• Apple TV,  Apple Watch,  Apps,  iPhone,  JAMF,  Mac Security,  MacAdmins Podcast

    Notes from the Underground: Apple WWDC and You

    Apple kicked off the annual WWDC conference yesterday and boy there was a flurry of information. There always is, but for people charged with managing Apple devices and vendors that support Apple devices there were some important releases. Some general themes to think about as you read through this list: Privacy is a thing. This includes securing files in the directories of a user by having the user accept a request to touch them (e.g. My Documents, er, I mean, Documents). This also means apps harvesting user data are doomed. The restrictions continue to flow in from iOS to the Mac. And that’s probably a good thing – as it…

  • Apps,  Uncategorized

    Adding App Notarization For Macs To Your Build Train

    Apple sent the following message out to developers yesterday: Dear Developer,  We’re working with developers to create a safer Mac user experience through a process where all software, whether distributed on the App Store or outside of it, is signed or notarized by Apple. With the public release of macOS 10.14.5, we require that all developers creating a Developer ID certificate for the first time notarize their apps, and that all new and updated kernel extensions be notarized as well. This will help give users more confidence that the software they download and run, no matter where they get it from, is not malware by showing a more streamlined Gatekeeper…

  • Apps,  Swift

    Apple Development Conferences

    There are a lot of Apple developers out there these days. And it often seems like few groups like to share information more than those who work in the Apple space. So where can you go to learn more about Apple development? There are a lots of websites and code camps, but what about annual conferences? WWDC: San Jose, CA – This is the grandaddy of them all. Hear from the people who build the frameworks and IDEs directly! But registration is limited and no everyone can go to that one place at that one date and time of the year. Also, different conferences can give different perspectives, so even…

  • Apple Configurator,  Apps,  iPhone,  Mac OS X

    Get The Title Of An App From Apple App Store URLs

    When you’re building and manipulating apps in the Apple App Stores, it helps to be able to pull and parse pieces of data. Here, we’ll look at two strategies that you can use to do so. It’s worth noting that the purpose of this was to use the URL of an app from an MDM and then be able to script updating metadata about the app, given that vendors often change names of the display name of an app (e.g. Yelp is actually called “Yelp: Discover Local Favorites on the App Store”). First, we’ll grab a URL. This one is for Self Service: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/self-service-mobile/id718509958?mt=8 If you don’t know the URL…

  • Apps,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Who Signed My OS X App?

    The codesign command is used to sign apps and check the signature of apps. Apps need to be signed more and more and more these days. So, you might need to loop through your apps and verify that they’re signed. You might also choose to stop trusting given signing authorities if one is compromised. To check signing authorities, you can use codesign -dv --verbose=4 /Applications/Firefox.app/ 2>&1 | sed -n '/Authority/p' The options in the above command: -d is used to display information about the app (as opposed to a -s which would actually sign the app) -v increases the verbosity level (without the v’s we won’t see the signing “Authority”) –verbose=4 indicates the level of verbosity…

  • Apps,  cloud,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Huffington Post Article: 20 Cool Things You Can Do With Box.com

    My latest Huffington Post article, Twenty Cool Things You Can Do with Box is online here. It begins: If you are looking for a secure and uncomplicated and file sharing service, you will find box.com to be a wonderful way to share files from any device. Today, it is easier than ever for businesses to operate globally regardless of how large or small they are. This is because of the digital age that makes works products easy to share or transfer. Here are twenty cool things that you can do with box.com. For more, click here.  

  • Apps,  Home Automation

    Change the Language On Your Nest Protect

    Last night, I went to setup a new Nest Protect in my home, and while I was futzing with the app (yes, futzing is the technical term) I missed the question that was asked on the device about what language to use while waiting at this screen. And so my Nest Protect was speaking Spanish. Which is fine with me; but notsofine for my daughter. So, I needed to change the language. And after hunting for the setting for awhile, I thought: self, you should document this. So to change the language on a Nest protect, open the Nest app and then tap on the icon for Protect (which will…

  • Apps,  cloud,  iPhone,  Mac OS X

    10 Cool Things You Might Not Know You Can Do With Dropbox Article On Huffington Post

    My latest Huffington Post article is up; this one on 10 Cool Things You Might Not Know You Can Do With Dropbox. A sample of the article: You lіvе in an аgе whеn you wаnt (and ѕоmеtіmеѕ nееd) tо access іnfоrmаtіоn аt аll tіmеѕ. Thіѕ іnсludеѕ yоur оwn dаtа аnd fіlеѕ — text dосumеntѕ, рhоtоgrарhѕ, vіdеоѕ, music and mоrе. Thаt’ѕ whу ѕеrvісеѕ lіkе Drорbоx is so popular wіth thе соnnесtеd gеnеrаtіоn. Free оf сhаrgе (wіth a раіd uрgrаdе орtіоn), Dropbox lеtѕ уоu uрlоаd уоur files tо fоldеrѕ ассеѕѕіblе аnуwhеrе thеrе’ѕ аn Intеrnеt connection. It еlіmіnаtеѕ thе hаѕѕlе of еmаіlіng уоurѕеlf attachments аnd runnіng іntо size limits. People can use Dropbox…

  • Apps,  cloud,  Network Infrastructure

    Swiping Through Spam Like A Boss

    Who still says “like a boss?” I guess I did. Get over it. But don’t get over spam. Especially annoying are the ones we know we accidentally signed up for. Because it’s our own darn fault. But luckily, there’s a lot more tools for dealing with bulk mail (solicited or unsolicited) these days. Most modern email clients have the ability to deal with spam. Exchange/Office 365 has clutter and junk. You can build rules on sites. You can use spam assassin on your servers. But, there’s also a nice little app called unroll.me. Once you sign up you’ll have 3 ways of dealing with each message: request removal from a list, mark as rolled up into a…