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How to block any website on iPhone and iPad

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Block websites on iPhone and iPad
Stay OUT!
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

There are probably good reasons to block a website on your own iPhone or iPad, but really, why not just avoid typing its URL? It’s far more likely that you’ll want to block a website on somebody else’s device, probably a child’s. Or perhaps you don’t want your kids to accidentally hit all your bookmarks to porn and gambling sites when they use your iPhone.

Whatever your reasons, here’s how to block any website on your iPhone or iPad.

How to use age restrictions to protect your kids from adult apps and movies

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age restrictions
Children were restricted differently in the past.
Photo: Alisha Vargas/Flickr CC

The iPad and iPhone can be great learning tools for kids, just the same as they are for adults (only with more clowns and talking animals). But even if you don’t want to fully lock-down your iPad to restrict what your kids can do, you might want to stop then from downloading adult-oriented apps. That includes violent games, scary books, and dirty movies.

Protect your drive, upgrade your productivity, and more [Week’s best deals]

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This week's best deals include powerful drive maintenance tools, productivity aids, and more.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Welcome to another week of great new deals at the Cult of Mac Store. This time around we’ve got awesome noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones, and an app for staying on top of any project. There’s also a powerful VPN for safe and anonymous browsing, and an award-winning tool for protecting and repairing your computer’s drive. Everything is discounted by well over half, read on for more details:

How to keep kids from checking out bad stuff on Apple TV

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Keep your kids from watching, buying, or playing anything you don't want them to on Apple TV.
Keep your kids from watching, buying, or playing anything you don't want them to on Apple TV.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Not every Apple TV is in a household full of self-realized adults. Apple knows this and has set up some restrictions, similar to the parental controls on iOS.

That way, you can make sure that your kids aren’t purchasing anything (or playing/watching anything) without your consent.

Here’s how to set it all up on your Apple TV.

Use Restrictions To Hide Unwanted Apps On Your iPhone [iOS Tips]

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Restrictions

If you’ve ever handed your phone over to someone to let them use it as a (gasp) telephone, you’ve felt that moment of frisson where you wonder, “oh, man, what if they see that certain app? What will they think of me?” I’m not going to judge you; we all have apps we’d rather not have people see.

Luckily for all of us, then, that there’s a couple of neat ways to hide those apps on our devices, using Apple’s built in Restrictions system. Here’s how.

Open YouTube Videos In Mobile Browser, Not Native App [iOS Tips]

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YouTubeMobile

For the most part, clicking on a youtube video in mobile Safari or Chrome will bring up the YouTube app on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. There are a few reasons why you might not want that to happen, one being that the YouTube app isn’t quite as full featured as the current mobile YouTube site itself, another being the waste of time of switching back and forth between the YouTube app and whatever mobile app you found the link in.

Forcing your iPhone to stay in the app you clicked the YouTube link in is as easy as it is non-intuitive. Here’s how to make it happen.

Keep Apps From Being Installed Or Deleted On Your iPhone or iPad [iOS Tips]

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How much money do I owe iTunes? Who bought Pretty Pet Palace 3?!
How much money do I owe iTunes? Who bought Pretty Pet Palace 3?!

This one’s for the ladies parents out there. You know how you hand your iPhone off to your kid when you’re all waiting for the doctor? Or slide your iPad to the backseat for those long drives to Aunt Josephina’s house? If your kid is App Store savvy – and what kid isn’t, these days – they can rack up quite a bill installing apps that look cute to them but cost you real money. They can even wreak havoc with the simple tap-hold-wiggle dance, deleting your precious apps from your iOS device faster than you can say, “Do I need to turn this car around right now?!”

Luckily, there’s a simple, built-in way to prevent this from happening. Here’s what to do.

iOS 5.1 Adds Unannounced Security And Management Features

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new-sisi-restrictions

Apple included a list of new features in the release notes for iOS 5.1, which became available on Wednesday alongside the announcement of the new iPad. It seems that Apple included some unannounced features as well – some of which enable more iOS device security and management when paired with a mobile device management (MDM) suite or with Apple’s new Apple Configurator tool for iOS.

The new management features seem to be primarily related to Siri on the iPhone 4S and they include the ability to prevent any use of Siri while an iPhone 4S is locked as well as the ability to filter out profanity. Additionally, as noted by the Intrepidus Group, a security consulting firm, is the ability to block location services on any iOS device.