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iPads make kiosks so easy, it's practically cheating

By Rain Noe - July 15, 2010

in Object Culture

Sooner or later businesses were bound to figure out that the iPad makes the perfect low-cost, low-maintenance kiosk; all that's needed is an app developer to encapsulate your content and a physical form to drop the iPad in.

If you wanted to skimp on the app developer, it's feasible that you could just write up a PDF and call it up in iBooks; for the physical form, a company called Beyond Kiosks is now producing both countertop and freestanding iPad enclosures that turn the things into their own kiosks.

Technical demands of the designs are low: All that's needed is a radio-transparent case to admit a Wi-Fi signal, and Beyond Kiosks has designed the bezel to cover up the iPad's home button "so users cannot escape from the kiosk application." Having worked on exhibit designs before, I can say it seems so easy to whip up an iPad kiosk that it's almost like cheating.

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Mike James

13 years ago

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Check out "Kiosk Pro" and "Kiosk Pro Lite" in iTunes for high end kiosk mode apps.
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Mike James

14 years ago

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The iPad Kiosks have two power cord exits: one out the back, near ground level, and the other straight down through the base. This is how all kiosks are set up. The enclosures are designed to hide as much "infrastructure" as possible.
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Mike James

14 years ago

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The iPad Kiosks have two power cord exits: one out the back, near ground level, and the other straight down through the base. This is how all kiosks are set up. The enclosures are designed to hide as much "infrastructure" as possible.
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Tibor Csapo

14 years ago

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You only need a power cable if you plan to run it for longer than 10 hours at a time. I have been planning just this for an expo I am displaying at.
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j

14 years ago

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You could just swap out external batteries every couple of days and then do away with power cables.
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Kemper Barkhurst

14 years ago

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Here's a real iPad kiosk solution in which the power cable is concealed within the enclosure. This can then be attached to a wall for greater security. http://labshield.com/
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Blaine

14 years ago

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We're actually whipping up an iPad app that makes this possible. Check us out at http://agoodkiosk.com/ more photos coming soon!
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M4RK

14 years ago

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And you also need a power cable..... so the image above is kinda misleading...
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Joseph

14 years ago

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I just wonder how soon it will be until you get people running off with the kiosk. I mean.. It's practically stealing.
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Andrew

14 years ago

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I've been thinking about this topic for a while. The ipad makes all visual hardware obsolete. Why invest in an automotive dashboard or a nautical radar system when all you need is an app.
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