Apple realeased iOS 14.7, with watchOS and tvOS updates as well. Later in the week, on Wednesday we got macOS 11.5 and iPadOS 14.7. iOS 14.7 brings support for the new battery pack. For MacAdmins, macOS 11.5 finally delivers an option to lock booting to Recovery and a device lock for Apple Silicon Macs.
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Anthony Reimer wrote a greate piece called “Recognition, Retirement, and Remembrance” which resonated with many other admins.
- Recognition, Retirement, and Remembrance – Anthony Reimer
- Reaction to “Recognition, Retirement, and Remembrance” – Greg Neagle
- Gratitude and Leadership – Tom Bridge
- John C. Welch (Twitter thread)
- Recognitions – Adam M. Anklewicz
When I started out the news letter, the goal was to feature the work that so many people in the Apple Administrator community publish on their weblogs, social media, YouTube, podcasts, and open source repositories. It is really hard to keep track of everything that is going on when you are not a news junkie.
I love when people ping me on Slack to point out an interesting post (please keep them coming). I love it even more when someone sends me their first post on a new blog or their first post in a long time. (Congratulations!)
This discussion has made me even more aware of this role. When I curate the list of links I gathered over the week, I have always tried to be more inclusive, especially on the blog posts.
I have been working most of my professional career in or at least adjacent to the MacAdmin community. I have no comparison how this works in other professional communities. But this willingness to communicate and share, this notion of being in this together feels special.
This news letter would not exist without all you people willing to share their knowledge, experiences, and, yes, frustrations. You take time out of your work and volunteer it to the community, so that all our work, lives, and experiences become just a bit easier.
Thank you!
This news letter is going on vacation break! The next one will be sent out on August 27, 2021, with all the things that happened in the mean time.
So you still have something to read, I have scheduled a series of posts to be published on my website every week until I get back. The series is an excerpt from the first chapter of my upcoming book “Scripting macOS.” The first part is up already, I hope you like it!
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.)
macOS and iOS Updates
Note: I am linking to the US support pages, as the updates may not have been published to all localized pages yet.
- macOS Big Sur 11.5
- What’s new for enterprise in macOS Big Sur 11.5
- macOS Big Sur 11.5 Developer Release Notes
- iOS 14.7
- What’s new for enterprise in iOS 14.7
- iPadOS 14.7
- What’s new for enterprise in iPadOS 14.7
- watchOS 7.6
- Apple security updates
- Mobile Device Management Settings – Document revision history
- What is Supervision?
- Locking Apple devices
Reactions
- Jason Broccardo: “10.14.6 + Sec Update 2021-005: 18G9323, 10.5.7 + Sec Update 2021-004: 19H1323, 11.5: 20G71”
- iOS 14.7 Adds Support for the MagSafe Battery Pack – Josh Centers, TidBITS
- Apple has now released Big Sur 11.5 update, and SUs for 10.14 and 10.15 – Howard Oakley
- macOS Big Sur 11.5 Update (20G71) is Live! What’s New? – Mr. Macintosh
- What has changed in macOS 11.5? – Howard Oakley
MacAdmins on Twitter
- Sören: “Want old-style proxy icons and a bigger grabbable title bar back?
defaults write http://com.apple.finder NSWindowSupportsAutomaticInlineTitle -bool falseandkillall Finder!” - mikeymikey: “I don’t know who needs to hear this, but shift option double click on the corner of a window makes it fill the whole screen top to bottom and left to right without going fullscreen app (or triggering “zoom”, which never does what I want).”
- Anthony Reimer: “You don’t need Shift from my experiments today. Double-click any window edge: window expands in that direction as far as possible. Double-click any window corner: window expands in 2 directions. Add Option key when double-clicking: opposite side(s) of window also expands.”
Security and Privacy
- Pegasus Project: Apple iPhones compromised by NSO spyware – Amnesty International
- Pegasus spyware being used to collect privacy data on iPhones – Liarna La Porta, Jamf Blog
Support and HowTos
- How Mac Admins Are Preparing for the Hybrid Workplace – Kandji Blog
- Explainer: Property lists and preferences – Howard Oakley
- Last Week on My Mac: The perils of M1 Ownership – Howard Oakley
- What’s So Hot About Hot Corners? – Stephen Warneford-Bygrave, moof IT
- Suspicious Package Power User Features – Scripting OS X
- Owners and users: Primary and secondary systems on M1 Macs – Howard Oakley
- Preparing your Mac for someone else to own – Howard Oakley
Updates and Releases
- Upcoming changes to Google Drive sync clients – Google One Help
- BBEdit 14: What’s New?, Release Notes
- Hopper 4.8.1
To Watch
To Listen
- “Seven or eight” zero-days: The failed race to fix Kaseya VSA, with Victor Gevers – Lock and Code S02E13, Malwarebytes Labs
- Homebridge – Mac Admins Podcast
- 2015 Interview With Alsoft Makers Of Disk Warrior — Command-Control-Power
- The State of the IT Admin with Tom Bridge – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac
- Product Feedback Programs – Jamf After Dark
Just for Fun
Support
If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!
If you want to support me and this website even further, then consider buying one (or all) of my books. It’s like a subscription fee, but you also get a useful book or two extra!