Sponsor
This issue of MacAdmins.news is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, where High-Quality Apple Management & Security is made Surprisingly Accessible.
After helping thousands of organizations to migrate from other solutions to Mosyle, we've gained a unique perspective of all the concerns companies face when evaluating the migration of their Apple Management & Security solution. Based on this extensive knowledge, we've created the most comprehensive Migration Program in the Apple’s Management & Security market, addressing the most critical technical, financial, and strategic considerations involved in this pivotal decision. Check our website for more details!
📸 Focus
Apple may release its first 'low-cost' Mac laptop in early 2026
It seems Apple is preparing to debut a low-cost Mac laptop in the first half of 2026.
Really intriguing. Ever since Apple silicon, when people ask me which Mac they should get, the only question I ask is whether they plan to do professional level, heavy-duty work, such as image processing, video, development, or machine learning.
And then I say, "get the MacBook Air, whichever size you prefer, as much SSD as you can/want to afford, and bump the RAM if you are feeling extra generous (most won't need it)"
The MacBook Air is already a great price/performance ratio, but even so, since Apple silicon, the performance is really more than most people need. The iPad line-up has a mix of M-series and A-series chips. The original Apple silicon Developer Kit unit had a A12z CPU, the same the iPad Pro had at the time, and it had great performance. It is strange to consider a Mac powered by the same chip as an iPhone, but I could see an A-series or possibly A-Pro series SoC working very well.
It would be an unusual move for Apple to start competing in the lower prices bands. Apple has so far resisted to enter the low-cost notebook category, whether they were called subnotebooks, thin clients, netbooks, Chromebooks, or budget laptops.
But not unprecedented. When the iPad was introduced, most expected a $999 price point and Apple introduced it at half that price. The low-end iPads are also a great price/performance ratio and are regularly on sale below $300. Apple kept the M1 MacBook Air around for a while at lower price points through certain channels, after the newer MacBook Airs were introduced. A lower entry price point would be a big win in the K-12 market.
In the late 90s, Steve Jobs restructured Apple's product line into the now famous 2x2 matrix. Apple's product lineup will never be that simple again. However there is a "no moniker" -> "Air" -> "Pro" matrix, which the iPad line and now, recently, the iPhone line, match quite well.
📰 News and Opinion
Lore, Picking a Workplace, and Leadership
I listened to Episode 434 of the MacAdmins Podcast and felt I wanted to write a blog-length response to what Kitzy and the hosts were talking about. I resonated with so many things in that discussion, albeit from a different angle sometimes.
Tahoe’s Terrible Icons
On the new MacOS 26 (Tahoe), Apple has mandated that all application icons fit into their prescribed squircle. No longer can icons have distinct shapes, nor even any fun frame-breaking accessories.
AirPods Live Translation Expands to the EU
But it doesn’t sound like Apple has opened up Live Translation to third-party Bluetooth devices or to third-party apps. Does the DMA not require that? Or is Apple actually doing that but deliberately left it out of the announcement?
The other main theory for the delay was that Apple had not yet shown the regulators how the feature complied with the GDPR. But would that require “additional engineering work”? Apple was cagey before but now specifically blames the DMA, not the GDPR.
iOS 26.2 to Remove iPhone–Apple Watch Wi-Fi Sync in EU
It seems perfectly reasonable that if I have a third-party watch I should be able to opt into having my phone share Wi-Fi info with it.
⚙️ Apple Updates
26.2 Apple platform releases
macOS
- macOS Tahoe 26.1 (25B78): What's new, Developer Release Notes, Security, Enterprise, IPSW, PKG installer
- macOS Sequoia 15.7.2 (24G325): What's new, Security, PKG installer
- macOS Sonoma 14.8.2 (23J126): What's new, Security, PKG Installer
- Safari 26.1: WebKit Features, Developer Release Notes, Security
- Xcode 26.1: Mac App Store, Developer Downloads, Developer Release Notes, Security
iOS and iPadOS
- iOS 26.1 About, Enterprise
- iPadOS 26.1: About, Enterprise
- iOS 18.7.2: About
- iPadOS 18.7.2: About
- iOS and iPadOS 26.1: Developer Release Notes
- Security: 26.1,18.7.2
Other Platforms
- visionOS 26.1: About, Developer Release Notes, Security, Enterprise
- watchOS 26.1: About, Developer Release Notes, Security
- tvOS 26.1: About, Developer Release Notes, Security
- HomePod Software 26.1: About
- Apple Business Manager: Release notes, User Guide, Revision history
- Apple School Manager: Release notes, User Guide, Revision history
- Apple Business Essentials: Release notes, User Guide, Revision history
- Apple Platform Deployment: Welcome, What's new, Revision history
What has changed in macOS 26.1 Tahoe?
The update bringing macOS 26 Tahoe to version 26.1 is substantial, and has a great many increases in build numbers,
Appearance revisited: Get Tahoe 26.1 looking in better shape
When Tahoe 26.1 was released a couple of days ago, it changed those by adding a new control for those Liquid Glass visual effects. This article shows how that might change your options.
Apple blocks iOS 26.2, iPadOS 26.2 betas on devices with C1
Following the release of the first developer betas of iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2 earlier this week, Apple is now preventing the update from being installed on devices with the C1 modem.
How Tahoe 26.1 has enabled automatic security updates
If Apple’s current account of BSIs is complete, the only control we have over them is whether they’re downloaded and installed automatically. If you opt for that, as Apple has set as the default, then you won’t be given any warning, or even informed when the BSI has been installed on your Mac.
macOS 26.1.0 virtual machines do not generate valid system serial numbers
Rich Trouton:
I built a VM for macOS 26.1.0 and then noticed something odd. The virtual machine did not have an assigned system serial number.
🔐 Security and Privacy
Unseeable prompt injections in screenshots: more vulnerabilities in Comet and other AI browsers
Building on our previous disclosure of the Perplexity Comet vulnerability, we’ve continued our security research across the agentic browser landscape. What we’ve found confirms our initial concerns: indirect prompt injection is not an isolated issue, but a systemic challenge facing the entire category of AI-powered browsers.
Apple’s New iPhone Memory Protections Safeguards Devices Against Sophisticated Attacks
On Sept. 9, Apple announced a cohesive and impressive approach to preventing memory safety exploits through a range of new hardware features, operating system support, compiler support, and run-time support. The hardware and software improvements built into new iPhones drastically reduce the likelihood of an attacker successfully compromising a phone using common methods.
🔨 Support and Tutorials
Terraform 101: Command Line Interface
In the last post, we looked at resources and data sources. Now let’s see how those declarations come to life using the Terraform Command Line Interface (CLI).
Prepping for Learning Terraform and an Exercise on Automation [Part 2]
Tony Young:
I’m diving deeper into what that means for me as a Mac Admin and someone more accustomed to managing policies and profiles through Jamf Pro than writing infrastructure configuration files.
Set & Forget managed software updates blueprints now available in Jamf Pro
Now that "set and forget" managed software updates blueprints are available in Jamf Pro I thought I'd throw something together to show what it looks like and discuss some of the high level logic behind how the calculations and deployments happen once configured.
Deploying software update declarations for automatic OS upgrades using Blueprints in Jamf Pro
Rich Trouton:
Previously, the only option for deploying software update declarations via Blueprints was to specify an individual OS version. Now there is a new option for upgrading the OS version to the latest version a particular Mac can support.
Keeping Jamf Security Cloud Current for Microsoft 365: Updated Routing Policies
This post updates the original allow-list to ensure full functionality with Microsoft 365 services, including Teams calling, media, authentication, and content delivery.
🤖 Scripting and Automation
What's new with terraform-provider-axm (AppleCare, that's what)
Apple recently, and quietly bumped their Apple School and Business Manager API to 1.3+. Along came a new endpoint for querying AppleCare coverage details for individual devices.
Archiware P5 scripts
I manage a few backup and archive servers for clients and these run the Archiware P5 suite of software (archive, backup and sync). To help manage these servers over the years I’ve written some P5 monitoring tools for Watchman and MunkiReport as well worked on helper scripts using the cli tools or more recently the API.
Hunting Down Jamf Profile Payloads with Python
We’ve all been there, scrolling through the Jamf UI, expanding payloads, repeatedly searching in the browser hoping to get lucky. Eventually you realize: I need a better way to search this stuff.
Add header here
Had some fun creating a longer script to add a text header to some shell scripts, then because I wrote the wrong thing to all my shell scripts I had some more fun tweaking my script to find and remove this header.
🎧 Listen
AirPods, Angels, and Apple Mystique
the hosts discuss a variety of topics including a nostalgic throwback to a wrestling match they attended, the latest release of the MacBook Pro with M5 chip, and the implications of larger storage options.
Google Workspace and JumpCloud partner to launch new cloud productivity solution for enterprises
Greg Keller from JumpCloud joins the show to talk about their new collaboration with Google, IT in the AI era, and much more.
Platform SSO (Okta's Version)
Apple announced Platform Single Sign-on at the setup assistant in macOS 26, and it’s been a race for Identity Providers and Device Management Services to wrap their heads around the changes and implement it. Okta recently released their implementation and we are joined by Arki and Dan to talk about what this changes, what was involved in getting it to work, and what is still to come.
Would you sext ChatGPT?
Deb Donig, on faculty at the UC Berkeley School of Information, about the ethics of AI erotica, the possible accountability that belongs to users and to OpenAI, and why intimacy with an AI-power chatbot feels so strange.