Apple’s recent announcements have opened up new possibilities for users in both enterprise and personal spaces, thanks to groundbreaking advancements in iOS 18 and macOS 15. With features like the transformative power of Apple Intelligence, seamless device integration, and enhanced user experiences, these updates bring exciting opportunities for businesses and individuals alike.
These new OS versions present a unique opportunity to revolutionize workflows, enhance security, and empower employees. Imagine streamlining tasks with intelligent automation, fostering collaboration through seamless device mirroring, and safeguarding sensitive data with advanced privacy controls.
iOS 18: A New Era of Possibilities
- Apple’s AI Game is Here: Apple Intelligence, a powerful new AI system, seamlessly integrates across various apps, empowering you with capabilities like rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text effortlessly. It also fuels image creation tools, making it simple to craft animations or illustrations, and elevates photo curation for truly personalized memories.
- Advanced Messaging: Connect seamlessly with everyone, thanks to RCS support in iMessage for richer media sharing with non-Apple users, and satellite messaging for those in remote areas. Plus, enjoy features like message scheduling, animated text effects, and a wider range of emojis for more expressive communication.
- Customization and Privacy: iOS 18 empowers you to personalize your device like never before, with dynamic app icons, deeper home screen customization, and enhanced privacy controls. Lock or hide sensitive apps, and manage which contacts can access specific apps.
- Streamlined Browsing & Password Management: A revamped Safari Reader and the all-new Passwords app (replacing Keychain) deliver smarter content and simplify password management, including warnings for weak or compromised credentials.
- More for Accessibility: iOS 18 introduces revolutionary eye-tracking technology, enabling users to control their iPhones with their eyes, significantly enhancing accessibility for individuals with mobility limitations.
macOS 15: Elevate Your Enterprise Productivity
- iPhone Mirroring: Break down barriers between your devices! Seamlessly mirror your iPhone on your Mac, drag and drop files effortlessly, and stay on top of notifications without switching screens.
- Window Tiling: Master multitasking with precision. Effortlessly organize your workspace by snapping windows side-by-side or into corners, maximizing your screen real estate and streamlining your workflow.
- Presenter Preview for Video Conferencing: Project confidence in every meeting. Preview your appearance and background before sharing your screen in FaceTime or Zoom, ensuring a polished and professional presentation.
- Passwords App: Simplify and fortify your digital life. The new Passwords app is your one-stop shop for securely managing passwords, passkeys, and Wi-Fi credentials, all protected by end-to-end encryption and synced seamlessly across your devices.
- Gaming Enhancements: Level up your gaming experience. Immerse yourself in breathtaking soundscapes with personalized spatial audio and enjoy seamless support for the latest and greatest game titles.
- Safari Improvements: Surf smarter, not harder. Uncover captivating web content with the “Highlights” feature, and declutter your reading experience with the redesigned distraction-free Reader mode.
- Siri & Apple Intelligence: Your virtual assistant gets even smarter. Enjoy hands-free Siri interactions and let Apple Intelligence supercharge your productivity with smart tasks like text summarization and effortless media organization across your favorite apps.
Empowering Enterprise Adoption with Scalefusion
The new capabilities brought in by iOS 18 and macOS 15 can bring in new complexities for IT teams. Configuring and managing the expanded privacy settings, ensuring seamless integration of iPhone Mirroring with existing workflows, and optimizing device performance for resource-intensive features like Apple Intelligence requires careful planning and robust device management and policy governance.
At Scalefusion, we’re committed to empowering enterprises to embrace the full potential of Apple’s latest OS releases, without the complexities. That’s why we’ve developed a suite of features designed to streamline your transition to iOS 18 and macOS 15, ensuring you can harness their power, maximize productivity, and enhance security from the moment they’re launched.
These new features will not only simplify your day-to-day management of iOS and macOS devices but also equip you to proactively address the unique challenges the new OS versions present, ensuring your organization is prepared to leverage its full potential from the start.
- Configure Apple Intelligence Settings for iOS 18
Leaving Apple Intelligence enabled on corporate iOS devices can increase risks such as data exposure, intellectual property concerns, and potential security and compliance challenges. Managing access carefully is important to ensure these aspects are properly addressed.
What can enterprises do?
By restricting Apple Intelligence, you can maintain control over sensitive information and foster a secure work environment. You can now enable or disable Apple Intelligence settings on managed iOS devices running on iOS 18. You can restrict access by blocking features such as writing tools, Image Wand, and playground.
- iPhone Mirroring
Mirroring an iPhone screen could inadvertently expose sensitive company information displayed on the phone, such as emails, documents, or presentations, potentially leading to data breaches. Connecting an iPhone to a Mac via mirroring could create a potential entry point for malware or other security threats to infiltrate the corporate network.
What can enterprises do?
To ensure that you are in complete control, Scalefusion enables you to block device mirroring on managed iOS devices.
- Remote control in Shareplay for iOS 18
Remote control within Shareplay might conflict with industry-specific compliance requirements regarding data access and control. It poses a security risk by creating a potential entry point for unauthorized access, increasing the likelihood of data breaches or malware infections. It also raises privacy concerns as sensitive company data or personal information could be inadvertently exposed, leading to violations of policies or regulations.
What can enterprises do?
You can maintain a secure, compliant environment while safeguarding sensitive information and ensuring efficient operations by blocking the video conference remote control feature via Scalefusion.
- Disk management for macOS 15
For enterprises belonging to industries with stringent regulatory requirements, it is critical to control the external data sources that can be accessed via an enterprise Mac system. To help upkeep compliance, Apple has launched a new disk management configuration that helps IT teams to manage external and network storage.
What can enterprises do?
You can now allow or block network storage or choose mounting to read-only via the Scalefusion dashboard. This new offering replaces the previously deprecated media management payload.
- Strategic OS updates
If your organizational IT infrastructure is not prepared to handle the new iOS 18 and macOS 15 capabilities, you can also choose to defer OS updates with Scalefusion. In the OS Update Management Settings, you can defer software updates for up to 90 days.
This empowers you to thoroughly test the new updates, ensuring a smooth and controlled rollout across your organization through phased deployment.
What’s Next
We’re hard at work on additional features to further enhance your Apple device management experience. These upcoming updates will:
- Simplify device onboarding by leveraging Apple Intelligence during automated device enrollment.
- Strengthen your security posture by enforcing minimum OS versions across your device fleet.
- Enhance user experience and branding with customizable light/dark modes and tinted icons for our MDM client and productivity apps.
Embrace the Future of Apple with Scalefusion
As Apple continues to innovate, we’re dedicated to providing you with the tools you need to manage your Apple devices effectively. Our new features empower you to harness the full potential of iOS 18 and macOS 15 while maintaining the highest standards of security and control. Watch this space for more exciting developments! We highly value your feedback—please share your thoughts and suggestions with us at [email protected]. To try out Scalefusion, schedule a demo or get started with our 14-day free trial today!
