Live data from Hacker News

Business Essentials

apple.com

91–100 of 316 posts

Re: Business Essentials

#91

I mean... I'd like to use that to manage my family's macs/iphone!

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.

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.)

Re: Business Essentials

#92
post #82
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 con…

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.

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.

Re: Business Essentials

#93

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…

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.

Re: Business Essentials

#94
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

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,…

> 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?

Re: Business Essentials

#95

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…

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.

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.

Re: Business Essentials

#96
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watching the Apple employee come to the office to repair a glued together MacBook Pro can have an extremely high entertainment value.

> Onsite repairs apply only to some iPhone models and are subject to availability in specific cities.

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.

Re: Business Essentials

#97

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…

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.

Re: Business Essentials

#98
post #89
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The newer MacBooks have easy repairable battery and connectors.

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.

In my experience the battery was the issue for most MacBook users.

Re: Business Essentials

#99

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…

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."

This sounds like fueling anxiety in the kids that they are being watched. Doesn’t sound okay

Re: Business Essentials

#100

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…

Also, first time i read about NextDNS. Looks rather interesting. Thank you!
Post reply on HN