RestartToSafari
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Lion's "Restart to Safari" feature allows Macs to act as web-only kiosk
An unadvertised feature has been found in the latest Lion Developer build, says MacRumors. It enables a Mac to be used as an internet kiosk and nothing else. The "Restart to Safari" can be found on the user lock screen and allows unauthorized users to use the Mac only to browse the Web. When in "Restart to Safari" mode, the only window that will appear is a Safari window. There are several benefits to the "Restart to Safari" feature. First, it will allow unauthorized users (those without logins) of the Mac the use the computer as a web kiosk. This is a handy feature when a member of the same family, for instance, wants to quickly look up something on your work computer in the den. There's no logging in or creating a separate user account. The Safari browser that they see will not show any of the bookmarks on the Mac either. Another use for "Restart to Safari" is to allow the Mac to access the internet so that Find My Mac can locate the computer if it's missing. If the laptop is stolen, the thief won't be able to access your personal files, but may continue to use the Mac in "Restart to Safari" mode, thus enabling time for Find My Mac to locate the missing computer.
Mac OS X Lion beta reveals "Restart to Safari" browser-only mode (update: honeypot)
MacRumors was digging through the latest developer beta of Mac OS X Lion when it found a rather intriguing new option -- if you choose "Restart to Safari" on the user lock screen, the computer will reboot into a mode which consists entirely of the web browser. If that sounds familiar, perhaps you've heard of Google's Chrome OS, a partially-fledged operating system that runs within the browser itself... but we haven't heard Apple express a desire for any such thing. Now, certainly we've seen a number of Windows desktops and laptops ship with a secondary, browser-centric OS like Splashtop in order to have an instant-on mode, but if you have to boot and reboot the computer to get to Safari, that doesn't sound like much of an improvement. Perhaps it's a way to let guests (or children) entertain themselves without giving them access to your files? All we know for certain is that it's a most mysterious option. Update: But perhaps not as mysterious as we thought -- 9to5 Mac spotted its genesis earlier this week, and it's a bona fide honeypot. If your Mac gets stolen, the idea goes, it'll need to be connected to the internet for you to be able to track it with Find My Mac or perform a remote wipe, so you'll let the thieves browse this guest account to keep them busy without letting them peruse your personal files. Cue the Admiral Ackbar, we suppose. [Thanks, Jamie]
