[Rockies-Edu] iOS 8.1.3 is now available, new features to support testing

Subject: [Rockies-Edu] iOS 8.1.3 is now available, new features to support testing
From: "Michael T. Scott" <email@hidden>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 16:09:22 -0700

HI All!

iOS 8.1.3 is now available. Release notes here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1758

This release includes bug fixes, increased stability and performance improvements, including:
• Reduces the amount of storage required to perform a software update
• Fixes an issue that prevented some users from entering their Apple ID password for Messages and FaceTime
• Addresses an issue that caused Spotlight to stop displaying app results
• Fixes an issue which prevented multitasking gestures from working on iPad
• Adds new configuration options for education standardized testing
For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

The last bullet point above covers four new options for disabling, system wide, keyboard features that are problematic for testing:

• Dictionary

• QuickType predictive keyboard

• AutoCorrection

• Spell check

These are supervision only restrictions.

How do you turn these restrictions on today? These restrictions are enabled by installing a configuration profile. Configuration profiles are XML, plain text. As is most often the case, we use a GUI tool to facilitate creation of configuration profiles. No GUI configuration profile editor supports these restrictions today. However, if you have a supervised iOS 8.1.3 device, you are able to manually create a configuration profile to enable these features.

Here are the boolean configuration keys in question:

allowDefinitionLookup

allowPredictiveKeyboard
allowAutoCorrection
allowSpellCheck

If these keys are set to false in a well formed XML configuration profile, and you use a tool like MDM or Apple Configurator to install that profile onto a supervised iOS 8.1.3 device, the features will be disabled system wide.

These settings will be documented in an updated version of the Configuration Profile Key Reference (https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/featuredarticles/iPhoneConfigurationProfileRef/Introduction/Introduction.html) soon, but they are not yet available in Configurator, Profile Manager or third-party MDM solutions. Until they are updated to support these settings, you can hand-edit a configuration profile to contain these settings.

In summary, we have new restrictions that disable dictionary, predictive text, autocorrect, and spell check, but there are no GUI tools available today to create the configuration profiles needed to enable these restrictions. If you are enterprising and would like to test, you can manually create a config profile to install with MDM or AC using the keys I mention above.

Finally, I understand that Pearson’s TestNav now supports Autonomous Single App Mode. ASAM is an MDM only configuration profile feature introduced with iOS 7 that enables a pre-defined app to manage single app mode. Instead of enabling single app mode manually, you install the ASAM profile via MDM before test day, and then the app itself is able to manage single app mode. So if your MDM supports ASAM (I understand Meraki does), and you have the new version of TestNav, you should be able to take advantage of this. Contact your MDM vendor with questions about using ASAM profiles.

That’s all for now, thanks!

-Mike



Michael Scott, Systems Engineer

Apple Education

Apple Inc.

(720) 346-3871

www.apple.com/education

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