Bradley has worked at K-12 independent schools for much of the last 20 years, serving as the head of the information technology department and leading classroom technology integration. He’s well-versed in enterprise Wi-Fi, macOS and iOS system management, school technology, and SaaS tools.
If your kids are like my kids, they are stir crazy, ready to go back to school, and generally tired of being at home. Over the years, I’ve collected some of my favorite apps and podcasts that my kids have grown to love. So, I wanted to compile a list to help other parents in the same boat.
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Jamf has just announced a new Apple Watch app to help parents navigate the challenges that have been suddenly brought on by a switch to distance learning. Jamf Parent, is a tool that it had previously released for iPhone and iPad to help parents with managing school-owned devices at home.
I’ve been working from home the past few weeks as many of you. One of the challenges I’ve run into is that I don’t have a proper home office, and my children are also at home doing their school work. I’ve had countless Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Skype meetings over the past few weeks, so I have been searching for a way to eliminate background noise from my calls. Thankfully, I’ve discovered a great solution: Krisp.
Apple @ Work Podcast is brought to you by Jamf, the standard for Apple in the enterprise. Learn more at Jamf.com/9to5mac.
In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Joel Rennich to discuss the FIDO Alliance and the future of password management for the enterprise and consumers.
One of the ideas I’ve championed for a few years now is that using the iPad for hours a day is a struggle ergonomically. When I am at my desk, I like having a large monitor, external keyboard, and external mouse. I can work for hours at a time without taking my hands off the keyboard and mouse. When I’ve tried to use the iPad in the same situation, my arm gets tired of always touching the screen. In iPadOS 13, Apple introduced cursor support as an accessibility feature. After almost a year of “tinkering” with the feature, I am 100% of the opinion that iPadOS needs full mouse support to achieve its full potential. With iOS 13.4 now available, I am glad we are seeing expanded mouse support in iPadOS.
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We’re back with another podcast recommendation for our Podcast of the Week series. This week, my pick is Business Wars by Wondery.
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One of the key differences between iCloud and Dropbox is that iCloud will sync the native macOS documents folder along with your desktop. I have found the desktop syncing to be highly useful since I have a MacBook Pro at home and one at work along with iOS devices. I love being able to drop a file on the desktop and have it appear everywhere. Until now, Dropbox was limited to syncing its folder, but the latest Dropbox beta shows the company is expanding beyond being a ‘folder that syncs.’
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In the past few weeks, 9to5Mac has broken several stories related to iOS 14 and iPadOS 14. The one that intrigued me the most was the OS Recovery feature. As an iOS IT administrator, this feature will solve many problems in K–12. Here’s why I am excited about the upcoming OS recovery in K-12.
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As schools across the world adjust to distance learning, Apple has announced some new tools that aim to ease the transition to distance learning. Apple is announcing a free 30-minute one-on-one virtual coaching sessions with Apple Professional Learning Specialists and a new Apple Education remote learning video series.
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We’re all getting stir crazy being stuck in our houses during the COVID–19 pandemic, but you can make good use of the time if you want to work on your HomeKit setup. Since pretty much every extracurricular activity has been canceled, spend this time getting your house to work for you through Apple’s HomeKit platform. Here are some fun projects that can help pass the time, along with being fun to install.
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Along with the release of iOS 13.4, iPadOS 13.4, and macOS 10.15.4, Apple also released several exciting new features aimed to simplify the lives of its enterprise and K-12 customers. Among the new features are Shared iPad for Business, Assessment Mode for Mac, Shared iPad Temporary Session for K-12, and Proxy support for APNs.
Backblaze has been my go-to backup service for as long as I can remember. With its native macOS application, fast backup speed, and rock-solid track record of being ready for Apple’s latest software updates, it’s one of the few applications that I am never looking to change to something else. Today, Backblaze is announcing they’ve crossed over the one exabyte of data storage mark.
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HomeKit instances are becoming ever more important as more and more accessories add HomeKit support. I know that I personally have forty or so devices in my HomeKit environment, so I wish Apple had a proper backup and restore feature. Rebuilding my setup would take at least a half a day. Today, Controller for HomeKit has released version 4.1 on the App Store with some exciting new features.
Earlier this year, I was given an advanced look at beta firmware with the Neato D7. Inside this beta firmware was support for Siri Shortcuts. You might be asking yourself: why do I need a vacuum cleaner with Siri support? Since I’ve never used this robot without Siri support, I’ll explain some of the ways I am using it.
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QCODE Media has quickly become the HBO of podcast creators for me. I await their new shows with much anticipation. Over the weekend, I got one of my favorite emails: a new show is coming. Today, episode one of the Left Right Game is now available.
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Earlier today, the Apple Books app sent out a push notification offering a free Apple Book to users. The notification mentioned read-alongs for kids, cozy mysteries, and audiobooks for the whole family.
Email apps have come and gone over the years. It’s a hard business to build something. Company after company has tried to make email work better. In the aftermath of apps like Sparrow and Newton dying, we’ve seen services like Slack and Microsoft Teams spring up to help companies manage internal communications – particularly in the age of hybrid and remote work. Everyone is trying to recreate the base layer technology, but IMAP and SMTP are amazing technologies. What we need to a new vision for email apps, and I’ve found that in Spike.
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Last week, we kicked off our new podcast of the week series, where I give you a link to a podcast you should check out that you may not have heard of yet. If you missed it, be sure to check out Byers Market with Dylan Byers. This week, our Podcast of the Week is Flashback by Relay FM.
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In this bonus episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley does a live webinar to discuss distance learning and remote work as the world suddenly has to move home. Bradley is also joined by Sam Johnson, Chief Customer Officer at Jamf to discuss how their entire workforce went home to work. If you’re viewing this in your podcast app, a web replay is available on the 9to5Mac YouTube page.
Since I’ve started writing a weekly article about HomeKit, one of the most common questions I’ve gotten is exactly what HomeKit products I own and how I use them. I’ve spent years building out each room over time, and I love how easy HomeKit is to manage from any of my devices (including HomePod). If you are starting from scratch on HomeKit, you’ll like this article because it’ll give you a starting point. I am going to explain my “HomeKit home” a room at a time.
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Apple @ Work Podcast is brought to you by Jamf, the standard for Apple in the enterprise. Learn more at Jamf.com/9to5mac.
In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Anna Myroshnychenko from Kitcast to talk about using the Apple TV for digital signage in schools, restaurants, office buildings, etc. We’re adding some additional audio equipment in future episodes to improve sound quality, so thanks for your patience!
Due to the worldwide pandemic, we are currently facing a lot of businesses and almost all schools being forced to move to a distance learning and remote work model without much notice. I’ve gotten a number of questions about how to enable remote work and set up distance learning tools. I thought it would be great for us to have a live webinar with our Apple @ Work community to discuss best practices and answer questions.
The Apple Watch has, rightfully so, has been at the center of Apple’s health story. We’ve seen countless stories of people getting healthy or being notified of health conditions thanks to the product. One company is taking an innovative approach to wellness thanks to a product most people haven’t considered: iPad. Echelon, located in my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, is offering a similar product to Peloton, but at a much lower entry price with its Echelon Connect Bikes. One of the ways they are doing that is by letting users leverage an iPad for the display instead of requiring them to use one built into the bike. In learning more about the product, I took a class on location at their studio using the EX3 bike.
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We’re debuting a new series here on 9to5Mac that we’re calling Podcast of the Week. I listen to more podcasts than I care to admit, and I am always looking for new shows to help me make sense of the crazy world we live in, learn about new trends in technology, or just get a good laugh. These articles will be short and to the point. I’ll share a brief description of the show, tell you why I like it, and give you subscribe links for a range of podcast apps. This week, my favorite new podcast is Byers Market with Dylan Byers.