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Opening
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Sponsor: Kolide
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Kolide
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Our sponsor, Kolide, has some big news. If you're an Okta user, they can get your entire fleet to 100% compliance.
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How?
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If a device isn't compliant, the user can't log in to your cloud apps until they've fixed the problem. It's that simple.
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Kolide patches one of the major holes in Zero Trust architecture: device compliance.
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Without Kolide, IT struggles to solve basic problems like keeping everyone's OS and browser up-to-date.
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Unsecured devices are logging into your company's apps, because there's nothing there to stop them.
Kolide is the only device trust solution that enforces compliance as part of authentication, and it's built to work seamlessly with Okta.
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The moment Kolide's agent detects a problem, it alerts the user and gives them instructions to fix it. If they don't fix the problem within a set time, they're blocked.
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Kolide's method means fewer support tickets, less frustration, and most importantly: 100% fleet compliance.
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Visit kolide.com/maccast to learn more or book a demo. That's k-o-l-i-d-e.com/maccast
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News
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Apple at the Oscars
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This year was not like last year with Apple winning the first Best Picture Oscar win for a streaming service for CODA
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Still there were two Apple TV+ films up for awards and they managed to take a win in the Best Animated Short Film category with “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”
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Apple is planning a new comedy series from the creator of Schitt’s Creek
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The untitled show will be a 10-episode series and stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson
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They are calling it a “odd couple love story”
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The premise is that Harrelson and McConaughey’s characters friendship is tested when their families attempt to live together on the same Texas ranch.
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Reality headset parts surface
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MacRumors says a private Twitter account with a track record for reliable Apple leaks has shared images of what could be components for Apple’s AR / VR headset
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The images seem to be ribbon cables for connecting the display components.
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The shape looks like they could be designed to go around the main displays. Sort of eye glass frame shape.
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If these are Apple parts, it adds some credence to the rumors that Apple is getting the product close to a release later this year.
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There also continue to be code leaks that reference “realityOS”.
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Latest surfacing from Nick Chan this week where he found references on one of Apple’s open Source GitHub repos
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Many believe Apple could announce the product at WWDC in June
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Mark Gurman at Bloomberg is predicting Apple will add upgrades to the AirPods in the next few years to add in more health and fitness functionality
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Specifically he cites the ability to get hearing data
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He seems to be leaning into the idea that AirPods could eventually be used as hearing aids. At present there is no FDA approval, though they do offer “Live Listen”
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Will 3nm bring the heat
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We potentially saw the first glimpse at what the future of Apple silicon may looks like this week.
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Apple is believed to have locked up the bulk, if not all, of TSMCs 3nm manufacturing and if the latest leaked Geekbench performance number are real it could be a huge win for Cupertino
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The numbers for a supposed A17 chip were revealed on Weibo and were posted on Twitter by ShrimpApplePro with a “grain of salt” warning
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The numbers show a Geekbench 6 single core score or 3019 and a multicore of 7860. Quite jump up from the 2504 and 6314 scores of the A16 in the current iPhone 14 Pro
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We have heard pretty positive things about the 3nm architecture. It offers a 70% higher logic density and should deliver up to a 15 percent increase in performance at the same power levels as the previous 5nm chip while at the same time delivering a 30 percent reduction in power at the same speeds.
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There have also been rumors that the chips are performing even better than was expected.
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We still continue to hear rumors that Apple is trudging forward with their plans for their own 5G modem designs
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Apple has struggled with this, but some believe they could have a design ready for a device, likely the iPhone SE, by Q1 of 2024.
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Mark Gurman still thinks they’re “years” away from completely reducing the reliance on Qualcomm, their current 5G modem supplier
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Still this week saw DigitTimes had rumors that Apple has at least a couple manufacturers "competing" to for the opportunity to produce the chips.
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The “New York Times” is reporting that Apple is working on generative AI concepts like ChatGPT
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Apple held their internal AI summit last week to brief employees on their large language model and AI tools
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Reportedly Apple’s engineers and Siri teams have been testing language-generating concepts every week
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The challenge for Apple could be getting AI to work with Siri which the piece says is “cumbersome” according to John Burkey, a former Apple engineer who worked on Siri
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He called Siri “one big snowball” made up of a giant word database, so adding new phrases and functionality can take weeks or even years.
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Generative AI works differently since it can learn and predict what to say next and respond in a more natural manner.
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Big questions are: Why did Apple seemingly squander it’s lead, they launch Siri 12 years ago and can they adapt?
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Apple will help you pick out your next iPhone using video
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"Shop with a Specialist over Video" is available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific Time from Apple’s “Shop iPhone Page” on their site
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According to Apple it’s a "safe and secure” one way video connection with an Apple retail employee where you can see the employee and their screen, but they cannot see you.
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
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Let’s talk about ‘Fanbois’
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This is a term I’ve been using for years and has been around in our community for so long I really don’t give it much thought
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This week I got an email from a female member of our community who let me know that my use of the term made her feel excluded.
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I think you know that I would never want this community to be a place where anyone felt “excluded” obviously my using the word “fanboi” is not intended for that.
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So let me first ask the question… specifically to the female members of the community.
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Would you be happy to describe yourself as a fanboi?
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I encourage you to pause the show and answer that before you hear what I’m going say next.
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After getting the email I shared with this listener some of my thoughts on the word.
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First, was the fact that I had never considered the word gender specific as it’s always been my understanding that the spelling was “fanboi” with an “i” and the “i” stemming from Apple’s use of “i” back in the “internet” days
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That said, with the obvious pronunciation it certainly is confusing.
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We could say fangirl and fanboy, or as this listener pointed out why not just “fan” which is fine.
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I know that I’m also guilty of saying “you guys” and know that some feel that’s also not inclusive. Again I see it more as referring to a group of people and don’t necessarily intend it in a gender specific way. (My good friend Allison Sheridan would disagree)
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We also discussed how originally “fanboi” was developed as a sort of “slight” against Apple fans.
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The community adopted it and stole that power
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In my mind similar to words like “nerd” and “geek”
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My personal opinion is that words only have power when we give them that power.
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So what are we getting at?
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I would never purposefully attempt to offend or degrade another human on this planet (nor animal for that matter).
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I want to have an open and honest discussion about this. I want frankness, but won’t tolerate rudeness.
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I love each and every person in our community, so anything that makes anyone feel excluded or left out I will try to avoid.
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I am also human and fallible, so if I slip up or make a mistake please know where my heart is.
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Picking up old backups
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Greg is a photographer with a large photo library and so he’s upgrading from a MacBook Air to a new Mac Mini.
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He’s also a Maccast listener so has backups. Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner
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We wants to set-up the new Mac from scratch, clean install and not restore from backup.
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He has a large external drive that is used for storage and the Time Machine drive all backed up.
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He’s wondering with a clean install if if can still just “pick up” the old backups.
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The geniuses at his local Apple store were unsure.
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It should be possible I believe and fairly easy.
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For Time Machine, when you attach the drive, macOS should see it and that it has an existing backup and ask you if you’d like to “inherit” the old backup on the new machine
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Keep in mind, that once you say OK you will no longer be able to restore Time Machine files on the “old” Mac
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With Carbon Copy Cloner you’ll need to go into the App and re-identify or associate the old backup drive with the new Mac, but after that it should just work.
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Thing of the moment: Landmarks
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Apple continues to roll out it’s “Detailed City Experience” to Apple Maps
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These are detailed 3D models of landmarks in major cites around the globe and is part of their enhanced maps experience
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You can find these locations and landmarks by trying to guess where they are and in which cities.
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Apple has rolled out the feature to places like Chicago, Las Vegas, London,New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto, and more.
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But if you want an easier way… yup there’s now an App for that.
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Pretty simple.
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Select a city and the landmark.
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You can press play to animate it
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swipe up for options like day or night view
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Link to open Apple Maps
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Map gestures work
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Closing
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Supporters
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