[HN Gopher] Business Essentials
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Business Essentials
        
       Author : judge2020
       Score  : 466 points
       Date   : 2021-11-10 15:03 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.apple.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.apple.com)
        
       | supernovae wrote:
       | I wish they had a better MDM for kids... All I want to do is
       | ensure that NextDNS is installed/forced and that they can't
       | remove it. Somehow, if you block store, block adding apps and
       | block removing apps and hide the icons, kids still figure out how
       | to remove the damn thing and the only thing you can do to block
       | it is set a 1 minute time limit (why can't you set 0 minutes? wtf
       | apple?) and hope they don't stay up until midnight to click
       | through in 1 minute and slide the slider to off (or figure out
       | how to get into settings/network/dns and disable - which why
       | can't the limits limit that??)
        
         | vineyardmike wrote:
         | I still have a lot of resentment for the internet restrictions
         | my parents put on my devices. They didn't usually work, but
         | made whatever i was doing significantly more annoying.
         | 
         | I still remember discovering a bug in the iphone parental
         | controls where i could go to the amazon app, leave a comment
         | for google.com, click it and open that in a webview, then open
         | that into safari with restrictions disabled. How i discovered
         | that, i have no idea. But there's always a way.
         | 
         | Later i just wasted my money on a crappy android phone and
         | forced their hand.
         | 
         | Edit: please, please, parents do not do this to your child.
         | Learn trust, have conversations, and let them explore. If you
         | trust your child (truly trust them) and they know it (believe
         | you, not just hear you say it) then they will mostly try to
         | make good decisions. Controls will just be bad for your child
         | in the long run, even if it makes parents job easier in short
         | run. Once a child isn't in eg. middle school, you have to start
         | letting them access tech on their own.
        
           | bradstewart wrote:
           | So I haven't completely thought this through as my kids are
           | still too young, but I'm leaning towards doing both.
           | 
           | Some level of controls feels like a way to encourage
           | exploration and learning and the "hacker" mindset. If they
           | escape the controls, great! We also have the conversations
           | about what's out there, how to handle it, etc.
        
         | subhro wrote:
         | Can't you do that with Apple configurator by creating a profile
         | and installing it on their phones? It is clunky though.
        
         | zitterbewegung wrote:
         | All you are doing is teaching your kids to hack into their own
         | device (speaking from experence) . Try a different strategy
         | than attempting to lock down a device . When your are dealing
         | with an individual who has a large payout if they succeed in
         | getting around security and a long amount of time to circumvent
         | it's an extremely lost cause.
         | 
         | Instead you should limit the amount of time for device access
         | or even just take the device away.
        
           | drcongo wrote:
           | The ScreenTime feature for family members on iOS is an
           | absolute car-crash. Not only is it almost impossible to find
           | (it's not in Settings -> ScreenTime), but I'm endlessly
           | impressed with the ways around it my daughter is able to
           | find. I've recently noticed that she can use WhatsApp without
           | limits just by launching it from the share sheet in Photos.
        
             | zitterbewegung wrote:
             | I wasn't clear I mean physically take the device from them.
        
           | jwineinger wrote:
           | Training them for a career in tech/security ;) Parent is
           | playing the career long game.
        
           | curt15 wrote:
           | >All you are doing is teaching your kids to hack into their
           | own device (speaking from experence)
           | 
           | That doesn't seem like a bad skill to foster.
        
             | zitterbewegung wrote:
             | Never said it was bad just pointing out the original
             | posters false conclusion.
        
           | foobarian wrote:
           | > All you are doing is teaching your kids to hack into their
           | own device
           | 
           | Ha! Lock down everything and casually leave a printout on the
           | kitchen table titled "How to bypass home network security"
           | with a bunch of Python exercises that lead up to disabling
           | the filters. Presto, now they know Python :-)
        
             | zitterbewegung wrote:
             | I would not leave books on the table so they can figure out
             | how to google.
        
         | Damogran6 wrote:
         | I figured, when my kids were a certain age, that if I took that
         | route, they'd ALWAYS get around whatever control I put in front
         | of them. Either at home, or at school or at a friends house.
         | 
         | Told them there was stuff on the internet that could harm them,
         | that there was stuff they could NOT unsee.
         | 
         | They're 18 now, the results of the science experiment are still
         | out, but they seem to have turned out okay.
        
           | ec109685 wrote:
           | I don't understand why it's healthy to provide one click
           | access to the hardest core pornography to a 12 year old.
           | Putting _some_ restrictions in place are better than nothing
           | in my book.
        
             | dolni wrote:
             | Because when you are an adult, your choices have real
             | consequences. Kids have to learn that lesson.
             | 
             | All told, a 12 year old kid seeing porn they sought out is
             | small potatoes compared to the consequences of some other
             | decisions.
        
               | newsclues wrote:
               | Porn isn't harmless.
               | 
               | Source: maladjusted, mid thirties virgin, who grew up
               | with on instant and infinite access to online porn
        
           | _fat_santa wrote:
           | When I think back to when I was a kid, getting around school
           | internet filters and helping my friends remove parental
           | controls from their devices, I can't help but think the
           | Streisand Effect was hard at work in my brain. The adults was
           | determined that I wouldn't see a thing so I was determined to
           | see it because what could they be hiding?
           | 
           | Now approaching the age where the thought of having a family
           | and kids is on my mind more and more, I always wonder how I
           | will approach this problem. I can't think I would do it any
           | differently than you. For young children sure, throw up DNS
           | filtering at the router level and the kiddos' will be none
           | the wiser. But if my future kid ever turns out like me, that
           | will probably only work until 7 or 8 (when I figured out how
           | routers worked), at that point I would think it has to be an
           | honest conversation about all the crap on the internet. Even
           | when I was a kid I knew when the adults were feeding me a
           | load of crap.
        
             | mlyle wrote:
             | What do you think schools should do? I teach at a school
             | (K-12), and there's definitely circumvention of technical
             | controls at the high school level. But I can't help but
             | think we're a whole better off because of the filtering.
        
               | Damogran6 wrote:
               | You're obligated to block, because you're responsible for
               | giving it to them and you have to deal with the
               | population as a whole. I based my decisions on my kid's
               | temperament. You don't have that luxury.
               | 
               | It doesn't mean you'll be in any way effective.
               | 
               | By the same token, we block this kind of traffic at
               | work...all it ended up doing was pushing the negative
               | traffic to employee's cellphones. Which is fine, because
               | it makes the office network safer.
        
               | anonAndOn wrote:
               | DNS filtering (pi-hole is great here), scheduled vLAN
               | time of use shutoffs (no after school shenanigans),
               | obvious blacklists and ip request logging + pop-up
               | warning are probably good enough for 95% of kids.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | We use Meraki (huge wireless deployment, so it makes a
               | lot of sense to just use their gateway and call it good)
               | with their blacklists. Biggest problem is it considers
               | too many things "gaming" and needs exceptions-- e.g.
               | lichess and chess.com are OK. Authentication and logging
               | are pretty good.
               | 
               | Rateshaping students to have enough bandwidth to do
               | schoolwork but not to have _wonderful_ connectivity
               | (campus has a 2gbps symmetric connection, but we only
               | give students 4-5 megabits /sec over wifi most places on
               | campus) is also a part of the picture.
        
               | mixmastamyk wrote:
               | Whitelists. It's kind of a pain, but might help reign in
               | the teachers that send kids everywhere on the internet
               | without much thought about the surveillance dangers.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | MS and HS students are expected to be able to
               | independently browse the internet to do research-- this
               | doesn't work with whitelisting. (And in elementary,
               | there's good human supervision of technology use).
        
               | oriki wrote:
               | This, not to mention it seems somewhat unproductive to
               | lock off 99% of the internet because of information
               | collection instead of teaching how to defeat those
               | collectors. The kid's going to grow up and leave
               | eventually and will have to contend with the full
               | internet, it doesn't feel like a good idea to leave them
               | without any experience of the kind of things you can run
               | in to.
        
               | mixmastamyk wrote:
               | Kids don't get any "experience" contending with
               | surveillance. It is all done behind your back, on
               | purpose. Results are never deleted.
               | 
               | Certainly schools are not even attempting to teach
               | countermeasures. They tend to dabble in the "be aware of
               | bullying and self-esteem" issues, but are completely
               | outmatched in the security arena. Ignore at your peril.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | We, at least, spend a fair bit of time on:
               | 
               | - Advertising and dark patterns
               | 
               | - What else can be inferred about you from seemingly
               | innocuous information, and potential misuse
               | 
               | - Durability of your digital footprint
               | 
               | - Security, file types, etc.
               | 
               | Education doesn't fix these issues, though. Even well-
               | educated developers would often give up and click 'Allow'
               | on a modal privilege escalation box that pops up
               | repeatedly in research. And if I need to get something
               | done and it doesn't work I'm pretty quick to re-enable
               | scripts and tracking.
        
               | mixmastamyk wrote:
               | Knowing these thing exist is a great first step, and glad
               | to hear you are helping out.
               | 
               | But, it doesn't become a concrete, visceral thing until
               | you inspect a no-script menu while browsing a news site.
               | Or run Little Snitch on a freshly unboxed Mac. Or going
               | to a "white pages" site and see the last four addresses
               | of your family members. Salary info, current whereabouts,
               | criminal history, are a fee away.
               | 
               | It's a different world.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | Yes, but the whole world won't be developers. And many in
               | the know just don't care.
               | 
               | You're talking about a population of 12 to 18 year olds.
               | Even among the most responsible and least-easily
               | influenced of them, social pressures absolutely _dwarf_
               | any abstract concerns about corporations knowing a bit
               | more about broke-ass you to try and sell you things.
               | 
               | Most of this population will take a short term gain for
               | an uncertain consequence a few minutes later. You're
               | talking about short term gain versus consequences that
               | they may view as inevitable and occurring decades away.
        
               | mixmastamyk wrote:
               | I can only affect my kingdom, what others do is mostly
               | not my concern. Reminds me of the corporate garbage
               | "food" products most people consume. I speak out but not
               | going to steal their doritos.
        
               | rnotaro wrote:
               | Then they will probably use their Data Plan if they have
               | one to get around it.
        
           | kiryin wrote:
           | This is the right way to go. Teach, don't block. You fuck up
           | your relationship to your kids if you force them to keep
           | secrets from you and constantly "fight" against you. Because
           | trust me, that's how it'll end up.
        
             | omnicognate wrote:
             | It doesn't. I have a whitelisting transparent proxy for my
             | primary school-age kids. It's not controversial and they
             | don't attempt to get round it or rail against it. If they
             | want something they ask. If I say no (and explain why) they
             | accept it. They're interested in internet safety and we
             | discuss it frequently. Teaching vs blocking is a false
             | dichotomy.
             | 
             | As they get older I'll remove it in stages: blacklist,
             | logging only, then direct access with no proxy. The opening
             | up will be done when it seems appropriate and in full
             | discussion with them. I don't have a schedule for it.
             | 
             | When they're old enough to have phones I can initially give
             | them managed devices with always-on wireguard and the same
             | transparent proxy. (I've tested this setup and it's not
             | circumventible without wiping the device.)
             | 
             | The claims often made on hn about this stuff, that:
             | 
             | * Kids will resent any attempt to limit their access, and
             | 
             | * Kids are NSA-level hackers who will circumvent any
             | attempt at limiting their access.
             | 
             | are empirically false, at least in my experience so far. I
             | expect they become more true in the teenage years but
             | that's when things can start to open up.
             | 
             | Even if the restrictions have to be entirely dropped or
             | become irrelevant the second they enter senior school,
             | they've already benefited a lot from this over the years.
             | 
             | The other argument, that other kids will have phones etc so
             | there's no point, is just an abdication of responsibility.
             | I feel like I should do my best here, whatever everyone
             | else is doing.
             | 
             | The one thing that is true is that it's quite technically
             | demanding. A managed phone with an always-on wireguard
             | connection to a network with a transparent ssl-bump mitm
             | proxy and a domain-based whitelist with an admin UI to
             | browse logs and block/unblock domains is not an easy thing
             | to set up.
             | 
             | It's possible, though, and it has value. It should be much
             | easier.
        
               | Macha wrote:
               | > * Kids will resent any attempt to limit their access,
               | and
               | 
               | > * Kids are NSA-level hackers who will circumvent any
               | attempt at limiting their access.
               | 
               | There's plenty of people in their mid-20s now on HN who
               | have been the kids, either working around their parents
               | restrictions or their friends parents restrictions. I had
               | an internet enabled phone as a 12 year old in 2004, so
               | it's not a post-iPhone kid experience only.
               | 
               | And yes, parental control software has got smarter to not
               | just be a matter of changing your DNS or using an
               | alternative browser, but tunneling over SSH still defeats
               | much of it, and yes the audience here is more tech savvy,
               | but there's a hundred new web based proxies that open up
               | every day that your chosen solution may not be up to date
               | on blocking - whitelists avoid that but it's something a
               | lot of people here are opposed to on moral grounds once
               | kids reach a certain age. Certainly if you let them go
               | out unsupervised that's not enforcable, and honestly you
               | should be able to let a 12 year old go out unsupervised.
        
               | omnicognate wrote:
               | To what extent this applies to 12 year olds is to be
               | determined in my case. My kids are younger than that
               | 
               | I think a lot of the "try and restrict and you'll just
               | harm your relationship" stuff comes from 20 somethings
               | whose memories are primarily of their teenage years.
               | There's 12 years _before_ you get to twelve, and we 're
               | in a situation where clueless parents are allowing
               | (knowingly or not) their preteen kids to have their own
               | youtube channels and watch Squid Game. (And much worse
               | besides no doubt, those are just a couple of things I
               | know particular kids have been doing.)
        
           | fatnoah wrote:
           | >I figured, when my kids were a certain age, that if I took
           | that route, they'd ALWAYS get around whatever control I put
           | in front of them
           | 
           | My son is 14, and when my wife proposed blocks and access
           | control, I made this very point. Even if we were able to
           | perfectly lock down our home and his phone, we can't control
           | every other place he can access the Internet. So, we also are
           | in a talk about it, occasionally check on what he's been
           | into, talk about anything "interesting" that comes up, but
           | NEVER make a big deal of if. As long as we're able to discuss
           | it (and no, he doesn't love talking about it), I'm OK. By
           | keeping it low stress and low key, there's no incentive for
           | him to hide.
        
             | jupp0r wrote:
             | You should still do some blocking to make sure he learns
             | how to circumvent them. Those are valuable skills to have
             | later in life, I still profit from the lessons I learned
             | circumventing high school internet restrictions.
        
               | vishnugupta wrote:
               | Through Norton's suite I had filtered out YouTube app
               | from being installed. It took ~10 minutes for my 5 yo to
               | figure out use it via Safari :-| Since then it's been
               | education over enforcement as OPs have mentioned.
        
               | r00fus wrote:
               | Does the Norton suite not have website/URLbase filtering?
               | Weak sauce.
        
               | Damogran6 wrote:
               | My kids learned all about that in schools...by the
               | teachers...so they could bypass the blocks to see youtube
               | videos for class!
        
           | jacurtis wrote:
           | As someone who grew up in an extremely religious (arguably
           | "cult-ish") home. I can tell you that your approach to
           | parenting leads to healthier children (at least mentally).
           | 
           | Hiding children from facts of life (sex, death, drugs, abuse,
           | alcohol, etc) does not in fact help them, it helps you (the
           | parent). It makes parents feel good, but leaves children
           | scarred and unprepared for when they will inevitably face
           | those facts later in life.
           | 
           | There are stages of life when children will (or should be)
           | exposed to those things. The brain naturally regulates these
           | things. If a child is exposed at the proper time, their brain
           | regulates the amount of information they are capable of
           | understanding. As they re-experience the same thing later in
           | life, they will understand more and their progress towards
           | understanding that concept is more gradual and healthy. By
           | contrast, if you shelter a kid, they will still inevitably
           | face reality later in life, but the experience will be more
           | difficult because they have to face everything at once.
           | 
           | Parents should not be afraid to discuss or even introduce
           | difficult concepts to children. The children will inevitably
           | face these. It is better for them to face them in a
           | controlled manner early in life so they can build healthier
           | relationships with these hard ideas. It also gives parents
           | better control over the introduction of these ideas. If you
           | turn sex, alcohol, and drugs into a taboo in your house, you
           | might think you are helping your children, but the reality is
           | that you are actually setting them at higher risk to abuse
           | these things later in life.
           | 
           | Back to the original comment. If your kids are going through
           | all this effort to subvert your DNS and controls in order to
           | see something on the internet. It would be better to allow
           | the child to confront their curiosity in a controlled way.
           | Their curiosity is clearly very strong if they are willing to
           | go to this extreme to satisfy it. Letting the curiosity pent
           | up, will ultimately have the reverse effect than you desire.
           | It could lead to overindulgence of that curiosity, or
           | potentially abuse of that curiosity later in life.
        
             | novok wrote:
             | I think there are good cases to be made about pre-puberty
             | vs post-puberty controls. Strong fences for the 4-8 age
             | group is pretty different than than 9-11, 12-14 or 15+
        
         | ronyfadel wrote:
         | Can you DM me? I'm working on something along those lines.
        
         | mschuster91 wrote:
         | If your kids are intelligent enough to bypass locks... give it
         | up. Seriously.
         | 
         | Better, prepare them for the worst of what they will experience
         | on the Internet: violence, pornography, abuse of all kind, and
         | guide them in their use of the Internet. Place yourself as the
         | person your kids can come for help instead of the person they
         | have to be afraid of. That is an _incredibly_ easy and common
         | thing for groomers to exploit.
        
         | ryanianian wrote:
         | The "at your own peril" strategy is effective for some.
         | 
         | Or go the panopticon route: "I have software on the router that
         | can see everything you do, but I don't usually look at it."
        
           | noway421 wrote:
           | Unless you're running a MITM proxy for SSL traffic with root
           | certificates installed on the home devices, this statement
           | can not be true. And if you're running such a proxy, you
           | would need to have a guest WiFi for people coming into the
           | house who would like to use internet without installing the
           | certificate. At that point, circumventing the tracking is the
           | matter of connecting to the guest WiFi.
        
           | nanidin wrote:
           | 16 year old me bypassed this and all other monitoring by
           | running a patch cable from the cable modem directly to my
           | machine when up to shenanigans.
        
           | thealistra wrote:
           | This sounds like fueling anxiety in the kids that they are
           | being watched. Doesn't sound okay
        
             | ryanianian wrote:
             | > kids that they are being watched
             | 
             | They already are though. Usually by tech companies without
             | the kid's best interests at heart.
             | 
             | Tailor it to the kid. Certain amounts of anxiety in
             | developing minors around surveillance seem healthy,
             | especially given the risks associated with unfettered
             | access to the dangerous fire-hose that is the internet
             | which itself has tracking at every corner.
        
               | Hackbraten wrote:
               | Still, lying to your kids is not ok. If you don't have
               | software on your router that tracks everything they do,
               | don't pretend that you have. Being surveilled is a
               | feeling that sticks. Being tricked, too. Don't assume
               | your kids will forget eventually.
        
             | gwright wrote:
             | > kids that they are being watched
             | 
             | Not sure that "kids" is well defined here. But it seems
             | completely normal that "kids" would be watched by their
             | parents.
             | 
             | I realize that the appropriate nature of "watching" is
             | going to change with the age of the "kid", but oversight
             | and watchfulness by a parent shouldn't be viewed as
             | inherently problematic.
        
         | m_st wrote:
         | Did you try setting the device up with the MDM app from a Mac?
         | It's called Apple Configurator or so, can't remember now. But
         | as far as I remember it came with many options.
        
         | m_st wrote:
         | Also, first time i read about NextDNS. Looks rather
         | interesting. Thank you!
        
         | cbushko wrote:
         | You can setup NextDNS at the router level.
        
         | radicaldreamer wrote:
         | Kids will be kids...
        
       | gnrlst wrote:
       | This is really cool, and a very necessary offering from Apple.
       | But dear god their promo video (at the end of the page) is
       | unwatchable. Is it just me or have these videos gotten worse? For
       | example, despite being impressed with the new MacBook Pro
       | announcement (which I have purchased), I had to mute their live
       | Apple event because of all the cringe over-edited script. Maybe
       | I've just become allergic after working for a corporation for
       | years. Sorry for the rant.
        
       | ag56 wrote:
       | Does this mean I can finally have multiple user accounts on my
       | iPhone?
        
         | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
         | Unlikely. Current MDM works with just one account on a device,
         | I don't think this will be changing.
        
       | nlh wrote:
       | So just to make sure I'm reading this correctly (this is not my
       | area of speciality so bear with me):
       | 
       | This is Apple-hosted MDM, yes?
       | 
       | I took a brief spin through this world on a consulting project a
       | few years ago and I found it SUPER weird that Apple didn't do
       | this already. You had to do this weird dance between Apple
       | Business Manager and the MDM solution (we ended up with SimpleMDM
       | but looked at a bunch). I kept saying "Am I missing something?
       | Why doesn't this service come directly from Apple?" and everyone
       | was as puzzled about this as I was. So I guess they're finally
       | closing the loop here.
        
         | jordanbeiber wrote:
         | Business use is a collateral win for apple.
         | 
         | There's a lot of effort that goes in to support and partner
         | channels for enterprise offerings. Making servers seemed easy
         | enough? Look where that ended up. It's a completely different
         | business.
        
           | alexchamberlain wrote:
           | Is it? Apple is the go to solution for all media types
           | (photography, film making, design, architecture). The
           | alignment with Adobe products has existed longer than either
           | was cool.
        
             | jordanbeiber wrote:
             | Yes, but that is a completely different setting than an
             | enterprise one.
             | 
             | Having supported large enterprises and pieces of the movie
             | production industry I can tell you there's a vast
             | difference in how end-user IT is treated.
             | 
             | The users you are referring to are power users that get to
             | select their own tools, more akin to developers (at decent
             | places at least).
             | 
             | Currently a dev manager, about half of my dev team want to
             | use mac. They can, with zero support from central IT.
             | 
             | That's not a choice our sales org have, for example.
        
         | encryptluks2 wrote:
         | They already have Fleetsmith. This is their response to
         | Jumpcloud and what not who are offering lower per user plans,
         | as fleetsmith was around $8/device/mo.
        
           | mike_d wrote:
           | > This is their response to Jumpcloud and what not who are
           | offering lower per user plans
           | 
           | They couldn't care less about a few dollars. This is about
           | heading off business adoption of Chromebooks, and "winning"
           | small-medium businesses as primarily Mac shops before they
           | become big-enterprise.
        
         | xyzzy21 wrote:
         | Yes. But this is nothing new for even Apple.
         | 
         | Just go an look at WWDCs for the last 10-15 years. There have
         | been regular MDM sessions to talk about featured added to iOS
         | and MacOS for this.
         | 
         | This is also related to agreements made years ago between Apple
         | and IBM to provide exactly this primarily because Apple has
         | never wanted to compromise their customer connection (which in
         | business is IT and NOT the end user), and IBM has needed the
         | opportunity (despite IBM transitioning from Fail they are still
         | not to a level of revenue expected for their stock price and
         | heritage - so they are "hungry").
        
         | roody15 wrote:
         | Agree I manage 500+ Apple devices and have been in disbelief
         | that Apple recommends using JAMF to manage their own devices.
         | 
         | I use profile manager included with the Server App of MacOS and
         | it is functional but limited in scope. I have expressed for
         | years frustration that Apple recommends using MDM/ profiles to
         | manage their devices ... and then doesn't even really offer an
         | enterprise version of the software.
         | 
         | Google by contrast offers a great admin console to manage
         | chromebook and google devices. Surprised apple has dragged
         | their feet here for so long.
        
           | throwaway894345 wrote:
           | We used JAMF at my last place of business, and it would
           | occasionally kill apps with a 15 minute warning. Normally
           | this was fine, but it really sucked to get JAMFed (as it came
           | to be called) in the middle of a presentation.
           | 
           | At my current company, we use something that _destroys_ CPU
           | and battery (unused 2019 high end MBP hangs sporadically for
           | tens of seconds on any file system syscall, computer gets
           | uncomfortably hot, battery lasts ~1hour on a full charge--
           | happens to everyone I've talked to). Not sure what it's
           | called, but this falcond process always seems to be the
           | culprit. I know nothing about MDM, but I would love it if
           | Apple Business Essentials would be a viable alternative (hard
           | to imagine Apple shipping _such_ miserable software, anyway).
        
             | FiloSottile wrote:
             | falcond is CrowdStrike's endpoint antivirus thingy, not
             | device management.
             | 
             | As usual, antivirus is an exercise in trading performance
             | for increased attack surface (and compliance).
        
           | user3939382 wrote:
           | JAMF is the leader here, but I found it to be too expensive
           | and unfriendly. I eventually settled on mosyle. When I
           | originally learned about MDM I was quite surprised they had
           | this third-party architecture.
        
           | PinguTS wrote:
           | For me this "offer" sounds like that the Sever app with the
           | includes Profile Manager now basically becomes obsolete and
           | will not anymore supported.
           | 
           | That will become an expansive solution for small business
           | like the one I manage with 15 employees.
        
             | radicaldreamer wrote:
             | This gives some services an opportunity to offer an even
             | lower cost offering.
             | 
             | The thing I worry about though is that this first-party
             | solution will have "special" features that are not possible
             | via MDM using private APIs or some special entitlements.
        
       | arianvanp wrote:
       | If you can use the Managed Apple ID as an OIDC server (what Login
       | with Apple essentially is) then this would be a pretty nice
       | complete solution
        
       | Gentil wrote:
       | Heavy blow to JAMF folks! It would be interesting to see how
       | thing go from now onwards for them.
        
       | simoncrypta wrote:
       | So, is a rebranding of Fleetsmith with the Apple magic
        
         | encryptluks2 wrote:
         | You'd think if they were going to rebrand it, that they'd
         | redirect you to the new site. Instead, now they are managing
         | competing products.
        
         | dylanz wrote:
         | I just signed up for Fleetsmith yesterday, so this is pretty
         | timely. I'm interested to see if/how this changes things.
        
       | intricatedetail wrote:
       | Do they also help setup tax avoidance structure?
        
       | Thaxll wrote:
       | So enterprise is the next target for Apple?
        
         | tonyedgecombe wrote:
         | I hope not. You can see from Microsoft that it is hard to do
         | that without tainting the consumer side.
        
         | acdha wrote:
         | It makes sense given that this is both an area where they've
         | historically had to deal with the competitive disadvantage of
         | Windows having a large "built-in" market and one where they've
         | made huge inroads with iOS.
         | 
         | For a small business this is especially interesting since an
         | iPad / ChromeOS device is a better call for an awful lot of
         | workers and this makes that switch even easier.
        
         | eyelidlessness wrote:
         | Given the pricing, this strikes me more as "we're confident
         | enough that we're going to grow the Mac business, that we need
         | to offer something to enterprise to check a box so we don't
         | artificially limit sales."
        
         | justusthane wrote:
         | There are already plenty of Configuration Management and MDM
         | solutions that can handle MacOS and iOS. This is targeted at
         | small businesses that don't have an existing MDM solution.
        
         | jhickok wrote:
         | Seems like a work in progress over the past year-ish:
         | 
         | https://www.techradar.com/news/apple-buys-mdm-specialist-to-...
        
       | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
       | Even roll your own apps to your employees, bypassing the AppStore
       | review?
       | 
       | Upd: the video suggests that there are 'collections' which
       | distribute apps to users, but it is not clear if own apps can be
       | included in these using Enterprise certificates.
        
         | sigzero wrote:
         | Not enough information on that page but...doubt it?
        
           | syspec wrote:
           | Already possible
        
         | skoskie wrote:
         | You could already do that. Facebook notoriously abused the
         | process.
        
         | Nextgrid wrote:
         | As far as I know you can already do that with enterprise
         | certificates?
        
           | joshstrange wrote:
           | You can sign apps without Apple being "in the loop" and
           | distribute them via the web with an enterprise cert. As far
           | as pushing out updates I think you have to build your own
           | system for that. My company uses enterprise certs and our app
           | will notify the user when there is an update, redirect them
           | to a web portal where they click a link, are prompted to
           | install the app, and then the app is installed.
        
       | cpg wrote:
       | Ahhhhhh. Ohhhhhhh. A film!
        
         | drfuchs wrote:
         | It is curious that on this page, Apple says "Watch the film to
         | learn more" and "Watch the announcement film" whereas they
         | always use the term "video" (or "movie" where appropriate)
         | everywhere else in all their messaging, as far as I've noticed.
         | I wonder what they're thinking?
        
         | teddyh wrote:
         | That's how it starts. Later there's running and screaming.
        
       | vxNsr wrote:
       | I can't tell exactly but this seems to be going down the compete
       | with Active Directory route.
       | 
       | Which honestly, isn't a bad thing. AD is getting long in the
       | tooth and AAD is a mess, we can absolutely use a few clever apple
       | innovations to this space.
        
       | nkotov wrote:
       | If I'm not wrong, I think this is the Fleetsmith acquisition that
       | happened last year.
        
         | alberth wrote:
         | Agreed though it's weird you can still purchase Fleetsmith
         | directly.
         | 
         | https://www.fleetsmith.com/pricing
        
       | barelysapient wrote:
       | 2TB of storage for $12 a month? Plus the multi-device management
       | options? Sign me up.
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | What are the costs for the bandwidth?
        
           | gruez wrote:
           | consumer backup/storage services typically don't charge
           | bandwidth.
        
         | pavs wrote:
         | Google One has 9.99/ month for 2TB Option. Which also comes
         | with a VPN.
         | 
         | If Price is the differentiator, I think google provides the
         | best value, but also provide additional services with their
         | storage plans.
        
           | dexterdog wrote:
           | Google One only works for gmail.com accounts
        
           | zylent wrote:
           | Allowing an advertising company to scan all of my traffic is
           | extremely unappealing
        
           | asdff wrote:
           | Google drive business also offers infinite storage
        
           | scoopertrooper wrote:
           | Entirely different product though. Apple is providing a MDM
           | solution for SMEs in addition to the storage.
           | 
           | The value of a VPN that doesn't allow you access to a
           | corporate network is... dubious to a company.
        
           | airpoint wrote:
           | Apples and oranges.
           | 
           | Google One is a consumer product for sharing holiday pics
           | with your family mate. The closest offer in the same target
           | market from Apple is iCloud+, with same services for same
           | price! Or as part of Apple One which is slightly pricier but
           | includes a an array of additional consumer entertainment
           | services.
           | 
           | Apple Business Essentials is a set of business services with
           | guaranteed SLA's.
        
       | ocdtrekkie wrote:
       | Sounds like a huge upgrade to Apple Business Manager. Two big
       | complaints here:
       | 
       | 1. Apple Business Manager refuses to work in Firefox due to an
       | arbitrary user agent block, and they apparently still haven't
       | fixed this.
       | 
       | 2. "If accepted, your existing Apple Business Manager account
       | will be upgraded with additional functionality that cannot be
       | undone." - This is a really good way to ensure we _don 't_ try
       | this. What if it causes our organization new problems? Why would
       | your beta product be impossible to roll back out of?
        
         | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
         | The first thing I thought when I saw that block was wtf, apple?
         | You have non-standard compliant html/css there?
         | 
         | Utter disgrace.
        
           | ocdtrekkie wrote:
           | It works entirely fine if you set Firefox to lie about the
           | user agent. It's probably one of those cases where someone
           | just didn't want to have to take the 'risk' they had a
           | browser issue with a browser they don't directly support.
        
       | odshoifsdhfs wrote:
       | This will be huge.
       | 
       | There is a product I have been wanting to make, there is demand
       | (customers have been asking for it), but would never work with
       | the distributed personal iCloud accounts before. This will allow
       | to consolidate all of it under businesses accounts.
       | 
       | Interesting enough, have other people in my circles that also
       | have wanting to port somethings to be native like this and
       | haven't due to being business apps and the 'individual accounts'
       | being a show stopper to share licenses.
        
       | wejick wrote:
       | Wow, company where I work just rolled out kandji what a timing.
       | 
       | However I don't think online storage is necessary for most
       | business that already using either Google or Microsoft office
       | products.
        
       | vxNsr wrote:
       | Happy to see they came up with a use for their HQ: largest and
       | most expensive sound stage ever.
        
       | alberth wrote:
       | Tough day for Jamf.
        
         | tyingq wrote:
         | The announcement is a little light on details around directory
         | integration for things like AD. I'll be curious to see a
         | feature comparison with Jamf.
         | 
         | Edit: Ahh, I see. _" small businesses in the U.S. with up to
         | 500 employees"_
        
           | rbanffy wrote:
           | So, every day will continue to be a tough day for all Jamf
           | users...
        
       | aejnsn wrote:
       | It's like Apple has started listening to customers again.
        
       | teeray wrote:
       | All I want from Apple is a separate environment for corpware and
       | all of its associated baggage to run. I'd love for that profile
       | to even acquire its own EPS bearers so that its traffic is
       | distinct from personal traffic.
        
       | kylehotchkiss wrote:
       | There's a few headlines talking about backups - does apple
       | finally have a cloud based time machine replacement? I'd be so
       | excited to see that as a general consumer too.
        
         | chrisseaton wrote:
         | I think that's unlikely to be a thing they're working on. You
         | can get that from storing your files in iCloud already, and
         | these days is there any good reason to back up the rest of your
         | system? If I had to rebuild a system due to hardware failure
         | the absolute last thing I'd want to do would be restore all the
         | accumulated system cruft!
        
           | binaryblitz wrote:
           | I agree and disagree. For my gaming desktop, I'd just
           | reinstall apps to get a fresh start.
           | 
           | I started my own software consulting/contracting thing this
           | summer and if my machine crashed, every hour I'm not working
           | is costing me money. So setting up all my apps again to get a
           | fresh start isn't worth it. With TimeMachine on my NAS, I
           | just get the replacement computer and let it restore while I
           | sleep. Then I'm good to go the next morning.
        
           | derefr wrote:
           | iOS devices do full backups to iCloud+, restorable onto a new
           | device just like macOS full Time Machine backups are.
           | 
           | So why not macOS backups in iCloud? If anything, you'd expect
           | it to be the other way around--in iOS devices, you/apps can't
           | litter your homedir with random garbage, while in macOS you
           | can. So it's _more_ useful to back up macOS.
           | 
           | + You can also make an iOS backup onto a local macOS computer
           | running iTunes, which is, _I believe_ , what they do for you
           | when transferring your data to a new device in store. I
           | haven't looked at them lately, but if they're just plain-old
           | Time Machine backups, that's even more damning, as that would
           | imply that iCloud is already perfectly set up for receiving
           | Time Machine backups.
        
             | chrisseaton wrote:
             | > iOS devices do full backups to iCloud
             | 
             | Right but that functionality dates back quite a few years
             | now, back from iTunes and before cloud computing. I'm not
             | sure they'd build that functionality today.
             | 
             | Exactly as you say - what _is_ the point of a full phone
             | backup when you don 't normally store any files on your
             | phone? They could back up the metadata of what apps you
             | have installed and where you've put them on your home
             | screen. I'm not sure it's worth doing much else?
        
               | aspenmayer wrote:
               | It's worth it for the device migration functionality
               | alone. If I switch/upgrade iOS devices, I can perform
               | iCloud or device-to-device recovery, which is much more
               | useful to me than simply restoring which apps I had
               | installed and their data.
        
             | dwaite wrote:
             | > So why not macOS backups in iCloud? If anything, you'd
             | expect it to be the other way around--in iOS devices,
             | you/apps can't litter your homedir with random garbage,
             | while in macOS you can. So it's more useful to back up
             | macOS.
             | 
             | This is somewhat the reason why no full macOS backup to the
             | cloud. iOS naturally normalizes the content due to its use
             | of iTunes Store content (apps, movies, television shows,
             | books, music).
             | 
             | On macOS, you can't necessarily just ignore apps and say
             | you'll download from the store - not only can you move
             | applications around, you can delete parts of them and
             | _many_ devices have apps which were not downloaded from the
             | store.
             | 
             | So a 1TB Mac backup will take 1TB of iCloud Data and
             | require 1TB of data to be uploaded/downloaded to their
             | storage account.
             | 
             | This also affects the speed of restores on higher-speed
             | connections - a lot of the iTunes content winds up being
             | cached by CDNs.
             | 
             | Apple's solution so far has been to back up just the user's
             | Documents and Desktop folders to iCloud, since these are
             | the two most important "general purpose" locations on the
             | Mac.
        
               | derefr wrote:
               | > On macOS, you can't necessarily just ignore apps and
               | say you'll download from the store - not only can you
               | move applications around, you can delete parts of them
               | and _many_ devices have apps which were not downloaded
               | from the store.
               | 
               | Sure, but they're by-and-large the _same_ apps. You can
               | delete parts, but the parts that are there will
               | inevitably be parts someone else also uploaded before.
               | Apps are a highly backend de-dup-able kind of data.
               | 
               | As such, couldn't Apple just treat .app bundles (and a
               | few other bundle types, e.g. .framework, .kext, .plugin,
               | etc.) specially for purposes of iCloud backup, by e.g.
               | content-hashing all the files in each bundle, shoving
               | those files into an object store keyed by content hash
               | (i.e. a Content-Addressable Store), CDN-mirroring that
               | CAS, and then saving the .app bundle in your backup as a
               | BOM for reconstructing the bundle from the CAS CDN?
               | 
               | Keep in mind, Apple have never promised E2E encryption
               | for iCloud backups, only "encryption in flight" and
               | "encryption at rest." (See https://support.apple.com/en-
               | ca/HT202303). And even then, that's never included an
               | implied encryption of your applications, only of "your
               | data" (since, as you say, the apps are being turned into
               | symbolic references to ITMS CDN objects.)
               | 
               | So they could have an explicit policy that certain
               | filetypes that aren't "user-generated" would be "backed
               | up in the open, to the commons"; while all other
               | filetypes would get individual treatment. And presumably
               | you could also set some Finder xattr to override that
               | policy one way or the other, if e.g. you had some
               | proprietary binaries you were under NDA to not release.
        
             | natch wrote:
             | Small nitpick, they are not full backups. I am continually
             | discovering new gaps in what gets backed up.
             | 
             | One example: apps that you built onto your device as a
             | developer. Get a new phone and restore from backup? That
             | app is gone now.
             | 
             | I do understand the reasons why. But understanding does not
             | make it a full backup.
        
           | Timothee wrote:
           | > these days is there any good reason to back up the rest of
           | your system
           | 
           | From experience, there is definite need. I spilled some water
           | on my work laptop and it died. I was able to get a
           | replacement in maybe 3 hours, but setting everything up again
           | was a major pain.
           | 
           | A Time Machine backup would have let me continue more or less
           | where I left off in a matter of an hour or two, vs. many
           | hours/days (and some lost work). (not that Time Machine is
           | perfect either, but much better than just iCloud)
           | 
           | I agree that getting rid of system cruft can be good, but
           | it's better handled proactively than on machine failure IMO.
        
           | dewey wrote:
           | Storing files in iCloud Drive is very different from a backup
           | I would argue.
           | 
           | What a business would want in this case is Backblaze like
           | functionality with versioning / restore. iCloud drive also
           | doesn't really help you with restoring a full system like it
           | is possible on iOS where all your settings, passwords and
           | apps are just like you left them.
        
             | lostgame wrote:
             | To be fair, iCloud has a password manager on MacOS / iOS
             | that works great.
        
             | minimaxir wrote:
             | Pages/Numbers/Keynote do support versioning in-app when the
             | doc is stored in iCloud Drive, albeit not as efficient as
             | true versioning.
        
             | chrisseaton wrote:
             | Doesn't iCloud Drive have a revision history? For example
             | DropBox does, so Apple could add the feature.
             | 
             | > all your settings, passwords and apps are just like you
             | left them
             | 
             | Now that most of these things come from the cloud anyway,
             | do we need the rest of the system backed up?
             | 
             | I don't need to restore my system from a backup - I just
             | log back into Creative Cloud, Jet Brains, etc.
        
               | dewey wrote:
               | It probably very much depends on what you are using your
               | computer for. If you are just living in Chrome and use
               | Google Docs and Mail there this will work just fine.
               | 
               | If you are someone who has tools set up, apps not from
               | the app store, come custom dot files, your shell history
               | and environment variables this will not help you at all
               | and getting up and running after a device got lost /
               | destroyed will take you a day. Even if it's just simple
               | things like your system theme / Dock positions of your
               | apps.
               | 
               | You could probably fiddle and symlink things and hope
               | everything works but it's not a "log in and have your
               | device be in the same condition as before" like you'd get
               | from an iOS "Restore from iCloud" functionality.
        
             | kube-system wrote:
             | > What a business would want in this case is Backblaze like
             | functionality with versioning / restore
             | 
             | Maybe. Some businesses just back up just their user's files
             | and just reimage machines when something goes wrong.
        
               | jhickok wrote:
               | Honestly as an end-user that's my preference.
        
             | selykg wrote:
             | I use Backblaze, and aside from the cost, it's great. It's
             | fine for 1 computer, but oof, there's no multi-computer
             | discount. Most of my machines aren't backing up terabytes
             | of storage either. We're talking like ~100gb a machine and
             | there's two of them.
             | 
             | Businesses like to talk up "unlimited" but it's a pain when
             | you're using less storage but have to subsidize those using
             | a ton of storage.
        
               | majou wrote:
               | A few years ago Backblaze started offering B2, a storage
               | API priced at $0.005/GB/month, and dirt cheap egress fees
               | unlike the big cloud offerings.
               | 
               | You'd save money switching to a client that supports B2,
               | they have a list on the site, though I'm not sure which
               | provide decent version management.
        
           | skoskie wrote:
           | That really depends on the user.
           | 
           | As a developer, I've modified quite a few system files and
           | would like those things backed up. It's one reason I don't
           | use Backblaze - they refuse to backup system files.
           | 
           | As an employer, I can imagine a situation in which those
           | "cruft" files contain information about the actions of an
           | employee that might be valuable in legal proceedings, or just
           | providing they were terminated for cause.
           | 
           | But 98% of the time you're totally right about not needing to
           | backup every little config file.
        
             | Leherenn wrote:
             | I used to have a repo with scripts that "encodes" those
             | change. Stuff like "setup-zsh.sh" and so on. On a new
             | computer, I could just install git, clone the repo then run
             | the scripts.
             | 
             | I stopped doing that because I don't use new systems often
             | enough to be worth it, and as someone else said it's also a
             | good time to examine and improve your workflow.
        
             | xoa wrote:
             | > _As a developer, I've modified quite a few system files_
             | 
             | I do as well. Given that such things tend to be more
             | fragile between OS releases though and easy to forget I
             | usually prefer to recreate them for upgrades or reinstalls
             | anyway. Also provides an opportunity to reevaluate them. So
             | these days I think the better way to go about it is with
             | automation as much as possible rather than backups. That
             | said:
             | 
             | > _It's one reason I don't use Backblaze - they refuse to
             | backup system files._
             | 
             | Well, you can use something like CCC to image your startup
             | disk to a file somewhere else, and regular BB will
             | cheerfully take care of that. Makes restores mildly more
             | work but not much given that a failure which nukes the
             | system files means having to do some level of
             | reinstall/recover anyway.
             | 
             | I use Backblaze B2 though, which has maintained decent
             | pricing vs S3 and is much more natively flexible. Having
             | local systems backup to TrueNAS (or have data folders that
             | just live there) then that go to B2 is another way to
             | handle things. With Apple making custom restores ever more
             | difficult though all that might need some reevaluation too
             | :(. I miss how powerful and pleasant their tools were at
             | one point with no subscriptions or WAN required, and will
             | always be a bit bummed things didn't go the way of adding
             | your own signing to the system image utility, Net Boot/Net
             | Install etc they already had going. Macs were really great
             | to run heavily off a LAN back around 10.5.
        
         | rsync wrote:
         | "There's a few headlines talking about backups - does apple
         | finally have a cloud based time machine replacement?"
         | 
         | Apple doesn't, but we do.
         | 
         | You simply do a "dumb" 1:1 mirror to an rsync.net account with
         | 'rsync', which you already have.
         | 
         | Then you set up an arbitrary snapshot schedule in your account.
         | rsync.net will then create, and rotate, _immutable_ snapshots
         | of your dataset. [1]
         | 
         | The only difference is that our ZFS snapshots are bit-wise
         | efficient whereas the time machine snapshots are still (I
         | think) file-wise efficient ... which is to say they are less
         | efficient.
         | 
         | We used to advertise this ... the notion that you could clone
         | your time machine config to rsync.net ... but we came to the
         | conclusion that there's a pretty insular hackers-on-osx bubble
         | and, in reality, 99% of mac users don't drop to the command
         | line _for any reason_.
         | 
         | Which is too bad ...
         | 
         | [1] https://twitter.com/rsyncnet/status/1453044746213990405
        
           | beermonster wrote:
           | Would you say that this is the most time machine-esque way of
           | using your service? I'd imagine using borg (pulled from
           | macports/homebrew) and using MacFUSE to local mount would
           | seem pretty time machine like whilst offering other benefits
           | over rsync such as client side encryption, compression and
           | deduplication (the dedupe might be irrelevant since you're
           | using zfs)
        
             | rsync wrote:
             | Yes, I would say that.
             | 
             | It's also the simplest method - again, just a dumb rsync
             | command that you re-run every day.
             | 
             | If you are using borg you would probably handle the
             | retention and versioning yourself with the borg tool and
             | perhaps set just one or two daily snapshots at rsync.net.
             | These would not be for your backup schema, but rather, for
             | safety in case of mistakes/ransomware/mallory.
        
       | bengale wrote:
       | Looks good, roll it out to the UK and we'll switch from Jamf
       | pretty quickly.
        
       | m0llusk wrote:
       | Though the whole setting has changed, this harkens back to NeXT's
       | stated mission prior to merging with Apple: To be the preferred
       | business alternative to Microsoft.
        
       | jonathantf2 wrote:
       | On-site repairs sounds interesting, although their computers are
       | all glued together and every component is soldered to the board
       | so I have no idea how they'll manage that.
        
         | CaptainJustin wrote:
         | I have no evidence for this but I expect the experience would
         | be similar to visiting an Apple store.
        
           | stefan_ wrote:
           | Make an appointment 2 weeks from now, go there to hand it in,
           | return in another 2 weeks to be handed a refurbished machine
           | with your data gone?
           | 
           | Sorry to say, that's not competitive with what other vendors
           | offer as business support.
        
             | chrisseaton wrote:
             | > Make an appointment 2 weeks from now, go there to hand it
             | in, return in another 2 weeks to be handed a refurbished
             | machine with your data gone?
             | 
             | Every time I've visited an Apple store with a problem I've
             | left within 30 mins with either it fixed or a replacement.
             | 
             | What you're describing sounds more like the traditional
             | Dell or HP approach!
             | 
             | One of the best things about Apple is being able to visit a
             | store in almost any major city and getting your problem
             | fixed.
        
               | loginatnine wrote:
               | Dell business support is pretty awesome in my experience,
               | had to fix something 3 times in the past 4 years with my
               | work precision laptop and it took less than 24h to got a
               | technician to my house to do the swap.
        
               | asdff wrote:
               | If you have a more serious issue the default procedure is
               | to just wipe the device and replace the logic board for
               | the flat rate repair fee. I have a macbook that just
               | shuts off randomly and turns on with CPU1 halt error
               | messages. I bring it to the apple store and they told me
               | flat out they don't know what is going on with the
               | device, gotta replace. Also had macbooks with gpu issues,
               | same deal send away wipe the device and replace the logic
               | board and hope that fixes it. I had a macbook where the
               | flex cable to the screen was going and same thing, wipe
               | and send away. All they do in the store is software based
               | solutions, they scan for hardware issues and they send it
               | away to be repaired.
               | 
               | I wonder what sort of issues you had that could have been
               | fixed in 30 minutes or what sort of replacements you've
               | been given? That's not been my experience at all at apple
               | stores and I've been bringing them screwed up laptops to
               | fix for ten years. I've never been just handed a
               | replacement laptop that day, its always been send away
               | the computer for at least a week and they try gutting it
               | and putting in all new parts vs troubleshooting the
               | underlying issue and replacing the perhaps one bad
               | component that is the root cause.
        
               | chrisseaton wrote:
               | I'm not some kind of power-customer - just a normal
               | consumer. They always say 'sorry we'll fix that' and fix
               | it then and there or they say 'sorry can't fix it
               | immediately we'll swap it' and I walk out with a new one
               | in minutes. If they wanted to keep it over night I'd be
               | extremely surprised.
        
               | asdff wrote:
               | You are getting macbooks swapped out at apple? I'm not a
               | power customer either, they just take the laptop away and
               | tell me its ready next friday. Sounds like the fixes they
               | do then and there aren't hardware issues in your case.
        
               | chrisseaton wrote:
               | I've definitely had at least a battery swapped then and
               | there. If it's anything more than that yeah I guess
               | they're defaulting to swapping it. I'm not complaining
               | about the policy!
        
               | criddell wrote:
               | My daughter's Alienware laptop had a keyboard problem.
               | Contacted support over phone and it went nowhere.
               | Contacted support via Twitter and after a bit of back-
               | and-forth they scheduled a next-day on site repair in
               | Toronto even though we live in Texas (where the computer
               | was purchased).
        
               | EvanAnderson wrote:
               | I can't speak to the Apple store, but I do have years of
               | experience with on-site repairs for both Dell and HP.
               | 
               | Both Dell and HP business on-site repair service is
               | really good (though I prefer Dell to HP). Depot
               | warranties for consumers are horrible, no matter the
               | company. I've been advising friends and family to
               | purchase business-oriented equipment and pay for on-site
               | warranties (for the intended duration of the lifetime of
               | the product). It makes life ridiculously easier.
               | 
               | Consumer warranties on PCs are universally awful in my
               | experience.
        
               | FireBeyond wrote:
               | Good luck getting an appointment within 4 hours at Apple
               | stores near here. The three nearest me have no
               | appointments until November 19.
               | 
               | Dell laptops I can get serviced with an onsite tech
               | within 4 hours if I want that level of service.
               | 
               | Experience 1: MBA wouldn't charge battery. Machine
               | functioned just fine on AC power. Expected maybe $300 in
               | parts and labor, out of warranty. No, "this will be $870.
               | Maybe we can look at getting you into a new Mac today?".
               | 
               | Experience 2: reproducible kernel panics on demand from
               | GPU (later acknowledged as an issue by Apple, over a year
               | later). Despite the tech being able to cause the panic
               | too, "our diagnostic tool says there's no problem,
               | nothing we can do".
               | 
               | Experience 3: screen adhesive delamination. "Within
               | normal limits, expected/not abnormal behavior". That one
               | was belatedly acknowledged by Apple, too.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | binaryblitz wrote:
         | Depending on the size of your business, it's easier just to
         | have a few (or even one if you're really small) spare machines
         | for when one breaks or is having issues. Just turn it on,
         | restore from the latest backup and give it to the user. Then
         | send the old one off for repair if needed.
        
         | rbanffy wrote:
         | Watching the Apple employee come to the office to repair a
         | glued together MacBook Pro can have an extremely high
         | entertainment value.
        
           | hda111 wrote:
           | The newer MacBooks have easy repairable battery and
           | connectors.
        
             | rbanffy wrote:
             | I was being facetious.
        
             | TakuYam wrote:
             | True but how often is the battery the issue in an
             | enterprise environment? In my experience devices are seldom
             | in circulation long enough that they require a battery
             | swap.
             | 
             | Port damage and clumsy or messy employees are far more
             | likely to cause issues.
        
               | tshaddox wrote:
               | Your parent commenter mentioned connector as well. What
               | else couldn't be repaired on-site that _could_ be
               | repaired off-site? I 'm pretty sure anything that for
               | anything that couldn't be repaired on-site they're just
               | going to replace the whole computer.
        
               | tadbit wrote:
               | In my experience the battery was the issue for most
               | MacBook users.
        
               | mschuster91 wrote:
               | > In my experience devices are seldom in circulation long
               | enough that they require a battery swap.
               | 
               | MacBooks can easily last four to six years in a corporate
               | environment - and heavy load on the battery drastically
               | impact it in two years.
        
           | kube-system wrote:
           | > Onsite repairs apply only to some iPhone models and are
           | subject to availability in specific cities.
        
             | _fat_santa wrote:
             | I wonder if it will be an actual "repair", or will they
             | just come and give you a refurbished iPhone and transfer
             | all your data to it.
        
         | Navarr wrote:
         | When you click the box it seems like it applies only to iPhones
        
       | fsflover wrote:
       | "Privacy"? Sounds like false advertising to me:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28309202.
        
         | smoldesu wrote:
         | At this point, I think Apple's PRISM compliance is common
         | knowledge. I hope.
        
           | fsflover wrote:
           | Looking at the downvotes, it seems, it isn't. More info:
           | 
           | https://www.cultofmac.com/230358/everything-you-need-to-
           | know...
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)
        
             | sbuk wrote:
             | The downvotes are coming because this has nothing to do
             | with the topic at hand and you are both blatantly trying to
             | start a flame war. You both have form on Apple threads. If
             | they bother you that much, stop reading articles about
             | them.
        
               | mixmastamyk wrote:
               | One of the main cards was explicitly about privacy and
               | security. Find out more...
        
               | smoldesu wrote:
               | Clicking through your comments, I think you're setting a
               | double standard. I'm not trying to start a flame war, I'm
               | holding a trillion-plus-dollar company accountable for a
               | claim they made on the webpage this thread was based on.
               | You're welcome to refute these claims or ignore them
               | altogether, but arguing that people shouldn't post about
               | Apple's history of privacy abuse only makes _you_ look
               | bad. Tanking the downvotes is just the cost of making a
               | subversive claim on Hacker News.
        
       | roody15 wrote:
       | Wonder if an education version of this product will be released?
        
       | numbsafari wrote:
       | The challenge for Apple is going to be their unwillingness to
       | integrate with others. Business Manager only integrates with MS
       | Azure Active Directory for IAM. The vast majority of small
       | business do not have Azure Active Directory. They either have
       | nothing, or they have Google Workspace.
       | 
       | Apple needs to not just launch a competitor for AD. They need to
       | properly support integrated directory services with a broader
       | range of systems.
       | 
       | Aside from that, they don't have an endpoint security solution,
       | which is a necessary part of this package, ultimately, if they
       | care going to replace JAMF, who is the real target/loser here.
       | 
       | If Apple can do those two things... well... I'd switch in a
       | heartbeat. Why? Well, their support story is going to be way
       | better than JAMF. Also, I hate having multiple vendors when I can
       | have just one.
       | 
       | For those saying that Apple has no room left to grow... I expect
       | this isn't the end of this for Apple going after business users.
       | They need to roll Claris into the mix, stop acting like Numbers
       | is a spreadsheet, and finally launch a cloud platform.
       | 
       | There's many billions for them to make here.
        
         | easton wrote:
         | > vast majority of small business do not have Azure Active
         | Directory
         | 
         | Where are you from? On the east coast of the US, I find it
         | uncommon to find small businesses who aren't still all in on
         | Office, which if you've bought it in the last five years, was
         | probably via a subscription that gives you Azure AD (and
         | Exchange, Teams, etc). GSuite is still very uncommon in my
         | experience outside of schools.
        
         | jonathantf2 wrote:
         | At the MSP I work at every single customer we have uses Azure
         | AD. G Suite isn't a proper business e-mail solution for a
         | business with any more than 3 users - Exchange and Azure AD are
         | the gold standard for cloud based office for SMB.
        
         | borski wrote:
         | I suspect integrating with Google is just a v2 feature.
        
           | r00fus wrote:
           | Not to mention Okta, etc. Though for Apple's target market
           | Azure was probably the best initial integration.
        
       | Someone1234 wrote:
       | So they advertise AppleCare+ features (24/7 support, on-site
       | repair) but they don't currently offer that nor do the prices
       | reflect those services. Page seems deceiving (have to read the
       | small print to _really_ understand the offering).
       | 
       | With those two removed, you're paying for an MDM solution and
       | cloud storage.
        
         | jedberg wrote:
         | Ah! I thought it was way too cheap for the AppleCare part. I
         | was about to sign up for just my devices at home just for that,
         | because it seemed like a really cheap way to get iCloud and
         | AppleCare!
        
         | lelandfe wrote:
         | The small print, for posterity:
         | 
         | > Plans with AppleCare+ for Business Essentials will be
         | available in spring 2022.
        
       | benrockwood wrote:
       | In 2020 Apple bought FleetSmith (https://www.fleetsmith.com/), we
       | all knew that would become the basis of an Apple MDM, this is the
       | result.
        
       | wpietri wrote:
       | Wow, what a change! Apple spent many years holding the corporate
       | market in mild contempt. Given the dominance of Windows, I
       | totally get that; Apple was right to focus on the niches where
       | they were successful. But it's amazing how much circumstances
       | have changed to make this plausible.
        
       | samstave wrote:
       | A few comments:
       | 
       | 1. I was paying for iCloud and apple service for *YEARS* but then
       | suddenly when I lost my phone, iCloud had no record of it.
       | 
       | 2. I have had multiple employers in Silicon Valley who had the
       | BYOD (Bring you own device) policy implemented but then they
       | attached a SECONDARY DEVICE to my iCloud account and were
       | slurping all personal records from that.
       | 
       | 3. Show me a way to FUCKING MANAGE WHO IS ACCESSING MY DATA.
       | 
       | 4. I have too many more issues at level 4 that @dang will get mad
       | if I share (and FB and others will sue me again if I dare)...
       | think paul stamets on the secrets of mushrooms -- If you have any
       | sort of work phone, know they are slurping ALL the deets..
       | 
       | Never take a personal phone/device into a workplace environment.
       | 
       | In my case - I was going through a verry messy divorce, and my
       | employer had been surveilling my texts and everything because
       | when I joined I made the mistake of adding my apple ID -- and
       | then the employer added a fucking device to my account and was
       | surveilling everything.
       | 
       | Yeah - if you get a job in tech these days, the ironic thing is
       | to be an off-grid person.
       | 
       | #KazinskiWasRight
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | j16sdiz wrote:
         | > 2. I have had multiple employers in Silicon Valley who had
         | the BYOD (Bring you own device) policy implemented but then
         | they attached a SECONDARY DEVICE to my iCloud account and were
         | slurping all personal records from that.
         | 
         | I don't think MDM allow the admin to hijack your icloud
         | account. Are you sure it's your employer, not some other?
        
           | samstave wrote:
           | Positive. Its happening everywhere, and by dog-years and
           | internet standards, this is _ancient_
           | 
           | Never EVER trust ANY HR department. They are not your
           | friends.
        
             | lostlogin wrote:
             | HR? They are 'People and Culture' now.
        
       | N_A_T_E wrote:
       | Looks great. I recall Apple held out for a long time to play ball
       | with enterprise IT, focusing on consumer. It seems like they've
       | fully embraced the massive enterprise market.
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | Apple has supported enterprise device management for a long
         | time, it has just been third parties like Jamf doing most of it
         | until now.
        
       | sna1l wrote:
       | I see a lot of comments where people are saying this is a killer
       | blow to JAMF but almost every single org has a heterogeneous set
       | of devices (PCs, Macs, iPhones, Androids, etc), so how will this
       | work with that?
       | 
       | Unless they support all types of devices why have yet another
       | tool?
        
         | binaryblitz wrote:
         | JAMF is Apple only.
        
         | mataug wrote:
         | Not necessarily true, if a small business wants to keep MDM
         | simple, they could adopt Apple's Business Essentials to get a
         | lot of value quickly. These small businesses may like paying
         | for apple care and MDM in a single payment rather than paying
         | two separate companies.
         | 
         | You're correct in that large businesses have heterogeneous
         | devices and JAMF will still be relevant there.
        
         | surye wrote:
         | I thought JAMF was Apple Only Ecosystem as well. So it's a
         | lateral movement from the perspective of heterogeneous set of
         | devices, but if you had to go with Apple or third party, given
         | the same features and limitations, most would go first party.
        
       | motohagiography wrote:
       | Smart play to focus on businesses with fewer than 500 employees,
       | as those are the most likely to grow in the next 3-7 years into
       | larger accounts, and they don't have the 12-18mo sales cycle and
       | shennanigans of an enterprise.
       | 
       | It's a strategic departure from being a consumer luxury product
       | company, and the shift to enterprise suggests they're out of
       | ideas, but at the rate they're losing consumer growth I'd say
       | they've still got another 150 years. Leveraging the apple store
       | as a service point is a huge deal, as it may compensate for the
       | additional hardware premium their products cost.
       | 
       | I've worked in a large number of organizations as a consultant
       | and the microsoft ecosystem is basically unusuable to me now.
       | Between performance issues and thoughtless design, I switch back
       | to my apple devices to do simple things and get real feedback
       | from actions while I'm waiting for the microsoft platform to
       | respond. As a result, I manage client work on MSFT, and _do_ real
       | work on my mac. With Apple getting into this space, I can 't see
       | buying another microsoft product unless I actually hated the
       | people I was hiring to use it.
       | 
       | The essence of the apple experience is that by their products
       | being designed to be responsive no matter what, you are always
       | engaged and working on them for the feedback, whereas some MSFT
       | error message means I'm going to go do something else for 15-20m
       | while I get past the gumption trap. Current one is having to
       | reboot the machine to reset a VPN driver just to check client
       | site email. MSFTs problem isn't from lack of a solution, it's
       | that the problem exists at all and as a user I am even aware of
       | it.
       | 
       | I have lots of issues with Apple's social decisions, and am
       | switching out of their ecosystem because of it so I'm not an
       | uncritical fan, however, this announcement means they aren't just
       | getting into enterprise, they're getting upstream of it and in
       | 10-20 years they will have replaced a lot of it. They're dropping
       | in on a macro trend wave that is how work itself is going to be
       | different.
        
         | zitterbewegung wrote:
         | Once Apple stops doing 22 percent year over year growth is when
         | there is a problem. This is just Tim Cook's personal plan to
         | move Apple into more of a service oriented company and this
         | product should have existed a long time ago.
        
         | novok wrote:
         | > the shift to enterprise suggests they're out of ideas
         | 
         | I would not say that. This is a long time coming for apple to
         | finally acknowledge with actions that apple devices are used in
         | an enterprise context for many, many companies and to start
         | thinking about proper first class support for that use case.
         | "Innovation" wise it's independent of their other efforts IMO.
        
         | vineyardmike wrote:
         | > the shift to enterprise suggests they're out of ideas
         | 
         | Pretty sure its just the way to profit off of all types of
         | users, keep cash flow coming and grow the business.
         | 
         | When their app store faces anti-trust, and everyone already has
         | an iphone and the next igadget is 5 years away, how do you
         | generate growth?
        
           | threeseed wrote:
           | > When their app store faces anti-trust
           | 
           | They have already faced the courts over the App Store. They
           | won.
           | 
           | > how do you generate growth?
           | 
           | Through new devices eg. Watch, AirPods, AR/VR Headset. And
           | most importantly through Services eg. AppleTV+, News+, Music+
           | 
           | You should look at Apples balance sheet. Far more diversified
           | than most people realise.
        
             | vineyardmike wrote:
             | > They won.
             | 
             | They won, in america... for now. They have (a) a global
             | business with other nations less inclined to side with them
             | and (b) a likely chance of legislature targeted at them.
             | The odds of a future decline in margins of the app store
             | seem high. New laws in Korea and Japan are going to slowly
             | erode the edges, and allow businesses to tests
             | alternatives. The Epic trial may now allow link-out to
             | payments with latest court docs. And EU is a big market
             | that could easily turn against them with new laws.
             | 
             | > Through new devices
             | 
             | The best new devices can do now is replace existing ones
             | people own, most people who want and can afford apple
             | devices own them. New product catagories are a few years
             | away.
             | 
             | > And most importantly through Services
             | 
             | Like the service they just launched, targeted at
             | enterprise?
             | 
             | > You should look at Apples balance sheet. Far more
             | diversified than most people realise.
             | 
             | I do financial analysis, and attend their earnings calls.
             | You're right, it is very diverse, but the non-services
             | revenues don't seem poised to see strong growth in next few
             | years unless they launch a new (and successful) product
             | category.
        
           | motohagiography wrote:
           | > When their app store faces anti-trust, and everyone already
           | has an iphone and the next igadget is 5 years away, how do
           | you generate growth?
           | 
           | I'd suggest this is the definition of being out of ideas, as
           | the way they grew last time was they invented the iPhone, and
           | then the iPod, and then the Airbook, Apple Watch, and
           | AirPods. Then there was the mini tracking device to help you
           | believe every other product wasn't already a tracking device.
           | 
           | Imo, the negative inflection point was the AppleTV launch
           | where it was just a bunch of celebrities, and for Cook to
           | stay at the helm, he needs to deliver a Jobs level win.
           | Enterprise may be his "second envelope," as I think it's a
           | safety play.
           | 
           | Reframing your question as, what can they re-invent next?
           | That's hard to answer without being that level of design
           | thinker. Cook's team is designing products for a very
           | different world than the one Jobs did. The aesthetics,
           | aspirations, and even power means different things now, as
           | they say, what got us here doesn't get us where we need to go
           | next. The enterprise product is going to be huge revenue
           | wise, but innovation wise, I think it's treading water.
           | 
           | Maybe the smartest thing to do is to turn Apple into a
           | company that doesn't need to run on genius anymore, and fork
           | a design driven ventures division with a mission to get
           | exposure to early stage brilliance instead. What Jobs did was
           | bring artists to tech, but that whole play was predicated on
           | a bohemian/creative class that doesn't matter the same way
           | anymore because their rarity and scarcity was an artifact of
           | geography that is no longer a factor. This bringing something
           | from one place to another aspect of Jobs' vision (and
           | cultural arbitrage) breaks down when that physical distance
           | is no longer meaningful.
           | 
           | The distance to bridge with products now is intellectual,
           | educational, cultural, political, etc, and maybe we don't
           | want it bridged now, maybe what we desire is that distance
           | again. The next iPhone level innovation won't be a signifier
           | of joining the middle class of that time, it will be either a
           | barrier to it, or an escape from it.
        
             | vineyardmike wrote:
             | i largely agree with your points.
             | 
             | I think the ousting (quitting?) of Ives is a sign that
             | apple as an aesthetic force is ending, and the return to
             | "logical" macs instead is a sign that they're reverting
             | going too far. Its an acknowledgement that they have to do
             | more than make pretty devices.
             | 
             | I see a very similar path to luxury car brands for luxury
             | electronics. A mix of status, comfort and performance. I
             | wouldn't be surprised if the "pro"/"pro-sumer" line of
             | devices diverges even more into the future so that we have
             | $2k iPhones. Similar to how car companies have $200k+ cars,
             | and $75k+ cars that effectively don't compete with each
             | other and let them invest in more expensive efforts, that
             | serve as flagships. Alternatively, go the racing-car route,
             | and invest in high-end engineering efforts that way. This
             | could be similar to your "forking" idea in that they get
             | exposure without subjecting it to mass scale.
        
           | numbsafari wrote:
           | Agreed. They have been leaving a mountain of money on the
           | table by not offering this, or a competitor for Google
           | Workspace.
        
             | frankfrankfrank wrote:
             | It could actually be a play for far bigger, the mountain of
             | money that is now largely dominated by Microsoft in ALL
             | establishment corporations and governments. Think of being
             | able to run your whole network and equipment with a mere
             | fraction of the IT and network personnel that it now takes
             | to run a Windows based environment.
        
             | vineyardmike wrote:
             | > a competitor for Google Workspace.
             | 
             | I think this is their obvious next move. They just launched
             | iCloud email with custom domains for end users. That seems
             | like an early battle-test for enterprise use cases.
             | 
             | They already have alternative software to google docs too,
             | so it could be an easy business to set up.
        
         | cptskippy wrote:
         | > Current one is having to reboot the machine to reset a VPN
         | driver just to check client site email.
         | 
         | These aren't Microsoft specific issues but vendor specific. My
         | partner's last two employers have used Dell machines and
         | they've each had serious problems with audio drivers. I've seen
         | Dell bios updates completely mess up full disk encryption by
         | losing keys and more recently switching SSDs from ACHI to ATA
         | mode.
         | 
         | At the same time I've had comparatively few issues using my
         | work issued Lenovo laptop. However I completely re-imaged my
         | work issued Macbook because the Trend Micro software installed
         | on it made it $3000 brick.
        
         | short12 wrote:
         | Didnt they already try this and it was a huge failure
        
           | hhaha88 wrote:
           | I've been backing up and restoring my personal phone, and
           | managing family gadgets that way for a while.
           | 
           | This is a reskin of an existing Apple iCloud infrastructure
           | project.
        
           | zeusk wrote:
           | Who remembers xserve?
        
             | ryanjkirk wrote:
             | and XSAN <shudder/>
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | TimTheTinker wrote:
             | I cried a tear or two when they deprecated it. Apple _can_
             | do enterprise hardware... just because Linux and x86
             | hardware became commoditized doesn 't mean there isn't room
             | for further innovation.
             | 
             | I think Apple should come out with an M1 Enterprise chip
             | and a line of data center/server hardware to compete with
             | Oxide. As for an OS, why not hire Hector Martin and adopt a
             | particular flavor of Linux (maybe partner with Red Hat)?
        
           | newsclues wrote:
           | Apple has had success in certain sectors of industry: the
           | creative space being a large focus where they had success
           | often in spite of being Apple
        
         | thereddaikon wrote:
         | Smart to focus on smaller businesses but foolish albeit
         | expected to only include Apple products in the solution. I'd
         | put money on the overwhelming majority of businesses that have
         | any Apple devices also have non Apple devices. Very few will be
         | purely Apple environments and those that are would hardly
         | qualify as enterprise environments. The reason is simple, Apple
         | has failed to provide the needed suite of enterprise solutions
         | to allow a company to build themselves around their ecosystem.
         | You can do it in the home but Apple doesn't sell servers
         | anymore or allow anyone to develop server products for them.
        
           | Closi wrote:
           | > Smart to focus on smaller businesses but foolish albeit
           | expected to only include Apple products in the solution.
           | 
           | Eh, it depends why you think they are doing it.
           | 
           | If you think they are offering this because they want to get
           | into selling MDM software, then yeah, it's foolish.
           | 
           | If, on the other hand, you imagine that they are offering
           | this because they want to encourage small businesses to go
           | 'wall-to-wall' Apple, and for a benefit of this to be that if
           | you go 'Apple' you effectively have some level of a technical
           | support contract too with on-site hardware repairs (not
           | really offered in a compelling way by any other hardware
           | vendor), then it might not be so foolish from a commercial
           | perspective.
           | 
           | I suspect it's the latter - make going 'all in' on Apple a
           | super appealing proposition for small businesses.
           | 
           | The second thing is, Windows is _very_ appealing for small
           | businesses because, amongst other things, configuration and
           | management of users, sign ins, security policies e.t.c.
           | through AAD  / Office 365 is brilliant, so this seems to
           | close the gap a bit.
           | 
           | > Apple doesn't sell servers anymore or allow anyone to
           | develop server products for them.
           | 
           | This seems to be more like an MDM/device management and user
           | management/onboarding solution, not something you would
           | install or use to manage servers.
        
           | r00fus wrote:
           | > Smart to focus on smaller businesses but foolish albeit
           | expected to only include Apple products in the solution.
           | 
           | Apple isn't here to be end-all-be-all for their customers.
           | They are there to sell products and services that make sense
           | for their customers.
           | 
           | If others undercut them or provide more comprehensive
           | service, then that's a market Apple has decided not to
           | compete in now. Good for their competitors.
        
         | ziggus wrote:
         | I'm calling BS on this entire pile of nonsense.
        
       | baggy_trough wrote:
       | What do you do if you need more than 2TB of storage?
        
         | kalleboo wrote:
         | Yeah I guess for "business" users who are only storing office
         | documents 2 TB is plenty, but as a home user, I bought into
         | iCloud Photo Library and I'm about to pass the max 2.2TB
         | storage limit of iCloud and will have to switch to Synology
         | Photos or something
        
           | jnieminen wrote:
           | You could have the 2TB iCloud storage add-on and also the
           | Apple One with 2TB to get the total of 4TB.
        
         | manquer wrote:
         | Graphics and design pro users may need more that that
         | easily.That is an important business segment for Apple .
        
       | ksec wrote:
       | This is what you get when part of Apple's Services Revenue is at
       | risk . Finally doing something that it should have been since Day
       | 1. Along with AppleCare+ Monthly option. Instead it took them the
       | whole 2019 and 2020 before they act. I would imagine similar play
       | will be made for Education market as well. As they are battling
       | with Chromebook and now Windows 11 SE.
       | 
       | This is easily another billion dollar ARR.
       | 
       | Oh I would not be suspired if Johnson & Johnson are switching to
       | using Mac sometimes in the future.
       | 
       | Edit: I would bet the on site repair is the only good thing ever
       | came out of Butterfly keyboard fiasco.
        
       | jguimont wrote:
       | I mean... I'd like to use that to manage my family's macs/iphone!
        
         | lostgame wrote:
         | You know what would piss me off, if I had kids; would be the
         | lack of support the iPad, in particular - has for multi-user
         | logins.
         | 
         | It would be huge for families, and it would also make parental
         | controls way more of a breeze.
         | 
         | Does anyone know why this is the case? I was _positive_ when
         | they made iPadOS its own thing, we 'd finally see this.
        
           | Cipater wrote:
           | >Does anyone know why this is the case?
           | 
           | They want people to think of iPads as personal devices like a
           | phone rather than communal devices leading to buying one for
           | each member of the family.
        
           | duxup wrote:
           | Have kids.
           | 
           | I HATE that there are no multi user options.
           | 
           | Other people's browser history, settings, preferences,
           | notifications, all jumbled into a mess.
        
           | bradfa wrote:
           | I don't know why it's the case, but it is very frustrating to
           | me. I have 3 kids and 3 iPads, not assigned per kid, just a
           | pool they all and my wife use. Current implementation is a
           | common "family" account logged in as a "child" on all 3 iPads
           | with app purchase approval going to me and my wife (we both
           | have iPhones).
           | 
           | This "works" just kind of OK. But it would work MUCH MUCH
           | better if my wife could have her iCloud account sign in from
           | the unlock screen when she wants to use it and have the kids
           | sign in from the unlock screen on the shared kids account.
           | The way it is now my wife ends up signing into various
           | services she wants to use on random iPads, which isn't really
           | ideal.
           | 
           | Apple's solution to my family's problem would be to buy my
           | wife her own iPad. But we don't have a shortage of iPads,
           | there's almost never a time when someone doesn't have an iPad
           | available to them when they need/want it. We have enough
           | hardware, just the software doesn't provide a way to share
           | that hardware in a nice way.
        
             | sigspec wrote:
             | Agree! Even Apple TVs have user profile switching.
        
           | tonyedgecombe wrote:
           | They would rather you bought an iPad for each member of your
           | family.
        
           | dunham wrote:
           | I think they have this for school iPads, with special
           | management software, but not available on the consumer side.
           | 
           | I suspect they're pushing for you to buy a device per user.
           | But even for a household without kids, I could see some
           | utility in being able to pick up the nearest iPad and having
           | your personal state on it. (I think ChromeOS does this, but I
           | haven't used it.)
        
             | my123 wrote:
             | Also available for business iPads.
             | 
             | Has some catches like... around 30 secs to switch between
             | users, doesn't seem to be instant. Maybe it's faster now.
        
       | simonebrunozzi wrote:
       | In your experience, would it make sense to use this to manage 4-5
       | family members and their devices?
        
       | walterbell wrote:
       | Could this allow per-app VPNs via MDM, e.g. one browser goes to
       | corporate VPN, rest of device uses standard network connection?
        
       | thih9 wrote:
       | Slightly off topic, check out the HTML code next to the "Onsite
       | repairs" box; the formatting uses strikethrough, but there is a
       | hidden element with "Not" text before each crossed out line. I
       | assume this is for accessibility or copy-paste compatibility; as
       | a result the raw text still reads:
       | 
       | > Onsite repairs: Not someday Not next week Not soon ASAP.
       | 
       | I find this kind of attention to detail very cool.
       | 
       | (Too bad "ASAP" is not very specific either and can mean
       | "someday", "next week", or "soon" too...)
        
         | spyder wrote:
         | Looks like they are using the hidden "not" and the weird :after
         | CSS pseudo element to draw a line over text instead of "text-
         | decoration: line-through;" probably because screen readers
         | don't recognize the proper strike-trough styling:
         | 
         | https://veroniiiica.com/2020/05/29/tips-for-censoring-text-w...
         | 
         | If that's the case than it should be fixed in the screen
         | readers instead of still requiring CSS "hacking" in 2021.
        
         | 5faulker wrote:
         | It's way too vague if they're channeling that much attention to
         | it.
        
         | CityOfThrowaway wrote:
         | This is for the visually impaired! Screen readers will announce
         | the hidden element
        
           | dahfizz wrote:
           | Can screen readers not figure out that a 1px x 1px element
           | with a clip-path: inset(0px 0px 99.9% 99.9%) is invisible?
        
             | londons_explore wrote:
             | Screen readers are a lot dumber than you'd expect... And
             | now web designers have come to rely on this dumb-ness, so
             | making them smarter breaks stuff.
        
             | steve_adams_86 wrote:
             | The trouble is, I think, that typefaces vary so much that
             | some could appear to have a strike through when they don't.
             | 
             | Or take for example the number 0 which sometimes has a
             | fairly horizontal slash through it. Do you program the
             | screen reader to check if the struck letter is a 0, and if
             | so, consider it not to be struck? But... What if it
             | actually is, and that typeface doesn't have a slashed 0?
             | 
             | Do you only check perfectly horizontal strikes? How thick?
             | At which height in the type? How much overhead is it to
             | parse all of this? etc.
             | 
             | This also requires rendering the document and inspecting
             | the image with object detection, I would think? Someone
             | correct me if I'm wrong, I'm only trying to imagine
             | potential problems.
        
               | zeusk wrote:
               | screen readers don't do OCR.
        
               | steve_adams_86 wrote:
               | That's kind of my point - I don't understand how you
               | could go about identifying words on screen with a strike-
               | through in the way they described.
        
               | zeusk wrote:
               | Depends on how you implement the strikethrough; if you
               | use the HTML tag - the screen reader will have zero
               | trouble.
               | 
               | Although with all the vDOM and JavaScript crap these
               | days, web is quite inaccessible compared to most native
               | apps.
        
               | dahfizz wrote:
               | The issue is not with detecting the strike through. The
               | issue is that the CSS of the hidden "not" element
               | obviously makes the element invisible, but a screen
               | reader still reads it.
               | 
               | Obviously, Apple is abusing that fact here in order to
               | insert elements that only screen readers would see.
               | Definitely feels like a hack.
        
               | steve_adams_86 wrote:
               | I understand what's happening (I use this approach
               | myself). I'm only wondering about if the strike-through
               | recognition idea makes sense.
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | cma wrote:
           | Do they not indicate strike through already in another way?
        
         | mappu wrote:
         | Bootstrap's .visually-hidden (formerly .sr-only) does something
         | similar using clip():
         | https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/blob/main/scss/mixins/_vis...
        
         | polycaster wrote:
         | I suppose this is more about the concern the wrong meaning
         | could be indexed. Nice highlight in search results: "Apple BE:
         | Onsite repairs someday".
        
         | overspeed wrote:
         | Slightly tangential but don't soon and ASAP mean the same with
         | the difference of an urgency qualifier?
        
           | city17 wrote:
           | Thought the same. ASAP seems just as meaningless/vague as
           | soon?
        
       | isodev wrote:
       | I work as a freelancer and together with a few colleagues we are
       | essentially a "small product studio". We all have "business only"
       | devices and we are definitely going to try this Business
       | Essentials thing. It kind of reminds me of how easy it is to
       | setup a macOS Server. Very cool!
        
         | zylent wrote:
         | I'm gonna be real with you, macOS server is a complete joke.
         | Avoid and kill with fire.
        
       | vondur wrote:
       | This certainly seems like a direct attack on something like JAMF,
       | which Apple has basically blessed to be the Enterprise management
       | tool for Apple Devices. (Ok I guess since it's less than 500
       | users, maybe not quite in the same ballpark as JAMF, but I'm JAMF
       | has plenty of customers with less than 500 installed devices, and
       | this service offers more than just management)
        
         | artful-hacker wrote:
         | You just wait, I am sure that after Apple tests this plan,
         | knows it works reasonably well and can make money, they will
         | start crippling JAMFs' capabilities and slowly take over the
         | market.
        
       | iJohnDoe wrote:
       | Wow! Apple is now doing 4-hour onsite repairs?!? It's an early
       | Christmas miracle!
        
       | sabujp wrote:
       | JAMF is overbought anyways, time to sell
        
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       (page generated 2021-11-10 23:00 UTC)