This week started off with the release of the macOS 10.13.6 and iOS 11.4.1 updates – quite unusually posted on a Monday.
Later this week, with another weird scheduling, Apple released new MacBook Pros. The 15“ MacBook Pro can now be configured with a six-core i9, up to 32GB of RAM and up to 4TB of SSD. The 13” MacBook Pro can now be configured with a quad-core, but retains the 16Gb max RAM limit. It also includes the T2 system controller which was so far exclusive to the iMac Pro.
The T2 chip is what controls (among other things) the Secure Boot process and controls the booting off external drives. Apple has updated the support articles and it is official:
Mac computers that have the Apple T2 chip don’t support starting up from network volumes.
(Not surprising, but surprisingly clear.)
Now, Apple has upgraded their flagship product to Secure Boot. Even when so far admins could ignore the limitations of the expensive iMac Pro, soon Secure Boot will be everywhere. Installation-based deployment workflows should be already in place or a top priority for every Mac Admin.
Read about the background and the options “macOS Installation for Apple Administrators” (Sample section: Strange New World)
And finally, this newsletter and my website will be going into vacation mode for the next five weeks. That means no newsletters and much fewer blog posts. I hope you all get time to enjoy some summer vacation as well. I will keep gathering interesting links that I find during that time and restart with a summary of the summer time in late August.
See you then!
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.)
Headlines
On Scripting OS X
News and Opinion
- Apple Releases macOS 10.13.6, iOS 11.4.1, tvOS 11.4.1, and watchOS 4.3.2 – TidBITS
- Are they holding my passwords securely? – David Acland, moof IT
- iOS 11.4.1 blocks USB password hacks…mostly – Dan Moren, Six Colors
- Pondering the Impact of the App Store at 10 – Adam Engst TidBITS
- Mac Mini Refresh, New Low-Cost Notebook, Apple Watches With Larger Displays and More Coming This Fall – Mac Rumors
- Apple discontinues its own photo printing service, recommends third-party Photos Projects apps instead – Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac
- MacBook Pro 2018 – Michael Tsai
MacAdmins on Twitter
- Ben Markowitz: “BRB, making Harry Potter spells into Siri Shortcuts.… ”
- Rich Trouton: “When and how do you really know that you built a robust deployment solution? When you essentially stop paying attention to it for a month, while it’s in daily 24–7 use by others, and that’s OK; everything worked fine.”
- Victor (groob): “Yes, for both commands
InstallApplicationandInstallEnterpriseApplicationno longer appear to have concurrency issues.… ” - Victor (groob): “You thought one @micromdm_io was enough? Not a photoshop #macadmins… ”
- Filippo Valsorda: “For when you want to figure out how to apply some macOS preference from the command line, without Googling for hours for out-of-date defaults commands: $ defaults read | pbcopy # make changes in System Preferences.app $ diff -u -F ’^ ”’ <(pbpaste) <(defaults read)”
- Graham R Pugh: “I improved my macOS Erase-Install script. Now it can cache macOS installer ready for later use, and it automatically selects the current production version of macOS: https://github.com/grahampugh/erase-install”
- Ross Derewianko: “Thanks to @zoocoup here’s the macOS builds if it matters to you 10.11.6 + SecUpdate 2018–004 = 15G22010 10.12.6 + SecUpdate 2018–004 = 16G1510 10.13.6 = 17G65”
- John C. Welch: “if you’re on mojave beta 3 and your script menu scripts silently fail, resave them as apps. Then you get the “authorize” dialog. Bug filed.”
- Rene Ritchie: “I don’t look at it as buying an app (or song or book or whatever). I look at it as supporting creators who make things I value. If I don’t do that, I risk it becoming unsustainable and not getting the next update or app (or game or movie or whatever.) It’s an investment.… https://t.co/llpRFSZniM”
Support and HowTos
- Really Friendly Command Line Intro – Tracy Osborn, Hello Web Books
- Open a document: how it works, and where it can go wrong, 1: identification – Howard Oakley, Part 2: Security check, Part 3: Launch
- Reauthorizing Automation in Mojave – Daniel Jalkut
- Joining Apple’s AppleSeed testing program – Rich Trouton
- Scaling iOS CI with Anka – Sander Lijbrink, Shopify Engineering
PSU MacAdmin
- Imaging is Dead: Now What? – Greg Neagle
- Escaping the ‘Tech Whisperer’ Trap – Rich Trouton
- Autopkg Level-Up
Scripting and Automation
Apple Support
- Using USB accessories with iOS 11.4.1 and later
- About the macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Update
- About the security content of macOS High Sierra 10.13.6, Security Update 2018–004 Sierra, Security Update 2018–004 El Capitan
- About the security content of iOS 11.4.1
- Configuration Profile Reference Updated July 5, still a PDF
- Create a NetBoot, NetInstall, or NetRestore image
- Mac startup key combinations
- About Secure Boot
Updates and Releases
To Listen
Just for Fun
Support
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