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📸 Focus
50 Years of Thinking Different
Adam Engst:
the anniversary rhetoric rings somewhat hollow when measured against the company’s actions in recent years.
…
The Think Different campaign honored “the round pegs in the square holes.” Today’s Apple forces those round pegs through the square holes to make squircle icons.
📰 News and Opinion
“This Is Not The Computer For You”
I was trying to the find the right excerpt to quote, but this is just beautiful writing. Go and read it all.
Women in Tech: career advice from the Mac Admins community
I connected with leaders I admire in the Mac Admins space about the moments which defined their career, the advice that spurred them on to pursue their dreams, and the big wins defining their career so far.
Swift re-write for QuickPkg and some thoughts on LLM aided coding
I have always believed that I should know and understand the things I criticize, so it was time for an experiment.
I’ve never had the experience of parenting a 6-year-old child. But I’ve dealt with MacOS system updates.
At least with parenthood…yeah, you expect the tantrums. But MacOS’ behavior is being directed by emotionally-functioning adults!
If computers are the future, why are computer users expected to be permanently illiterate?
The iPhone seems to have engendered a culture of anti-intellectualism and learned helplessness so pervasive that users have become evangelists for their own disempowerment.
⚙️ Apple Updates
Apple patches Coruna exploit kit flaws for older iOS versions
In the latest security updates, Apple patched the vulnerabilities used in the Coruna exploit kit for older mobile devices that can no longer be updated to the latest iOS version.
🔐 Security and Privacy
Fake Claude Code install pages hit Windows and Mac users with infostealers
Attackers are cloning install pages for popular tools like Claude Code and swapping the “one‑liner” install commands with malware, mainly to steal passwords, cookies, sessions, and access to developer environments.
🔨 Support and Tutorials
Why does AI tell you to use Terminal so much?
Using AI to troubleshoot Mac problems is neither instructive nor does it build understanding. AI is training the unsuspecting to blindly copy and paste Terminal commands, which puts them at risk of being exploited by malicious software.
Using the Jamf Pro API to deploy installer packages using MDM commands
Rich Trouton:
One of the capabilities of mobile device management (MDM) on macOS is that you can use MDM commands to deploy installer packages
Explainer: Mac firmware version numbering
What firmware engineers might lack in glamour they seem to compensate for by turning what should be simple and consistent into great complexity.
Deploying firewall management for macOS using Blueprints in Jamf Pro
Rich Trouton:
Jamf Pro’s Blueprints leverages this capability to support managing the settings for the built-in application firewall on macOS.
🤖 Scripting and Automation
zcutlip/platform-security-guide-scraper
A web scraper to download the Apple Platform Security Guide as Markdown for use in Obisidian and elsewhere.
ArchitectureScan
Scott Kendall:
Apple said that after macOS 26 (Tahoe), Rosetta apps will no longer be supported. This script will list all of the apps on your system and display the architecture type, so you can determine which applications need updated.
bartreardon/abm-proxy
A lightweight caching proxy/middleware for the Apple Business Manager (ABM) and Apple School Manager (ASM) APIs.
Munki 7 random start times for labs
Patrick van Nerum:
To manage excessive server load, we want the Munki client to randomly start checking for updates every hour. With Munki 6 or lower this was standard behaviour.
♻️ Updates and Releases
🎧 Listen
Clouds of Doubt: Are We Crossing the Data Line?
The hosts discuss an AI-suggested topic: why “cloud-only” thinking is cracking, focusing on broken cost predictability from usage-based pricing, vendor lock-in and loss of control, latency and dependency on internet uptime, and growing compliance and data-residency pressures.
Printing goes to the cloud
Kevin Pickhart, Executive Chairman of Pharos, joins the show to talk about the hidden security risks lurking in office printers, and why zero-trust security needs to include print workflows, not just endpoints and networks.
Ring doorbells: Won't you see my neighbor?
Matthew Guariglia, senior policy analyst at Electronic Frontier Foundation, about Ring’s long history of partnering with—and sometimes even speaking directly for—police, who can access Ring doorbell footage both inside the company and outside it, and what people really open themselves up to when purchasing a Ring device.
🎈Just for Fun
First Look: New Apple Emojis in iOS 26.4 Beta 4
Today Apple has released its fourth developer beta for iOS 26.4, and in doing so has previewed brand new emojis from the 2025 list, including a distorted face, ballet dancers, an orca, and a treasure chest.
Today at last, the Trombone emoji!
Steve Hayman:
Today, Apple released iOS 26.4 beta 4, which includes a Trombone emoji.