Many interesting posts this week that go in depth on Big Sur and Apple silicon topics.
We also got an announcement that you can new “rent” an Apple Mac mini from Amazon EC2. While this seems to be a fairly expensive choice, it should enable some really interesting solutions. When you need a less expensive solution for this, remember there is MacStadium.
We also got new betas for iOS 14.3 (and siblings) as well as macOS 11.1.
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
- Use Amazon EC2 Mac Instances to Build & Test macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS Apps – Jeff Barr, AWS News Blog
- Understanding EC2 Macs’ Purpose – Tom Bridge
Apple Silicon M1 Macs
- Downloading Apple Silicon Mac IPSWs – Nathaniel Strauss
- Apple Silicon M1 Full macOS Restore IPSW Firmware Files Database – Mr Macintosh
- Windows on M1 Macs: how to run ARM virtualization (Video) – Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac
- Thunderbolt on the M1 Mac mini, When 2 Actually Does Equal 4 – Tim Standing, Rocket Yard
- Installing Rosetta 2 on M1 Apple Silicon Macs (why checks matter) – Alan Siu
- How fast is an M1 Target Disk? – Howard Oakley
macOS 11 Big Sur
- Don’t disable accessibility options during Setup Assistant – Matthew Warren
- MDS, Big Sur, and Apple Silicon Challenges – Tim Perfitt
- Is Big Sur’s system volume sealed? – Howard Oakley
macOS and iOS Updates
- What’s New in macOS Big Sur 11.1 Beta 2 (20C5061b)? – Mr. Macintosh
- Security Update 2020-006 for Mojave & High Sierra + Safari 14.0.1 – Mr. Macintosh
MacAdmins on Twitter
- Tim Perfitt: “So I have two 2020 MacBooks Airs, one intel and one M1. Trying to find a consistent way to install Big Sur on them. it has proven to be surprisingly difficult for both of them for different reasons.”
- Jason Broccardo: “Pro Tip: If Do Not Disturb is enabled on Big Sur, the Menu Bar clock is dimmed. If you’d rather not drive yourself nuts trying to figure out why the clock is dimmed, turn off DND”
- Wil Shipley: “Dear Apple security team: Please explain what we should tell our customers when they want to revert to a Time Machine backup for a sandboxed shoebox app.” (Thread)
Bugs and Security
- Disclosure: Yet another macOS privacy protections bypass – Jeff Johnson
- Codesign: The Saga Continues – Craig Hockenberry
- This incredible exploit could have let hackers remotely own iPhones without even touching them – The Verge
Support and HowTos
- Postlab Merge – Final Cut Pro workflow extension – DAM SAN
- Adobe Announces Long Term Support (LTS) for Creative Cloud – Darren Wallace
Scripting and Automation
- Growl in Retirement (I have a soft spot for Growl. I used it a lot before Mac OS X had a notification system.)
- AirPrint Generator – Kevin M. Cox
Apple Support
- About the Rosetta Translation Environment
- Configuring L2TP VPN servers to work with iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur client devices – Apple Support
- Measuring and calibrating Apple Pro Display XDR – Apple Support
- What’s new in firmware updates for Apple Pro Display XDR
Updates and Releases
- Another Super Early Experimental Universal2 Build of Munki 5.3
- adobe/adobe-license-decoder.rs: Decoder for FRL and SDL license files found on client machines. (via Patrick Fergus)
- Apple Configurator 2.13.3
To Watch
To Listen
- War Stories – Mac Admins Podcast
- Pandemic Update With Adam Engst of TidBITS Content Network — Command-Control-Power
Support
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