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Ask Slashdot: Making a Tablet Run Only One Application?

Posted by Unknown on from the write-your-own-exokernel dept.

An anonymous reader asks "I'm working for a medical centre who want to make a tablet with various videos and webpages about smoking cessation available in their waiting room. The tablet can't access the Internet because of security policies. I'm planning to use a local server with copies of the (Creative Commons) videos and pages accessed through local webpages using the tablet's browser. How can I make only the browser be available to the tablet users? Ideas? Suggestions?"

32 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. Re:easy. by jessecurry · · Score: 4, Funny

    Stop being so reasonable!

    --
    Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
  2. Curious... by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I do not have a solution to your problem. I am curious about the situation though. Is there a reason your organization wants this to be easy-to-steal-and-expensive tablets? Especially when there's the security policy. And you'll have to keep them charged too. Why not just a cheap laptop. Or a pamphlet and TV?

    I realize it's difficult to get people to stop smoking, but fancy technology isn't always the solution.

    1. Re:Curious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Is there a reason your organization wants this to be easy-to-steal-and-expensive tablets?

      The hospital management is being treated well by the tablet manufacturer, who would very much like this hospital to become the envy of the `non-tablet' hospitals. Plus, it's healthcare; they have money to burn.

    2. Re:Curious... by tompaulco · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Absolutely. The solutions is a cheap PC running windows, which can easily be configured to allow one and only one app to run at login, and to log off if the application is closed.
      Please stop using technology for the sake of technology to increase my already outrageous healthcare costs.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    3. Re:Curious... by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      Is there a reason your organization wants...easy-to-steal-and-expensive tablets?....Why not just a cheap laptop. Or a pamphlet and TV?

      Pamphlets are easy to steal also. I have 800 at home. Just for the hell of it.
           

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    4. Re:Curious... by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      DOS 1.1 - one app at a time, done!

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    5. Re:Curious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If the hospital management is being treated well by the tablet manufacturer, then why isn't the tablet manufacturer helping with a solution to lock down the tablet? Surely of anyone they should know best how to lock there own tablets down.

    6. Re:Curious... by timeOday · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Please stop using technology for the sake of technology to increase my already outrageous healthcare costs.

      On the other hand, the "cool-factor" might have a big positive impact on people bothering to actually watch the videos.

      Take it from advertisers, the most cheaply-produced message is not always the most cost-effective. They should know.

    7. Re:Curious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      generally speaking, the ones burning the money are not the ones complaining about the pay

    8. Re:Curious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      " Plus, it's healthcare; they have money to burn."

      Yet the bastards whine they are not paid enough...

      Don't confuse money that's available to be burnt with money that's available to pay said illegitimate children. I work in healthcare. We have a LOT of money available for goofy stuff like this that increases somebody's adoption of something electronic related to healthcare. It all comes from the federal government, and is earmarked for those specific types of projects. What we don't have is money to actually pay the people that provide healthcare service, in large part due to that same entity.

    9. Re:Curious... by bgibby9 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Besides, you will need to be able to recharge it anyway, so why not look for something that can be put on a table with a long core for recharge?

      TBH I think the OHS people would shit themselves if they ran into tablets connected to long cords for recharging.

      I think the better idea is a kiosk which has more functionality, connected to power and is less likely to "walk away"

      --
      http://www.gibby.net.au
    10. Re:Curious... by Mikachu · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think that anyone debates how easy it is to steal a bunch of pamphlets. I think it's more about the price of losing a bunch of pamphlets versus losing a tablet.

    11. Re:Curious... by ktappe · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Is there a reason your organization wants this to be easy-to-steal-and-expensive tablets?

      The hospital management is being treated well by the tablet manufacturer, who would very much like this hospital to become the envy of the `non-tablet' hospitals. Plus, it's healthcare; they have money to burn.

      The reason the tablet manufacturer is throwing money/product at the hospital is because they know they don't have the right solution but want you to shoehorn it in anyway. Sometimes free is not the best solution.

      --
      "We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
    12. Re:Curious... by plover · · Score: 4, Funny

      Though, unless I'm mistaken, the reason the magazines are there is that they make everything go easier for the staff.

      Based on my son's past experiences with the Urgent Care clinic we use, the magazines there are already filled with easy-going staph.

      I almost want to snort their disinfecting foam after just walking through the place. The thought of even touching a waiting-room tablet makes my anti-bodies all tingly.

      --
      John
    13. Re:Curious... by Belial6 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Glass and plastic are going to hold a lot less disease than the couch you would be sitting on.

  3. On Android, replace the launcher app by Suddenly_Dead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If using Android: create a replacement launcher app, set your new app as the default launcher, and... profit?

  4. If you must use Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just roll your own AOSP build that only has /system/app/Browser.apk along with essential system UI apks and include none of the networking drivers that the device needs.

  5. Why bother with a tablet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean seriously - the first time someone thinks they can walk out the door with the tablet, it's gone. Don't think it wouldn't happen.

    Why not instead just make a dvd with those videos and print out the text of the websites? You could have a small tv hooked up to a dvd player, have the dvd available to those interested, etc....

    It wouldn't be as convenient to steal, and it is a technically easier way to set something like this up. Why are you going to such great lengths to make something more complicated than necessary?

  6. Use something with better coverage by Brew+Bird · · Score: 4, Informative

    You need digital signage, not a tablet. Only one person at a time can use a tablet. A couple of flat screens off a cheap PC hidden up in the ceiling or a closet, and use Xibo.

    1. Re:Use something with better coverage by anubi · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That sounds just like a job long ago for a restauranteur.

      He wanted one of those hi-tech looking displays showing his food, menus, and prices. He had the "high tech display": his projection TV.

      What he ended up with was his old PC-AT home computer yanked from a pile in his garage and loaded with a bunch of GIF's and JPG's he created to his heart's content on his nicer home computer. Loaded all the images he wanted to display in a subdirectory, along with a DOS slideshow program. A little edit of Autoexec.bat and config.sys, and every time the computer was turned on, all it knew to do was start the slideshow and run it until power was turned off at the end of the day.

      It was a no-brainer being he plugged the whole shebang into his beer-sign lighting circuit. There was no change to the routine for his help in opening shop for business. When they turned on the beer-sign circuit as usual, his "high tech display" would start up and run until they turned off the beersign lights at the end of the day.


      He was aware of the limitations of the system, so he made his images with that in mind. He could create anything he wanted for it to display, with no more intervention from me.

      He seemed happy enough. He was ready to toss it all anyway, and all it cost him was a dinner for me and my buddy.

      I wanted so bad to do something for a '50s style diner in my area to retrofit those table-controlled jukeboxes as a serial terminal so I could queue up .MP3 requests for a DOS MP3 player, but the owner had other vendors in mind.

      That would have been fun, as I wanted to keep all the old vacuum tube amplifiers running, and even the record selector, but what would actually go through the system would be a MP3, not what was coming off the tone arm... the spinning record being "played" would be just for show. It would not make any difference at all what 45rpm record was in the slot... its just there for people to reminisce seeing things behave and hearing that 120Hz hum in it, just like it did when they, like I, was a kid.

      I could rip all the MP3's I needed because he already had licenses from all the copyright people to play copyrighted music in his place. So I could load up the machine with anything. I thought it would be a nice touch if he kept his customer's favorites on the machine, as well as honoring requests. I even have an old mechanical typewriter so I could make more of those tags for the table units so they still looked like they came from the '50s.

      Boy, did I ever date myself with this post.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  7. Operating System? by agent_vee · · Score: 5, Informative

    Without knowing what Tablet OS you are targeting it is difficult to give you advice. You can just search on google for the terms "kiosk mode" + whatever OS and that should give you what you are looking for.

  8. how about searching for android/ipad kiosk mode by HockeyPuck · · Score: 5, Informative

    Android Tutorial: http://www.basic4ppc.com/forum/basic4android-getting-started-tutorials/10839-android-kiosk-mode-tutorial.html

    iPad: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kiosk-pro/id409918026?mt=8

  9. Chrome/ChromiumOS by micheas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os

    The only app that runs is the browser, it is based on gentoo so you can install pam modules to meet your site requirements needs (ldap, kerberos, etc),

    And it is designed so you can easily force an enterprise wide os refresh whenever you need/want.

    --
    Work bio at MMWD
  10. LCD Digitial Frame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The solution that you want may fully well exist without having to reinvent the wheel.

    Is there any reason you can not use a LCD picture frame?

    I don't know how well they deal with video but I suspect that you can put a good a presentation using stills on one of those.

  11. Re:easy. by Spiridios · · Score: 5, Informative

    Bruce Schneier linked to this post on iPads just a few days ago....

  12. Imagineering: by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just paint a black frame around some rectangular mirrors and put a big reversed brochure printout on the ceiling. Nobody will know the diff and you can keep the real tablets for yourself. (My experience at AOL is paying off.)

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Imagineering: by lucm · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just paint a black frame around some rectangular mirrors and put a big reversed brochure printout on the ceiling. Nobody will know the diff and you can keep the real tablets for yourself. (My experience at AOL is paying off.)

      Brilliant! This has the side benefit of making the waiting room a very convenient place to snort coke! (my experience on Wall Street is paying off too!)

      --
      lucm, indeed.
  13. Parental restrictions in iOS do this already by lethe1001 · · Score: 4, Informative

    iOS has parental restrictions. Enable restrictions, enable Safari, leave everything else disabled. No step 3.

  14. Re:DNS Hijacking by symbolset · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Delete the other applications? Was that the answer?

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  15. Did you even Google? by Dynedain · · Score: 5, Informative

    iPad in Kiosk mode:
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mediakiosk/id352741530?mt=8

    Android in Kiosk mode:
    http://www.42gears.com/blog/2011/10/kiosk-mode-on-android/

    --
    I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
  16. Re:easy. by chromeronin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually, I think the technology he is looking fore here is called a pamphlet, or maybe a DVD player hooked to a tv on a loop.

  17. Re:easy. by afidel · · Score: 4, Informative

    Or just install a password protected launcher, much easier than trying to figure out what you can and can't uninstall.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.