Fairly quiet week. No major news from Apple, except for the fourth beta of macOS 11.3, iOS 14.5 and siblings.
Apple has admitted that the original ‘large’ HomePod is discontinued. You can still buy them while supplies last. This seems like release some bad news before the good news. Apple often releases new products or updates at this time of year.
To support the weekly news summary, please consider:
macOS Terminal and Shell:
You have always wanted to ‘learn Terminal,‘ right? This book teaches how (and why) to use the command line on macOS. Get it on Apple Books!
I have a list of upcoming conferences and dates on my website. The list also contains links where you can submit a session proposal and a link to the video archive of the conference, where available (this is new since last week).
PS: Don’t be alarmed. I will be experimenting with the layout of this newsletter over the next few weeks.
📰News and Opinion
- Apple Has Discontinued the Original HomePod – John Voorhees, MacStories
- Apple agrees to pre-install apps on Russian devices – Stephen Warwick, iMore (I am wondering how this affects managing Apple devices?)
- Women’s History Month: Ghostery Celebrates Women in Tech – Elaine Christie, Ghostery
- What We Take Away – Tom Bridge
- Mac Admins’ Top Tips for Managing Apple Devices – Kandji Blog
🌅macOS 11 Big Sur and Apple silicon Macs
🐦MacAdmins on Twitter
- Tim Perfitt: “I think I finally figured out how DFU in the M1 works. Apple says to: 1. Plug in to correct USB port to another mac running AC2. 2. hold power, left control option and right shift for 10 seconds 3. the release all but power button for another 10 seconds.” (Thread)
🔐Security and Privacy
- New macOS malware XcodeSpy Targets Xcode Developers with EggShell Backdoor – Phil Stokes, SentinelLabs
- XcodeSpy Malware – Patrick Wardle
- Apple shines and buffs Mac security—Is it enough to stop today’s malware? – Wendy Zamora, Malwarebytes Labs
🔨Support and HowTos
- Grabbing Application Icons from Adobe installer packages – Darren Wallace
- Managing Macs at Scale – Matthew Warren
- How to slip ‘unsigned’ apps past Gatekeeper in Big Sur – Howard Oakley
- How to Remove Mac Firmware Password + New way if you have a 2018-2020 T2 Mac! – Mr. MacIntosh
- How to remove the new Library folder on macOS – Adobe Help
🤖Scripting and Automation
- Chrome mid-update versions and Munki – Alan Siu
- macadmin-scripts/getmacosipsws.py: Parses Apple’s feed of macOS IPSWs and lets you download one
- Another PatchBot update – Tony Williams
♻️Updates and Releases
- Jamf Pro 10.28
- Jamf Pro 10.28.0 and Apple APNs changes – Ben Toms
- Jamf Pro server installer for macOS being retired – Rich Trouton
- EraseInstall application retired – Scripting OS X
📺To Watch
🎧To Listen
- Let’s Just Say His Name Was Bill — Command-Control-Power
- Security Research and the Apple Ecosystem – Mac Admins Podcast
- Transforming iOS data entry and integrations with JotForm – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac
- The Malwarebytes 2021 State of Malware report– Lock and Code, Malwarebytes Labs
- Fleet-aware with Jonathan Haenche – MacDevOpsYVR
📚 Support
If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!