The first M3 based Macs are shipping. Minor updates for many of the Apple platforms this week fix some really annoying bugs. macOS 14.2 and iOS 17.2 get their second round of betas.

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📰News and Opinion

• Apple says it has no plans to update the 27-inch iMac with Apple Silicon chips – Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica
• Adding build provenance to Homebrew – William Woodruff, Trail of Bits Blog
• Testing Apple’s M3 Pro: More efficient, but performance is a step sideways – Andrew Cunningham Ars Technica
• Spotlight on: Apple Vision Pro apps for enterprise – Apple Developer
• Now is the time: manage your Mac endpoints with Microsoft Intune – Lior Bela, Microsoft Intune Blog (I may not agree, but there are some good improvements.)

⚙️macOS and iOS Updates

• macOS Sonoma 14.1 (22B81): What’s new
• macOS Ventura 13.6.2 (22G320): Enterprise

Note: there are hardware specific builds for the new M3 based Macs for both 13.6.2 (22G2321) and 14.1.1 (23B2082)

• iOS 17.1.1: About
• iPadOS 17.1.1: About
• watchOS 10.1: About
• HomePod Software 17.1.1: About
• Logic Pro: Newsroom, Mac 10.8, iPad 1.1
• Final Cut Pro: Newsroom
• Apple Platform Certifications: Welcome, Document revision history

No Security info for any of the updates.

• macOS Sonoma 14.1.1 Update: What’s New? – Mr. Macintosh
• Apple has just released Sonoma 14.1.1 update – Howard Oakley

🦣Social Media

• Zachary Cutlip: “Every once in a while my shell history gets truncated and I have to go into backups and figure out when it happened, restore/merge/etc. (more)”

🔐Security and Privacy

• Jamf Threat Labs Discovers Malware from BlueNoroff – Ferdous Saljooki, Jamf Blog

🔨Support and HowTos

• More boost with Arc for Jamf Pro – Rob Potvin
• Mac Evaluation Utility: What is it and how to download? – Bradley Chambers, 9to5Mac
• Using Touch ID for sudo on macOS… even after installing an OS update – Alan Siu
• How to Configure Sonoma Blocker with Jamf Pro – HCS Technology Group
• Changing the Email Address Associated with an Apple ID – HCS Technology Group
• Managing the default browser in macOS – Armin Briegel, Jamf Tech Thoughts
• How Windows IT Teams Can Be Successful with Apple at Work – Addigy
• Resolving “Signing Certificate issued by SSO Identity Provider is expiring in 30 days” notifications in Jamf Pro after rotating Entra ID SAML signing certificate – Rich Trouton

🤖Scripting and Automation

• Use AutoPkg to package GitHub repositories with no binary assets – Matthew Warren

🍏Apple Support

• If you can’t use your camera or video output device after updating to macOS Sonoma 14.1

♻️Updates and Releases

• Munki 6.3.4 (signed and notarized)
• swiftDialog v2.3.3
• ThreatDown: A new chapter for Malwarebytes – Marcin Kleczynski, Malwarebytes Labs
• JamfCheck v1.6

📺To Watch

• Explore GPU advancements in M3 and A17 Pro

🎧To Listen

• Defeating Little Brother requires a new outlook on privacy – Lock and Code, MalwareBytes Labs
• Jamf Pro 11, JNUC and IT horror stories – Jamf After Dark Episode
• Ashok Amirthalingam on the Mac, Digital Transformation, and Cloud Holdouts – Mac Admins Podcast
• Orka 3.0 comes to remote Macs everywhere – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac

If you listen, please take a moment to full out the Mac Admins Podcast Survey 2023!

🎈Just for Fun

• Space Black MacBook Pro Schematic — Basic Apple Guy

📚Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Mastodon

We got Apple’s “Scary Fast” Halloween-themed event on Monday night (for some of us it was Tuesday). There are always some Apple-themed easter eggs in the background of these event videos. Even those were Halloween styled.

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(Sponsor: Mosyle)

The only Apple Unified Platform for Business

Mosyle is the only solution that fully integrates Enhanced MDM, Endpoint Security, Internet Privacy & Security, Single Sign-On, and Application Management on a single Apple-only platform.

Click here to learn why Mosyle is all you need to work with Apple.

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The rumors had already spoiled most of this event. But getting most of the M3 generation of chips for the MacBook Pro family all at once, less than a year after the larger MacBooks Pro were released with M2 chips is quite an ambitious upgrade pace.

The MacBook Pro 13″ with TouchBar was replaced by a MacBook Pro 14″ with the plain M3 chip. There are some changes to the architecture of the M3 Pro, compared to the M2 Pro. We will have to see how that affects performance. The MacBook Pro 14″ with the plain M3, still only supports a single external display.

Apple was comparing performance of the new chips to the M1 (and sometimes Intel) instead of the M2. This is certainly a marketing “trick,” but it is also a more realistic comparison for most users. Very few people can afford to, or even want to upgrade to the newest model on every release. The accumulated performance increases over more release cycles are quite impressive.

This is exemplified with the new iMac, still sporting the same color palette, but now with the (plain) M3 chip, leap-frogging the M2 generation from the M1. Apple claims it to be twice as performant.

Apple has started, not very subtly, to message that it is time to upgrade from Intel Macs. On the other hand, Apple was still selling Mac Pro and Mac mini with Intel chips (the Mac Pro and 2018 Mac mini) until early this year. I don’t expect to see support for Intel being dropped from the macOS release in 2024. However, it is very likely that we will see more and more new features which will be limited to Apple Silicon Macs.

This year’s conference season might be over, but the 2024 conferences are already on the horizon. MacAD.UK 2024 will be May 22–24 in Brighton, UK. Registration for early bird tickets has started.

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 – Scary Fast

• Event Page with Video
• Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max, the most advanced chips for a personal computer – Apple
• Apple unveils new MacBook Pro featuring M3 chips – Apple
• Apple supercharges 24-inch iMac with new M3 chip – Apple
• Behind the scenes at Scary Fast: Apple’s keynote event shot on iPhone – Apple
• M3 Chip Family Boosts Performance for MacBook Pros and 24-inch iMac – Adam Engst, TidBITS
• Apple M3 Pro Chip Has 25% Less Memory Bandwidth Than M1/M2 Pro – Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

📰News and Opinion

• Apple reports fourth quarter results – Apple

⚙️Platform Updates

• Customize user access to certain apps and services using Apple Business Manager
• Apple School Manager: Welcome, Document revision history
• Apple Business Manager: Welcome, Document revision history
• Apple Business Essentials: Welcome, Document revision history

🔐Security and Privacy

• This tiny device is sending updated iPhones into a never-ending DoS loop – Dan Goodin, Ars Technica
• Advancing iMessage security: iMessage Contact Key Verification – Apple Security Research
• So, State-Sponsored Attackers Are Targeting Your Mobile Device. Now What? – Tom Hegel, SentinelOne

🔨Support and HowTos

• Understanding Netskope Releases – Fraser Hess
• Enable dark mode with Jamf Pro 11, with a boost from Arc – Rob Potvin

🤖Scripting and Automation

• Setup Your Mac with SYM-Helper.app – Dan K. Snelson
• Setup Your Mac (1.13.0): Under-the-hood – Dan K. Snelson
• aws-samples/amazon-ec2-mac-mdm-enrollment-automation a script to automatically enroll Amazon EC2 Mac instances into MDM. API calls for Jamf Pro are included, as are templates for credential setup.

♻️Updates and Releases

• super v4.0.1
• XCreds 3.2
• App Installers for Jamf School – Anthony Darlow, Jamf Blog

🎧To Listen

• Just Us: Getting from A to B – Mac Admins Podcast
• 2023 developer survey on AI, passkeys, and more – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac

🎈Just for Fun

• Through the Ages: Apple CPU Architecture – Jacob Bartlett

📚Support

If you are enjoying what you are reading here, please spread the word and recommend it to another Mac Admin!

• Scripting OS X Weblog
• Weekly Email Newsletter (TinyLetter)
• Mastodon