Thursday, October 4, 2012

iOS 6 Update

Notes from TCEA TECSIG Fall 2012 Breakout Session
October 4, 2012
Austin, Texas

Speaker: Brittney Van Zant, Apple Senior Systems Engineer

Over 200 new features in iOS 6. These features are relevant to education:

Accessibility System Preferences

Guided Access - Can set up home button to toggle on and off with a tripple-click. Can disable hardware buttons and disable touch so an app just runs w/out user interference. You can also select only certain areas of the screen to be touch-sensitive.

Speak Selection - Enable this so selected text can be spoken

Restrictions with Apple Configurator (Supervised Devices Only - Prevents iTunes Sync):

  • Allow/Disable removing apps
  • Allow/Disable use of Game Center
  • Allow/Disable iMessage
  • Allow/Disable iBookstore
  • Allow/Disable iBookstore explicit content
  • Allow/Disable Configuration Profile Installation
  • Enabe Siri Profanity Filter
  • Single App Mode - Locks user into a single, specified application (Think Pearson TestNav). Specified application launches at boot if device is powered down.
  • Global Network Proxy for HTTP - Route all web traffic through a web proxy for filtering
Profile Manager 2 - Use with Mountain Lion server - Pushing config profiles over the air
  • Profile-Based management
  • Over-the-air updates
  • Mobile device management
  • iOS and OS X
  • Self-service portal
  • Web-based authentication
  • Up to 5000 devces per server
  • Gatekeeper settings
  • Unified passcode policies
Apple Apps
  • iWork - Ability to open a doc, presentation, or spreadsheet in another application (Ex: Dropbox, GoodReader)
  • Garageband - create custom ringtones and alerts for iDevices. Run GarageBand in Background. So can record while running another app. Ex: Hit record then open an iBook to record a student reading.
  • iMovie - Create movie trailers. On iPad, open precision editor to create split audio edits. Create a slidewhos by sharing photos from iPhoto for iOS. Tap help for guided coach while using app.
  • iPhoto - Tags, smarter cropping, ink effects, better sharing options, journal enhancements, support large photos
  • iTunes U - new single day view to see all of your posts and assignemtns on single page
  • Find My iPhone - New lost mode sets passcode on lost devices.
  • iBooks - Suport for iOS 6 restrictions
Apple Configurator - has not yet been updated to use configuration profiles but it will be soon.

iOS 6 EDU Deployment Guide - Coming Soon!

Be careful with Mobile Device Management solutions that say they can push out paid apps. Pushing out paid apps is not supported by Apple and it often breaks when you update the app.