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Category: Enterprise

Adam Engst 38 comments

Apple Releases macOS 14.4, watchOS 10.4, tvOS 17.4, HomePod Software 17.4, and visionOS 1.1

After the release of iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 earlier in the week, there was little question that Apple would soon push out updates to the rest of its operating systems. That has now happened, and we recommend updating quickly to protect against several zero-day vulnerabilities.

Adam Engst 24 comments

iOS 17.3 Stands Out from Other OS Updates with Stolen Device Protection

Apple has released a large set of operating system updates, including iOS 17.3, iPadOS 17.3, macOS 14.3 Sonoma, watchOS 10.3, tvOS 17.3, HomePod Software 17.3, macOS 13.6.4 Ventura, macOS 12.7.3 Monterey, iOS 16.7.5 and iPadOS 16.7.5, and iOS 15.8.1 and iPadOS 15.8.1. New features include Stolen Device Protection in iOS 17.3 and Apple Music collaborative playlists.

Adam Engst No comments

New Apple Business Connect Lets Businesses Create Custom Place Cards

Apple’s new Apple Business Connect service lets brick-and-mortar businesses claim their location place cards so they can customize how their business appears in Apple Maps, Siri, and other Apple apps. It’s worth doing, and don’t forget to create a Google Business Profile as well.

Josh Centers 3 comments

Cloud Computing More Energy Efficient Than Initially Thought

Environmentalists were concerned that the move to cloud computing and the prerequisite enormous data centers would prove to be an energy hog, but data centers have become incredibly efficient in the past decade.

Josh Centers 6 comments

Resources for Adapting to zsh in Catalina

One of the big changes in macOS 10.15 Catalina is that Apple has replaced the default bash shell in Terminal with zsh, a move that is sure to cause headaches for system administrators. Josh Centers offers some resources to help you adapt to the change.

Adam Engst 4 comments

IBM Finds Its Mac Users to Be More Productive Than PC Users

In an ironic historical twist, IBM has one of the largest Mac installations in the world, and the company has now released research showing that its Mac users score higher on performance reviews, close larger sales, and are less likely to leave the company than its Windows users. But be careful what you conclusions you draw from those results.

Adam Engst No comments

MacPaw Opens Setapp for Teams

The Setapp subscription service provides access to over 160 useful Mac apps for $9.99 per month. Now MacPaw is offering a beta of Setapp for Teams, which provides the same set of apps with slightly reduced per-user pricing and single-point billing.

Curtis Wilcox 22 comments

Apple to Deprecate Scripting Languages in Future Versions of macOS

Apple says future versions of macOS won’t include a number of open-source scripting languages. The impact of this change will vary depending on the audience, but it will affect more people than you might think.

Adam Engst 16 comments

The Top Conferences for Mac and iOS Professionals in 2019

If you make your living in the Apple world as a consultant, developer, designer, or tech, there are a wide variety of conferences you can attend to hone your skills, learn new topics, network with your fellow wizards, and open your mind to new ways of thinking. Here’s our list for 2019. Be sure to let us know if you run across any others. Updated for Layers, try! Swift San Jose, MacDeployment, iOSDevCamp DC, and MacSysAdmin.

Adam Engst 2 comments

How to Work with and Restore APFS Snapshots

Regular Mac users don’t need to mess around with APFS snapshots, but if you’re a power user, Rich Trouton’s instructions for creating, managing, and using APFS snapshots could be invaluable.

Adam Engst 16 comments

The Productivity Pit: It’s the People, Not the Tools

Real-time workplace communication tools were supposed to improve productivity, but they all too often have the opposite effect thanks to too much chatter.

Jeff Porten 10 comments

Locast Gives You No Frills Broadcast TV at No Cost

Thinking about dropping cable TV? Cord cutters may want to check out Locast, a Web site and mobile app that lets you watch your local TV channels for free, provided you’re in one of the nine cities where it works.

Adam Engst 2 comments

Screwed Shoes, Squirrels, and Apple on the Mac Admins Podcast

A couple of recent episodes of the Mac Admins podcast are worth checking out. First, Adam and Tonya joined the hosts to talk about Internet technical publishing and a wide variety of other topics—you’ll enjoy the stories. Second, the Mac Admins hosts managed a rare coup, getting two Apple employees on the show to talk publicly.

Adam Engst 5 comments

JNUC 2018: How Organizations Use Apple Devices as Tools of Change

We think of our iPhones, iPads, and Macs as extremely personal devices, but as you’ll read in these five stories from the Jamf Nation User Conference, large organizations are also putting Apple devices to interesting uses as focused tools in education, healthcare, hospitality, and retail.

Rich Mogull 20 comments

Mojave’s New Security and Privacy Protections Face Usability Challenges

macOS 10.14 Mojave brings important security and privacy improvements to the Mac, but both Apple and developers need to work harder to avoid overwhelming users with a cacophony of alerts.