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Four Ways to Reduce Zoom Fatigue

After a long day of video calls, you might feel like your brain has been wrung out like a wet washcloth---we certainly do. It's exhausting to stare into a computer for hours every day while participating in meetings or classes. This condition is called *Zoom fatigue*, and it's a recent affliction for most of us because the pandemic has dramatically increased the popularity of video calls. We don't mean to beat on Zoom here---this condition plagues people who use Cisco WebEx, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Skype, and...

May 10, 2021

5% AI Use · Pre-AI

tips

Intuit Has Stopped Updating the QuickBooks Online Mac App. Switch to a Web Browser

If you're using QuickBooks Online with the service's Mac app to manage your business's accounting, you may have seen a message like the one below announcing that Intuit has stopped updating the QuickBooks Online app. This doesn't affect your QuickBooks Online account, which you can and should use via a Web browser at qbo.intuit.com now. Even if the QuickBooks Online Mac app continues to work, which it likely will for some time, we recommend that you delete it and switch entirely to a Web browser. It's not safe to use...

May 6, 2021

2% AI Use · Pre-AI

tips

Upgrade to iOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4 to Unlock Face ID iPhones with Your Watch

You have to feel for Apple sometimes. The company's engineers put an astonishing amount of work into the hardware and software necessary for Face ID to recognize your face nearly instantly and unlock your iPhone or iPad. Regardless of whether you're wearing a hat and glasses. Even in the dark. It's one of those pieces of technology that's so advanced that it's indistinguishable from magic.

May 4, 2021

2% AI Use · Pre-AI

tips

Work with iOS App Updates in Your Account in the App Store

If you've turned on automatic App Updates in Settings > App Store on your iPhone or iPad, you might wonder how you'd know if an app was updated or what changed. To find that information, open the App Store app and tap your avatar icon in the upper-right corner. Scroll down and you'll see an Updated Recently list. If you pull down on the screen, that will force it to refresh, and you may see a list called Upcoming Automatic Updates at the top. For any downloaded update, you can...

Apr 29, 2021

2% AI Use · Pre-AI

tips

Try iCloud Drive Folder Sharing Instead of Paying More for a File Sharing Service

Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive all have their place, but as of March 2020, Apple users no longer have to venture outside the Apple ecosystem for online folder sharing. Before then, you could share a single file in iCloud with another iCloud user, but nothing more. With iCloud Drive Folder Sharing, you can share an entire folder, complete with permissions that control what your collaborators can do with the contents of the folder.

Apr 27, 2021

6% AI Use · Pre-AI

tips

Not a Fan of Big Sur's Translucent Menu Bar Here's How to Disable It

In macOS 11 Big Sur, Apple went back to a design direction from the earliest days of Mac OS X: a translucent menu bar. Since its color changes depending on the desktop picture, many people aren't enamored of it (left, below). Luckily, reverting to the traditional opaque menu bar is simple. Open System Preferences > Accessibility > Display and select Reduce Transparency. That will turn the menu bar gray again and make other windows and menus opaque, too (right, below). Simple gray might not be as whizzy as fancy transparency,...

Apr 26, 2021

2% AI Use · Pre-AI

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ABM Warranty 0.5.1

ABM Warranty 0.5.1 adds outbound connection workflows for JAMF and OAuth-based APIs, an expanded device detail view, outbound job tracking, and guide updates for connection setup and sync review.

HelpBook Builder Launches 🚀

Build beautiful macOS Help Books with live preview, multilingual AI translation, and one-click export to Helpbook, PDF, and HTML.

ABM Warranty 0.5.0

ABM Warranty 0.5.0 expands the platform with tenant-aware desktop widgets and notifications, giving teams clear, real-time visibility into fleet health, expiring coverage, and devices requiring attention across ABM/ASM environments. This release introduces a powerful CLI for managing notifications and sync workflows, alongside a new job-based architecture with chunking, sync history tracking, and an enterprise sync mode designed to scale with large device fleets. Additional enhancements include API credential rotation for security-conscious organizations, notification muting for known exceptions, forward-compatible database migration paths, and full localization support across 10 languages for global...

Running Image Generation Locally on macOS with Draw Things (2026)

Local LLMs have rapidly evolved beyond text and are now capable of producing high-quality images directly on-device. For users running Apple Silicon machines—especially M-series Mac Studios and MacBook Pros—this represents a major shift in what’s possible without relying on cloud services. Just a few years ago, image generation required powerful remote GPUs, subscriptions, and long processing times. Today, thanks to optimized models and Apple’s Metal acceleration, you can generate and edit images locally with impressive speed and quality. The result is a workflow that is faster, private, and entirely under...

ABM Warranty 0.4.1 Walkthrough: Wrap-Up and Beta

In this final ABM Warranty 0.4.1 walkthrough, I’m wrapping up the last features I had not covered directly in the earlier videos and then focusing on support, community, and the beta program. I also want to show where the support resources live inside the app so you know where to go if you need help, documentation, or a way to send useful feedback. Additionally, I'll be covering some of the key features that were updated since the previous version, including any bug fixes or improvements made to existing functionality.

ABM Warranty 0.4.1 Walkthrough: Managed Preferences

In this part of the ABM Warranty 0.4.1 walkthrough series, I'm focusing on managed preferences and the credential packaging workflow. In the last video, I covered multiple credentials inside the app itself. In this one, I'm showing how to package those credentials so they can be deployed securely through MDM. This process is a crucial step in ensuring that your credentials are properly configured and protected within your organization's mobile device management system.

Low Profile Walkthrough and Review

Today I’m walking through Low Profile, a utility from Nindi Gill that I use when I want to inspect profiles already installed on a Mac and figure out whether those profiles contain issues I need to clean up. The value is that Low Profile gives me a straightforward way to inspect profiles installed on any Mac. This simplicity makes it easy for me to identify and address potential problems, which is especially useful when working with multiple machines or troubleshooting complex profile configurations.

ABM Warranty 0.4.1 Walkthrough: Multiple Credentials

In this part of the ABM Warranty 0.4.1 walkthrough series, I’m focusing on multiple credentials. In the first video, I showed the basic setup and how to add a single credential. Now, I want to explore what happens when I remove a credential, what changes occur when I add more than one, and how the app behaves once there are multiple contexts in play. This will help clarify any potential issues or inconsistencies that may arise with multiple credentials.

ABM Warranty 0.4.1 Walkthrough: Introduction

In this first ABM Warranty 0.4.1 walkthrough, I want to show you what the app actually does before I get into the more specific feature videos. This is the broad introduction. I’m walking through the dashboard, how I think about the warranty cards, how released devices are handled, how the filters work, how to add credentials, where the data is stored locally, and what the logging and security model looks like.

ABM Warranty 0.4.1

The 0.4.x release series for ABM Warranty is focused on operational scale. The earlier 0.3 releases were about trust, correctness, and stabilizing the foundation. Version 0.4.1 builds directly on that work by making the app more practical for consultants, internal IT teams, and managed service providers who need to support multiple environments without losing isolation, control, or visibility. This includes improvements to user interface and workflow, as well as enhanced reporting capabilities to help these users manage their workflows more efficiently.

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Jamf Moves Platform SSO Into the Enrollment Gate

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macadmins

Jamf Moves Platform SSO Into the Enrollment Gate

Jamf's attended Simplified Setup for Platform SSO changes Mac enrollment by making identity registration part of Setup Assistant before the MDM profile is installed.

Using Nudge with DDM for macOS Updates in Jamf

Nudge still has a place in a DDM software update workflow: Jamf deploys the app, the Nudge profile explains the deadline to users, and DDM becomes the enforcement layer when the deadline arrives.

Apple’s WWDC26 AI Story Is About Control, Not Just Models

Apple’s WWDC26 special presentation on Apple Intelligence and Xcode was less about adding a chat box to developer tools and more about making AI part of the platform boundary. Xcode agents, App Intents, Foundation Models, Core AI, and MLX all point toward the same idea: intelligent features need context, permissions, testing, and clear ownership before they belong in production software.

How We Passed Our CMMC Assessment

After helping lead our organization through a successful CMMC Level 2 assessment, I share lessons learned from years of preparation, audit readiness, evidence collection, and working through the certification process.

Zero-Touch macOS Enrollment with JAMF Setup Manager: A Practical Walkthrough

If you're trying to streamline macOS deployments in JAMF, there’s always that moment where you realize: the built-in experience gets you *close*, but not all the way there.

Discovering Mole: A Command Line Utility for Mac Cleaning

Caches pile up, apps leave behind junk, and disk space slowly disappears. While there are plenty of GUI tools out there, most of them either lack transparency or feel overly bloated.

Introducing Pique - The Game-Changing Quick Look Plugin for Mac Admins

As a Mac admin, I'm always on the lookout for tools that make my life easier and more efficient. Recently, I stumbled upon Pique - a brilliant Quick Look plugin created by Henry Stamerjohann that allows you to view file contents in a syntax highlighted way.

ABM Warranty 0.4.1 Walkthrough: Wrap-Up and Beta

ABM Warranty 0.4.1 Walkthrough: Managed Preferences

QuickPKG - More to Unpack

A few days ago I released a review of QuickPKG, a tool I love and use almost daily. What I really love about packaging and QuickPKG is that no matter what Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution I'm working with at any given moment, it provides a universal way to create a quick package to import into JAMF, Mosyle, or any MDM. This consistency is particularly valuable when switching between projects or environments, as the process remains the same regardless of the specific MDM being used.

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business

Why Focusing ON Your Business Can Lead to Greater Success

One of the hardest transitions for a business owner is moving from constant delivery work toward the kind of leadership that allows the business to scale. It is difficult to focus on the business when you are still carrying too much of the day-to-day burden yourself. Even when growth creates more resources, that does not automatically mean the work can be shared effectively right away. In fact, it's common for owners to struggle with delegating tasks and trusting others to handle responsibilities, leading to a prolonged period of burnout and...

The Importance of Effective Team Communication in Dynamic Environments

Effective team communication becomes far more important as a business moves from a small, familiar operating rhythm into a larger and more dynamic environment. When you are used to running a business as an owner-operator, much of the context lives in your head. Decisions move quickly because you already know the clients, the priorities, and the reasons behind each choice. In a larger organization, that same instinct does not scale without stronger communication.

Clearing Up Misconceptions: How Mergers Can Benefit Clients

When clients hear that a company has merged, their first assumption is often that the change is being driven by money rather than service. That reaction is understandable. If the business already seemed stable, a merger can look like a move that benefits ownership far more than it benefits the customer. That is why one of the most important parts of any merger is proving, through action, that the client experience will improve rather than decline.

Why Building a Strong Team is Essential for Post-Merger Success: Our Experience

Building a strong team after a merger is rarely as simple as adding headcount. From the outside, it can seem like joining a larger organization should immediately create more capacity, more support, and a clearer path to growth. In practice, that is not always how it works. A merger may provide a stronger platform, but it does not automatically come with an instant staffing plan or a perfect roadmap for how responsibilities will be divided.

Embracing the Change: How I Transitioned from Independent Operator to Employee

Transitioning from business owner to employee is one of the hardest identity shifts an entrepreneur can make. Running your own company means you are used to setting priorities, making final decisions, and carrying direct responsibility for the outcome. After an acquisition, that changes quickly. You may still have leadership responsibilities, but you are now operating inside a larger structure where authority is shared and not every decision is yours to make.

Bridging the Gaps: Our Focus on Unifying for Success

Acquisition changes more than ownership. It changes how you work, how you lead, and how much control you have over the decisions that shape the business every day. That shift can be harder than many owners expect, especially when you have spent years operating with full authority and direct accountability for every client relationship. As a result, it's not uncommon for acquired businesses to experience an adjustment period during which they adapt to new systems, processes, and expectations.

How SMS Can Revolutionize Your Client Assistance - Here's Why

One of the most practical ways to improve client support is to meet people where they already communicate. For many clients, that means text messaging. When used correctly, SMS can become a fast, effective support channel that reduces friction, improves response times for simple issues, and creates a cleaner record of day-to-day interactions. This approach also allows support teams to respond quickly to urgent matters, while keeping the conversation history organized and easily accessible for future reference.

Revolutionizing Tech Support with Apple Messages for Business

Apple Business Chat is one of the most practical examples of how modern tech support can become faster, cleaner, and easier for both clients and technicians. For support teams that already rely on SMS-style communication, it is not just another channel. It is a more structured way to bring real-time support into the Apple ecosystem while keeping the business side of the interaction organized. This approach allows support teams to maintain control over the conversation flow, ensuring that issues are resolved efficiently and effectively without unnecessary back-and-forth.

The Pitfalls of Growing A Team: Lessons Learned

Growing a team sounds straightforward on paper, but in practice it introduces costs and complexity that many business owners underestimate. It is easy to model growth by assuming that one additional person will quickly become productive, bill enough work, and create immediate operational relief. What often happens instead is that the owner has to spend significant time training, onboarding, and correcting work before that new hire becomes a true net gain.

Enhancing Cybersecurity on macOS: Empowering Users for a Safer Digital Journey!

macOS has earned a strong reputation for built-in security, but the real value of the platform is not just that protections exist. It is that Apple continues pushing the operating system toward more context-aware security decisions that help users make better choices before a problem becomes a breach. This approach allows users to understand and mitigate potential risks in real-time, rather than simply reacting to threats after they've occurred.

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