Days are getting shorter, summer is starting to wane, and the Apple System release date is getting closer and closer.
Apple released new betas and finally updated the MDM and Configuration Profile References, leaving MacAdmins little time to test and file bugs to be fixed. MacAdmins took to Twitter to complain.
Also Twitter finally turned off many API features, thus crippling third party Twitter apps TweetBot and Twitteriffic.
If you are considering moving away from Twitter – there certainly enough reasons, technical and non-technical – Scripting OS X and this newsletter are available on many other channels, including Micro.blog, Mastodon.social, and Apple News. You can find all ways to follow at the end of this post.
If you would rather get the weekly newsletter by email, you can subscribe to the Scripting OS X Weekly Newsletter here!! (Same content, delivered to your Inbox once a week.)
News and Opinion
- Tom Bridge: Partner, Technolutionary LLC – IT Kit: How I Work
- Can Apple TV Help Keep Our Children Safe in School? – Chris Miller
- Fleetsmith now supports iOS and tvOS devices – Fleetsmith Blog
- Third-Party Twitter Clients Remove Features as API Changes Loom – John VoorheesMacStories
- Apple’s revolutionary iMac is 20 years old, and still going strong – AppleInsider
- Display Manager – Marriot Library
macOS Mojave
MacAdmins on Twitter
- Objective-See: “Announcing ”Objective by the Sea“ a new Mac Security Conference: Nov 3rd/4th in Maui Hawaii @ the stunning Wailea Beach Resort Talks by @thomasareed @iamevltwin @patrickwardle @rrcyrus @jbradley89 & more! …and free for Objective-See patrons”
- Federico Viticci: “Nice to see a new Shortcuts beta on Aug. 10th”
- Guilherme Rambo:
“They AirPlay2’d Group FaceTime…” - Erik Gomez: “Apple releases MDM changes on beta 7 and asks for feedback/regression testing. The reports wont be fixed in 10.14.0. Remember when you warned people to get tickets in before beta 2 to ensure they make it into the GM? These changes should be delayed to the Spring Release”
- Erik Gomez:
“#macadmin #macadmins – if you’re interested in testing some important changes coming to Mojave, please join the #tcc channel on macadmin’s slack Also here is a google doc for tracking this, much like we did with kexts/32-bit apps https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sai3Q8qj9HdyDJfcSAchRELD0mOpik1NPYxr0F9AJRc/edit#gid=0” - Tim Sutton: “If you would ever like the automated creation of a macOS Mojave system image to be possible – (asr imaging or creation of VMs via vfuse or similar).. you may want to dupe Mike’s rdar quoted below, and/or mine: http://www.openradar.me/radar?id=5004136198176768”
- Per Olofsson:
“I posted a new beta of AutoDMG with a couple of Mojave workarounds” - mikeymikey: “Honestly – between you and me – with what this bug does and what beta 7 just added, 10.14 feels like it’s shaping up to be “10.13 Part 2” / “The Revenge of 10.13” for #macadmins”
- William Smith: “New installs of Office for Mac 16.16 (this month’s release) and higher will install Microsoft AutoUpdate 4.2. Going forward, it will default to Automatically Download and Install. #MacAdmins, if you need to manage this, the best method is use a configuration profile.…”
- Rich Trouton: “isnetbootdead.com”
Bugs and Security
- Meet Algo, the VPN that works – Trail of Bits Blog
- Latest MacKeeper File Paths – Phil Stokes, Apple Help Writer
- XProtect: Missing presumed dead? – Howard Oakley
- Advanced Mac Cleaner strikes again! – Phil Stokes, Apple Help Writer
Support and HowTos
- Reset Connections To ApplePay and Health With ckksctl – Charles Edge
- The Mac Hardware/Software Obsolescence Chart – Anthony Reimer University of Calgary
- Last Week on My Mac: Where next with the log? – Howard Oakley
- First steps in Salt, and Salt vs. Chef – Brandon Kurtz
- Adding data to Jamf Pro – Leslie Helou, Jamf Blog
- Introducing the Jamf Certificate SDK – Kyle Hammond, Jamf Blog
- The T2 Macs, the end of NetBoot and deploying from macOS Recovery – Rich Trouton
- An intro to fish (not Phish) – Drew Diver
- Redact and obscure: how to release or publish without leaks – Howard Oakley
Scripting and Automation
- xcode-install: Install and update your Xcodes
- mOSL: Bash script to audit and fix macOS High Sierra (10.13.x) security settings
- Using the Keychain to store passwords for Jamf Pro API calls in bash scripts – Graham R Pugh
- Circadian Emacs – Drew Diver
- display_manager: An open-source Python library which can modify your Mac’s display settings manually or automatically.
- Integrating DetectX Swift with Munki – Alan Siu
- tccprofile: Creates a TCC profile for new Privacy Payloads in macOS Mojave
Apple Support
- iOS Security Whitepaper – iOS 11.4 (via Chris Miller)
- Configuration Profile Reference (Page 59 has the new Privacy payload, via Dials Mavis and Graham R Pugh)
- MDM Protocol Reference
Updates and Releases
To Listen
Just for Fun
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