Sponsor
Put Multiple Apple Devices in Single App Mode with iMazing Configurator
Single App Mode, also known as Kiosk Mode, restricts your business iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch devices to a single app specified by you. It's a powerful feature that allows you to use Apple mobile devices as single-purpose digital tools in your business or institution. iMazing Configurator is an excellent tool for automating and streamlining tasks involving a large number of Apple Mobile Devices. Read our detailed guide and discover Configurator today!
📸 Focus
Apple accused of monopolizing smartphone markets in US antitrust lawsuit
Apple challenges with the European DMA have just begun and here comes the next similar one. This only started yesterday and there is much that has already been written.
It is hard to judge the merit of all the individual accusations in the DOJ lawsuit, much as it is to judge all the rules and regulations and details of Apple's reaction to the DMA. Those of us who remember the antitrust case against Microsoft know that this will go on for years and could overshadow everything else that Apple does for the years to come.
Whether the accusation that Apple has monopoly can stick before a court or not, Apple has brought this on themselves. Apple could have done a lot over the last decade to avoid the impression that they are strangling the App Store for profits. Tom Bridge says it well:
No matter what you think of the DOJ's suit against Apple, there are a number of things that Apple could've done over the years to prevent it from ever getting to this state.
Their refusal to do so was dogged, determined, and baffling.
Seeking entries in the Apple in the Enterprise 2024 report card survey
Since 2021, Six Colors has been compiling an annual report card focusing on how Apple’s doing in large organizations, including businesses, education, and government. We formulated a set of survey questions that would address the big-picture issues regarding Apple in the enterprise, and we ask them every year.
If you’re part of the Apple IT community and would like to participate in this year’s survey, it’s a click away. Results will be posted in April.
We know the results of this survey get the attention of many important people in the field, including the mothership. Please take the time to fill this out.
(No, this does not replace filing feedback through AppleSeed. But it is another channel where we can a different kind of feedback.)
See also Tom Bridge's post.
Many thanks to Jason Snell for putting this together again.
📰 News and Opinion
Privilege Elevation. Jamf Connect Feature for macOS Security
Jamf Connect introduces a simple way to let a user do their day-to-day tasks as a standard user but still have the freedom to become an administrator on demand for the occasional task.
Success Is Not Transitive
While there is value in other’s path to success, it is by no means a guaranteed repeatable process. In fact, it can be quite the opposite.
⚙️ Apple Updates
Manuals, Specs, and Downloads
New starting page on Apple Support which centralizes there, well, manuals, specs and downloads access.
Stil work in progress, though. As I am writing this, clicking on the 'Mac' section results in a "The page you're looking for can't be found" error. The 'Software section leads with 'iPhoto 9.5' and 'iMovie 11' and under 'Productivity Software' there are entries for 'Pages for Mac 5.0' and 'Pages '09' (awesome icon, though), but none for the current Pages app. The entry for Keynote (the one with the blue icon, not the classic one) leads to the current docs, but the green Numbers icon only has downloads for Numbers 1.0.2 and 1.0.3...
Java users on macOS 14 running on Apple silicon systems should consider delaying the macOS 14.4 update
An issue introduced by macOS 14.4, which causes Java process to terminate unexpectedly, is affecting all Java versions from Java 8 to the early access builds of JDK 22. There is no workaround available, and since there is no easy way to revert a macOS update, affected users might be unable to return to a stable configuration unless they have a complete backup of their systems prior to the OS update.
🔐 Security and Privacy
Unpatchable vulnerability in Apple chip leaks secret encryption keys
A newly discovered vulnerability baked into Apple’s M-series of chips allows attackers to extract secret keys from Macs when they perform widely used cryptographic operations, academic researchers have revealed in a paper published Thursday.
Fascinating research, but it requires significant local access to pull off.
How Apple Mitigates Vulnerabilities in Installer Scripts
In this post, we’ll look at Apple's recent efforts to mitigate an entire class of installer-script vulnerabilities.
Support App 2.5.2 resolves unexpected code execution
Since we updated the Support App to version 2.5.2 and published the security report on GitHub, it was quickly picked up in the community and got a lot of people thinking where to put this ‘issue’. Should developers and Mac Admins do something about it? Or should Apple release a patch for this?
I have also updated my post from last week describing the issue with some additional information.
🔨 Support and Tutorials
Follow These Steps to Clear Space on Your Mac
It’s inevitable that many of us will run low on free disk space on our Macs.
How to recover Recovery
You normally start a Mac up in Recovery when there’s a problem. But what if that doesn’t work, and that Mac won’t enter Recovery?
Unlocking Insights: An Introductory Guide to Integrating Jamf Pro and Microsoft Power BI for Powerful Reporting - The Geeky Gordo
That was over a month ago. I immediately started researching, trying to figure out a way around this roadblock, but I have not found one yet. At least not one that is simple to implement.
🤖 Scripting and Automation
Prefs CLI Tools for Mac Admins
Two, not exactly new, but recreated, tools for working with macOS preferences and configuration profiles.
♻️ Updates and Releases
🎧 Listen
Workbrew
The team from Workbrew joins us this week to discuss the challenges MacAdmins face with Homebrew at their companies.
Battery Powered M4 iMac
We talk about on air meltdowns and recall similar situations when dealing with clients.