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402: New Digs

Welcome Apple Business

Images of a managed MacBook, iPad and iPhone

New Apple Business, new 26.5 betas, new Creative Studio updates, new desk for me.

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P.S. Heading to MacAD.UK? Come say hi at our Happy Hour

New Digs

This week we got the announced change or update from Apple Business Manager to just "Apple Business" with the management service formerly known as "Apple Business Essentials" now included worldwide. We got some first reviews and posts this week, but it will probably take a while for the community to fully explore the strengths and limitations of this new service.

We also got the 15.2 updates for Keynote, Numbers, and Pages, and the former, pre-Apple Creator Studio versions seem to be gone or at least hidden from the App Store. Apparently, you can now suppress the prompts to subscribe with a configuration profile on macOS! I have not been able to verify this yet, but if that is correct, many thanks to whomever at Apple who was listening.

📸 Focus

Honoring a Mac Admin Life: Anthony Reimer

Chris Dawe, Mac Admins Foundation:

We look forward to honoring Anthony’s contributions to a grateful community, and encourage all who can attend to do so, virtually or in Calgary.

Anthony is the editor of many of my books, which is quite the task, considering they are not written in my first language. He is also always so generous with advice and friendship.

📰 News and Opinion

Six Colors 2026 Apple Enterprise Report Card open for input: Form

Jason Snell is once again asking for the feedback of professionals managing Apple devices for their yearly report card. (2025 report) Anyone can provide their ratings. The detailed comments are optional and you can choose to remain anonymous.

This is a great opportunity to provide some feedback albeit through and unusual channel.

Today is the last day!

Participate here.

Questions about the future of MacOS in the age of the MacBook Neo

Nicolas Magand:

With this upcoming increased volume of sales in the traditional computer market, i.e. not phones or tablets, and with these millions of users new to the Mac platform, what can this mean for MacOS and the ecosystem?

See also Michael Tsai: macOS Post–MacBook Neo iPadOS Post–MacBook Neo

Apple, Still

Rui Carmo, Tao of Mac:

Apple is still extraordinarily good at making hardware I want to pick up and use, and still more coherent than most of the industry in the broad strokes, but it also feels increasingly prone to sanding off the wrong edges, reinventing the UX wheel, and constantly adding paper cuts to their software.

What's the point of the App Store, if it can't protect users?

David Price, Macworld:

Apple’s app-vetting procedures are in the spotlight this week, as not one but two news stories demonstrate the grave consequences of what appears to be a troublingly lackadaisical approach at the Cupertino-based company.

Device management is about to change. AI is why. GitOps is how.

Kitzy:

It’s about what becomes possible once your config is in a repo.

Building support at Workbrew

Petros Amoiridis & Joe Nash:

If you run a technical product for long enough, the support inbox becomes one of the most useful sources of information about the product itself.

⚙️ Apple Updates

Apple Business

The New Apple Business Manager Feels Like More Than Device Management

Jon Brown:

After spending time with the latest Apple Business, my first reaction is that Apple is building a more complete business platform — one that brings identity, services, communications, support, storage, and payments closer together under a single administrative surface.

DUNS number no longer required to sign up for Apple Business in the United States

Rich Trouton:

With the new service came a number of changes, including a change to how you could sign up for Apple Business and verify your business.

terraform-provider-axm v1.6.0 - It’s time for Business

Neil Martin:

Version 1.6.0 is a bit chunkier than usual and it brings a few new resources and data sources, thanks to Apple releasing the Business API.

🔐 Security and Privacy

“iCloud storage is full” scam is back, and now it wants your payment details

Pieter Arntz, Malwarebytes:

The threat of losing your photos is a powerful lure, so scammers are now using it to steal personal and financial details.

🔨 Support and Tutorials

Apple Certification Certificate From Your Credly Badge

Marc van der Kooy:

You passed the exam. You earned the Credly badge. But where’s your Apple certification certificate?

Explainer: sandboxes

Howard Oakley:

So having put an app into its sandbox, the next thing you need to do is provide it ways to ease some of those restrictions.

🤖 Scripting and Automation

jamf-cli, and how you can use it with AutoPkg to automate complex Jamf workflows

Graham Pugh:

jamf-cli is a new, standalone, golang-based command-line tool developed by my colleagues Keaton Svoma and Neil Martin at Jamf. It provides convenient, abstracted access to the various Jamf APIs

Using a custom package and docklib to add an icon to the Dock in macOS

Alan Siu:

This might be a convoluted way to do this, since dockutil has an --allhomes option, but I like using docklib,

Detecting installed Intel-based applications on macOS Tahoe

Rich Trouton:

To help identify if and where Intel-based applications have been installed on Apple Silicon Macs

Deploying DoD PKI Certificates to Managed Macs

Dan Brodjieski:

A better approach for managed environments is to deploy the certificates as a .mobileconfig profile via MDM.

Contour

Henry Stamerjohann:

One binary, multiple tools for Apple device config — profiles, DDM, Santa, PPPC, mSCP, osquery, BTM, notifications. Prepare them for MDM migration and GitOps work from the terminal, from CI, or via an AI agent.

AxMJamfSync

Karthikeyan Marappan:

Sync AppleCare warranty coverage from Apple Business Manager (ABM) or Apple School Manager (ASM) into Jamf Pro

🍏 Apple Support

Explainer: sandboxes

Howard Oakley:

So having put an app into its sandbox, the next thing you need to do is provide it ways to ease some of those restrictions.

♻️ Updates and Releases

📺 Watch

Marriott Library, Apple Infrastruction, April 2026

🎧 Listen

Consulting Conferences with Justin Esgar

Mac Admins Podcast, 457:

The ACES conference enters its 12th year this spring with a May event in Minneapolis. Targeted at those people who manage Macs as consultants and at managed service providers, this year’s conference has a bunch of new events. Here to tell us all about it is conference founder and longtime Mac Admin Justin Esgar.

Apple’s 50th Anniversary Old Shortcuts, and What Still Delights - Part 2

Command Control Power, 665:

The hosts revisit early Apple and Mac experiences and discuss first keyboard shortcuts, focusing on “Command Control Power” after a photographer client referenced it while troubleshooting a MacBook Pro that died on location from a drained battery.

PocketMDM brings Apple Business Manager to your pocket

Apple @ Work:

Joshua Patrick joins the show to talk about his new app: PocketMDM.

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