Apple was busy this week. As expected, we got the macOS Ventura 13.3, iOS 16.4, and sibling platform updates. (New emojis!) We also got the long awaited Apple Music Classical app (iOS only), Apple Pay Later (where available, i.e yet another US only service), and updates to several apps. Apple also announced the dates for this year’s WWDC: June 5–9 in a similar format to the past year. All sessions pre-recorded and online with a viewing event at Apple Park for the Keynote.
(Sponsor: SentinelOne)
A Guide to macOS Threat Hunting and Incident Response
As enterprise Macs become increasingly targeted with cross-platform malware and infostealers, it’s more important than ever to ensure security teams know how to hunt for and respond to macOS compromises.
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.)
📸Focus
Jason Snell from SixColors has released the “Apple in the Enterprise” report card with lots of interesting data and even more enlightening comments from many fellow Mac and iOS admins. Now, that this is the third edition, the report includes a graph with the previous two scores for each section, and we can start to see some trends.
🌼macOS Ventura 13.3 and iOS 16.4
macOS
- macOS Ventura 13.3 (22E252): About, Enterprise, Developer Release Notes, Security
- macOS Monterey 12.6.4 (21G526): Security
- macOS Big Sur 11.7.5 (20G1225): Security
iOS and iPadOS
- iOS 16.4: About, Enterprise
- iPadOS 16.4: About, Enterprise
- iOS and iPadOS 16.4: Developer Release Notes, Security
- iOS and iPadOS 15.7.4: Security
Guides
- Apple Platform Deployment Guide: Welcome, What’s new, Document revision history
- Apple School Manager User Guide: Welcome, Document revision history
- Apple Business Manager User Guide: Welcome, Document revision history
- Apple Business Essentials User Guide: Welcome, Document revision history
Other Platforms
- watchOS 9.4: About, Developer Release Notes, Security
- tvOS 16.4: About, Guide, Developer Release Notes, Security
- HomePod Software 16.4: About
- Studio Display Firmware Update 16.4: About, Security
Applications
- Xcode 14.3: Mac App Store, Developer Downloads, Developer Release Notes, Security
- Safari 16.4: Blog post, Developer Release Notes, Security
- Pages 13.0: Mac, iOS, iCloud
- Keynote 13.0: Mac, iOS, iCloud
- Numbers 13.0: Mac, iOS, iCloud
- Shortcuts: What’s new
- Apple Music Classical: iOS App Store
- iTunes 12.12.8 for Windows 10
Apple Support
- How iOS, iPadOS, and macOS decide which wireless network to auto-join
- Reduce screen motion on Apple TV
Community
- What has changed in macOS Ventura 13.3? – Howard Oakley
- macOS Ventura 13.3 Update (22E252)! What’s New? – Mr. Macintosh
- macOS Ventura 13.3, Monterey 12.6.4 and Big Sur 11.7.5 bring firmware updates for all supported Macs – Howard Oakley
- Fixing firmware update problems – Howard Oakley
- Apple fixes actively exploited vulnerability and introduces new features – Pieter Arntz, MalwarebytesLabs
- iOS 16.4 Emoji Changelog – Keith Broni, Emojipedia
📰News and Opinion
- Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference returns June 5 – Apple
- Using ‘Phone Link’ Between iOS and Windows for iPhone Notifications and iMessage – Federico Viticci, MacStories
- Apple Passwords Deserve An App – Cabel Sasser
- Keynote at X World: Running After the Ice Cream Truck – Tom Bridge
- Getting Past Stuck – Pam Lefkowitz, Radical Admin Blog, Jumpcloud
- Software Update: Where We’re Going, Where We’ve Been – Tom Bridge
- Intel Co-Founder Gordon Moore Dies at 94 – Adam Engst, TidBITS (Note: my wonderful wife does research funded by a Moore Foundation grant)
- Speaking at London Apple Admins for Beginners – Daz Wallace
🎤Conferences
- PSU MacAdmins Conference, July 16–21: Registration now open!
- Objective by the Sea v6.0, Oct 9–13, Marbella, Spain
- WWDC23, June 5–9, online
More information on upcoming conferences and archives of past conferences on my conferences page.
🦣Social Media
- John C. Welch: “One thing remote work has screwed is the ability to learn how the people I don’t work with, but support, work. I called it “Support by Walking around” not just for the “it’s too minor for a ticket, but since you’re here” problems that I could see were developing into bigger problems. That was invaluable in and of itself. But it also, over time, gave me a way to see how the people I supported actually worked. How they needed to work, how their actual workflow functioned.” (thread)
🔐Security and Privacy
- We updated our RSA SSH host key – Mike Hanley, The GitHub Blog
- MacStealer: New macOS-based Stealer Malware Identified – Shilpesh Trivedi, Uptycs
- Beware of MacStealer, a growing malware threat that affects macOS – Jamf Threat Labs
- Microsoft Defender is flagging legit URLs as malicious – Jeff Burt, The Register
🔨Support and HowTos
- Planning Your Presentation – William Smith, Jamf Tech Thoughts
- Testing a local timezone deadline in Nudge – Alan Siu
- Binding to Active Directory: Consider the Alternatives – Kandji Blog
- Path to Mac Admin: From Zero to Hero – Tim Herr, Jamf Blog
- ServiceNow Asset Data in Snowflake – Thomas Larkin
🤖Scripting and Automation
- CrowdStrike Falcon Kickstart (0.0.2) – Dan K. Snelson
- Quick And Dirty Guide To Compiling Your Own Version Of An Open Source Xcode Project For Testing Charles Edge
♻️Updates and Releases
- Introducing the Kolide Desktop App – Blaed Johnston, Kolide Blog
- Test A Fork Of NoMAD Maybe? – Charles Edge
- Managing ephemeral self-hosted GitHub Actions runners with Tartelet – Simon Støvring, Shape
- SAP/backgrounds: Backgrounds is a macOS application for creating and setting custom desktop wallpapers on Apple Macintosh computers
- super v3.0-b10
📺To Watch
🎧To Listen
- An academic look at autopkg with Manuela Muñoz Bocanegra – Mac Admins Podcast
- Interview With Adam Engst Of the TidBITS Content Network – Command-Control-Power
- Healthcare challenges with Apple devices – Apple @ Work, 9to5Mac
🎈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!
