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Using iPad at wedding for guests to view photos

BJB Productions

BJB Productions

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 10, 2008
1,314
136
Hey everyone,
I'm going to be using my iPad as a photo viewer at a wedding I'm photographer for. It will be on a stand, on a table in the corner of the reception venue. It will also will be touched, used, and passed around for people to view photos from earlier in the day. (Yes, I'm letting others touch the pad.) :eek: I'm wondering if there's an app to lock the home button. I'm guessing not, but I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep folks from messing with the iPad besides looking at photos. I know most the people attending the wedding, so I'm not terribly worried, and they're great people... but still I'd like to keep it so people can only flip through photos if possible.

My only other idea if I can't get an app to lock the home button is just remove all apps, lock as many apps as possible, turn off wifi, etc.

Any ideas about this?

Thanks
 
As far as I know the only way to lock the home button is if you jailbreak. Another option is to buy a case that covers the home button so that people can't use it.
 
BJB Productions said:
Hey everyone,
I'm going to be using my iPad as a photo viewer at a wedding I'm photographer for. It will be on a stand, on a table in the corner of the reception venue. It will also will be touched, used, and passed around for people to view photos from earlier in the day. (Yes, I'm letting others touch the pad.) :eek: I'm wondering if there's an app to lock the home button. I'm guessing not, but I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep folks from messing with the iPad besides looking at photos. I know most the people attending the wedding, so I'm not terribly worried, and they're great people... but still I'd like to keep it so people can only flip through photos if possible.

My only other idea if I can't get an app to lock the home button is just remove all apps, lock as many apps as possible, turn off wifi, etc.

Any ideas about this?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Only under a Jailbroken environment. There's an extention called "IncarcerApp" that will disable the Home Button.

If Jailbreaking is out of the question for you, then the idea of covering the home Button may be an option.
 
BJB Productions said:
I'm going to be using my iPad as a photo viewer at a wedding I'm photographer for. [...]

Any ideas about this?
Click to expand...

There might be some sort of case that secures the ipad and also blocks access to the Home button. I don't know of one, but just a thought -- take the physical approach to achieve the goal.

Even if I knew most of the people at a wedding, I'd be very concerned about the ipad growing legs and walking off. Secure it somehow, else it'll sit there literally begging some otherwise honest person to swipe it. (and your attention needs to be on the bride not on your ipad).
 
deeddawg said:
Even if I knew most of the people at a wedding, I'd be very concerned about the ipad growing legs and walking off. Secure it somehow, else it'll sit there literally begging some otherwise honest person to swipe it. (and your attention needs to be on the bride not on your ipad).
Click to expand...

Yep. I agree and I'm working on a solution.

blueroom said:
Backup. Restore as new. Wedding. Restore original.
Click to expand...

This is prob the way I'll go.
 
BJB Productions said:
Hey everyone,
I'm going to be using my iPad as a photo viewer at a wedding I'm photographer for. It will be on a stand, on a table in the corner of the reception venue. It will also will be touched, used, and passed around for people to view photos from earlier in the day. (Yes, I'm letting others touch the pad.) :eek: I'm wondering if there's an app to lock the home button. I'm guessing not, but I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep folks from messing with the iPad besides looking at photos. I know most the people attending the wedding, so I'm not terribly worried, and they're great people... but still I'd like to keep it so people can only flip through photos if possible.

My only other idea if I can't get an app to lock the home button is just remove all apps, lock as many apps as possible, turn off wifi, etc.

Any ideas about this?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Given the cost of refurb first generation iPads are only $350 now, would it perhaps make sense to invest in one or two of those for this and future events?

Perhaps you could etch/ engrave your contact info on the back of the units.
 
Take a look at some of the portfolio apps. I am pretty sure I saw a couple that would lock you into the app.
 
Incarcer

I wanted the same functionality you are referring to and looked around a lot. My solution was jailbreak + Incarcer + PhotoManagerPro. This works wonderfully. I pick the pics I want to display in the app itself unlike the photos app where the albums/events need to be organized on the computer.

Good luck!
 
sak77 said:
I wanted the same functionality you are referring to and looked around a lot. My solution was jailbreak + Incarcer + PhotoManagerPro. This works wonderfully. I pick the pics I want to display in the app itself unlike the photos app where the albums/events need to be organized on the computer.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks. Good to hear it from someone who was in the same situation as me. I'm just kinda hesitant to jailbreak. Can someone answer a simple question: IF I jailbreak, can I do a simple restore on iTunes after the event and go back to my original iPad set up? Sorry, I've never even looked into jail breaking before, although I'm sure I could do it if I wanted to.
 
You're welcome. For me, jailbreaking was unbelievably simple. It literally took less than a minute. Google it or look at a video on youtube and you'll see how simple it is. And yes you can restore it back after the event if you choose to.
 
Is it an iPad 1? If so, you can get an otterbox case really cheap on amazon. You could cover the home button (inside the case) thereby preventing it from being pushed, or maybe even just put it in upsidedown. Probably not abad idea to have some extra padding on the iPad doran event like that either.
 
Maybe jailbreaking is how Apple makes the home button not work on the iPad Smart Signs at Apple Stores.
 
BJB Productions said:
Hey everyone,
I'm going to be using my iPad as a photo viewer at a wedding I'm photographer for. It will be on a stand, on a table in the corner of the reception venue. It will also will be touched, used, and passed around for people to view photos from earlier in the day.
Click to expand...
Have you ever done this before? I know you didnt ask for this opinion so hopefully this doesnt offend you, but I've seen this done with laptops (and have had people suggest it to me on events I photograph) and I dont think I like it for several reasons:

1) Photos are supposed to be a way to relive and revive the past, so getting sucked into looking at photos that just happened pulls you away from participating in new memories and events.

2) Laptops/iPads are individual devices. Imagining guests laughing and pointing at photos together, you're really only serving 3 or 4 people at a time and creating a situation where guests can be "hogging" the device. So if you MUST show todays photos DURING todays event then how about a projector/television and just make a slideshow. It serves many more people and avoids people actually handling any hardware.

3) If its got to be an Apple product then a $99 AppleTV is a gorgeous way to display photos because the screen savers are so classy and throw on multiple photos at a time. (I love the Origami one) Plus, since it streams from your notebook you can constantly update photos without having to plug in.

4) Do you really want your photography to be seen raw?My dailies are decent but I'm not comfortable with displaying them unedited.

5) Have you transferred data with the Camera Connection Kit before? I find photo transfer to be a hugely disappointing feature on the iPad 2 because the camera transfer is ridiculously slow, there's no way to separate RAW/JPG so its a huge space waster and the workflow of the whole thing is very cumbersome in comparison to traditional Computer/Camera setups.


Okay, well those are just opinions and suggestions. If you continue to do the iPad thing then report back because im sure some people would be interested.
 
I know some San Diego photographers who pull in six grand a wedding and they told me they use an iPad for viewing. They used to use a laptop, but now it's just the iPad. They said it works amazing, because people love to interact and use the iPad to look at photos. However, they've been too busy for me to ask them about how (or if) they lock their iPad.

No, I would never show anyone raw photos. I have custom built, finely tuned presets in Lightroom that I'm going to throw on some photos from the first look which is at the Barrington mansion-(where they're getting ready and doing preliminary pics.) Then while I'm riding to the wedding venue, I'm using my laptop to import and apply presets to some selects from earlier in the day. It's about a 45 min ride, so it should give ample time.

I should mention: I'm also displaying a Lightroom slideshow on my MBP with the same pics, on a table I have in the corner, so there's two ways to look at photos.

It definitely is a grand experiment, and I will be sure to report on how it goes, and post a pic of the table set up. (It's not for 16 days yet)
 
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About your question on jailbreaking... (Make sure you are using firmware 4.3.3

Jailbreak your iPad (1 or 2, doesn't matter) by going to www.jailbreakme.com on your iPad. Click the free button, and then click install. Cydia should download. When it is done, reboot the device.

You can then go into cydia and install the two tweaks the other person mentioned.

If you want to unjailbreak, just do a restore in iTunes (But you may not want to because of how awesome jailbreaking is :D ).
 
The use case you're describing screams for an iPad, it's a shame there isn't a "simple" way to do it. I was also recently wanting a "single app mode" functionality for a completely different context - for my son to use a children's app and not be able to exit or use other apps.

Apple should include this as a setting that you turn on or off: "Single App Lock Mode", with a set PIN in the preferences. When you turn it on you get:

1. You launch an app like normal.
2. Touching the home button does nothing.
3. Holding the home button for say 2 seconds brings up an unlock dialog that prompts for a PIN to exit the app.

So simple, someone on the iPad team could probably code it up during their lunch break.
 
mattraehl said:
The use case you're describing screams for an iPad, it's a shame there isn't a "simple" way to do it. I was also recently wanting a "single app mode" functionality for a completely different context - for my son to use a children's app and not be able to exit or use other apps.

Apple should include this as a setting that you turn on or off: "Single App Lock Mode", with a set PIN in the preferences. When you turn it on you get:

1. You launch an app like normal.
2. Touching the home button does nothing.
3. Holding the home button for say 2 seconds brings up an unlock dialog that prompts for a PIN to exit the app.

So simple, someone on the iPad team could probably code it up during their lunch break.
Click to expand...

Agreed. While searching I have seen many people in your same situation wanting the option mainly for their kids so they don't delete apps, etc.
 
mattraehl said:
The use case you're describing screams for an iPad, it's a shame there isn't a "simple" way to do it. I was also recently wanting a "single app mode" functionality for a completely different context - for my son to use a children's app and not be able to exit or use other apps.

Apple should include this as a setting that you turn on or off: "Single App Lock Mode", with a set PIN in the preferences. When you turn it on you get:

1. You launch an app like normal.
2. Touching the home button does nothing.
3. Holding the home button for say 2 seconds brings up an unlock dialog that prompts for a PIN to exit the app.

So simple, someone on the iPad team could probably code it up during their lunch break.
Click to expand...

Interesting idea. Write to www.apple.com/feedback
 
BJB Productions said:
Agreed. While searching I have seen many people in your same situation wanting the option mainly for their kids so they don't delete apps, etc.
Click to expand...

This is already present in the current "restrictions" menu in iOS settings. You can disable deleting apps among other things in that section, and it's passcode protected.

A tip I figured out recently— lock down the ability to modify accounts in the restrictions section, and so if you lose your phone, Find My iPhone cannot be disabled by a thief, giving you at least a fighting chance to track it.
 
I'm with the jailbreak crowd.

You are very lucky in the sense that the current jailbreak is a userland jailbreak.

All you have to do is go to a website and click a button. No software, no DFU mode or anything. You can have your home button disabled in < 5 minutes.

These kinds of jailbreaks don't come often so take advantage!

It is by far the most elegant solution. Even if you restore the iPad and set as new, people will be able to end the application and it's going to be a pain to frequently start it up again.
 
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