As most of you with children may know, there is no easy way of locking out certain apps that children can and can not push. Basically anything on your home screen can be pressed by them and there’s really nothing you can do about it. There isn’t a real software solution to this problem unless you jailbreak your device, but for those who are unwilling to jailbreak, there is a physical solution – the BubCap. The BubCap allows you to launch an app for your children to play while keeping them from exiting the app via the home button.

I got these from Rob over at Paperclip Robot and they are called BubCap’s. The BubCap is marketed as a toddler home button protector for your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. The BubCap is a rigid cover that goes over your home button. It acts as a barrier so that toddlers will have a  difficult time pressing down on the home button. We were sent the “Intro-Pack” to try out which includes 2 of the standard BubCaps and 2 of the BubCap Ultras. If you look on their website, the BubCaps are relatively inexpensive at just $5 for a pack of 4. You can buy either a 4-pack of the standard BubCaps, a 4-pack of the BubCap Ultras, or the Intro-Pack which is what we received here.

I can already tell you upon receiving these that you should probably go straight to using the BubCap Ultras as they provide a much more rigid feel to them. They offer less give to them so children up to around age 3 or 4 will have a hard time pressing down the home button. The standard ones are good for babies or very young toddlers, but if you are going to keep the BubCap on anyways, you might as well go for the Ultras.

As stated by the packaging, BubCaps are not recommended to be installed over screen protectors. This is probably due to the fact that if you try to remove the BubCap, it will also remove your screen protector. It’s better to use there on a completely naked screen as it will also be much harder for a child to remove these. The BubCap does take up a bit of space around the home button area so some cases may not fit or you will need to adjust them a little.

As a physical deterrent to keep kids from pressing the home button, it’s actually not a bad idea and one that is very inexpensive. Currently I am testing this out the BubCap Ultra on my iPad2 which does not have a screen protector and it seems to work well enough where my son can’t casually just press the home button. He can with some force press it all the way down, but he is already at the age where he can do this (almost 5). I do have a baby coming soon this year and I plan on using the Bubcap on iPad still when she is old enough to play with one.