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📰 News and Opinion
For Apple IT admins, the new year means it’s a good time to upskill
While it’s easy to look to enterprise vendors — or independent operations such CompTIA — as sources for training and certification, the options for IT pros tasked with managing Macs, iPhones, and other Apple devices aren’t as well-known.
Since you are reading this news summary, you probably know most of those resources, but it is a nice listing of important resources, all in one place.
Jamf Nation Hits 300,000 Posts
From a small email distribution list to a formalized community forum, Jamf Nation has served as the premier online resource for Apple management enthusiasts for more than a decade. And recently, in case you missed the news, it hit a milestone - 300,000 posts.
Last Week on My Mac: How Apple silicon came so quickly
To get from Sierra running on Intel 4-core Skylake processors to macOS 11 running on 4-core M1 chips, there’s a long list of changes to be made
I appreciate the conclusion, that while we suffer under Apple's relentless update cycles, it does go hand-in-hand with their equally relentless push for progress in hardware.
The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models replicate the mechanisms of a psychic's con
The intelligence illusion seems to be based on the same mechanism as that of a psychic’s con, often called cold reading.
⚙️ Apple Updates
- iOS and iPadOS 18.2.1: "This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for all users." — no meaningful update or security notes
- Logic Pro: Mac 11.1.2
🔐 Security and Privacy
Magic Links Have Rough Edges, but Passkeys Can Smooth Them Over
I’ve been meaning to write about my frustrations with and appreciation for magic links for some time now, and the steadfastness and clarity of this post pushed me over the edge to do it.
The Mac Malware of 2024
For what is now the 9th year in a row, I’ve put together a blog post that comprehensively covers all the new Mac malware that emerged throughout the year.
🔨 Support and Tutorials
Account-driven Enrollment Methods with Apple Devices using Cloudflare
This guide offers an alternative for organizations that prefer not to host the com.apple.remotemanagement file on their public web server for Account-driven enrollment. By leveraging Cloudflare, you can manage the com.apple.remotemanagement file externally while maintaining secure access.
Give Yourself a Holiday Gift with Jamf Setup Manager
Setup Manager is the best gift I gave myself this Holiday Season. The best part is that we pass this onboarding experience to our customers and technicians.
Suppressing the Welcome to Mac screen with a configuration profile on macOS Sequoia
Rich Trouton on DerFlounder
Apple added a new Welcome to Mac screen as part of macOS Sequoia. This screen appears before you are given access to the Desktop.
Leveraging User Feedback to Refine Device Management Policies in Jamf
By incorporating user feedback, IT teams gain valuable insights into how devices are used (or underused) and what adjustments could improve the overall experience.
Disabling Apple Mail website link previews compose option on macOS Sequoia
Rich Trouton on DerFlounder
For those who find this behavior [web link previews in Mail] undesirable and wish to turn it off, it can be disabled
Differences between factory and clean installs of macOS
macOS can be cleanly re-installed using Erase All Contents and Settings, transferring an IPSW file while in DFU mode, and by using the startosinstall --eraseinstall command in the macOS Install app. All of these come with trade offs. None of them are exactly the same as a factory Mac.
How to Configure Jamf Pro SMTP to Use the Microsoft Graph API
Configuring Jamf Pro to use the Microsoft Graph API for SMTP enhances security, ensures compliance, and simplifies management, all while aligning with Microsoft’s modern authentication framework.
Detecting successful MDM command execution on macOS Sequoia
Rich Trouton on DerFlounder
One of the challenges in figuring out why a Mac isn’t responding to MDM commands is sometimes just figuring out if the Mac is receiving MDM commands at all.
🤖 Scripting and Automation
Signing PowerShell Scripts on macOS
John C. Welch on Bynkii
The quick answer: yes, you can, and you can do it both the “mac way” and the “powershell way”, i’ll go over both here.
Retrieve AppleCare Expiration for Mac Computers Using Jamf Pro
This guide provides a practical solution by demonstrating how to utilize Jamf Pro’s API roles, scripts, and policies to collect and store warranty data for reporting purposes.
Run a script when Setup Manager is finished
I thought it might be useful if there were a way to trigger you own scripts when Setup Manager is finished with its workflow. This wasn’t too hard to put together and I can already see a few useful applications.
Using pre-commit with Munki repos
If any of these checks fail, you’ll be prevented from committing the file(s)
Passcode Generator
Humans aren’t great at random numbers, so I made several attempts at a shell function that generates random passcodes.
🍏 Apple Support
♻️ Updates and Releases
MacPaw launches CleanMy Mac Business device managementMacPaw launches CleanMy Mac Business device management
They've been scaled up to allow IT admins to apply them company-wide, yet also have individual users see what is happening to their devices.
Even though they call this "MDM" it is not an MDM in strict sense that it manages enrolled devices using Apple's MDM protocol. But it does seem to allow IT admins to control their tools on managed devices. (I have not tested this yet, please let me know if I am interpreting this wrongly.)
Behavioral Detections: Kandji EDR's Latest Defense Update Against Threats
behavioral detections leverage Apple’s Endpoint Security framework to evaluate each process before execution.
📺 Watch
🎧 Listen
Family Device Control, Part 2
Collin Elliott is back to talk to more about controlling the family devices in your midst.
DDM, Wi-Fi, and you
Anil Gupta, co-founder and CTO of Wyebot Inc., about the move to DDM, Wi-Fi automation, and much more.
Good bye and good riddance 2024
Lets look back on 2024 and remember the year that was. There will be lots of laughing, maybe some eye rolling. Probably also some tears.
Joe Taps Out, Jerry and Sam Command-Control-Power Through
the hosts navigate through a mix of tech support comedy and genuine tips.
Keeping your fleet healthy
the team from CleanMyMac X about keeping your fleet healthy with a sneak peek at a 2025 business tool from MacPaw
Is nowhere safe from AI slop?
You can see it on X. You can see on Instagram. It’s flooding community pages on Facebook and filling up channels on YouTube. It’s called “AI slop” and it’s the fastest, laziest way to drive engagement.
🎈Just for Fun
I Live My Life a Quarter Century at a Time
Interesting and fun background story to the first introduction of Mac OS X, Aqua and the Dock 25 years ago.
🦣 Social Media
Twocanoes Software
The Apple support article describes the correct port, but since the chassis are basically identical to the previous generations, this will be very confusing.
twocanoes.com