anytime anywhere!

Mobicip E-Newsletter: Announcing Mobicip for Android

Submitted by Suren on Mon, 12/05/2011 - 16:12

 
 
Mobicip.com Logo

In this issue...

  1. Mobicip for Android - Now Available in Beta
  2. Redesigned Website Launched
  3. Parents.com - Best Apps to Prevent Cyberbullying

 

Mobicip for Android - Now Available in Beta

Mobicip has helped tens of thousands of parents and schools to create a safe browsing environment on iOS-based mobile devices like the iPad for students and children to learn. We are happy to announce that Mobicip is now available for smartphone and tablets using the Google Android OS. This includes the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus One, Amazon's Kindle Fire, among others.

Simply email us or contact us here to sign-up for the beta program. The Safe Browser for Android should be available on the Android Market soon!

Redesigned Website Launched

You may have noticed that the Mobicip website has been completely redesigned recently. The goal of the redesign was to make the site easier to navigate and make things easier to find. Take a look and let us know what you think!

The Web Monitor (the web-based application after login that allows you to configure your filtering, customize parental control settings, and monitor browsing activity remotely) is undergoing a revamp as well to make the application more usable and easy to setup.

Mobicip Time Limits Users - Please Setup Your Time Zone

If you have setup the Time Limits feature in your Mobicip account, please take a minute to login at 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 already.

Please follow the steps above, and review your time limits settings one more time to make sure you are all set.

At Mobicip, we are constantly listening to users and acting on their feedback. Please feel free to contact us here, via email or on the forum. Your voice is important to us, and it can help all of our users.

Sincerely
Mobicip Crew

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Awards & Reviews

Parents.com Logo
 
"In 2010 Mobicip was awarded the 2010 Parents' Choice Silver Honors Award for top mobile app for kids. It includes a wide array of parental controls, including category blocking, time limits, Internet activity reports, blocked phrases, and YouTube filtering."

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HP Nixes the TouchPad: Why it Actually Makes Sense

Submitted by Suren on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 21:27

 

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

Mobicip for Android

Submitted by Pkooistra on Thu, 11/05/2009 - 01:23

 

 I was wondering what the plans were for a Mobicip program on the Google Android 2.0 OS?

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