• iPhone

    DFU and Restore Modes For Haptic iPhones

    After updating an iPhone, maybe it’s stuck. Doesn’t happen much, but it can happen. When it does, it’s great if you’ve got a backup of your phone. And those traditional means of restarting, resetting, and restoring don’t work any more. Or at least they do, but they’ve moved. If you need to DFU or restore your device, starts by plugging the phone into a computer running iTunes. Then press and hold the power button down for 3 seconds and press the volume down button while you’re holding that power button. Hold both down for about 10 seconds and let go of the power button, holding the volume down button for…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Enable The Caching Service Using Server 5.2 on macOS Sierra

    The Caching Server in OS X Server 5.2 (for Sierra) does content, apps, and software updates. The Software Update service is hidden by default indicating it will likely be removed from the Server app in a future update, although when is kinda’ up in the air. The Software Update service can still be enabled for now, which we’ll look at later. The Caching service on the Server app works like a proxy. When 10 of your users download that latest Nicholas Sparks book and movie, you only sacrifice your WAN pipe to download it once, and the other 9 people piggy-back off that. And when 10.12.1 ships, you only need to download it over…

  • Apple Configurator,  iPhone

    Choose An Existing Supervision Identity in Apple Configurator

    When using Apple Configurator, you can assign an existing supervision identity to be used with devices you place into supervision. To do so, first open Apple Configurator and click on Organizations. From Organizations, click on the plus sign (“+”). From the Create an Organization screen, click Next. When prompted to provide information about your organization, provide the name, phone, email, and/or address of the organization. If you are importing an identity, select “Choose an existing supervision identity” and click on Next. When prompted, click Choose to select the identity to use (e.g. exported from another instance of Apple Configurator or from Profile Manager). Click Choose when you’ve highlighted the appropriate…

  • Apple Configurator,  iPhone,  JAMF

    Automator Actions for the Caspers

    Looks like Sal et al posted a suite of Automator Actions to link the Casper Suite to Apple Configurator at https://configautomation.com/jamf-actions.html. In my limited tests so far they work pretty darn well! Some pretty cool things here, like having the JSS rename a mobile device when managed through Apple Configurator, having Apple Configurator instruct the JSS to remove a device from a group, clear passcodes, update inventory, and other common tasks involved in workflows when leveraging Apple Configurator for en masse device management. Good stuff!

  • Home Automation

    Add A Chamberlain Garage Door Controller To Wink

    There are two main garage door openers in the home automation space. The first is the Chamberlain MyQ and the second is the GoControl. The hardest part about setting up the MyQ was that I had to hit a funny orange button on my existing non-automated Chamberlain opener and then hit the button on the opener in my car to sync ’em up. It took about 10 tries, but eventually it worked. Once configured, I didn’t love the loud noise the device made to open the garage door (guessing that because it’s compared with a strobe that this is a safety measure). Once the Chamberlain is configured, open the Wink app.…

  • Apple Configurator,  Business,  iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Small Business

    Securing Patient Data on End User Computing Devices (AMA)

    The increase in the use and complexity of technological assets in the healthcare sector has been on the rise in the recent past. Healthcare practitioners have moved from recording data manually to keeping Electronic Health Records. This eases the accessibility and the availability of data to the health practitioners. Further, electronically stored data makes it possible for patients to receive high quality and error-free care, improve decision making process because medical history is available and also makes it possible to provide safer and more reliable information for medication. Despite, the numerous advantages that the use of technology in healthcare has, there is also a threat of patients data leakage that…

  • Articles and Books,  iPhone,  JAMF,  Mac OS X

    10 Things To Consider When Switching Between MDM Solutions on The JAMF Software Blog

    I’ve worked with a lot of organizations switching between Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions in my career. And I’ve seen the migration projects go both really, really well, and really, really poorly. In most cases, the migration is somewhat painful no matter what you do. But in this (my first) article on the JAMF blog, I try and organize my thoughts around a few things to look out for when migrating between MDMs/MAMs, and some context/experience around those. https://www.jamfsoftware.com/blog/10-things-to-consider-when-switching-between-mobile-device-management-solutions/

  • 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…

  • iPhone,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    iOS 9.3 Update Now Available

    iOS 9.3 is out, with lots of new, cool features. For a list of them: With this update your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch gain improvements to Notes, News, Health, Apple Music and a new feature called Night Shift that may even help you get a better night’s sleep by shifting the colors in your display to the warmer end of the spectrum at night. New features, improvements, and bug fixes include: Night Shift When enabled, Night Shift uses your iOS device’s clock and geolocation to determine when it’s sunset in your location, then it automatically shifts the colors in your display to the warmer end of the spectrum and may even help you get a better night’s sleep. Notes improvements Protect notes…