Bradley C

Back in September, my wife and I spent a few weeks traveling through Scotland and London. It was an amazing time, and I highly recommend both places. Since our home was empty for long periods outside of family visiting to check on the house (I am always paranoid about a random leak, etc.), no one was in the home. With HomeKit, I was able to create automations to simulate the appearance that we were home through lights, shades, and more.

Sponsored by SimpleMDM: Check out SimpleMDM and discover the limitless possibilities of SimpleMDM’s powerful API. Whether you want to automate tasks or integrate SimpleMDM into your existing infrastructure, the API offers the flexibility you need to gain full programmatic access to your account and devices.

In this episode of Apple @ Work, I talk with Chris Chapman from MacStadium about their new announcement from KubeCon: Orka 3.0

Apple at Work is brought to you by SimpleMDM: Check out SimpleMDM and discover the limitless possibilities of SimpleMDM’s powerful API. Whether you want to automate tasks or integrate SimpleMDM into your existing infrastructure, the API offers the flexibility you need to gain full programmatic access to your account and devices.

One of the tools I’ve had on my list to write about for some time is the Mac Evaluation Utility. It’s a tool designed for Apple IT admins to determine the health of their macOS fleet – especially during OS update seasons. Read on to determine what it can do as well as how to download.

Last year, we moved into a house we’d built from the ground up. One of the things that was different from my previous house was the type of heat. Instead of a heat pump, we moved over to natural gas. It’s my second time having gas heat, and there’s one thing I had forgotten – how dry it was. Now, gas heat is certainly much warmer; especially when it gets really cold, I just prefer gas heat. Well, I do, but my nose doesn’t. The more it runs, the dryer my nose gets. The Humelle humidifier from Airversa is now my go-to solution for a HomeKit-enabled humidifier for bedrooms.

Sponsored by SimpleMDM: Check out SimpleMDM and discover the limitless possibilities of SimpleMDM’s powerful API. Whether you want to automate tasks or integrate SimpleMDM into your existing infrastructure, the API offers the flexibility you need to gain full programmatic access to your account and devices.

In this episode of Apple @ Work, I talk with Gary Orenstein about the recent developer survey from Bitwarden that included key information on AI in the enterprise, passkey usage, and more.

Smart lighting is one of the foundational aspects of a smart home. In fact, I would argue it’s likely the most common aspect of almost every smart home. There’s something magical about having lighting turn on and off via your voice, on a schedule, or based on motion. Outside of smart shades, it’s what you’ll see in movies in the richest of mansions as well. Thanks to low-cost items, anyone can have the luxury of smart lightning. The question I often get is which is best for lamps and other types of lightning outside of overheard lights – smart bulbs vs smart outlet adaptors?

Sponsored by Addigy: Addigy is a flexible and proactive MDM solution that adapts to your needs, whether you manage a fleet of 100 or 10,000 Apple devices. Learn more.

In this episode of Apple @ Work, I talk with Aaron Kiemele about deep fakes, cybersecurity, employee training, and more.

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that fully integrates five different applications on a single Apple-only platform, allowing businesses to easily and automatically deploy, manage, & protect all their Apple devices. Over 38,000 organizations leverage Mosyle solutions to automate the deployment, management, and security of millions of Apple devices daily. Request a FREE account today and discover how you can put your Apple fleet on auto-pilot at a price point that is hard to believe.

In macOS Sonoma, Safari gains a new feature called “Add to Dock.” I was way too excited about this feature when it was announced because I know how transformational it can be for macOS deployments in the enterprise (with some help from Apple). Web apps reign supreme for many enterprise tools, and “Add to Dock” is going to make it a lot better.

Back in the summer, my family went out of town for a few days. We had a dog sitter come by a few times a day to take our dogs on walks as well as take them to the bathroom. One challenge I had was showing her how to use our smart home. For our Level Lock+, I found it easier just to give her a key because there is no easy way to share a Home Key with someone outside of your iCloud family account. While I can share access to our lights, I find it much easier to use a product like the Onvis Smart Button instead.

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that fully integrates 5 different applications on a single Apple-only platform, allowing Businesses to easily and automatically deploy, manage & protect all their Apple devices. Over 38,000 organizations leverage Mosyle solutions to automate the deployment,  management, and security of millions of Apple devices daily. Request a FREE account today and discover how you can put your Apple fleet on auto-pilot at a price point that is hard to believe.

In this episode of Apple @ Work, I talk with Apu Pavithran from Hexnode about a variety of Apple enterprise topics including the decisions Apple has made to avoid the technical debt trap.

2023 has been the year of AI usage and AI tools after the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. While there are a lot of dedicated AI tools launching across the internet, I believe that the future of AI is being built into your existing tools as a feature. Spike has just launched its new “Magic AI” functionality into its email app that works with its own Spike for Teams email service as well as when you add your iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, etc. to the app.

There are two things I want to see in every new smart home product: Matter and Thread. Matter lets me know that I’ll have access to the product regardless of which platform I use in the future. Thread lets me know that it’s going to work extremely well in my home in terms of responsiveness. The new Onvis Smart Plug checks all those boxes, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite smart plugs.

Sponsored by Addigy: Addigy is a flexible and proactive MDM solution that adapts to your needs, whether you manage a fleet of 100 or 10,000 Apple devices. Learn more.

In this episode of Apple @ Work, I talk with Tom Bridge about the current state of the MacAdmins Foundation.

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that fully integrates five different applications on a single Apple-only platform, allowing businesses to easily and automatically deploy, manage, & protect all their Apple devices. Over 38,000 organizations leverage Mosyle solutions to automate the deployment, management, and security of millions of Apple devices daily. Request a FREE account today and discover how you can put your Apple fleet on auto-pilot at a price point that is hard to believe.

For Apple IT admins who manage thousands of remote Macs, providing support for end users is not always easy. There can be a lot of variables that you must uncover when issues arise. One of the things I’ve often thought Apple should add is a simple menu bar app that can quickly allow users to copy and paste key data into a support ticket. Thankfully, one company is continuing to provide a solution: Root3’s Support App and version 2.5 recently shipped.

2023 has seen some exciting announcements and releases around HomeKit door locks. With Home Key, Level Lock+, and the Aqara doorbell, it’s been an exciting year. These door locks have been focused around exterior doors, though. The HOLOMARQ Smart Door Knob is a new interior door option for HomeKit that provides some unique use cases.

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that fully integrates 5 different applications on a single Apple-only platform, allowing Businesses to easily and automatically deploy, manage & protect all their Apple devices. Over 38,000 organizations leverage Mosyle solutions to automate the deployment,  management, and security of millions of Apple devices daily. Request a FREE account today and discover how you can put your Apple fleet on auto-pilot at a price point that is hard to believe.

In this episode of Apple @ Work, I talk with Ben Greiner from Addigy and Tim Pearson from Creative Techs about the challenges around compliance in the Apple enterprise world.

I know some of you aren’t bullish on Matter. Is it perfect? No. Does it need more features to truly become the vendor-neutral smart home specification? Yes. I believe in it, though. I believe in it because every manufacturer wins with Matter. When customers know that your products can work across every platform, like Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant, they’re more likely to buy your products. I recently picked up the OREiN light bulbs from AiDot to put its Matter certification through the paces to see how easy it is.

Sponsored by Addigy: Addigy is a flexible and proactive MDM solution that adapts to your needs, whether you manage a fleet of 100 or 10,000 Apple devices. Learn more.

In this episode of Apple @ Work, I talk with Weldon Dodd about the recent survey of IT professionals about their opinion of Apple in the enterprise.

Inflation is certainly affecting everyone. It’s laughable what some things have increased in price in the past few years. I’ve been testing a HomeKit plug that, thankfully, is somehow the lowest-cost plug I’ve seen on the market. The Sylvania Smart Bluetooth Outlet adaptor is the only plug I’ve seen at this price in all my years of covering smart home technology.