Apple @ Work

One of the most glaring faults of Apple’s laptop line is the built-in webcams. Apple looks to finally be moving to 1080 with the newest iMac and its FaceTime HD camera, but that doesn’t help anyone with a current Mac. We’ve all spent way too much time over the past 14 months in Zoom meetings, so in hindsight, it would have been great to see Apple upgrade the built-in FaceTime cameras years ago, but they didn’t. In its absence, many people have taken to upgrading to an external option like the Logitech StreamCam and Papalook PA930. What if there was another option that you likely already own? Let’s look at Camo, an app to use your iPhone as your Mac webcam.

In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Naveen Pitchandi from VMware to talk about the latest trends in macOS management in larger organizations.

Sponsored by DEVONthink 3: Manage documents the smart way on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple @ Work listeners get 10% off with this link. 

One of my favorite sessions at WWDC each year is the one around what’s new with Apple device management. This year, we got a first look at Apple’s next-generation MDM protocol called Declarative MDM. Apple has also provided several other enhancements to iOS and macOS to streamline the management of your Apple deployments.

The discussion around macOS vs. iOS comes up every time Apple releases a new iPad Pro with hardware that the software seemingly cannot push. In my post WWDC reflections, an interesting idea came to mind on making the iPad more useful: What if Apple allowed Parallels and VMware to offer virtualization on iPadOS?

One of the most exciting weeks of the year for us in the Apple ecosystem is almost here. Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference kicks off next week. Although it’s virtual once again, we’re all looking forward to an exciting week of announcements as we get a look at what’s coming in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 13, and hopefully some announcements for tvOS. On the enterprise side, I am looking forward to the “What’s new with Apple device management” session that usually happens in the middle of the week. We’re coming up on a year since Apple’s acquisition of Fleetsmith, so it’s going to be interesting to see if we hear any news about it. Even that withstanding, here are some things I’d love to see from Apple in regards to enterprise and K–12 device management for this round of software upgrades.

Kandji has taken the wraps off its latest addition to its Apple mobile device management platform. Kandji Liftoff was designed to create the perfect first-day experience when setting up a Mac at work. Using Kandji Liftoff, IT departments can automatically take an unboxed Mac and set it up with all the right apps, settings, and security controls in place before the user logs in for the first time.

In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Alcyr Araujo, the CEO of Mosyle, to discuss their recent product announcements.

Sponsored by DEVONthink 3: Manage documents the smart way on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple @ Work listeners get 10% off with this link. 

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Kandji, the MDM solution built exclusively for organizations that run on Apple. Kandji is a modern, cloud-based platform for centrally managing and securing your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV devices, saving IT teams countless hours of manual work with features like one-click compliance templates and 150+ pre-built automations, apps, and workflows. Request access.

Device security is at the forefront for any IT department. While many professionals are familiar with how to secure Windows in an enterprise environment, they might not be as up-to-date on how to secure macOS. In this guide, I’ll give some steps to consider, but this isn’t meant to be an exhaustive guide as every industry and company will have different requirements, so consider this information a “starting point.”

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Kandji, a modern, cloud-based platform to manage and secure your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV devices. Kandji saves IT teams hours of manual work with features like one-click compliance templates and 150+ pre-built automations, apps, and workflows. Request access.

In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Brad Freitag, CEO of Claris (Apple subsidiary), to talk about the recent announcement for Claris Connect and Apple School Manager.

Mosyle provides mobile device management support for enterprise and education environments working with Apple. Today, they’re launching a host of new features to assist education organizations better secure and manage their Apple devices.

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Kandji, the MDM solution built exclusively for organizations that run on Apple. Kandji is a modern, cloud-based platform for centrally managing and securing your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV devices, saving IT teams countless hours of manual work with features like one-click compliance templates and 150+ pre-built automations, apps, and workflows. Request access.

One of the significant challenges of doing enterprise IT support in a remote environment is troubleshooting when you need to help someone with something software-related. There are multiple ways to do remote desktop support on macOS, so let’s look at the available options.

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Kandji, the MDM solution built exclusively for organizations that run on Apple. Kandji is a modern, cloud-based platform for centrally managing and securing your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV devices, saving IT teams countless hours of manual work with features like one-click compliance templates and 150+ pre-built automations, apps, and workflows. Request access.

The transition to Apple Silicon is fantastic thus far. Having been an Apple user since 2004, this is my second processor change, and this transition is going exceptionally well. My M1 Apple MacBook Air is my favorite Mac of all time. For the enterprise market, Apple Silicon is bringing many beneficial factors, but one of the more underrated ones is iOS apps running on macOS.

In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Justin Payeur from Spin Safe Browser to talk about their kid-friendly iOS browser, and how iOS 14 made it a reality for organizations.

Sponsored by DEVONthink 3: Manage documents the smart way on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple @ Work listeners get 10% off with this link. 

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Kandji, the MDM solution built exclusively for organizations that run on Apple. Kandji is a modern, cloud-based platform for centrally managing and securing your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV devices, saving IT teams countless hours of manual work with features like one-click compliance templates and 150+ pre-built automations, apps, and workflows. Request access.

Supervision on the macOS, iPadOS, and iOS is one of the most fundamental decisions you can make when planning out your business or K–12 deployments. Unlike most aspects of your Apple deployment, if you mess up on supervised devices on the front end, it’s difficult and time-consuming to recover from after the fact. Let’s dive in on device supervision with Apple and how to leverage it to help your deployment become a successful one.

In 2009, I was starting my career in IT, and even at the time, the idea of managing a local email server seemed like a colossal waste of resources. I began investigating what was then known as Google Apps for your Domain as an alternative to Microsoft Exchange.

In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Tunio Zafe from pCloud to talk about their new business backup tool.

In the aftermath of Apple’s cancellation of the big HomePod, there’s been a lot of speculation about Apple TV’s future. After releasing the tvOS version of the Apple TV in 2015 and the 4K version in 2017, Apple has largely been silent on the platform’s future. Despite tvOS receiving continual software updates, the hardware has remained stagnant. Even without modern hardware, the Apple TV is nearly the perfect digital signage device, thanks to Apple’s mobile device management integration.

Sponsored by DEVONthink 3: Manage documents the smart way on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple @ Work listeners get 10% off with this link. 

In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Greg Keller from JumpCloud to discuss their new Zero-Touch implementation and why it’s a key part of the IT security strategy for remote and in-office employees.

Apple@Work is brought to you by VMware Workspace ONE, a true Unified Endpoint Management platform that manages all device types on all platforms across all use cases, including macOS and iOS. Try for free. 

A few weeks ago, I took a look at what I believed Apple would do with FleetSmith long term, and how other MDM vendors shouldn’t be concerned about Apple offering a free solution because 2021 Apple would love a recurring subscription from enterprise customers. I have heard Apple is completely retooling its MDM APIs, and this acquisition may be part of it. So what does Apple needs to do with MDM in the future to better compete with Google Chromebooks in K–12 and Windows in the enterprise? Let’s dive in!