Hello,
We have started receiving some feedback from our testers, so I thought I would start a discussion forum for users to add feature requests. While our initial efforts have been to provide a functioning, yet basic solution to the marketplace, we would love to learn which features our customers want the most; that way we can prioritize which improvements to work on for upcoming releases. Feel free to add to this thread; while you may not get an immediate response, know that we will be monitoring this thread closely.
what does this do--looking for parent information
We just purchased an i Pad for family use with teenagers. What does this software do? We do not want to restrict use until we have to. We are looking for something that will allow us to know what the kids are doing, ie chats, websites, face time etc. any suggestions are welcome. Is this similare to webwatcher?
Re: what does this do --looking for parent information
Thank you for your interest in Mobicip. Mobicip is a parental control browser that allows you to monitor your child's activity when they use an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. Please note that:
1. Mobicip filter works only on the Mobicip Safe Browser and not on any other apps on the device including Safari, Facetime or any of the chat apps. This is due to restrictions set by Apple that doesn't allow us to run sofware in the background. Hence we had to create our own browser to provide filtered internet access.
2. For Mobicip to be effective, you need to make sure that it is the only browser available on the device. You need to disable Safari and other browser apps available on the device and set up Restrictions so that your children do not change these settings and install other browsers or re-enable Safari. The following tutorial may help you with setting up Mobicip and other parental control restrictions on the device:
How to Setup Parental Controls on iPhone & iPod Touch (iOS4 Edition)
3. If you would like to just monitor your children's web activity and do not want to restrict them, then you need to purchase Mobicip's Premium subscription in addition to the Mobicip Safe Browser app. The Premium subscription allows you to set up customer filtering so that you can allow all the websites in your whitelist. This will ensure that you just monitor their activity and no websites will be blocked when they access them.
Please let us know if this answers your questions. Otherwise, we will be happy to assist further.
Mobicip Support
Update?
Hi - I just joined, buying the app and paid subscription. Your browser is great -- snappy and fast compared to alternatives!
Reading the forums, I noticed though that the current version was released two whole years ago.
I run app development, and know how long it can take to work with Apple to get things through, which just adds time to the dev cycle.
The employees who comment on the forums seem ambitious and energetic, which gives the impression of a really smart, capable team working behind the scenes. I'm just wondering where things stand now.
Ball park estimate - can we expect the next major update in weeks or months or even this year?
Thanks.
Re: Update?
Thank you for your valuable feedback and for your kind words about Mobicip and our team. Please note that we have recently released our app update Mobicip 2.8.1 and it is available at App Store. Please check the below link for further details:
http://content.mobicip.com/content/mobicip-safe-browser-281-update-now-available
Please try our updated version and let us know your feedback. Thank you for choosing Mobicip.
Mobicip Support
My feature requests
1. A method to protect users from themselves without involving an accountability partner. Let me explain what I'm trying to do.
I would like to be able to login to my own account, but only allow access configure the settings from a trusted computer (e.g. my work computer). In other words, I wouldn't be able to login *from my phone* or any other computer to mobicip.com and change my filters, time settings, etc. Only the trusted computer can.
Currently, I can circumvent the app by logging to the site from my phone, change the settings, and I'm back to browsing. Granted, if I had an accountability partner, this wouldn't be an issue. However, sometimes that isn't feasible. Right now, this is the biggest issue for me.
I did try blocking mobicip.com :) but then the app doesn't launch (presumably because it needs to talk to your servers). Blocking just mobicip.com/portal/settings didn't work, either
2. Custom keyword filtering. Allow me to define my own search terms
3. Aggregate time usage. In addition to the time filters, have a counter where you can input the total amount of time per day you can use the browser. Even better -- allow it more granular: on a per day basis (e.g. weekdays,
4. GPS-based access + time based filters. Here's a creative feature. Allow/disallow access to the browser if the user is in a certain location. Example: let's say I want to have access to the internet, but if I'm within 5 miles at home, block access to the browser.
So for exmple:
I have a filter set - if I'm at a certain GPS location, between 9pm - 7am, disable access completely to the browser. However, if during that time frame I'm 5 miles (or whatever the user inputs) away from that GPS location, I *do* have access to the browser (say I'm on the road and need to do a quick google search for something). So essentially, allow the user to vary time restrictions based on their GPS locations.
This feature is a long shot, but it sounds cool
5. Time restrictions for specific sites. E.g. only allow facebook on Saturdays, between 12pm - 1pm.
Thanks, keep up the good work!
Re: My feature requests
We apologize for the delay in replying to your forum post. We appreciate your valuable feedback and we have forwarded it to our dev team and our marketing team so that they can analyze and integrate your feature requests.
1. Regarding access to our website from your device, we understand your frustration. We have requested our dev team to provide an alternative to this and will keep you posted as soon as we hear from them.
2. Custom keyword filtering is definitely part of our plan, but unfortunately we do not have a timeline as to when it will be implemented
3. Again, adding more features to our time limits is in our plan and we have forwarded the time limit granularity to our dev team. We will certainly consider your feedback when we redesign our time limit feature.
4/5. Thank you for providing these innovative ideas. Feedback from users like you help us improve our product for all users.
Once again, thank you for your valuable feedback. We will update this forum post whenever we implement a change regarding the above features.
Mobicip Support
Full screen browsing
I see you already answered about full screen browsing, so I'll just add my vote in case you don't know where to prioritize. :)
Re: Full screen browsing
Dear StrongDreams,
Thank you for your valuable feedback. Full screen browsing is part of our next major update. We will post the release date of our update in the coming weeks.
Mobicip Support
How can I enable links using
How can I enable links using Mobicip. For example the Stocks App installed on iPhones has articles for each stock on the bottom of the page. When I tap on these article they open flawlessly with Safari. However, nothing happens when using Mobicip. Is there a fix for this?
Re: How can I enable links using...
Apple's iPhone SDK doesn't allow third-party apps to be launched from other apps. Actually, their documentation suggests a method to make this work, and we have implemented it already. But due to a bug or some other unknown reason, this documented feature is not working. Other app developers have been complaining about this as well, and we expect Apple to start supporting this in their next major OS update.
The only workaround we can suggest at this time is to press down on the link in the app, select copy, tab the URL bar in the Mobicip browser, and select paste. It is definitely not smooth, but many users live with it for lack of a better option. We will post an update on the forum as soon as the feature starts working on Apple's iOS devices.
Mobicip Support
Reports
I would like to send reports to others such as accountability partners, because I need to protect myself from myself.
Re: Reports
Please login to your account on www.mobicip.com and go to Settings >> Email Reports >> Edit >> add your friend's email id to the 'send reports to' text box. You can add multiple email addresses using commas to separate the email ids.
Mobicip Support
Next upDate
When should we expect the next update?
Re: Next upDate
Our dev team is actively working on our next major update. We do not have a definite timeframe as to its release. But please expect an update in the coming weeks that will take care of
1. 'error connecting to the server' issue reported by our Saudi Arabia/Ireland/Kuwair customers
2. opening .pdf files from email using Mobicip
3. opening .pdf files displayed on Mobicip on other pdf reader apps like iBooks.
Mobicip Support
Recommendations
Hey guys, Great app guys. I have really enjoyed it. Here are my suggestions: 1) full screen 2) Download files. 3) tabbed browsing 4) faster 5) reason for block. It would be nice to know why a website was blocked on the screen when it comes up. It would remove the hassle of logging on to the website to find out. 6) account backed up bookmarks. I have lost all my bookmarks twice now because of the app freezing and having to reinstall 7) export links. Being able to share links via twitter or Facebook or mail would be awesome
Re: Recommendations
Thank you for your kind words about Mobicip. The features that you mentioned - full screen, ability to download files, tabbed browsing and making the app faster are already on our roadmap and we are actively working on these features. We will be rolling them out in the next update of our app. Regarding showing the reason for block, our filtering policy team believes that the categories themselves may have inappropriate words (pornography for instance). We are looking at alternative means to make it easier for parents to find the information. We will keep you posted on any updates regarding this.
Thank you for contacting us about these features. Your feedback really helps us prioritize our feature list and enhance our product for all users.
Mobicip Support
Keywords
I would like to be able to enter key search words that can block the web site it pretains to. Even if the website contains any of the key words in the list it would block the site from popping up.
Re: Keywords
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have had quite a few requests from our users requesting the 'Keyword blocking' feature and it is certainly in our plans to add this feature in a future update of our premium subscription. We will keep you posted on any updates regarding this feature. In the meantime, please email your list of keywords to Mobicip Support and if the keyword is considered inappropriate by our filtering policy team, it will be added to our global blacklist.
Mobicip Support
billing and premier subscriptions
Hello
I'm using mobicip for our business. We purchased ipads for our sales team and loaded the mobicip app tocreate a whitelist.
request...
1.It would be nice to have a choice of "Invoice billing". We are a failry large company and it makes it easier for our accounting deparment to have everything under one bill.
2. An organized way of puchasing and assigning the premier subscritions. Looking at the website there is no way to tell how many subscritions you purchased and how many are assigned. If I want to buy 5 subscriptions i have to click on one devices "upgrade link " and order 5 premier licenses. You don't have a clean way to assign the premier licenses to devices. We should be able to just order 10 premier licenses and then assign them to users as needed.
3. phone support for premeir accounts. not just email
4. I like the idea of being able to import urls to whitelist/blocked list. Even being able to cut and paste into a list box would be helpful.
Re: billing and premier subscriptions
Thank you for your feedback.
It would be nice to have a choice of "Invoice billing". We are a failry large company and it makes it easier for our accounting deparment to have everything under one bill.
Absolutely. We do support invoice billing for Enterprise and Education customers. Please contact support(at)mobicip.com and we will provide you a quote, follow-up with an invoice etc.
We should be able to just order 10 premier licenses and then assign them to users as needed.
This is a difficult problem that we have had a hard time with. When a user purchases a subscription, we don't know which device the subscription should be associated with. So it is left as an unused credit, and used only when Mobicip is launched from a device the next time. As you know, associating a user with a device is done on the device itself.
We agree that these steps are non-intuitive. Please bear with us and we will come up with a scheme that works better and causes less confusion.
phone support for premeir accounts. not just email
We already answer the phone during business hours and return voicemails. We are in the process of setting up dedicated phone support for all users. Give us a few weeks...
I like the idea of being able to import urls to whitelist/blocked list. Even being able to cut and paste into a list box would be helpful.
Aha! That is a good idea. Why didn't we think of this before. We will pass on your feedback to our dev team and get it on their backlog of requested features.
Again thanks a lot for your feedback. It is very helpful and hopefully benefits all users.
Mobicip Support
Device grouping?
Hello,
I wanted to see if you have plans on adding groups, so that filtering can be done for a group of devices? In my case, I'm using Mobicip for business purposes and my customer wants to do a whitelist filter on 65 devices. This whitelist includes about 50 sites, which I will need to enter 65 times. This means that I'll have to put a total of 3250 URLs into the system....one at a time.
If I could create a group that each of the 65 devices belonged to, I could then just enter the URLs once and apply the filter to the group instead of each device individually. I know....genius!
Additionally, it would be nice to have a way of importing multiple URLs into a whitelist, instead of having to enter them one at a time.
Thanks.
Re: Device grouping?
We do offer device grouping though it may not be straight-forward at a first glance. If you plan to have the same settings for a group of devices, you can create one child user and assign the child user for all the devices. You will still be able to see internet activity on each device in the Reports tab if you sort the activity by the Device name.
We believe that it will be very useful if we have the ability to import urls to the whitelist/blacklist. We have forwarded your request our dev team and will keep you posted on any updates regarding this.
time control
Dear Sir,
I am sorry for my broken Inglish but living in Holland ;)
Is there a easy was to explain how the time control is working, i like that my child is not looking internet on his Ipod after 21.30 in the night, i already tried some other apps but i have a very clever child and he broke open that app after 2 minutes.
I Have the idea your app is mutch better so please help me, is there also a dutch version?
Greetings from Jeroen
Re: time control
We are sorry for the trouble you are having. The 'Time Limits' feature available as a part of Mobicip.com Premium annual subscription works only on the Mobicip Safe Browser and not on other apps available on the device. In other words, you will be able to restrict the time your child spends on Mobicip, but you will not be able to restrict the time spent on other browser apps that can be used to browse the internet. But if setup correctly, Mobicip should be the default browser to browse the internet. Please follow the instructions in this tutorial to set up parental control restrictions on your device:
How to Setup Parental Controls on iPhone & iPod Touch (iOS4 Edition)
An important issue with these browser apps is that they allow access to inappropriate content even though some of these apps are rated 4+. This is an issue with almost all apps that have their own browsers. Please see these FAQs and discussions where other parents have encountered this issue and made suggestions.
Ok. I Have Enabled the Mobicip Safe Browser. How do I Block Private or No-History Browsers Available on the App Store?
Now there's the bing app
App store Access
Our recommendation is to use the age-based ratings to restrict apps from the App Store, or even disable the App Store and enable it on demand using the passcode. Unfortunately, these are limitations of the platform itself and Apple doesn't allow us to operate at the level we would like to in the system. Please see the following tutorials on how to prevent your child from installing these browser apps on their devices:
How can I prevent my child from installing other apps to circumvent the Mobicip Safe Browser?
Safari is disabled, but how can I block other browsers from being installed?
Regarding your question about offering a Dutch version, we do not have a Dutch version of our app/website. We are planning to offer foreign language support, but we do not have timeline on when this will become available.
Twitter block???
Hello,
I am a new user and so far like what I see I like but have a couple of questions.
1) Is there any kind of "users guide" for the parental controls? Can I create a white list and a black list and use them in series (at the same time)?
2) I recently downloaded a Bible reader app from the App store by Olivetree. As I looked it over, I found that contained within is a link to the company’s store and a portal to Twitter. No matter how I set the restrictions, I cannot block the access to twitter or the store. I wrote Olivetree about this and they said they knew of no way to block it. That is when I looked into Mobicip but find that it is not able to block the access in this instance. I have also found other Apps that offer portals to Facebook, YouTube in addition to Twitter. Any solution or hope that in the future these too may be blocked???
Re: Twitter block???
1. You should find helpful articles and FAQs to setup Mobicip and parental control features in the Knowledge Base. Look for the Tutorials section specifically. Here are some helpful links that point to the specific articles:
Follow the instructions in these tutorials to setup Mobicip and other restrictions on the iPod or iPad.
How to Setup Parental Controls on iPhone & iPod Touch (iOS4 Edition)
How to Setup Parental Controls on the iPad (iOS 4.2 Edition)?
The following video tutorials will help you setup and use the Premium features.
How To Customize Mobicip's Internet Filter
How To Monitor Activity Reports Using Mobicip
2. We are aware of the problem that is caused by other apps on the device. While we would like to make our filtering service work with other apps like the ones you mention, Apple does not allow us to create software that runs in the background and monitors other apps on the device. Please note that this is the case with any other internet filter available for Apple's mobile devices.
Our recommendation is to use the age-based ratings to restrict apps from the App Store, or even disable the App Store and enable it on demand using the passcode. Unfortunately, these are limitations of the platform itself and Apple doesn't allow us to operate at the level we would like to in the system.
You should certainly contact Apple and provide your feedback on this page: http://www.apple.com/feedback/
We have met with their engineering team and support staff and their guidance is standard. The voice of the customer has more bearing than the voice of third-party developers like us, or even their employees. So your feedback will certainly bring attention to the issue.
To remove such an app from your device, press the icon till it starts to wiggle and then delete it. Then, use one of the steps mentioned above to disable installation of apps or only allow it on demand.
Please let us know if this answers your questions. Otherwise we will be happy to assist further.
Mobicip Support
Locking down an iPhone/iPad
Hello,
Has there been any progress in getting Apple to abandon its outrageous policy of preventing the lock-down of its devices during children's sleep-time? I use your time-limits option for Internet, but all those other Apple apps are still active!!
Re: Locking down an iPhone/iPad
Unfortunately there hasn't been much progress as far as setting automatic time limits for device usage itself. You may want to contact Apple directly with this request. We know that the voice of the customer holds a lot of weight at Apple.
You may contact Apple through this website. Select App Store > Downloading and updating Applications > Email us to send an email request.
Mobicip Support
email Reports
I would like the option to immediately receive an email when a blocked action occurs. I feel it is imperative to address an issue right then rather than waiting a week, or whatever time period elapses between web checks. Other control packages allow this.
Ideally, a notification of immediate for each blocked category, but that is no doubt overboard.
Thanks.
Re: email Reports
Thanks for the feedback. We will certainly look into this. Instant alerts has been at the top of our wish list, but the issue has been with sending too many emails through our email server. Spam filters at ISPs and webmail services tend to classify our emails as spam. When this happens one too many times and the end user doesn't identify the email as not being spam, there is a risk of being blacklisted as well.
Having said that, we are exploring ways to overcome this barrier. Please bear with us and we will post an update here after discussing with our dev team.
Mobicip Support
May I suggest an instant
May I suggest an instant alert by way of a text message? Safeeyes does this and it is quite effective.
Steve
Re: May I suggest an instant
Thank you for bringing this feature to our attention. We have forwarded your feature request to our dev team and will keep you posted on any updates regarding this.
Mobicip Support
Email Reports: Only Send Blocked Sites
Your e-mail report feature is nice. Could you make a way for it to only send a list of the blocked sites?
Re: Email Reports: Only Send Blocked Sites
Thanks for the request. We have forwarded the request to our dev team. Please note that it is advisable to keep an eye on all sites visited just in case, but this can certainly be an option that you setup when you elect to receive reports by email. We don't have an ETA on this feature at this time, but we will post a note here as soon as we have an update on this request.
Thank you for your support and feedback. It really helps us prioritize the requests and improve the service for all users.
Mobicip Support
Improved way to allow sites
I am a new user of mobicip and am trying hard to get it to work for our family. A few things that stand out as must haves: 1. When my child visits a blocked website allow the parent to enter a password and allow once or all of the time (similar to how parental controls work on iMac) 2. Remember my email address and only require a password when switching to an "adult" user. Are any of these on the radar?
Re: Improved way to allow sites
This is good feedback. We will add your requests to our feature list and our dev team will review them for inclusion in a future update. We will post an update to this thread as soon as the plan is finalised.
We really appreciate your feedback. It helps us prioritize new features and improve the solution for all users.
Mobicip Support
Thanks...
Thanks... Frankly I think this is a big "rock" that you should focus on. For shared family devices such as an iPad it needs to be very easy for an adult to continue to use the device and then put it in a "child" restricted mode. I want my child to use the iPad for productive and safe things, but I'm getting quickly overwhelmed with site management to the point that I'll abandon the product. I need her to be able to bring me the iPad, me enter a password to add the site to a safe list and let her continue on.
Re: Thanks...
We appreciate the candid feedback and the frustrating experience you are having. Please bear with us and we will try to address your request asap.
Mobicip Support
Agree
Add a vote. Product is unusable IMO without this. M family shares an iPad and having no override makes it too much of a hassle.
Re: Agree
Providing an override option is in our development pipeline and we plan to have it in the next version of our web monitor. Please bear with us and we will keep you posted on any updates regarding this. We appreciate your feedback and have passed it on to our dev team.
Mobicip Support
Feature Request
Mobicip has been a great tool in keeping internet use cleaner and more productive. I've seen some ways that this tool could be sharpened.
1. Time limits. This would be my first requested feature by far. I'd like the ability to create limits on each individual phone and allow internet use only during certain times on specific days of the week. This would give me peace of mind with kids accessing the internet when they should be doing other things. Also, I'd like a way to limit internet use to a specific amount of time (say 1.5 hours per day total and 6 hours per week) then be disabled or adjusted by a parent as necessary. Ideally, there would be a report in the information tab about where you stand on time remaining.
2. Importing Safari bookmarks. Is there a way to transfer the existing bookmarks on Safari mobile to my Mobicip browser? This would reduce some frustration with trying to remember specific addresses.
3. Full Screen. I understand the stability issues that stand in the way, but with a limited amount of real estate, perhaps gestures or transluscent buttons could help improve the useability of the application.
4. Other search options like yahoo or bing.
5. Webpage holding. If I need to get out of the app for a brief moment, all the information that was loaded is then lost and you have to wait to reload the page. This can be frustrating for my kids (and for me as I use this as my primary browser). I understand the memory restrictions, but can we allow the app to remember the info on the page when we get out of the application and relaunch it (and like where we were when we navigate back and forth through the webpages)? That'd be great.
6. Passwords. Would you be able to allow Mobicip to remember passwords for certain websites (ie email or other accounts) if the user is prompted and chooses to do so? This feature or a form filler would really make this a top notch app.
Thanks for your continued updates and improvements of this app. Once some of these are implemented, this will be easier to use and be the undisputed best way to browse safely for children and adults.
Re: Feature Request
This is really useful feedback.
1. Time limits.
Yes, we do have the ability to setup time limits by time of day or day of week. Please see this faq for setup steps - How To Setup Internet Access Time Limits Using Mobicip.
The current Time Limits feature only allows you to allow or block specific windows of time by time of day or day of the week. We are working on adding an enhancement to set a limit for aggregate usage. We will certainly post an update on this thread when that feature goes live.
5. Webpage holding.
We have started supporting this feature with the iOS4 version of the software. iOS4 allows us to open the app from exactly where it was left off without reloading the page.
6. Passwords.
Mobicip does support cookies. Most websites will have a checkbox or an option like "remember me" or "remember me on this computer". If you enable this checkbox on that website, the login and password fields should be pre-populated the next time you visit the site.
Since you have reported these issues, it appears that you may be using an older version of the iOS software, and consequently an older version of the Mobicip app. Please upgrade the software on the iPod Touch to the latest version and your problem should be resolved.
The following features are already on our roadmap and we are actively working on these features. We will be rolling out the features in a future update of the app.
2. Importing Safari bookmarks.
3. Full Screen.
4. Other search options like yahoo or bing.
Thank you for contacting us about these feature requests. Your feedback really helps us prioritize our feature list and enhance the product for all users.
Mobicip Support
Great features, but would like to see a corporate version
Our company is doing an in-store selling tool iPad pilot and I found this to be the perfect app to control internet access for Sales Associates with iPads on the selling floor.
However, I would like to have the option to configure it for corporate use in addition to home use. Explaining to a Sales Associate that their internet access level is set to "Elementary School Level" is not easy to explain.
Also need to be able to set a default "Home" screen.
Fantastic App that allowed us to go from concept to 6 store pilot within a week. Without web content filtering, the store pilot would never have passed senior mgmt approval.
Re: Great features, but would like to see a corporate version
Thank you for the recommendation. We are very happy to hear that the solution helped you deploy iPads in your stores in quick time.
We have considered putting up an Enterprise edition of Mobicip off an on. The main we haven't is because it would confuse our retail users - parents - about the app and the version they need to download. The whole setup is already confusing enough to many.
However, we are seeing quite a bit of adoption in the Enterprise now and are seriously considering our options once again. We will keep this thread posted on the developments.
Mobicip Support
Texting
I would like to be able to get a report of my child's text messages.
Re: Texting
It is a common request from other parents as well. Unfortunately, Apple does not allow third party developers to control or access built-in apps like SMS, Email etc. So it is virtually impossible for us the filter the text messages on the iOS devices.
Please let us know if this answers your question. Otherwise we will be happy to assist further.
Mobicip Support
http://www.mobicip.com/helpdesk
Ability to add Bookmarks to home screen additional info
Also one more note about the Ability to add Bookmarks to home screen, when you click on the icon on the home screen, we want it to have the ability to open up mobicip browser in full screen just like safari does, thanks.
I agree
This is my initial frustration with the browser. I use a lot of google apps that I liked having bookmarked through Safari on the home screen
Ability to add Bookmarks to home screen & relate the browser
I would like to request the following features
1. Ability to add Bookmarks to iPhone home screen like you can in safari when you click on the plus icon to add a site as a bookmark.
2. Ability to relate the mobicip browser as the default browser instead of safari, so that when you click on links within other iPhone applications or when you click on a hyperlink in an email, the mobicip browser comes up and takes you there instead of the link not working because the safari browser has been disabled via restrictions.
Re: Ability to add Bookmarks to home screen & relate the browser
Hello, was wondering if this limitation has since been resolved by Apple, and whether the link connections may be possible in a future release. Thanks.