Second betas for 26.2 update and an unexpected and strange revival of iPod Socks
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📸 Focus
How Apple's M1 chip gave the Mac a second life
Five years later, it’s clear that the arrival of Apple silicon has utterly changed the trajectory of the Mac.
When I indulged in speculation on a future MacBook last week, I wasn't aware that it was nearly five years since the first M1 MacBooks were introduced.
BasicAppleGuy created a product history chart illustrating the rapid evolution of Apple silicon devices.
The M-series chips are the fourth CPU architecture that Macs have used. Each transition was motivated by clear performance and/or power usage advantages, but until 2020, Apple was never in full control of the architecture for Macs and their goals and priorities always eventually diverged from the platform. 68k did not evolve fast enough. The PowerPC alliance floundered. Intel cared more about performance than the power/performance ratio and missed the mobile device revolution.
Apple has been controlling the crucial silicon hardware for the iPhone and iPad for a while. There was skepticism whether they could transfer that success to the Mac, but now, five years in, it is fair to say that Mac hardware can compete with, or out-compete, other computer architectures.
Apple silicon, with dedicated neural engines, lots of graphic cores and direct shared memory is a strong platform for machine learning or "AI" tasks. Apple has been planning and developing these chips since long before we all took note of ChatGPT. Right now, Apple may be struggling to get their Apple Intelligence software sorted out, but as models get leaner and more efficient, and people care more about their data privacy and security, the local processing capacity of Apple silicon will only become more and more relevant.
I am very much looking forward to what the next five years will bring for the Mac and Apple silicon.
📰 News and Opinion
Apple’s “notarisation” – blocking software freedom of developers and users
The EU’s Digital Markets Act is supposed to shake up the power of tech giants by giving developers and users more choice. Apple’s “notarisation” of mobile apps contradicts these objectives.
Apple introduced Notarization as an extra verification for apps distributed directly from the developer, and while it has occasionally been cumbersome and the servers aren't always fast or reliable, it works well and adds an extra level of security.
Adding a notarization step to iOS apps distributed outside of the App Store seemed like a logical step for security but Apple has repeatedly rejected notarization for Apps intended for distribution in third party iOS app marketplaces.
Should Apple continue to use the notarization step as a backdoor to control which apps and categories of apps can appear on the alternative marketplaces, rather than just prevent malware, there is a real risk that regulators will prohibit that step, as well. This would decrease security overall. It cannot be ruled out that Apple wants to provoke this and then claim that regulators "forced" them to reduce security and/or convenience.
My wish for 2026 is that Apple leadership come to their senses and start negotiating in good faith. Constructive solutions that are beneficial for developers and paying customers enrich the entire platform. So far, they choose to act like a petulant bully who is told they have to share the playground.
Another example of babying your phone for minimal advantage
The findings were basically that after 500 charge cycles, the slow-charged iPhones dropped 11.8% in battery capacity, while the fast-charged iPhones dropped 12.3%.
How to best protect your battery from losing capacity is one of the questions (and arguments) I get most from less tech-oriented friends and acquaintances. I will keep this link around for the future.
That said, there are ways that you can actively hurt a device battery, mostly by extended heat exposure, as in a hot car or direct sunlight. Surprisingly to me, the people who think they need to monitor every percentage point of each charging cycle rarely know that.
Rethinking Software Update Strategies: Why Open Source Alternatives Better Serve Your Needs
Allen Hutchins:
The second half of the year is always an exciting time in the Apple admin community.
So long, and thanks for all the malware
The first decade or so in the security industry was productive, fun, and transformative. It’s the more recent years that have led me to the decision to almost literally abandon tech and run off into the woods.
I am very grateful for all the work an insights provided and wish him the best going forward.
🔐 Security and Privacy
CrashOne - A Starbucks Story
This article explains how that thread led to CVE-2025-24277: a sandbox escape and local privilege escalation in the osanalyticshelperd process that allows a standard user to gain root on macOS.
Stolen iPhones are locked tight, until scammers phish your Apple ID credentials
some phone thieves have found a workaround, not by breaking Apple’s security, but by tricking owners into giving them the keys.
🔨 Support and Tutorials
From ClickOps to GitOps: The Future of IT Automation
Teams concerned with future-proofing their environment are increasingly looking to GitOps-friendly approaches for managing these systems.
Learning Terraform for Jamf with Neil Martin
A Q&A with Neil Martin on Terraform providers, patterns, and how Mac Admins can start managing Jamf Pro as code.
🤖 Scripting and Automation
Script To Download the Current Version of PowerShell
John C. Welch
fortunately, the PowerShell team gives us a good way to check and a bit of simple comparison to help us determine if we have the newest version.
It is quite frustrating that Microsoft does not properly notarize the PowerShell installer. The pkg is, strangely, signed, but not notarized. Instead, they document how users can bypass GateKeeper in their installation instructions. The lack of notarization also means we cannot include PowerShell in Installomator.
📺 Watch
🎧 Listen
Float like a Jellyfish, sting like a Bee
Kandji has announced a new name, and some new products, and they are now Iru! Weldon Dodd joins us to talk about their move toward Identity, Cross-Platform Device Management, Security, and Compliance products.
SupportApp 3.0 makes remote Mac support even easier
Jordy Witteman from Root3 joins the show to talk about the latest updates to SupportApp.