X3watch iPhone

By Craig on Jun 14, 10 at 03:14 PM | Share This | Comments

Latest version is 1.2.2 for iPhone, iTouch and iPad (updated July 2010)

X3watch is an accountability software program helping with online integrity. Whenever you browse the Internet and access a site, which may contain questionable material, the program will record the site name, time, and date the site was visited. A person of your choice (an accountability partner) will receive an email containing all possible questionable sites you may have visited within the month. This information is meant to encourage open and honest conversation between friends and help us all be more accountable.

The X3watch iPhone application is different from X3watch on computers. The first thing is no program can run in the background on the iPhone. That is exactly what X3watch does. It runs in the background. So, we had to come up with another plan. What we did was create a browser that will replace Safari and has the X3watch accountability technology built into it.

A few things to know about the iPhone and the software.

1. X3watch only works on an iPhone or iTouch when you DISABLE Safari. Here is how you do that:

From the main iPhone/iPod screen choose the “Settings” option

Click on "General"

Next, choose “Restrictions” to turn that feature on (if it is not already on – you will also be required to enter a 4-digit passcode that you setup if the feature is not already on)

In the Restrictions menu, you will then drag the slider under the “Safari” option to “OFF”. In this menu, there are other important features you can shut off as well, including content ratings, turning off YouTube, iTunes downloads and installing other applications.

One more brilliant thing we added was every time you go around the software and enable Safari it will catch that in your reports and your accountability partner will be notified.

2. X3watch is about accountability not convenience. X3watch does not have tabbed browsing or favorites like Safari does. You can upgrade to the PRO version for a one-time fee of $7.99 which has tabbed browsing, favorites and the ability to take you right to a url that you have copied in another progam. You can upgrade to the PRO version from inside the current APP version 1.1.1

2. The iPhone has certain functions that only work with Safari. When you get an email in mail and has a hyper-link there is no way to have that open in the X3watch browser or anything but Safari. Apple is smart like that. What you can do is copy and paste that link into the X3watch browser.

3. The reports send just like the MAC and PC program. You can pick 1 or two weeks or three weeks. The reports will only send when the X3watch browser is open. So, if you select weekly reports but don't open the X3watch browser for a month your reports will not send until it is open. You will not know the reports are sending.

4. Apple gave X3watch a 17+ rating because it allows unfiltered access to the Internet, where content with mature or suggestive themes can be accessed. That is the only reason why it is 17+ because you can access the Internet from within the application.

5. Apple continues to make improvements and developments and more applications are coming out everyday. We will welcome any feedback on this software and make changes as we can and see needed. Please understand we are more concerned about accountability then we are browser convenience.

If you want to be accountable on the iPhone you will have to be inconvenienced a little bit but we believe this is worth it. X3watch browser will only work if you disable Safari. This is going to be a deal breaker for some of you BUT if you really want to be accountable then you will deal with this. Here is the reason.

If Safari is not disabled you can go look at porn on Safari and there is no way that we can monitor or track your Safari browsing. You then can open the X3watch browser and all your porn sites will be monitored. Your accountability statements will not reflect what you looked at on Safari.