Mac Admins Podcast

It's just us this week, and we're talking about AI - Apple Intelligence, "Apple" Intelligence, and Apple "Intelligence" - as we dive into a few key developments. The 26.3 group of releases is upon us, along with new Gemini models coming to Siri, and the hopes of new hardware!

• Tom Bridge - @[email protected]
• Marcus Ransom - @marcusransom
• Selina Ali - LinkedIn

Links:

• https://kitzy.com/blog/openclaw-security-dangers/
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/126101
• Restricting the upgrade dialog: https://soundmacguy.org.uk/2026/01/29/suppress-the-upgrade-dialog-for-keynote-numbers-and-pages.html
• https://education.apple.com/story/250015008

Sponsors:

• Iru
• Fleet Device Management
• Meter
• Primo

If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email [email protected] for more information.

Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Weldon Dodd, Damien Barrett, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Seb Nash, Dan McLaughlin, Joe Sfarra, Nate Cinal, Jon Brown, Dan Barker, Tim Perfitt, Ashley MacKinlay, Tobias Linder Philippe Daoust, AJ Potrebka, Adam Burg, & Hamlin Krewson

Everyone wants to manage devices these days, and not just Macs. Being able to embed device management into the platform you're already building can provide a seamless experience for your users. Open source projects like NanoMDM are free, but the resources required to set them up and maintain them are not. Smplify is a new player on the market who provides the infrastructure to manage devices so you can build MDM directly into your own solution.

• Tom Bridge - @[email protected]
• Selina Ali - LinkedIn

Guests:

• Ben Greiner - LinkedIn

Links:

• https://www.smplify.com/
• https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/releases
• https://www.epa.gov/radtown/natural-radioactivity-food

Sponsors:

• Iru
• Fleet Device Management
• Meter
• Primo
• Watchman Monitoring

If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email [email protected] for more information.

Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Weldon Dodd, Damien Barrett, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Seb Nash, Dan McLaughlin, Joe Sfarra, Nate Cinal, Jon Brown, Dan Barker, Tim Perfitt, Ashley MacKinlay, Tobias Linder Philippe Daoust, AJ Potrebka, Adam Burg, & Hamlin Krewson

Kevin White is here with a bucket of spackle and some know how to make Platform Single Sign On a better experience. Plus, he's got updates for us on Super.

• Tom Bridge - @[email protected]
• Marcus Ransom - @marcusransom
• Selina Ali - LinkedIn

Guests:

• Kevin White - LinkedIn

Links:

• https://github.com/Macjutsu/pseudo
• https://github.com/Macjutsu/super
• https://twocanoes.com/products/mac/password-utility/
• Apple BSI (née RSR) https://support.apple.com/en-us/102657

Sponsors:

• Iru
• Fleet Device Management
• Meter
• Primo
• Watchman Monitoring

If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email [email protected] for more information.

Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Weldon Dodd, Damien Barrett, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Seb Nash, Dan McLaughlin, Joe Sfarra, Nate Cinal, Jon Brown, Dan Barker, Tim Perfitt, Ashley MacKinlay, Tobias Linder Philippe Daoust, AJ Potrebka, Adam Burg, & Hamlin Krewson

MDM, DDM, VPP, ABM, even MSCP - all the acronyms that help us to manage devices the way that we need to, providing the amazing end-user experiences that the macadmin community is so conscious of. But what do we do when the tools provided by Apple or our device management service don't provide the capabilities we need? That's right, we build it ourselves! Michael Page is going to talk us through Dock Composer, one of these very tools that he has built to solve his own problem and help others solve the same problems in their environments

• Tom Bridge - @[email protected]
• Marcus Ransom - @marcusransom
• Selina Ali - LinkedIn

Guests:

• Michael Page - LinkedIn

Links:

• Dock Master
  • https://github.com/Error-freeIT/Dock-Master
  • https://techion.com.au/blog/2015/4/28/dock-master
• Dock Composer on the Mac App Store https://apps.apple.com/app/dock-composer/id6751523907
• Dockutil - https://github.com/kcrawford/dockutil
• Docklib - https://github.com/homebysix/docklib
• Git Kraken: https://www.gitkraken.com/

Sponsors:

• Iru
• Fleet Device Management
• Meter
• Watchman Monitoring

If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email [email protected] for more information.

Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Weldon Dodd, Damien Barrett, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Seb Nash, Dan McLaughlin, Joe Sfarra, Nate Cinal, Jon Brown, Dan Barker, Tim Perfitt, Ashley MacKinlay, Tobias Linder Philippe Daoust, AJ Potrebka, Adam Burg, & Hamlin Krewson

As managing Macs evolves, it's no longer enough to just configure the devices we are responsible for. What happened after we configured them, are they still configured that way, has the user managed to get around the controls we put in place. Eric Metzger joins us to discuss the different tools that we as Mac Admins can use to keep an eye on our fleet without making them slow and stop the users from doing their jobs.

• Tom Bridge - @[email protected]
• Marcus Ransom - @marcusransom

Guests:

• Eric Metzger - LinkedIn

Links:

• SIEMply Irresistable - JNUC 2025
• Jamf Protect Telemetry Data Model (Free Jamf ID required)

Sponsors:

• Iru
• Fleet Device Management
• Meter

If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email [email protected] for more information.

Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Weldon Dodd, Damien Barrett, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Seb Nash, Dan McLaughlin, Joe Sfarra, Nate Cinal, Jon Brown, Dan Barker, Tim Perfitt, Ashley MacKinlay, Tobias Linder Philippe Daoust, AJ Potrebka, Adam Burg, & Hamlin Krewson

2026 has begun. Lets look forwards and no backwards and talk about what we have in hope for the year. What are we hoping to see from a hardware perspective? What are we hanging out for at WWDC this year? What predictions do we have for our favourite community projects, conferences, vendors and integrations? What do we resolve to do more, of, less of or to just keep doing?

• Tom Bridge - @[email protected]
• Marcus Ransom - @marcusransom
• Selina Ali - LinkedIn

Links:

• https://www.eventbrite.com/e/twin-cities-mac-admins-meetup-ddm-with-selina-ali-mark-buffington-tickets-1978292003637?aff=oddtdtcreator
• https://macadminmusings.com/blog/2025/12/14/stop-working-before-everything-is-finished/

Sponsors:

• Iru
• https://fleetdm.com/?utm_campaign=macadmins_podcast
• Meter
• Watchman Monitoring

If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email [email protected] for more information.

Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Weldon Dodd, Damien Barrett, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Seb Nash, Dan McLaughlin, Joe Sfarra, Nate Cinal, Jon Brown, Dan Barker, Tim Perfitt, Ashley MacKinlay, Tobias Linder Philippe Daoust, AJ Potrebka, Adam Burg, & Hamlin Krewson

2026 has begun. Lets look forwards and no backwards and talk about what we have in hope for the year. What are we hoping to see from a hardware perspective? What are we hanging out for at WWDC this year? What predictions do we have for our favourite community projects, conferences, vendors and integrations? What do we resolve to do more, of, less of or to just keep doing?

• Tom Bridge - @[email protected]
• Marcus Ransom - @marcusransom
• Selina Ali - LinkedIn

Guests:

• Anna Mentzer-Hernández - LinkedIn

Links:

• https://www.eventbrite.com/e/twin-cities-mac-admins-meetup-ddm-with-selina-ali-mark-buffington-tickets-1978292003637?aff=oddtdtcreator
• https://macadminmusings.com/blog/2025/12/14/stop-working-before-everything-is-finished/

Sponsors:

• Iru
• Fleet Device Management
• Meter
• Watchman Monitoring

If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email [email protected] for more information.

Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Weldon Dodd, Damien Barrett, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Seb Nash, Dan McLaughlin, Joe Sfarra, Nate Cinal, Jon Brown, Dan Barker, Tim Perfitt, Ashley MacKinlay, Tobias Linder Philippe Daoust, AJ Potrebka, Adam Burg, & Hamlin Krewson

It's the End of the Year Special! We're here to break down the 2025 year with all the goods and bads!

• Tom Bridge - @[email protected]
• Marcus Ransom - @marcusransom
• Selina Ali - LinkedIn

Links:

• https://macadminmusings.com/blog/2025/12/14/stop-working-before-everything-is-finished/

Sponsors:

• Iru
• 1Password
• Backblaze
• Meter
• Watchman Monitoring

If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email [email protected] for more information.

Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Weldon Dodd, Damien Barrett, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Seb Nash, Dan McLaughlin, Joe Sfarra, Nate Cinal, Jon Brown, Dan Barker, Tim Perfitt, Ashley MacKinlay, Tobias Linder Philippe Daoust, AJ Potrebka, Adam Burg, & Hamlin Krewson

Welcome to the podcast, Rippling IT, who are working on a novel solution for full lifecycle management related to the devices that their platform enables.

• Tom Bridge - @[email protected]
• Selina Ali - LinkedIn

Guests:

• Zaafir Kherani - LinkedIn

Sponsors:

• Iru
• 1Password
• Backblaze
• Meter
• Watchman Monitoring

If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email [email protected] for more information.

Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Weldon Dodd, Damien Barrett, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Seb Nash, Dan McLaughlin, Joe Sfarra, Nate Cinal, Jon Brown, Dan Barker, Tim Perfitt, Ashley MacKinlay, Tobias Linder Philippe Daoust, AJ Potrebka, Adam Burg, & Hamlin Krewson

Neil Johnson's been building some incredible tools for Mac Admins of late, and we wanted to sit down with him and talking through Apple Policy Explorer and some others. What's it like building tools these days, where do you start? Who is the right audience to design for? We'll dive deep on his process here this week, as well as talk about what's going on at Microsoft.

• Tom Bridge - @[email protected]
• Marcus Ransom - @marcusransom
• Selina Ali - LinkedIn

Guests:

• Neil Johnson, Principal Product Manager, Microsoft - LinkedIn

Links:

• https://appledevicepolicy.tools/policy-explorer
• https://appledevicepolicy.tools/microsoft-apps
• https://code.visualstudio.com/

Sponsors:

• Iru
• 1Password
• Meter
• Backblaze
• Watchman Monitoring

If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email [email protected] for more information.

Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Weldon Dodd, Damien Barrett, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Seb Nash, Dan McLaughlin, Joe Sfarra, Nate Cinal, Jon Brown, Dan Barker, Tim Perfitt, Ashley MacKinlay, Tobias Linder Philippe Daoust, AJ Potrebka, Adam Burg, & Hamlin Krewson