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📰 News and Opinion
Apple Watch Turns 10
What follows is me meandering through the past decade of the Apple Watch, covering some of its history, my thoughts, uses, and my impressions on a decade of this unassuming yet increasingly vital product in Apple's lineup.
I have also been wearing an Apple Watch for the last ten years. Aside from the obvious movement and health tracking, I most appreciate it for receiving walking directions without needing to have the phone in your hand. With a bit of practice you even learn to decipher the different buzzing signals for "left" and "right."
See also, Michael Tsai's summary.
EU Fines Apple €500 Million for Digital Markets Act Violations
In a press release issued today, the European Commission (EC) announced that it has fined Apple €500 million for violations of the EU’s Digital Markets Act. The EC also fined Meta €200 million.
Like Michael Tsai, I'd be very interested what the actual issues and challenges are. I find it astounding and quite disappointing that Apple seems to have an easier time dealing with authoritarian governments, than with the EU commission.
Apple's claim that the DMA forces them to "give away (its) technology for free" is utterly disingenuous, since they make a (significant) profit on the hardware and the other services. Apple believes it is entitled to tax access to their customer base (not technology). The EU believes this puts third party developers, especially smaller shops, at a severe disadvantage. In the end, the consumers suffer from a lack of solutions, choices, and innovation.
See also, Michael Tsai's summary.
App Store Curation
I'm skeptical just based on the name. Given that iOS App Store apps are strictly sandboxed, forbidden from accessing the reset of the system, a virus protection app for iPhone doesn't seem possible. Specifically, the app claims (ungrammatically) that it can "Scan Device to Remove Virus and Resolve Issues", which seems to me to be—what's the term I'm thinking of?—a bald-faced lie.
My Favorite Apple Admin Community Conferences in 2025
Jordy Thery on Jamf Tech Thoughts
I wrapped up that post by mentioning a couple of conferences that might be worth your time. Well, it’s time to revisit those — because conference season is upon us!
Nice to reference my list of Mac Admin conferences, which I try to keep up to date with the latest changes.
🔨 Support and Tutorials
Configure Jamf Compliance Editor and Jamf Pro for Compliance Reporting
This guide will cover configuring the Jamf Compliance Editor using CIS Level 2 for Mac Computers and iOS devices enrolled in Jamf Pro.
Why some apps launch very slowly
This has been ascribed to ‘security checks’, with some claiming it’s because of delays in online checks of certificates, others attributing it to XProtect, or something else. This article, based on log extracts generously provided by Kristian, demonstrates what’s really holding up these apps.
🤖 Scripting and Automation
Playing Nice
Bart Reardon on Stuff About Things
we want to balance system performance so we can meet any security or management requirements while minimising the impact to the end user trying to actually do work.
Enhancing Super Status Reporting in Jamf Pro
Tony Young on Patch Notes and Progress
I’ve developed a set of three complementary Jamf Pro Extension Attributes that work together to surface Super’s status data in a format IT teams can use immediately, while fitting in nicely with the other useful extension attributes that presently exist for super.
Automate Apple OS Updates with Jamf Pro and Azure Runbooks
This blog post walks through how I automated the entire process using PowerShell, Jamf Pro’s API, the SOFA feed, and an Azure Automation Runbook.
A Jamf extension attribute to check the health of the last Munki run
If you use both Jamf and Munki (and specifically use Jamf to deploy Munki or reinstall Munki), you may want to have a Jamf extension attribute to see the health of the last Munki run.
♻️ Updates and Releases
🎧 Listen
Navigating AI in IT Consulting: Insights from Michael Thomsen of Origin 84
Michael Thomsen of Origin 84, dialing in from Australia. Michael shares critical insights into the use of AI in IT consulting.
IDC's Q1 2025 PC Shipment report
Michael Thomsen of Origin 84, dialing in from Australia. Michael shares critical insights into the use of AI in IT consulting.
What's a VAR for?
Kevin English and Tom Rice from SHI join the pod this week to talk about Value Added Resellers and their role in the Apple Ecosystem.