Latest issue 12 Jun 2026

410: Golden Gate

WWDC previews Apple's next major platform updates

Apple shows off their 27 platform updates at WWDC 26

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WWDC previews Apple next major platform updates

In the Keynote, Apple, somewhat surprisingly, backtracked quite a few unpopular user interface choices. They also promised a year of general improvements, big and small. Then they introduced (again) the new Siri AI.

Overall, the keynote felt a less exuberant than keynotes past, which I consider a good thing. Apple's platforms and services have generally reached a level of maturity and sophistication that announcing new superlatives each year seemed quite unserious. I prefer Apple refining and improving existing features. Even so, there are lot of new things in the announcements that will easily take users and admins the next few months to learn and explore.

Apple also released the "What's new in managing Apple devices" session, the most important sessions for Mac Admins. If you haven't seen it yet, go on, watch it now. The rest will make more sense after you have seen it.

(Sidenote: Cyrus Daboo does a great job and I want to hear more device management news narrated by him.)

The session re-iterates that Declarative Device Management (DDM) is now the standard for Apple device management, a strong signal for device management service developers. If your solution is not yet all on board for DDM, it is high time to start looking for alternatives.

Apple announced that organizations will be able to purchase and deploy volume subscriptions for apps! DDM mechanisms to manage and deploy apps are coming from iOS to macOS. Platform SSO is getting improvements.

Not only do these improvement fix some real pain points, some of which have been around for a long time, but they also show Apple's commitment to device management and that the Enterprise team is receptive to feedback.

This year's beta phase and roll-out should be very interesting. Test early, provide lots of feedback.

If you want to hear more, Workbrew is putting on a webinar next week, Thursday June 18, with some great participants, and myself.

⚙️ WWDC 26

WWDC26 device management updates

Apple Platform Deployment:

The features discussed on this page are pre-release versions and may be incomplete, changed, or removed before final release.

Apple has documented the changes for device management for the 27 platform releases—publicly—in the platform deployment guide.

WWDC26: Key takeaways for Apple admins

Emma Waite, Jamf Blog:

This year's announcements at WWDC26 carry more operational weight than most. OS 27 offers a structural shift in how Apple devices are configured, secured and managed.

WWDC 2026: What IT admins need to know

Kitzy, Fleet Blog:

For IT admins, WWDC 2026 is a migration year. Apple is removing legacy MDM mechanisms and replacing them with Declarative Device Management (DDM).

Crossing the Golden Gate, Intel support, and an update to SystHist

Howard Oakley:

However, as now happens regularly, building a Golden Gate VM isn’t so easy in Tahoe, and is likely to fail without some magic components that we’re not provided with.

There's been some talk about building macOS 27 virtual machines on a macOS 26 host. The solutions so far include creating a macOS 26.5.1 vm and upgrading it or creating the VM image on a macOS 27 host and then moving it to a 26 host. I guess this will be sorted out in future beta releases.

macOS virtualisation is leaping forward in Golden Gate

Howard Oakley:

Buried beneath many layers of AI improvements, macOS Golden Gate is bringing major enhancements to virtualising macOS

No Siri AI in EU

Michael Tsai:

Apple is trying to give the impression that it did all this extra work to meet the DMA’s requirements, and yet the EC rejected its proposals, so it’s their fault Siri AI isn’t shipping in the EU.

WWDC26: Apple Expands Enterprise Control, Security, and Shared Device Experiences

Aaron David Polley:

It will obviously take some time for vendors to implement all of the new features, but it’s exciting to see Apple “raise the floor“ of what’s possible across the platform.

MDM-based Software Update management options no longer work on all Apple 27.0 operating systems

Rich Trouton:

Apple has carried through on this and announced publicly that legacy software update management no longer functions in all Apple 27.0 operating systems.

macOS Golden Gate Beta 1 – Everything You Need to Know!

Mr. Macintosh:

Apple has released the first developer beta of macOS Golden Gate Beta 27. This is the first major beta release of Apple’s next version of macOS.

iOS 27: Your iPhone can now boot into a new Mac-like recovery mode

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

iOS 27 introduces a new device recovery mode. This is a Mac-like recovery feature where the iPhone is able to boot into an alternative UI that doesn’t involve loading the entirety of the main operating system.

Expanding Private Cloud Compute

Apple Security Research:

Alongside the next generation of Apple Intelligence, today we’re expanding Private Cloud Compute (PCC) beyond Apple’s data centers.

Apple Updates

Apple Configurator 2.20

🔨 Support and Tutorials

Introducing the MacAdmins Definitive Resource Directory

maccy, Jamf Tech Thoughts

The MacAdmins community holds a vast amount of information and resources, however, due to the sheer volume and the fact that there is so much spread around the web, it can become quite intimidating, especially for newbies.

Showing or hiding the Self Service+ menubar icon

Rich Trouton:

One of the customization options called out in the release notes for Self Service+ 2.23.0 is whether or not the Self Service+ menubar icon is visible in the menubar.

Don't ignore me!: Self Service+ notifications are now natively managed on all devices.

Philip Ross, The Digital Desk:

Notifications for Jamf's Self Service+ application were only managed for devices enrolled after Jamf Pro 11.18, or via a custom profile. Jamf Pro 11.28.x version fixes this across your fleet

♻️ Updates and Releases

terraform-provider-axm v1.7.1 - Device Management Service gets full IaC lifecycle management

Neil Martin, Sound Mac Guy:

This marks a significant milestone; full Infrastructure as Code (IaC) lifecycle management for Device Management Services.

📺 Watch

Marriott Library, June 2026, MacAdmins Meeting

🎧 Listen

WWDC 2026 Flashcast

Mac Admins Podcast:

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference covers all new things Apple, and we’re here to talk you through everything announced at WWDC 2026!

Best Of CCP - Interview With Dave Hamilton of Mac Geek Gab

What role will MCP servers play in Apple device management?

Apple @ Work:

Aaron Morin and Lance Crandall from Iru join the show to talk about all things MCP servers and Apple device management.

🎈 Just For Fun

macOS Golden Gate Adventure

BasicAppleGuy:

I thought the animated sequence was pretty delightful, so I captured four of my favourite frames, upscaled them, and posted them here for everyone to enjoy.

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