• iPhone,  Mac OS X Server

    Install Your Shiny New VPP Token For Profile Manager

    Apple began rolling out new features with the new Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) program this week. There are lots of good things to know, here. First, the old way should still work. You’re not loosing the stuff you already invested in such as Configurator with those codes you might have used last year with supervision. However, you will need an MDM solution (Profile Manager, Casper, Absolute, FileWave, etc) to use the new tools. Also, the new token options are for one to one (1:1) environments. This isn’t for multi-tenant environments. You can only use these codes and options for iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 and above. But this article isn’t…

  • iPhone

    Apple Configurator 1.4.1 Now Available

    About Apple Configurator 1.4.1 is now out, to complement iOS 7.0.3 and OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Configurator 1.4.1 is available from the Updates tab of the Mac App Store and requires OS X Mountain Lion or later, as well as iTunes 11.1 or later. Per http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5995?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US What’s new in Configurator 1.4.1 • Options to configure which Setup Assistant steps display during device setup • Fixes an application quitting issue that could occur when saving a profile with invalid options • No longer removes Mobile device management (MDM) enrollment profile from a supervised device when refreshing it • Fixes creation of Font profiles for iOS 7 • Renames the Supervision Profile…

  • iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Using Profile Manager 3 In Mavericks Server

    Profile Manager first appeared in OS X Lion Server as the Apple-provided tool for managing Apple devices, including Mobile Device Management (MDM) for iOS based devices as well as Profile management for OS X based computers, including MacBooks, MacBook Airs, Mac Minis, Mac Pros and iMacs running Mac OS X 10.7 and up. In OS X Mountain Lion, Apple added a number of new features to Profile Manager and revved the software to Profile Manager 2.0, most notably adding the ability to push certain types of apps to mobile devices. In Mavericks Server (Server 3), Apple provides new options and streamlines a bunch of things, most notably App Store and…

  • iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment

    iCloud, Location Services, iOS 7 and Organization Owned Devices

    When Apple showed off the latest and greatest options for managing and tracking iOS devices remotely using iCloud accounts, many an Enterprise and School District said “wait, what?” The reason is that if an iOS device is running Find My iPhone and a device is stolen the device cannot be activated again without logging into the iCloud account that Find My iPhone was installed with. This could represent an issue if an employee is fired or if students turn in their iPads after a year of running Find My iPad. Imagine asking an employee you just fired or a student you just expelled to enter their iCloud password so you…

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

    Upgrade to iOS 7 from an iOS Device.

    Most of my readers have already upgraded from iOS 6 to iOS 7. But, you might need to write some technical documentation on how to do so for your end users. If you find yourself in such a situation, you can just cut-copy-paste this article into your own documentation. Preflight First, backup the device. When I did this upgrade I was flying without a net and didn’t bother to back the device I was upgrading up. Having said that, I also don’t keep any data on my device, so I would strongly recommend backing up before you do your upgrade if you do have content you want to make sure…

  • iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Hey Configurator, Get Me Some Logs!

    Did you know that you can ask Apple Configurator to give you a lot more logs than it does by default? Holy crap. Makes life so much simpler when you’re having problems, to actually get real logs. And then there’s that… To get more logs, close Apple Configurator and then write All into the LogLevel key in com.apple.configurator: defaults write com.apple.configurator LogLevel ALL Re-open Apple Configurator and you’re golden. Then, have some problems and be so happy to get some logs, viewable in Console.

  • iPhone,  Network Infrastructure,  personal

    16 Child Proofing iPad and iPod Touch Tips For Parents

    Recently I woke up and my daughter was sitting on me watching something on the iPad. As I woke ever so slightly I realized that she was watching Transformers the movie on Netflix. I’m not typically a helicopter dad, hovering over her every move, but I did realize amidst the explosions that ya’, I might want to take some of the things I learned writing the book on locking these things down and put a few very basic measures in place to keep her from seeing something she shouldn’t. After all, she’s gotten about as good at navigating around the thing as I am (and these days she’s getting pretty…

  • iPhone

    Change Your Default Search Engine Back on iOS

    Recently, Safari on my iPhone started finding things I searched for using Yahoo! rather than the previously default Google search engine. Now, I’m not gonna’ hate on Yahoo! here. I actually left it for weeks so I could see the differences and nuances here and there. From the different way it displays movie times to image handling, I just didn’t exactly love Yahoo! (although it gets better all the time). So I decided to switch it back. If you decide to switch back, you do so by first opening the Settings App and then scrolling down to and tapping on Safari.   From the list of available options, select Google,…