• 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…

  • Apple Configurator,  Apple TV,  Apple Watch,  iPhone,  JAMF,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mass Deployment,  precache

    Tethered Caching of iOS Assets from macOS 10.12.4

    There is a new service in macOS, called Tetherator. Tethered-caching is a script that allows you to easily and quickly interact with the tethered-caching service, which has a few kinda’ cool options. This is on a client, and really speeds up all that crazy provisioning stuff you do. It can also check for the presence of a macOS Caching Server and use that as a source for the cache. The tethered-caching script is located at /usr/bin/tethered-caching. Before you do anything with the service, check the status. That’s done with the -s option (there’s also a -v option to get verbose): tethered-caching -s The results before activated should be as follows:…

  • Apple TV,  Apple Watch,  iPhone,  JAMF,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    What’s Coming Next, From The WWDC Keynote

    Posted a Huffington Post article from my notes from the WWDC keynote. Hope you enjoy! Apple kicked off WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) today, with a Keynote that showcased some of the upper tier of talent and management within Apple. As a former WWDC speaker, I watch the keynote and most sessions through the remainder of the week religiously. Here, you see what’s coming in the fall releases of the four operating systems: macOS, watchOS, iOS, and tvOS (for Macs, Apple Watches, iPhones and iPads, and Apple TVs respectively). To read the rest of the article, click here to jump to Huffington Post. PS: macOS autocorrects to tacos. Mmmmm, tacos…

  • Apple Watch

    Update The Software Of Your Apple Watch

    The first Apple Watch update appeared a few days ago. This update brings with it “improved performance” for Siri, different elements of activity tracking, accessibility and third party support. 1.0.1 also brings Brazilian Portugese, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Thai and Turkish language support. And a few minor security issues were addressed. In short, you might want to run this one… To do so, first make sure your phone is close (less than 20 feet in my opinion) and that the watch has at least half a charge. To run the upgrade, start by opening the Apple Watch app on your iPhone. From the default screen (My Watch), tap on General…

  • Apple Watch

    Sync Photo Albums To Your Apple Watch

    I keep looking for more and more ways to have my Apple Watch be really functional without having it talk to my phone when I need the function it’s performing. One of those can easily be looking at photos. One of these is to sync some photos to the watch so that if my battery dies or I leave my phone on my desk, I still have access to photos if I want to get to some. To sync pictures from your First, open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone. Then tap on Photos in the list of apps under the default My Watch tab. From the Photos screen,…

  • Apple Watch,  Apps

    10 Calculator Apps for Your Apple Watch

    Now that I’ve found the right calculator for me, I should point out that I still take my phone out of my pocket to use a calculator. That’s a habit thing though, not a problem with the size of the objects on the Apple Watch. Calculator for Apple Watch Calculator for Apple Watch is a free, basic, standard little calculator app. It’s the app that could be built into the Apple Watch. Calcbot Calcbot is a slight step up from Calculator. Here, we gain the ability to convert some basic things as well, such as kilograms to pounds, Fahrenheit to Celsius and a few other little things. There’s also a…

  • Apple Watch

    Improve The Battery Performance On Your Apple Watch

    When I first got it, the battery on my Apple Watch didn’t last throughout a day. I knew that I had to charge it every night before I bought it, but I thought it would have lasted me all day. Now it does. Don’t kill the functionality that you want from an Apple Watch. Instead, pick and choose the things you don’t mind loosing, otherwise the watch might just be somewhat useless to you. So here’s a list of the things I experimented with: Put the device into Power Saving Mode: OK, so this basically kills the use of the watch. You could also put the watch into airplane mode. This stuff…

  • Apple Watch

    Sync Music To Your Apple Watch So You Can Listen Without A Phone

    By default, the Apple Watch acts as a control mechanism for the Music app on your iPhone. The Apple Watch can play music without an iPhone present as well. But first you’ll need to sync a playlist to the watch. To do so, open the Apple Watch app and scroll down to the Music app listing. From there, you’ll see an option for Playlist Limit and Synced Playlist. First, we’ll limit the amount of space on you watch that the music from your playlist can take up. Tap Playlist Limit in the MUSIC STORAGE section. Here, I’ll tap on 2.0 GB. This will limit the amount of storage that can be taken…