To reduce the "fiddling" opportunities on an iDevice look at these steps:
- Enable restrictions. Go to settings -> General -> Restrictions. Here you can allow/disallow a range of inbuilt applications such as the web browser, camera, iTunes installing – and most importantly – deleting apps.
- Move non-essential apps to a folder and put the folder on a page several empty pages deep. To move apps; press on hold on any app on the homescreen. Hold down till all the apps wobble and a small x appears at the top right of each app. Then drag apps to a new folder (you can do this by dragging one app ontop of another). To move apps – or a folder of apps – to a new screen drag the app to the right or left and keep your finger on the screen at the edge.
- It’s probably best to look at iOS 6; the new operating system for iPads and iPods. (For more info on this follow this link: http://wllw.de/Q1fzA1 )There is a feature in the new operating system that allows you to “lock” a user into an app and make the home button defunct. The feauture is called “Guided Access”. You can find this under Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Guided Access. Turn it on and read the instructions. The way it works is you open your app up, hit the home button 3 times in rapid succession and hit guided access. Click done and now the only way of getting out of the app is to triple click the home button. (3.1. If for some reason you cannot upgrade to iOS 6 you can install a “Profile”. Simply go to this URL on the device and click install. This will now mean the device is “locked in” to only one app and the home button is now defunct. The difficulty with this approach is that the first app you start up is the app that gets locked in. To exit you have to switch the device off then back on. You can turn off the device by holding down the power button)
- If you don’t want to play with Guided Access or Profiling you may prefer a simpler(!) solution to reducing the impact of the home button. Try a cut down corn-plaster over the home button(!) or use a case such as the iAdaptor by AMDi which has the ability to hide the home button.