Sponsor
This issue of MacAdmins.news is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform.
Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work . Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple .
This is the second "Summer Camp" issue. Last week, I published an update to desktoppr with a new 'manage' feature. There is more I am working on, you will see soon…
Until then, check out Dr. K's freshly updated 'Awesome MacAdmins Tools List'
📸 Focus
Mentorship Program — Mac Admins Foundation
The Mac Admins Foundation is very excited to begin its pilot mentorship program.
📰 News and Opinion
AI Companies Need to Be Regulated: An Open Letter to the U.S. Congress and European Parliament
it’s become clear that foundation models of different LLMs have been trained on content sourced from the open web without requesting publishers’ permission upfront.
Love, Death, and Computers
Though I was happy to see the Legacy Contact feature introduced a couple years ago, it’s not everything we need.
⚙️ Apple Updates
Sequoia, virtualisation and Apple ID
The third developer beta of macOS 15 Sequoia finally brings support for Apple ID in macOS virtual machines (VM).
Sequoia Removes Gatekeeper Contextual Menu Override
macOS Sequoia changes how non-notarized apps are handled on first launch.
🔐 Security and Privacy
Do a firmware update for your AirPods – now
An update is available for AirPods 2, 3, Pro, Pro 2, Max, and some Beats headphones.
3 million iOS and macOS apps were exposed to potent supply-chain attacks
The vulnerabilities, which were fixed last October, resided in a “trunk” server used to manage CocoaPods
🔨 Support and Tutorials
PSSO Technical Deep Dive
Platform Single Sign-On (PSSO) is a component of macOS for obtaining Single Sign-On (SSO) tokens at the macOS login window and in a user session.
Also this overview on what is New for PSSO in macOS Sequoia
AutoPkg and Trust
But that doesn’t cover everything that an Admin has to “trust” when running AutoPkg. So I thought it would be worthwhile to lay that out clearly for both the novice and more experienced user.
Entering text in the terminal is complicated
So let’s talk about why entering text might be hard! I’ll also share a few tips that I wish I’d learned earlier.
Apple-JSON-discovery-server: Example Apache server configuration to build Apple account-driven enrollment workflows using a JSON discovery server
This guide will help you build a Service Discovery Server for account-driven enrollment workflows using Apache and the files shared in this GitHub project.
How to hide files and folders
The repertoire of every good magician includes making objects disappear and reappear, and the Finder is no exception.
🤖 Scripting and Automation
Using Installomator in WorkspaceONE UEM
WorkspaceONE UEM (in short WSO) has in some regards a different approach to install and update software than other MDM's.
How to display custom notifications with swiftDialog and SimpleMDM | SimpleMDM
we will show you how to use the popular open-source tool swiftDialog to display custom notification messages to macOS device end users with the help of SimpleMDM
Dialogomator: A GUI for Trying Out Installomator Labels
I’m looking at a deadline to get my PSU Mac Admins presentation on swiftDialog and Installomator completed by next week, so obviously I needed to take this time to distract myself and make something really cool but entirely unnecessary.
Enforcing a Mac naming convention with a Munki nopkg
The idea of this implementation is to use an installcheck_script to determine whether the Mac’s name matches your naming convention, and if not, trigger the postinstall_script which enforces the name.
🍏 Apple Support
Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams
Use these tips to avoid scams and learn what to do if you receive suspicious emails, phone calls, or other messages.
♻️ Updates and Releases
- desktoppr 0.5 (blog post)
- JamfSync 1.3.2
- XCreds 4.1.6375, XCreds 5.0 Beta
- Nudge 2.0.0.81687 (I have been told this is close to release)
- JamfCheck v2.1.0
- Jamf Pro 11.7
- Orka Desktop
- Apparency 2.1
📺 Watch
QuickPkg Walkthrough and Review
Quickpkg is a great utility that allows you to make packages without any muss or fuss quickly as the name suggests.
🎧 Listen
Jedda Wignall on Managed Device Attestation
Jedda Wignall put together a very comprehensive deep dive into Managed Device attestation last year and we’ve been looking forward to having him on the podcast to talk through it.
Exploring Generative AI, Apple Intelligence, and the Future of Technology With Adam Engst
Our special guest, Adam Engst of TidBITS Content Network, joins us for an in-depth conversation about the technological breakthroughs, societal implications, and future trends.
Just Us (& Joel Rennich)
Here’s everything we’re thinking about as we get ready for the most exciting 3 months of Mac Admin life each year!
MDOYVR 2024 recap
Mat X, Nick Z and JD recount MDOYVR 2024 and encourage your feedback as we begin planning MDOYVR 2025.
Learning iOS development
Val Scarlata from Udacity about their newly updated iOS development nanodegree program.
Busted for book club? Why cops want to see what you're reading, with Sarah Lamdan
What remains true is that libraries and librarians want to maintain the privacy of your records. And what also remains true is that the government looks anywhere it can for information to aid investigations into national security, terrorism, human trafficking, illegal immigration, and more.