Weekly News Summary for Admins — 2020-07-17

No summer break yet for MacAdmins. As expected, the updates for macOS Catalina 10.15.6 and iOS 13.6 and siblings were published.

As a big reprieve for MacAdmins, the functionality of softwareupdate --ignore has been re-instated for system software updates, but only when the Mac is supervised (i.e. enrolled in MDM with Automated Deployment or user-approved MDM). This allows MacAdmins to block major updates from being installed or even notified about. This is likely a direct result of all the feedback MacAdmins have passed on to Apple.

However, this reprieve is only temporary because it is not implemented in the macOS Big Sur beta. So, keep providing feedback through all your channels to Apple, that macOS requires a managed means to block software updates for longer than 90 days, preferable indefinitely.

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News and Opinion

macOS 11 Big Sur and iOS 14

macOS Catalina 10.15 and iOS 13 Updates

MacAdmins on Twitter

Rosyna Keller: “Please, please don’t normalize right-clicking on your app to get it to run. This is a tactic malware uses to get past Gatekeeper. Screenshot from actual malware. Even after Flash died at the end of this year, this type of social engineering will continue. I hope Adobe runs PSAs.” (Image, thread)

Bugs and Security

Will macOS protect you from ransomware like ThiefQuest? – Howard Oakley

Support and HowTos

Scripting and Automation

Compare macOS Versions with zsh and is-at-least – TJ Luoma (via Tom Bridge. See also my post on this)
A beginner’s guide to using AutoPkg with GitLab Runner – Graham R Pugh
Automating Manual munki Imports with autopkg – AP Orlebeke
Some basics of DEPNotify and a sample script – Alan Siu
Executing command-line directly from Xcode – Erica Sadun

Apple Documentation

Import your iBooks Author book into Pages for Mac
Use regular expressions in Numbers on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and online at iCloud.com
Play a movie or audio across slides in Keynote on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac
Don’t close your MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro with a cover over the camera
Use private Wi-Fi addresses in iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7
Updates to Coding Terminology – Apple Developer
Apple Style Guide: updated July 2020, also available on Apple Books. This is very useful when you are wondering if you write it ‘MacAppStore,’ ‘Mac AppStore,’ or ‘Mac App Store.’ (the last is correct)

To Listen

Just for Fun

First Look: New Emojis Coming to iOS in 2020 – Emojipedia

Support

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