Finally!
After a beta phase that seemed longer than the initial macOS Big Sur beta (it wasn’t) we finally got macOS 11.3 this week. And iOS 14.5 and siblings. I am sure you are all already unlocking your iPhone with a mask on and tracking the AirTags you ordered.
Lot’s of information about macOS 11.3 for MacAdmins, which I have gathered here.
Oh yes, and Apple had a another blow-out quarter…
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macOS Terminal and Shell:
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📰News and Opinion
- Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model – Joel Hruska, ExtremeTech
- Apple’s Craig Federighi Explains iOS 14.5’s Privacy Features – Joanna Stern, Wall Street Journal, YouTube
- Patching with Jamf Pro – Justin Clark, Jamf Blog
- Apple Reports Second Quarter Results – Apple Newsroom
- Introducing Custom Apps and Scripts in Self Service – Kandji Blog
🌅macOS Big Sur 11.3 and iOS 14.5
- macOS Big Sur 11.3
- What’s new for enterprise in macOS Big Sur
- macOS Big Sur 11.3 Developer Release Notes
- iOS 14.5
- iPadOS 14.5
- watchOS 7.4
- tvOS 14.5 (doesn’t seem to have a nice update page like the others)
- Xcode 12.5
- Swift 5.4
- Apple security updates
- Security Update 2021-002 (Catalina)
- Security Update 2021-003 (Mojave)
- What’s new in mobile device management for Apple devices (Document revision history)
- Managing software updates for Apple devices (Updated with info on the new software update deferral options in the MDM)
- Lights Out Management MDM payload settings for Apple devices (Now includes M1 Mac mini with 10Gb Ethernet port)
- Security Certifications and Compliance Center (Document revision history)
- macOS Security Compliance Project
- Configure SMB Multichannel behavior
- About recalibration of battery health reporting in iOS 14.5 (not new, but more relevant now)
- Privacy – Apple (updated with a movie on App Tracking Transparency)
- How to unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch – Apple Support, YouTube (ideal to share with friends and family, so you don’t have to explain it over and over again)
Reactions
- All Your Macs Are Belong To Us – Patrick Wardle, Objective-See
- Shlayer malware abusing Gatekeeper bypass on macOS – Jaron Bradley, Jamf Blog
- macOS Big Sur 11.3 Update (20E232) is Live! What’s New? – Mr. Macintosh
- Apple has released Big Sur 11.3 update – Howard Oakley
- What has changed in macOS Big Sur 11.3? – Howard Oakley
- iOS 14.5 Emoji Changelog – Emojipedia
- M1-based Mac mini Gets 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Lights Out Management – Adam Engst, TidBITS
- Big Sur 11.3 bug tracker – Howard Oakley
🐦MacAdmins on Twitter
- Tim Perfitt: “If you use Terminal, you must use tab completion. Not so you can look fancy or be faster (which is awesome) but because it checks it while you do it and is FAR more accurate.”
- Tim Perfitt: “Some very interesting findings for installing macOS on an M1 today by @RandomApps. As you may know, we lost the ability to run startosinstall in recovery on an M1. It turns out you can get back almost all the automation with a couple of carefully placed files.” (Thread)
🔐Security and Privacy
🔨Support and HowTos
- How Not to Lock Yourself Out of Two Factor Authentication – Robin Laurén
- IT & Ops Data with Snowflake Part II – t-lark
- AutoPkg, Variable Persistence, and Empty Strings – Anthony Reimer
- That macOS update has caused havoc. What do I do next? – Howard Oakley
- Why don’t Mac admins use MDM for Apple software updates? – Alan Siu
🤖Scripting and Automation
♻️Updates and Releases
- Munki 5.4 Official Release
- BBEdit 13.5.6
- Scout 4.0.0
- Fusion on Apple Silicon: Progress Update – VMware Fusion Blog
- SuperDuper v3.5 Beta 1 (support Big Sur bootable backups)
🎧To Listen
- Go Back To Work – Mac Admins Podcast
- The Person Who Blows The Horn — Command-Control-Power
- I en förvandlad stad med Emily Handa – MacDevOpsYVR
- Secure K-12 iPads with Spin Safe Browser – Apple @ Work, 9to5Mac
- Breaking free from the VirusTotal silo: Lock and Code, Malwarebytes Labs
📚 Support
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