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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

Would be nice if Apple would expose an option to set the timer to a shorter window, but still great work.

In GrapheneOS, you can set it to as little as 10 minutes, with the default being 18 hours. That would be a lot more effective for this type of data exfiltration scenario.

You can do this yourself with Shortcuts app.

Create a timer function to run a shutdown on a time interval you order. Change shutdown to "restart".

You clearly haven't tried it or even googled it - because it's impossible to do it unattended. A dialog pops up (and only when unlocked) asking you to confirm the reboot. It's probably because they were worried users might end up in a constant reboot/shutdown cycle, though presumably they could just implement a "if rebooted in the last hour by a script, don't allow it again" rule.

Or to disable it entirely. Someone could set up and ipad to do something always plugged in, would be bloody annoying to have it locked cold every three days.

I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t expect the inactivity timeout to trigger if the device was already in an unlocked state (if I understand the feature correctly) so in kiosk mode or with the auto screen lock turned off and an app open I wouldn’t expect it to happen.

Maybe you want it locked and only showing notification headers.

Having to put your passcode in every three days is not the end of the world. It would make sense also that if you turned off the passcode entirely it also wouldn’t restart.

I'd rather have a dedicated Kiosk mode that has a profile of allow-listed applications and one or more that are auto-started.

Maybe one or two of these will do what you want?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/105121

> With Screen Time, you can turn on Content & Privacy Restrictions to manage content, apps, and settings on your child's device. You can also restrict explicit content, purchases and downloads, and changes to privacy settings.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/111795

> Guided Access limits your device to a single app and lets you control which features are available.

Or "single-app mode", which is a more tightly focused kiosk mode:

https://support.apple.com/guide/apple-configurator-mac/start...

Conspiracy theory time! Apple puts this out there to break iPad-based DIY home control panels because they're about to release a product that would compete with them.

> Apple puts this out there to break iPad-based DIY home control panels

If you were using an iPad as a home control panel, you'd probably disable the passcode on it entirely - and I believe that'd disable the inactivity reboot as well.

I dunno, does this SEP check only happen when the device is locked? I don’t recall that being mentioned.

I can't imagine how "time since last unlock" would even work for a device with no passcode, since the user never explicitly unlocks the device. Besides, a reboot wouldn't do anything useful in that configuration; with no passcode, user data is always accessible.

You could also set the auto-lock in display settings to never.

I dunno, does this SEP check only happen when the device is locked? I don’t recall that being mentioned.

It’s more likely than you think!

> Apple's Next Device Is an AI Wall Tablet for Home Control, Siri and Video Calls

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42119559

via

> Apple's Tim Cook Has Ways to Cope with the Looming Trump Tariffs

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42168808

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