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Restricted UserInterface - Party-/Loaner-/Batten-down-mode

asked 2014-03-08 00:26:31 +0200

chemist gravatar image

updated 2014-12-18 16:21:29 +0200

Again an idea on how ambiences/settingsumbrellas could change for use cases.

This time I am on about restricting the whole interface to things the user can choose.

Examples:

  • You are out partying and put on your party-TOH/ambience.
  • Now as our Asian friends joined, where the social norm is to share your resources with friends and family. And saying no is often considered rude. But now that we use our phones to not only talk but also for mobile banking and to read email, for example, I find myself more reluctant to hand over my phone to somebody. But by doing so, I may offend many who don't understand my concern (either due to ignorance about technology or their perception about the nature of our relationship).

Explained: There are situations where you give your phone away or leave it somewhere considered unsafe in regards of todays security needs (online banking, conversations, accounting, OTG payment). For those cases where you do not want to have your whole phone locked down, on a party so someone can change songs or when a friend is asking if he can borrow your phone for a few minutes to call or text, you need a mode to lock your phone just as tight as it needs to be for the upcoming risk. Out partying, lock it to never ever call anything else but home, police and a cab - have a notepad available if you make new friends etc. You double-tap the screen to unlock, you find yourself on the lock-screen and pull up, your favourites are changed to Phone Messaging Fahrplan Camera, active on the home-screen is your calendar. Now you tap the calendar but the UI is restricted to only open the Favourites so you will be asked for your lock-code. Same for pulling into launcher (you could pull up and have it visible first, then tap something and the device-lock hits you), the device asks to enter your lock code. Now what is with old message/history in your available apps? The Phone shows no history but your favourites from people to call only. Messaging shows no old messages but you can send new ones to your favourites. How do you unlock them? How about a pulley-menu entry reading Unlock.

Party-mode is what I have for my desktop, a user who has only access to 2 programs - a browser and a media player

Stranger/Incognito-mode could come handy at some point not only if being in Asia.

Parts are taken from https://together.jolla.com/question/58104/feature-request-restricted-mode-for-sharing-phone/

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Comments

2

Good idea. This can serve also as children mode or demo mode.

zlatko ( 2014-03-08 10:28:14 +0200 )edit
7

Well maybe you want something like a mode for when you are drinking alcohol. I would divide it into 3 levels, buzzing, intoxicated and drunk. Drunk level has huge fonts and icons with like "call a cab" "call my room mate" "gallery" "call home" "find closest ATM" "funny pictures" "quick random lie/excuse."

When Jolla starts releasing Sailfish images for various android devices someone could port over the sensor drone apps http://sensorcon.com/sensordrone/ because the sensor drone has a breathalyzer on it. So you could use that as a tool to make sure you don't act stupid by turning on "party mode" and it requires that you blow into the sensor drone every half hour and adjusts the UI accordingly.

aironeousb ( 2014-03-09 02:54:06 +0200 )edit

Really good idea, and not too difficult to implement I think.

How I'd go at it, is to add new user account besides the normal "nemo" and ability to switch users in the UI. You could have multiple accounts that could each have a configurable set of allowed resources/features.

The system parts that need to be "always activated" like ofonod for phone and messaging connectivity already run as root, so there'd be no conflicts if the user account that is controlling the UI is changed.

juiceme ( 2014-10-09 11:26:07 +0200 )edit

@chemist i'm not sure that i want to give my phone to someone known or not, drunk or not, even if is it in restricted mode or spared. the device is mine, and it will be a catastroph if it will be broken.

cemoi71 ( 2014-12-18 10:42:24 +0200 )edit

@cemoi71 the occasions I hand over my phone are very rare to none, but when having a party at home I rarely have my phone in my pocket and don't want it to be locked down as it might be in charge of our background music or it is the remote to my desktop which is the actual player.

chemist ( 2014-12-18 12:37:11 +0200 )edit

2 Answers

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answered 2014-10-11 05:10:21 +0200

sifartech gravatar image

updated 2014-10-11 05:16:41 +0200

I had expressed a similar idea, and my thoughts on this are:

Cultural Context:
It is the social norm with Indians / Asians to share our resources with friends and family. And saying no is often considered rude. But now that we use our phones to not only talk but also for mobile banking and to read email, for example, I find myself more reluctant to hand over my phone to somebody. But by doing so, I may offend many who don't understand my concern (either due to ignorance about technology or their perception about the nature of our relationship).

Suggestion:
An elegant solution to this would be to have a restricted mode / guest mode.

When this mode is activated, only apps pre-selected by the owner of the phone should be shown and allowed access to. For example, if someone wants to use my phone to make a call, I can activate the restricted / guest mode with only the phone app. Or if my niece wants to use the phone to chat with her friend, I can activate the mode with only the messenger app. Thus, in the restricted / guest mode only whitelisted app would be shown, and all other apps would be "hidden" and be inaccessible.

OR

Allow apps to be password protected with a PIN. So if I have protected the 'Gallery' app, for example, it shouldn't open unless the right PIN is entered.

OR

Create a login system for Sailfish OS that allows the phone to be used by multiple users. Each users app and data resides on their own login / userspace only and should be inaccessible to others.

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answered 2014-12-18 12:54:25 +0200

cemoi71 gravatar image

updated 2014-12-18 17:14:29 +0200

I am interested on the concept of chemist but as i told to him in a party i'm not sure that i want to give my phone to someone known or not, drunk or not, even if is it in restricted mode or spared. the device is mine, and it will be a catastrophe if it will be broken.

But in the situation that at home my phone rest on a place where my child or a child could access on it, and i didn't paid attention of that (it could happens a lots of time). Then i want more to promote the same function but more as a childmode. I think it makes more sense. Maybe we could give a more universal name like "Foreigner mode" or "Sailor mode" for unexperimented people (Commander/Captain mode is for owner). What do you think about it?

yes ! a Passenger-mode called Passenger-mode or Steward-Mode. And why not with the ambience sound "The Passenger". Sponsorised from Iggy-pop! lol :-D

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Comments

1

In English there is iirc no single word for it but we might be looking for a name that reflects the nautical phrase batten down the hatches - for land speak that means to prepare for trouble

Another idea is like the concierge key for cars a steward mode

chemist ( 2014-12-18 14:18:15 +0200 )edit

@chemist there is no problem that you comment direct to me with @... i've passed your remark. so why not. the only purpose that i put this answer is that i wanted enlarged the application domaine.
Maybe if we give some more thinking we could find an other keyword to put on the title after partymode. what do you think about it?
please don't misunderstand it, but i find just partymode is really restrictive... i don't want to force you. I just try to convince you ;-)

cemoi71 ( 2014-12-18 15:43:43 +0200 )edit

wording of how is the function it called in the software is (as you told) secondary...

cemoi71 ( 2014-12-18 15:45:30 +0200 )edit

if you are agree with the other word in title, a word like intrudermode but not negative, do you have an idea?

cemoi71 ( 2014-12-18 15:49:29 +0200 )edit

@cemoi71 you get highlighted by commenting on your answer anyway so why do I need to type your name? I updated the title to reflect more options.

chemist ( 2014-12-18 16:23:02 +0200 )edit
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Asked: 2014-03-08 00:26:31 +0200

Seen: 994 times

Last updated: Dec 18 '14