SureLock successfully completes Motorola Solutions Validated program to add another feather in its cap. To brief you about the program, Motorola Solutions Validation program was carried out by rigorously testing SureLock on Motorola's ET1, an Android based Enterprise tablet device. Facilitated through the Motorola's Global Solution Centers, a state-of-the-art testing facility, we worked side-by-side with Motorola Solutions engineers to co-validate SureLock under common customer usage scenarios just to give you even more confidence in SureLock.

To learn how SureLock can help increase mobile workforce productivity and reduce device maintenance, visit the product page.

To know more about Motorola ET1 Enterprise Tablet, click here.

Author: Panshul Srivastava
42Gears Mobility Systems

To learn more on how to secure and manage Android and Windows Mobile/CE devices efficiently, visit us at www.42gears.com

Want cost-effective advertisement solutions to reach out to your customers? Try out the new DroidSignage, a digital signage solution for Android devices to provide Interactive and Contextual Advertising solutions. With support for Images, HTML Webpages & Video content, it can be used by various businesses such as Cafes & Restaurants, Gaming Arena, Health Clubs, Colleges, Business Gathering, Social Events, etc. DroidSignage provides numerous ways to grab the eyeballs your business needs.

However, there might be a case where one whitelisted application can launch another application internally which is not allowed. In this scenario, SureLock will block the window of unallowed application. In case administrator wants to grant access to this application as well, he should explicitly allow this application from SureLock settings (In case it is desired not to show the icon for an allowed application on SureLock home screen, use "Hide icon" property in Allowed applications properties.)

Many a times, administrator might not know the application name or package name of this new application which is getting launched. This is why we are introducing our new "Logging" feature in SureLock. Once enabled, SureLock starts logging the Application name, Application package name & Application Window(Activity) name whenever it blocks any application. This info is saved on the device as a log file in .txt format.

Lets take a sample case to explain the use of this feature and steps to perform the same:
1. Suppose the "Camera" application is allowed on SureLock homescreen. End-user can capture the pictures but will not be able to view photos.

Camera application running in SureLock

2. The Gallery button on the Camera screen will not work. An attempt to view the photos will close the Camera application.

3. To determine the application(s) which would have been blocked by SureLock, all we have to do is "Enable Logging". Go to "SureLock Settings" in Admin screen of SureLock and tick the "Enable Logging" checkbox

Steps to "Enable Logging" in SureLock

4. Once enabled, go to SureLock home screen and click on Gallery button in Camera application. Since logging has been enabled, all the information about blocked applications will be saved in the log file.

5. Now locate "surelock.log" file in the root folder of file system and open in any text editor. It'll open up like this:

Content of Log file generated by SureLock

Time Stamp: Displays the time at which the application activity was performed
Status: Indicates whether the application activity is allowed in SureLock or blocked.
Package Name: Displays the package name of the application which  was accessed in SureLock
Package Activity Name: Displays the exact name of the package activity which was  accessed

Based on the information in log file, the admin can decide if a blocked application needs to be allowed for the end-user. The Package Name helps in choosing the application name which should be added to the "Allowed Application" list. The Package Activity Name can be used to fine tune the allowed application by allowing only particular child window(s) of the application for the end-user.

In our case, we will have to allow "com.android.sec.gallery3d" package for the Gallery button to work correctly. The "com.android.sec.gallery3d" corresponds to "Gallery" application. So we need to add "Gallery" to "Allowed Applications" list.
The following screen is displays the "Application Settings" screen of "Gallery" after it has been allowed.

Application Details Window - Displays Package Name and Package Activity Name

Note: The administrator can also choose to hide an application from home screen by enabling "Hide Icon in Home Screen" feature in "Allowed Application"->"Application Settings" screen (as shown in the screenshot above). This will allow the application to be accessible by other applications but will not be visible on Home screen.

Author: Panshul Srivastava
42Gears Mobility Systems

To learn more on how to secure and manage Android and Windows Mobile/CE devices efficiently, visit us at www.42gears.com

Bottom-bar in Android 3.0+ devices provide access to access recent applications, settings, etc.

The easiest way to prevent misuse of  your device is to completely hide the bottom bar from the device. On normal Android tablets SureLock can disable the bottom bar but it also has the capability to completely hide the bottom bar on rooted devices. Hidden bottom allows your applications to make full use of available screen space. Here are the steps to hide your device's bottom bar:

1. Access the SureLock admin area (by tapping on Back button or empty area of SureLock Home-screen for 5 times and enter the password in the Password prompt)and go to SureLock Settings.
   

   Enable "Hide Bottom Bar" in SureLock Settings Menu

2. Scroll down to "Hide Bottom Bar" setting and check the box.
   Note: Superuser permissions are required by SureLock. A prompt will appear if SureLock doesn't have Superuser permissions already
   

   Allow Superuser permissions to SureLock when prompted

3. Once done, the bottom bar will be hidden and all the applications will run in full-screen mode including SureLock. After you have finished configuring SureLock, click on Done  until you come on SureLock Home-screen.
   

   SureLock with "Hide Bottom Bar" enabled

   Note:  Once the "Hide Bottom Bar" feature is enabled, the Home button and Back button will no longer be present on the device. Hence, your allowed applications should have navigation support built-in in order to access previous screen or SureLock home screen. In case the user gets stuck in an application where navigation support was not provided, the user will have to restart the device to get back to SureLock Home-screen.

Author: Panshul Srivastava
42Gears Mobility Systems

To learn more on how to secure and manage Android and Windows Mobile/CE devices efficiently, visit us at www.42gears.com

Get the best of both worlds with complete browser lockdown and comprehensive HTML5 feature set with the new SureFox. Whether it's a basic kiosk implementation or an enterprise with specific business needs, SureFox has something for you. Checkout the rich collection of features, technologies, and APIs of HTML5 supported by SureFox:

 FEATURES

OFFLINE: localStorage, Web SQL Database Storage, online/offline events, Application Cache

Boost the performance of your application by storing data in the cache or use it for data persistency and user sessions and when reloading and restoring pages.

STORAGE: Web Storage-sessionStorage, Web Storage-localStorage, Web SQL Database Storage, Web SQL Database - rollback, Storage events

Save data on the device instead of uploading it to server each and every time. Data can also be sync'd back to the server, or it can always stay on the device: that's up to you, the developer.

COMMUNICATION: postMessage(same domain), postMessage(across domain)

Communicate confidential data between frames on same window or different windows by using postMessage API and integrate 3rd party content with more trust

CONNECTIVITY: online/offline events, offline detection, navigator.onLine (Using polls instead of events), offline application using manifest

Handle mobile connections with more control over the connection status hence providing more performance, better user experience.

MULTIMEDIA: video element, audio element

Audio and Video make Web ultra rich with HTML5. The real power of these new HTML elements stands out when they are combined with the other technologies of the web stack.

LOCATION: GeoLocation

Serve your end-users with location-specific content or just gather user statistics to improve your application by implementing GeoLocation & tracking using GPS, Cellular or WiFi network

GRAPHICS: Canvas, 2D Canvas, text element, CSS3 and Interactive Canvas Gradient

Produce animations or visual effects for your web apps & pages with the addition of technologies like the canvas elements, smooth CSS3 transitions and transformations which deal with graphics on the web.

Other available HTML5 features include , contenteditable attribute, dataset(data-* attributes)

Author: Panshul Srivastava
42Gears Mobility Systems

To learn more on how to secure and manage Android and Windows Mobile/CE devices efficiently, visit us at www.42gears.com

Just follow the steps below to add allowed websites in SureFox:

1. Open the SureFox's Settings screen by quickly tapping on back button or on screen 5 times and enter your password
2. Tap on "Allowed Websites"
   

   Tap on "Allowed Websites"

3. Tap on "Add URL"
   
   

   Tap on "Add URL"

   
   

4. Enter Website Details as explained below:
   
   

   Website Details Screen

   
   URL: Select the URL type:
   http : Select if the site uses the http:// protocol
   https : Select if the site is a Secured Site(SSL) and uses https://
   file : Select if the site is stored on the device's storage memory

   Display Name: The name specified here is displayed on SureFox homepage for the allowed URL

   Allow sub-domains: Tick the check-box if you wish  to allow all the sub-domains of the allowed URL. For example: If  you have selected www.google.com as the allowed URL, then allowing the sub-domains will provide access to all sites hosted under *.google.com such as maps.google.com, mail.google.com and so on. However note that allowing sub-domains does not allow sites with same domain name but with different extensions such as google.co.in or google.co.uk. They will have to be allowed as a seperate URL.

   Set as Starting URL: The selected URL will be set as Homepage and will automatically load with the launch of SureFox

   Hide URL: If the Hide URL check-box is marked, the allowed URL will be hidden from the SureFox homepage but will not be blocked if any other page tries to open it. This option becomes quite useful in case you don't want the end-user to directly launch the website but should be accessible when launched by other allowed sites.

   Icon: Lets you to choose the display icon for each allowed URL on SureFox homepage
   Favicon : Fetches favicon from the site dynamically
   Default : Displays a globe icon for the site
   Custom : Manually specify an image file

5. Tap on Done.
   

   Website added to the "Allowed Websites" list

Repeat the steps to add as many allowed sites and that's it, user will be able to access only the sites you allow and restrict the rest.

Author: Panshul Srivastava
42Gears Mobility Systems

To learn more on how to secure and manage Android and Windows Mobile/CE devices efficiently, visit us at www.42gears.com

Login to the SureMDM Console and follow the steps below:

1. Click on 'Jobs' tab in the left panel
2. Click on 'New' button on top as shown below
   

   Opening and creating a new job

3. Select the 'Android' platform and click OK
4. Select 'Install Program' and click OK
   

   Creating an 'Install Program' Job for Android platform

5. Fill in the Install Job Properties and click OK:
   

   Selecting the apk to be installed

   Job Name: Enter 'Job Name' to identify the job in the job list
   Local File Path: Click browse button and locate the apk of the application you wish to install
   Device Path: 'Device Path' can be configured to specify the location where the application is to be installed on the device. By default, it installs the application in sdcard
   Install After Copy : If this box is unchecked, the apk is only copied to the device. Check the box if you want to launch the installation after the apk is copied to the device. In case of rooted device, the application will be installed silently otherwise user needs to confirm the installation

6. After the job is created, select the device(s) on which the application is to be installed and click on 'Apply' button as shown:
   

   Applying the job on devices

7. Select the Install Job you just created from the list of jobs available and click on OK. By default, the job is applied instantly however you can also Schedule the Install Job for a later date and time.
   

   Selecting the Install Job from Job list

8. The selected apk will be copied on the device and the installation will be launched (if the checkbox was marked while creating the job). You can verify the status of Install Job in the Log window in the bottom of SureMDM too.

Author: Panshul Srivastava
42Gears Mobility Systems

To learn more on how to secure and manage Android and Windows Mobile/CE devices efficiently, visit us at www.42gears.com

Icon View Display of SureFox

Details of SureFox Custom Icon Types:

Favicon:

Selecting "favicon" as display icon

favicon fetches the custom icon from the allowed website dynamically and displays the same in SureFox.

 Default Icon:

Selecting "default icon" as display icon

Default icon displays a default globe icon for the allowed website you have selected

Custom Icon:

Selecting "custom icon/image" as display icon

Custom icon allows you to display any image type as a thumbnail image for the selected website. Tap on "Custom" to launch file browser and select the image file of your choice. (Note: You can manually specify a local image path or an image over internet too. For Ex.: http://www.site.com/image.png)

After making the required changes in "Settings", tap on "Done" button to apply the changes and that's it. You are done with customizing the display of SureFox.

Author: Panshul Srivastava
42Gears Mobility Systems

To learn more on how to secure and manage Android and Windows Mobile/CE devices efficiently, visit us at www.42gears.com

Wondering how to disable that annoying status bar in the bottom of HoneyComb Tablets aka Android 3.0! Well, SureLock comes with option to disable the bottom bar in tablets running Android HoneyComb OS which allows you to run your favorite applications in full-screen which complies with SureLock's settings(To make your application compatible with SureLock's full-screen implementation, there might be a few changes required in your application too. Contact us for details) . Here's how you can get away with bottom bar.

Before & After Disabling Bottom Bar

1. Launch SureLock on your HoneyComb Tablet and access the SureLock's Settings Screen using admin password
2. Go to "SureLock Settings"
3. Enable "Disable Bottom Bar" option
4. SureLock prompts to restart itself. Tap on "Restart"
5. There you go. Bottom bar is disabled after SureLock relaunches.

Steps to Disable Bottom Bar in SureLock

Disabling bottom bar can be quite helpful in scenarios where end-users are provided with restricted usage of devices and complete kiosk experience is required.

Author: Panshul Srivastava
42Gears Mobility Systems

To learn more on how to secure and manage Android and Windows Mobile/CE devices efficiently, visit us at www.42gears.com

Worry no more. SureFox now comes with an option to customize the way you access administrator settings. Here's how you can do the same:

1. Access the SureFox admin screen using your password and follow as shown in steps below:
   

   Steps for SureFox

2. In Misc Settings, you can find the options to modify the settings to access Administrator's Password Prompt.
   • Number of Taps: Change the Number of Taps required on screen to open the Password Screen for Admin
     

     Edit "Number of Taps"

   • Access Settings Timeout: Change "Access Settings Timeout" to control the time(in seconds) after launch of SureFox within which the Admin can try to access Password prompt for Admin Setting
     

     Edit "Access Settings Timeout"

That's it. Your SureFox's admin screen is restricted according to the settings you configure and reduces the chances of unintentional launch by end-user.

Author: Panshul Srivastava
42Gears Mobility Systems

To learn more on how to secure and manage Android and Windows Mobile/CE devices efficiently, visit us at www.42gears.com