- Monday, December 28th, 2009
- Written By Luke Gilkerson
- Categories: Accountability Software, Covenant Eyes Mobile, Covenant Eyes Software Updates, Criticisms and FAQ for Covenant Eyes, General Back to Blog Home
Covenant Eyes iPhone App is Here!
The Covenant Eyes app for iPhone and iPod Touch has finally arrived! This has been one of our most requested products, so we are excited to add this app to our growing list of services.
The app is an Internet browser. You can use it like you would Safari. It works somewhat like our other accountability services for the PC, the Mac, and Windows Mobile devices. It isn’t a filtered browser. It simply monitors everywhere you go online, rating each Web address for mature content. It then sends a detailed report to the “Accountability Partner(s)” you choose, such as a friend, a spouse, a mentor, etc.
Accountability software like this has helped tens of thousands of people to avoid online temptations. Removing the secrecy of where we go online changes how we surf the Web.
For our existing Members, this new app is a free service. Just use your existing username and password to run it. To become a Member visit CovenantEyes.com and sign up.
Please, look at our user guide for more information about how to use this app most effectively.
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It’s too bad that Apple will not let you hook into their API for Safari and YouTube like you can on their desktops and laptops.
Will there be a comparison of features between CE and X3Watch for iPhone?
@John – We’ll try to put a comparison together and welcome anyone else who would like to run a comparison test.
So glad this has finally been launched! Thanks guys!
First off I think its great that the app is finally out. I have been checking the blog almost daily for it. I had a feeling that the app would be a browser and not more like the desktop version that monitors all internet activity. Thats unfortunate, but I’m sure that’s out of your control.
My only complaint is that it has a 17+ rating. I understand that that’s because it a browser and so you can access inappropriate material, but it makes making the iPhone safe tough. Right now I have Safari locked out, YouTube locked out and 17+ apps locked out. So to add the Covenant eyes I will make the iPhone less safe rather than more safe.
Can you comment at all about how apps get the ratings? Is that something you give it or does Apple give the apps ratings? There are many other browsers that have lower scores. Even one I noticed that promotes that it covers the users tracks. I really hope the rating can be changed otherwise I don’t think I will be able to take advantage of it.
Thanks for all you do and continue to do.
@Tom – The Apple Blog says 17+ apps “may also contain frequent and intense offensive language; frequent and intense cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence; and frequent and intense mature, horror, and suggestive themes; plus sexual content, nudity, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs which may not be suitable for children under the age of 17.” We certainly wanted a lower rating, but because our browser is only monitoring, not filtered, it allows all of the Internet to come through, and with that all the ability to search for this adult content. Any app that does this will be rated 17+ by Apple. Unfortunately, this is out of our control.
@Tom – The best way to solve this problem is to install the CE app and then disable “Installing Apps” in the “Restrictions” menu. Lock it down with a password. Then you won’t be able to install new apps, but you can run your current apps, including CE.
Finally. I have been waiting what feels like an eternity for the new CE app. Thanks so much guys for all your hard work in getting ready.
Luke,
I have found the setup in the user guide to be very satisfactory. I love the fact that installed apps can access the Internet connection even with Safari, etc. disabled under Restrictions. Now I have an iPhone with only a handful of the thousands of functions disabled.
Well done, CE! Thanks so much.
Yesss! :)
Thank you guys so much! you are awesome.
My my accountability partner brothers in Christ and I have been waiting for something like this for our Iphone’s & Itouches for a good long while now.
Cant tell you guys how much your efforts are appreciated.
Strength in Christ
Does Apple rate Safari as a 17+ app?
@John – I don’t believe it is. Ironic.
Any plans for the future to have a CE iPhone app that will also filter?
Thanks
@Tom – Nothing has been done for that yet. A filter for Macs is a little higher on our list right now.
@Luke – Two things: 1) is there a possibility of complaining to Apple about the app rating? Seems to me that if their Safari app isn’t 17+ rated, why should ANY other browser??
2) Is there a possibility of making a CE app for jailbroken iPhones/iPod touches that takes advantage of the API and runs more like the PCs and Macs with monitoring of EVERYTHING??
I would rather jailbreak my iPhone/iPod touch to have that feature and risk a void warranty than not be FULLY protected.
@David – Be our guest to complain to Apple about the rating. In a lot of ways the iPhone system itself is bent away from accountability altogether, making any accountability app an awkward edition. Apple is inconsistent with their rating process which initially made us want to delay creating the app.
Great app guys….I’ve been waiting for this to come out. Nice work!
One question: I’ve got the Google Voice search app installed. When I do a search through that app it presents the results within the Google App – like a separate browser. Will the CE app monitor that content OR do you have to do
all the browsing through the CE application?
Thanks again!
@David – Unfortunately, because of the way the iPhone is designed, the CE app can only monitor itself, not other apps. In our user guide has instructions on disabling other apps. Our app certainly isn’t a perfect solution.
I know that it took a while for iphone app to be developed, but any word on when a similar app will be developed for droid?
@Lucas – Nothing is being developed for the droid currently.
Thank you CE for developing this. One future improvement we would like to see is the ability to access hot spot access pages that require password login, similar to what CE desktop version has.
Shouldn’t you call this iEyes? 8-{)>
Great developement guys, have been looking out for some accountability software for a when I get an iPhone.
Having not got an iPhone at present I was wondering whether the CE browser allows you to do the usually expand/shrink, copy/paste etc funcitons you get with Safari.
Can anyone comment on this?
Cheers
@Joey B – Yes. Is does the copy and paste functions as well as zooming in and out.
Yeah Joey it does do those things, however… it won’t allow you to quickly google search anything you type into the upper right hand corner without resetting and just sending you back to the google homepage again where you have to retype what you’re looking for. I suggest just creating a bookmark until this bug gets fixed :-)
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Great! This is wonderful.
Will the accountability report from an iPhone/iTouch be streamlined into the normal PC/Mac report, or will a separate and additional report (specifically for the Apple product) be generated and sent to the accountability partner?
Hope that makes sense. Thanks!
@Robbie – Your iPhone surfing will be rolled into the normal report. You can have an account and use CE on as many computers as you like (work, home, PC, Mac, iPhone, Windows Mobile, etc.) and everything surfed on that username goes into one report.
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CE iPhone browser is generally great, but I’ve noticed some glitches.
1. I’ve got the “stay signed in” button “on”, but it’s signed me out a few times and said my login was invalid. I’ve had to login again.
2. The keypad appears on the screen at login and takes several taps of the screen and the Google search box to disappear–kind of annoying.
3. You can’t jump to the top of a webpage by tapping the top of the screen as in Safari. This is really handy if you’ve scrolled down a large webpage.
I assume there will be updates? These would be some great things to address.
@Chris – Yes. Updates will come along. Thanks for your comments. They really help us for making a better browser.
Does this mean you have to use it as the browser? What if you use Safari, does it still monitor everything? Maybe I’m just confused.
@Kent – Yes. The app is a browser. It essentially replaces Safari. It still monitors everything surfed on that browser as CE would on your PC or Mac. The only catch it you have to disable Safari and any other app that might be a problem, password protect it, and give let your accountability partner (or whoever you want) hold the password. It isn’t a perfect solution, but the iPhone doesn’t allow for background processes the way a desktop computer does. We’ve created something that will work for iPhone users as long as it is used properly.
Luke, excellent work on this. I do have a technical question about the app: the feasibility of me using the app as a replacement browser for Safari depends on whether I can import my bookmarks, either from Safari or (more likely?) from IE on the laptop I sync the iPhone with. I’ve got a lot of bookmarks, and adding them all manually would be prohibitive.
Does the app support syncing bookmarks?
@Jeff – The app does not sync bookmarks. We are unaware of any way to easily do this. Sorry.
Luke, thanks for looking into it. I will probably still use the CE browser as my default, but will have to keep Safari enabled, though I know that reduces the effectiveness of the CE browser.
When considering future updates of the app, you might consider:
1) Finding a way for users to sync bookmarks via iTunes or import them some other way;
2) Adding a “Add to Home Screen” option like Safari’s, that allows users to add an icon for a bookmark to the iPhone’s screen.
I think these would really bump up the feasibility of using the CE browser as an alternative to Safari.
Thanks again for all your work on this!
Quick question… I’m currently debating whether to get the iphone or an android phone. My main priority for now is to just lock down all internet access on the phone. I understand that this is possible on the iphone (by locking down safari, which I hope is a foolproof solution). But is this possible on android? Any ideas? Thanks..
@Gerald – There are a number of places online (like here) that talk about disabling various apps on the Android.
I understand CE browser monitors only content browsed in itself. Given the numerous number of apps which now have in app web browsing features, I am wondering whether CE is in dialogue with Apple in gaining access to API. Is this something you could petition Apple on?
@Michael – Yes, we’ve been in dialog with Apple for about a year and a half now. Unfortunately, us gaining access to API is something they have zero interest in cooperating on.
Wikipedia mobile site loads on the CE browser
without any search box. Very odd. Any way to
fix this?
@Chris – We’ve tested this here several times on several iPhones. We are going to mobile.wikipedia.org and see the search box just fine. Perhaps you could call our customer service folks so we can troubleshoot the problem with you.
Thanks for the info Luke.
Why is Apple able to keep companies from gaining access to their APIs, but Microsoft was not able to do this?
Has anyone else been having an issue with ‘keep logged in’ option on the iPhone app? If I use it, the keyboard won’t go away. So either surf with a keyboard eating 70% of the screen or manually log in each time. Any ideas?
@Jeremy – This seems to work. When you open Covenant Eyes and it is set to automatically log in, hit “Next” on the keyboard, and then “Go.” The keyboard seemed to go away then.
I’ve been using the CE app with an iTouch. I’ve found the way to remove the keyboard is to touch the URL field at the top and then make a down swipe across the screen.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned that many iPad Touch apps launch their own browsers from adverts etc. So you have to delete them if they do that. Also the device can be restored via iTunes to wipe it’s settings. I’ve taken iTunes off my computer and given my connection wire to my accountability partner. I charge the iPod with a wall plug-in charger.
I am so disppointed with this app. It would be great if it was the ONLY browser that could be used on the iphone. When clicking on any apps like google, youtube, facebook, etc it immediately opens safari. The fact that it is 17+ rating doesn’t help either. My husband downloaded covenant eyes at the exact same time that he downloaded a “secret browser”. Now, how is this really helping anyone??? It has just caused more problems!!!!
@anonymous – There are many improvements we would like to make with this app. Unfortunately Apple makes doing this very difficult and in order to make an app at all, we had to make one that isn’t nearly as professional as our other products. In our user guide we recommend disabling any apps that access Safari and disabling the installation of apps altogether. This is the only way the accountability is complete.
@anonymous – I am so sorry this app has not worked out the way you’d hoped. We state in our user guide that the only way to use the app so ensure airtight accountability is to disable Safari and YouTube and any other app that accesses a Safari browser. We also recommend disabling the installation of new apps. This limits the iPhone’s usability, but is the only way Apple allowed us to design the app.
Someone mentioned that with the CE app you can’t connect to wireless internet connections that require a password. Is this correct?
I hear all the comments about the browser, I have been using it since the day it came out. I have removed 95% of the apps i had because there is a way to access subversive content through almost every app. Apple does not really care about parental controls or accountability. Using an app like this is a sacrifice, but as men there are sacrifices that we must make. I will continue to use it as I wait for an update that fixes some of the issues. I am very grateful to have the internet on my phone at all (and a shackled iphone is still ten times better than any windows phone)
@michael – Thanks for your comment about the new app. Unfortunately Apple does not live in the same culture of accountability we live in. I hope some day they see the value of accountability in people making proactive choices about where they go and what they see online.
Will CE app & settings advice be applicable to the new iPad?
I have just discovered that, even though I have the Installing Apps function on the i-Phone password protected, I can “synch” my iPhone to the iTunes store on my PC and download apps to my iPhone that way. Is there any chance of giving the Apps store a high rating on the accountability reports? It would at least flag the issue and raise dialogue with the accountability partner.
@Dean – Thanks for the idea. I’ll run it by our Web rating team and see what we can do.
Covenant Eyes has been super important in my dedication to purity and in the protection of my marriage. So much so that even as an enthusiastic mac user I promised myself I’d never get an iPhone without some form of accountability software.
It’s great to see that CE has released an app for the iPhone. I realize, however, that a separate browser, instead of a background process, was probably not your original or ideal solution. As such, I thought CE staff and developers might be interested in this recent iPhone development:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/03/11/apples_iphone_4_0_software_to_deliver_multitasking_support.html
After all the hard work that I’m sure has gone into the release of this browser, I can imagine it would be difficult to go right back to the drawing board… But I also know that for many, the ability to easily re-enable Safari and disable the CE browser is unfortunately an ever-present temptation. Personally, I’m holding off on getting an iPhone or any smart phone at this time.
Thanks for all you guys do. Grace and peace to you.
@Stephen – Thanks for your comment and link. Right now there’s nothing here to indicate for-sure plans Apple has for 4.0. Rest assured we’ll keep our eyes open to new developments as we look to the next evolution of our app. Thanks!
Hi,
I would like to install CE on my daughter’s iPod touch. After reading the above comments, I think I understand that we will have to disable Safari, as well as YouTube and Facebook apps? Then she can still access those sites, but only through the CE browser? And also disable new app installation? Can you add bookmarks from within the CE browser as icons on your screen?
Thank you!
You guys are life savers. God bless all of you for the work you are doing to help us remove temptation from the front doorstep in this modern world.
Running a software development team myself, I know it can be helpful to have users report problems in. As such, here are some of the issues I’ve noted in using the CE browser, which is my only browser; before CE I had them all blocked:
1. Multiple page management is buggy — (a) Sometimes the app crashes when managing multiple pages; (b) the page switching part of the app seems buggy the way it renders, like the GUI here needs some extra work; (c) often times, when switching back to a previous page, it loads blank and completely forgets the page I was on; (d) further, sometimes the extra pages that were loaded seem to be lost (i.e., other pages disappearing from the “tabs”).
2. Leaving and coming back into the app, last page is frequently not loaded and it loads a blank page instead.
3. Google search box not working — I noticed the google search box on the top-right of the screen stopped working a few weeks back, which seemed to coincide with Google updating the GUI of their iphone site. Now, searching in the box just brings you to the google homepage.
4. As noted by others, whenever app loads, keyboard is always there, and you have to do awkward workarounds to make it go away.
5. Scrolling indicator in middle of screen, not on side — when you scroll up and down in horizontal viewing, the scroll indicator shows up just to the right of the middle of the screen. When you flip back to vertical, same thing keeps happening.
6. Login — fails about 30% of the time; workaround is to keep exiting and restarting. Eventually it always gets through, but it’s a definite bug.
7. Loading and typing into URL bar — I often have difficulty doing this: I load the app, some previous page is already there, but I want to go to somewhere else. I click on the URL bar and start typing in an address, but the app keeps loading the old page and keeps overriding my input in the URL bar, so I have either type really fast and hit “go”, or wait for the old page to fully load every element and then I can type the new URL without being overridden.
Not bugs, but serious UI improvements:
1. Rotating the phone, poor screen viewing — in side view, the bottom GUI bar remains the same size (gets shorter in Safari for more viewing space), and the top GUI bar doesn’t go away when you scroll down (which it does in Safari). This leaves you with much less room to actually see pages in horizontal view, which makes using it in that mode much less practical.
2. Touching top of app to scroll back to top — as noted by others, this would be very helpful.
3. Login happening faster — login takes a while, and if there’s any way to speed it up, the app would be much easier to get in and out of quickly.
4. Help page — I often find myself accidentally hitting the info button when trying to get to another page I loaded. It would be nice if that were in a different spot, like between the add bookmark and history buttons, which are hit less.
5. Search bar and URL bar growing when selected — nice feature of safari – when you click on these, the bars grow so you can see more of what you’re typing. If nothing else, it would be very helpful if this happened for the search bar in vertical mode, because otherwise you can only see about 5 characters of what you type in that box.
6. Rotation slow — When rotating the phone to horizontal mode, it seems like the app takes a while to adjust and has a hard time switching. This is not very important, but mentioning.
7. Background app — If Apple ever does get background apps into the iphone, it would of course be great to have this run in that fashion. Separately, who knows if apple will ever make it possible to select a different default browser than safari, but this one would become mine in a second if so.
So that is the complete list of bugs I’ve noticed. Hope that helps you guys with the updates. I am a heavy CE product user, and swear by your products. The accountability has helped me and many brother push the temptation far enough away that we can start to deal with what’s causing it underneath.
This CE browser itself has just been extremely convenient, beyond the desktop applications, in that I can now safely go on the internet with my iphone where I couldn’t at all before. As with others, I was checking your site and blogs every couple days for months waiting for it to come out, and shouted praise once it was there.
May God heap blessings upon your development team and your leadership for what you are doing.
Steve
@Steve – Nice review of the app. Thanks for the list of things we need to work on.
I just heard about this from my accountability partner. This is awesome news. I was always in fear of my phone. I had my internet disabled on my phone, but could always re-enable it any time, which was a constant temptation. I actually did mess up a few times using my phone and the internet. Now this adds some real hope. And allows me to get an iPhone which I always wanted, but was afraid of the internet accessiblity on.
I’ve heard talks of the upcoming 4G potentially multi-tasking. Does this imply the possibility of a background running CE instead of just a browser?
@Jeremy – There’s been talk of it around the office, but as of now no one has their hands on the technology to test this process. We will be keeping our eyes pealed.
So with the new iPhone OS 4.0 SDK out, could you guys comment on any impact this might have for your CE browser? Understanding of course that you’ll need time to digest the information, and anything you could say now would be speculative.
Still, it would be wonderful to get any kind of update from you guys to keep us loyal fans in the loop.
One thing that jumps at me is I could keep the browser open in the background, and not have to wait through the “authentication” process all the time, which would be awesome. At least I think that’s how the current version would work with multi-tasking :)
I so wish Apple would allow you to make something other than Safari the default browser, so all your links in emails etc would go to CE instead of Safari. One can dream…
I saw a response back in January, but is there any plan on developing CE for the Android OS?
@jonathan – No new updates yet. We’ll let you know.
Opera Mini has gotten to the iPhone (http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2010/04/13/). With now a mainstream alternative browser on the device, I am beginning to wonder if Apple may eventually bend to increasing pressure to let people pick a default browser application.
The browser itself is not as strategically key to Apple as they may have thought when they launched. Steve Jobs spoke in his last keynote on the OS that everyone thought it would be about search on the iphone, like it is on the desktop, but in fact it’s more about the app. E.g., people launch a wikipedia or NYTimes app to go to that content, not Safari.
Could be good for CEyes.
Still, I hope you find a way to take advantage of the OS 4.0 features to get the app to be easier and more seamless to use.
Hi,
First I would like to give you a boatload of thanks for what you are doing. God bless you for it!
I have several concerns though I’m hoping you can fix:
- first, now that Opera is available, how long until Skyfire, etc. is available for the iphone. These allow people to bypass the Safari lock, rendering the CE browser somewhat ineffective. I’m hoping you can have better integration in OS 4. I know it’s not your fault- it’s just the way the iphone software works- no background apps.
- I also have an Android phone, and there is no protection for it. At the rate is is growing, shortly (if it hasn’t already) it will be exceeding WM, and I believe it has become and will only become more of a predominant platform for smartphones. Please consider developing this inhouse, or checking around again. From the stats I’ve seen, Android is only 2nd to the iphone in # of advertising hits on the internet for phones, so it is a huge market and only growing.
Please don’t take the above as any criticism. I would just love to see solutions to the problems.
Keep up the great work- you provide such a valuable service! God bless!
Now that I have CE installed on my iPhone, is there any way of locking out Safari. It makes no sense to have Safari on here if you’re running CE.
@Noel – if you into Settings, in the “General” category there’s an option for Restrictions where you can manually turn off Safari and YouTube.
Google’s homepage no longer works at all in my browser for search now. When I click in the search box on http://www.google.com, the keyboard comes up and then goes away immediately. I’ve rebooted my phone etc, nothing fixes this.
I am only going to the homepage because the search box in the browser hasn’t worked for at least a couple months now, since Google updated their mobile interface (per March 29 post above).
@Steve – Thank you for reporting this error. We tested the issue you were experiencing with searching in the Google toolbar and had the same difficulties. I have reported this bug to our Product Development and Quality Assurance teams. We hope to improve our iPhone application in future updates. Thank you for your submission. If you have any further questions please let me know.
Thank you all for your input. Thank you CE for all your hard work and keeping up with Apple products.
I have the opportunity to travel to Europe for business and I will need a business phone. Since Blackberry does not have any filtering apps or CE, I am looking into the iPhone.
I found a filtering app that can be used along with CE for the iPhone. I have heard that it works well, but the cost is $19.99. The name is Safe Eyes “Mobile.” Please let me know if you like it or not.
When will you release an Android app?
After installing the app, I went to finance.yahoo.com which redirected me to the app for yahoo finance. Because this always loads now whenever I try to open CE browser, I can’t use the CE browser.
@Kevin – When you open the CE Browser, it always opens to the last page that was accessed. Since the last page accessed was a page redirecting you to the App store, you become stuck in this loop. This has been identified as a bug in our iPhone software and our Product Development Team has added it to our backlog.
Currently, the only way to correct this issue will be to uninstall the CE Browser and then reinstall it. You can uninstall the CE Browser by tapping and holding your finger on the CE Browser icon until it shakes. Then tap the “X” to uninstall the app. To reinstall the CE Browser, just open the App Store and perform a search for Covenant Eyes. Tap “Covenant Eyes Inc.” in the results. Tap “Free” and then tap “Install” to install the CE Browser.
I apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any further questions please let me know.
WOULD YOU PAY FOR THE CE IPHONE BROWSER? Read below, and please post if you would pay for it to support internal development:
This is just to throw out an idea. I would guess that many of us iPhone users would be happy to pay $0.99-2.99 for the CE browser if it meant there would be more internal funding for updates on a going basis. If we bought an iPhone to begin with, we can likely afford it.
It would be in addition to the monthly subscription, yes, but I would pay you a lot more than $0.99-2.99 right this second if it meant many of the CE browser bugs would get fixed over time, with regular updates.
God bless you for your work, CE. Talk about a light in the darkness …
I would pay for the app
I would be willing to pay as well if it would help make the Iphone CE better
I would pay a LOT more than that.
Hello,
has there been any talk about when the next CE iPhone update will come out, and any possible improvement/bug fixes???
@Matt – We are currently look for a way (with our staff) to fix some of the buggy things. Once we’ve done that, we will let you know about planned updates.
@Steve
Thanks for posting all those bugs. I agree 100%! I wanted to post the exact same list of bugs and possible improvements including UI and other features, but you are too fast!
I am only willing to pay for the browser app if it’s a well-oiled machine. I wouldn’t consider the current version that. There are just too many bugs that need to be fixed (see Steve’s list above). If it has the functionality and speed of the default safari, i’d buy it in a heartbeat. But until then…
I’m a professional ui designer so i have high standards for how things should function when so many people use it. Sorry if i am too harsh. If charging money for the browser = better browser & faster development, i’ll buy it! I think others would too because you guys have an awesome product.
But i love having accountability and thank you for providing it! I just CAN’T WAIT for future app updates with bug fixes!
btw, why don’t you guys use anti-aliased graphics in your ui? Ex: the tabs icon when there’s more than one tab, the red x icon in the tabs menu, the grey x in the url bar when you click the white x. Does the development environment support transparent PNGs?
I would certainly pay for the iPhone app. Now that it’s been released, any word on if iOS4 will allow a cov eyes app to run in the background with Safari? Or an estimate on when updates for the current app might go live?
Thanks for all you do. -Michael
@Michael – The simple answer for this is no. While the iOS 4 allows multiple programs to run simultaneously, one app doesn’t have access to another apps’ network traffic (or access to the networking stack on an OS level). Basically, everything is still quite locked down, so we don’t see any major changes to the way our app functions in the near future. We do, however, hope to make some upgrades to our browser at some point, and we’ll let you know when that is in the works.
Unfortunately, the solution seems to be to buy an Android phone. There are several solutions for the Android already, and I’m assuming Covenant Eyes is working on it too. If you’re struggling with porn, maybe getting a phone that will actually be able to have this sort of program written for it (i.e.- Android) will be the necessary step to take…
Please develop the itouch app. I use it everyday, but it can be very frustrating. I would be willing to pay!
What about a jailbroken solution. You mentioned not being able to have access to another app’s network traffic, but what if the iphone was jailbroken? Could you then? I realize creating a program update that is for an illegal firmware version isn’t optimal. But if it provides true accountability and the ability to totally lock down the phone, I’m sure most would jump on the opportunity to jailbreak their iphone.
Would you consider a jail broken solution now that it is fully legal? This would make some of us VERY happy
@Michael – I’ll bring this idea to the product development team. Thanks!
Dave the FCC just said of was legal… No matter what apple says they do not overrule the FCC
One more vote for an Android App! I haven’t seen any good solutions…
Sorry I’m new to all these, but I am considering buying an iphone OR an android phone. I intend to install a filter software into the new phone i’m getting.
If I jailbreak the iphone, will the filtering capabilities of CE be void?
If yes, do I have similar issues with the android phone?
Ultimately, which kind of phone is recommended?
Please advise, thanks! I do not want to purchase a phone only to realise that no filtering software is effective and I will use it to sin over and over again.
@Seider – Currently we only have an accountability app for the iPhone and nothing yet for the Android. There are some filtering options for the iPhone available through other apps. Neither one has an airtight system, but if you want to buy something easier to filter, iPhone is your best option.
Just checking back for updates.
To reiterate, I would gladly pay a purchase fee for the iPhone app if it would help fund development.
Please do let us know when an update is expected as soon as you can.
Thanks.
@Steve @Sergie
First, great job on the computer-based software. I’ve been using c-eyes for a couple years now and it’s helped me quite a bit. I was excited when you came out with an iPhone app because that has been an ongoing temptation. However, I am in full agreement with Steve and Sergie.
The browser needs serious improvement. Even with the latest update, it does not function as smoothly as it should. This is the only app I have ever been inclined to write a review for but I came across this blog first. I am disappointed in the quality of the app and requesting that you work harder to improve it.
I understand there are development limitations, technical hurdles to overcome and simultaneous work being done for multiple platforms. However, there are other browser apps available like Mercury and Opera that are amazing. There should be no reason c-eyes cannot match or exceed the quality of other iPhone app browsers.
As Sergie said, if you’re charging money then you need to deliver something great. It’s not fair to your extremely loyal customer base to do any less. I still love c-eyes and continue to appreciate the way in which you merge accountability and technology. I look forward to future updates.
@Joel – We have more updates in the works currently. Give us some of your ideas about how the app can be better and we’ll look into them.
Dear Luke,
With the launch of the new iPod Touch 4th gen on Wed 1st Sept 2010. Are you aware of any differences in the set up advice you offer here:-
http://www.covenanteyes.com/help_and_support/article/iphone_user_guide?promocode=ceblog&utm_source=ceblog&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=ceblog
Thanks,
Peter
@Peter – No special differences – install it just like any other app from the app store. Lock down safari and such exactly the same as before – they only difference is that, like the iPhone 4, the new iPod Touch screen is twice the resolution of the previous models, so graphics look a bit fuzzy until our next update release.
Hi Luke,
Do you mean the CE browser won’t adapt to the new Retina display?
I hope they give the option to restrict Game Center when iOS4 is launched next week:-
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/software-update/
@Peter – The next update will adapt to the Retina display’s resolution. Expect the next update by the end of this month or the beginning of next month.
@ Luke Gilkerson
I can’t wait for the new version of CE for my iPhone! You guys are doing great work.
I’m realizing more and more how important the CE app is on my iphone. Every day my iphone is becoming less useful as i discover another app that has a built-in browser in it. I used to have all sorts of apps that i would use regularly – Pandora, craigeslist app, facebook, wunderground radio, shazam and so many more. That’s until i found their built-in browser which i could use to circumvent accountability. I had to delete all these apps because my activity is untraceable to my accountability partners. The only apps i have now include CE, a dictionary, a bible, and two productivity apps. But the one i use most is CE. Maybe it’s good to not overdo it on the apps. :)
I just hope one day the iOS platform allows for full internet accountability throughout all apps. But for now i just gotta rely on CE. Keep up the good work guys!
@Sergie – tell me about it. I recently purchased an iphone, and I used to have facebook, wikipedia, cnn, bbc, shazam, dictionary, various internet radio apps, all otherwise harmless apps, if not for the fact that it ultimately leads to a search engine. I have already disabled safari and youtube and apps installation, and did not install any other browser(hence I installed cnn, wikipedia, bbc, so I need not have a browser to surf the net.) Now i still have to make the extremely painful decision to remove all of them and my Iphone is as barren as a desert, and I am not happy..
if someone is savvy enough to redesign an app for facebook , cnn etc but blocks the in-built browser which is usually triggered by clicking on ads etc. I am willing to pay for it! there really is no point disabling safari if one can surf the net through other means.
@Seider – You could always delete the problem apps, disable installing apps, safari, etc., and use the CE Browser to browse Facebook, CNN, and anything else you want – all with accountability. I admit this is not the best of solutions, but as long as Apple continues to lock down its system, it is the best way to stay accountable for Internet use and still make full used of your Internet connection via the iPhone.
Luke, I certainly understand the limitations placed on you guys by the nature of Apple’s closed approach, and commend you for doing what you can within the confines of that policy.
One of the best things about CE on the PC is that you don’t lose any functionality–it’s just monitored and reported. This is in contrast to a lot of other programs that block access, and have to be overinclusive to function properly.
It seems to me that to be effective in its purpose, the CE iPhone app has to be implemented as a blocking program, sweeping so broadly that it kills a lot of innocent and useful functionality that makes the unencumbered iPhone so great.
All that’s to say, I and others are really looking forward to the day when a monitoring-based version of the iPhone app becomes a possibility.
@Jeff – We are looking forward to that day as well :)
Just started using the CE app with my iPod Touch 4th generation. After a day or so when opening the app I just got a blank white or grey screen.
I’ve worked out that if you power off the device by holding the home button and on/off button for 5 seconds that the CE app is restored from the lock it seems to get into.
@Peter – Thanks for sharing your problem with us. We’ll look into it to see how we can prevent that from happening.
Are you aware that google images come through as a “0″ score? ….yet ANY images can be located and they don’t show up as a high scoring site! Is there anything that can be done to block this?
@Concerned Mom – The Google Images homepage will come through as a zero score, yes. Depending on the search that is done, the score may be zero or it may be much, much higher. It all depends on what is searched for. For instance, if I search for “coffee” my score is likely to be quite low for that search. But if I search for something of a more objectionable nature, the score will definitely be higher. Plus, we have a section on our Accountability Reports that shows all the objectionable searches made on Google, Yahoo, or whatever search engine you choose.
just putting this out there…it is possible to change the default internet browser on a jailbroken iphone. you can use “browser changer” to do so.
http://www.simonblog.com/2010/11/18/how-to-change-the-default-browser-for-iphone/
doesn’t help if your iphone isn’t jailbroken, but if so, would allow your links to open in the CE browser. I haven’t been able to test this yet, but hope to do so in the near future…
I recently purchased the iphone 4 and installed the new version of CE iphone browser. The new version is not even usable. The previous version was buggy but it worked. The current version freezes as soon as i open it, even thought it’s running on a faster processor! I just can’t believe it.
I can’t believe there’s this much backward progress on this application. The apple store reviews speak back this up with the endless bad reviews. When will you guys have an update that will make this app at least somewhat functional?
@Luke Gilkerson.
Just got an ipod touch and downloaded the app, but It hasn’t worked for me. I can load a few pages and then it gets stuck and won’t do anything. After I uninstall and reinstall the app, it works for a few pages and then freezes again.
Is there an update coming in the near future?
Thanks for all you do, Luke et al!!!
Hello everyone. Just a quick notice: We have made some upgrades to our iPhone app today. Check out version version 1.4.6 in the app store.
Hello everyone. We just posted a video giving you a sneak peek of our Android app. We interviewed some of our developers and our VP of Technology to give you the most up to date answers. Enjoy!