Today, Apple announced that they will be holding a "Spring Loaded" event. The event will be streamed on April 20th at 10 am Pacific Time. The invitation states "Please join us for a special Apple Event from Apple Park." This makes me think that it will be an event similar to the fall events.

While there has been speculation that there would be an event this spring, it looks like Siri let it slip that it was going to be next Tuesday. Here is a screenshot of Siri's response my Mac, as well as another one from my iPhone, when I asked "Siri, when is the next Apple Event".

Siri's response is "The special event is on Tuesday, April 20, at Apple Park in Cupertino, CA. You can get all of the details on Apple.com". As is the case with other Apple events I will post my predictions for what I think we will see at the event, so stay tuned for that.

In a continuation of my monthly recap of what I have read, or more practically, listened to; at least in terms of books. You can review the lists from January or February. With it being the very beginning of April, it is time to provide last month's list with the items that I have listened to. As is the case for most of my books and podcasts, I listened to most of these at 2x or possibly even slightly faster.

Unlike January and February, I did not listen to nearly as many books in March. Over the course of the month of March, I managed to listen to 12 different titles. Of these 3 were titles that I listened to for the first time. Not listening to as many books makes a lot of sense given that the first three titles total over 110 hours of listening. I am guessing that I might listen to about the same number of items in April as much, or something similar. It all depends on how the month goes.

Disclaimer: the links below will provide a bit of a commission if you purchase anything.

Previous Reading Lists:

• February 2021
• January 2021

Today Apple announced that they will be holding their annual World Wide Developer Conference, or WWDC, again this year. The theme for this year is "Glow and Behold". WWDC21 will be held in an all-online format starting June 7th and going through June 11th. Apple's WWDC20 was also held in an all-online format. While last year's was due to Covid-19, and the reluctance to gather so many people in one place, there has been no mention as to why Apple is having an all-online conference.

Even though there is no mention for the reason, the all-online format is somewhat better for all developers because everyone can see the exact same sessions as the same time and there is no lottery for tickets, no rushing to be the first, and just like WWDC20, this is a free conference which provides more accessibility for all developers to attend. Everyone can see the same conference no matter where in the world they are.

Swift Student Challenge

Just as was the case last year, there is a "Swift Student Challenge". The Swift Student Challenge, an opportunity for young developers to demonstrate their coding skills by creating a Swift playground, is now accepting submissions. These submissions are due by April 18th and all of the information, including the application to apply, can be found on the Swift Student Challenge website.

Some of the requirements for the application are:

To be eligible for the Challenge, you must:

• Be 13 years of age or older, or the equivalent minimum age in the relevant jurisdiction (for example, 16 years of age in the European Union);
• Be registered for free with Apple as an Apple developer or be a member of the Apple Developer Program; and
• Fulfill one of the following requirements:
  • Be enrolled in an accredited academic institution or official homeschool equivalent;
  • Be enrolled in a STEM organization’s educational curriculum;
  • Be enrolled in an Apple Developer Academy; or
  • Have graduated from high school or equivalent within the past 6 months and be awaiting acceptance or have received acceptance to an accredited academic institution.

Apple will be releasing more information in the next couple of months. As has become my tradition, I will be making predictions of what we might see at WWDC once it is closer to the start of WWDC.

Source: Apple

There is an update to wwriteLite, to version 7.2.1. This is a minor bug fix that fixes an issue where you could not see the Markdown Preview text when using Dark mode and when the file being previewed is not using a template.

As always this is a free wwriteLite and it is available now. You can view the full list of changes by checking out the Change Log on the wwriteLite website.

Version 7.2.0 Notes
It looks like Bill Lumbergh and Dom Portwood have finally decided to jump into the 21st century. They have decided that all TPS reports needs to be submitted in Markdown for easy conversion to HTML so they can be viewed on the Initech, LLC intranet, called Ininet. Therefore, wwriteLite now needs to be able to support Markdown.

With version 7.2.0, you can now write Markdown, preview it by tapping on the Document icon in the toolbar. Once you have previewed your markdown you can import a CSS file from the Document Picker or via URL. Once used, the file will be downloaded and stored so you can use it on other files as well. You may also delete the CSS files by tapping on the “trash” icon in the menu bar.

Also added in this version is a new "Open Source" screen which lists the open source libraries used within wwriteLite. This is accessed via the "About" screen.

There is one tweak as well, the "Drag" icon has been removed and replaced with the Markdown Preview.

"Hey Peter, what's happening?" It's been about six weeks since the last wwriteLite update, and here we are with another one. This is a minor update, but it includes a big feature.

It looks like Bill Lumbergh and Dom Portwood have finally decided to jump into the 21st century. They have decided that all TPS reports needs to be submitted in Markdown for easy conversion to HTML so they can be viewed on the Initech, LLC intranet, called Ininet. Therefore, wwriteLite now needs to be able to support Markdown.

With version 7.2.0, you can now write a Markdown document and then preview it in HTML by tapping on the Document icon in the toolbar. Once you have previewed your markdown you can import a CSS file from the Document Picker or via URL. Once used, the file will be downloaded and stored so you can use it on other files as well. You may also delete the CSS files by tapping on the "trash" icon in the menu bar.

Also added in this version is a new "Open Source" screen which lists the open source libraries used within wwriteLite. This is accessed via the "About" screen.

There is one tweak that has been made to support the Markdown preview option. The "Drag File" button has been replaced with the Markdown Preview button.

wwriteLite is a free update and is available now. You can view the full list of changes by checking out the Change Log on the wwriteLite website.

I meant to post about this before now, but last Friday, TechCrunch reported that Apple was discontinuing the larger HomePod in favor of focusing on the HomePod mini.

The original HomePod is available "while supplies last", however as of this writing you can still get an original HomePod in white from Apple, and the space gray model is sold out. You still might be able to get one from a third-party retailer.

I cannot say that I am surprised by this move. There has not been any hardware update to the HomePod since its introduction in 2017 and its release in February of 2018. After it was released, I wrote a couple of different reviews about the HomePod.

The original HomePod produces great sound, and I am somewhat sad that they are not doing any updates to the product because the HomePod produces much better sound than the HomePod mini. At the same time, I get needing to focus on one HomePod product and the HomePod mini being the focus makes sense. Given how many people are price conscious, you can get three HomePod minis for the price of one HomePod, and therefore creating a stereo pair of HomePod minis is still cheaper, even with AppleCare+ and tax included.

If Apple is going to focus on the HomePod mini, I hope they plan on releasing updates on a regular basis, otherwise I feel as though the HomePod mini will go the way of the HomePod and there will be no Siri-enabled HomePods available.

The original HomePod will continue to receive updates, but the real question is for how long. I suspect that it may only be a a few years of support left for the original HomePod, in terms of software updates, but I could be wrong.

Source: TechCrunch

It looks like the iMac Pro is not long for this world. As of this writing, the iMac Pro is still available to purchase, however the purchase page has the words "While Supplies Last" on it. While you can still purchase an iMac Pro, you can only get the base model. This means that you are not able to customize it in anyway and there are no upgrades available.

Let us travel back to 2017 briefly. The highest end Mac was the Mac Pro. It was introduced in 2013 to much fanfare and had a radical design. Even though there was a new design, the machine had remained largely unchanged since its introduction. Given that there had not been any updates, many speculated that Apple had given up on the higher-end of the Mac market.

In April of 2017 Apple held a roundtable with some journalists to indicate that they were in fact re-dedicating itself to the Mac. According to TechCrunch, "And later this year we’ll see improved iMacs that Apple feels will appeal to a segment of Pro users, as well." While they did not have anything to share at that time, the product would be announced quite soon.

At Apple's 2017 World Wide Developer Conference, they announced a Mac that was aimed at professional users. It would not be a modular machine. Instead, it would be called the iMac Pro. The machine would become available in December of the same year.

The iMac Pro was truly designed for professionals and came with a professional price tag that starts at $4999. However, for this you would get a Intel Xeon processor, 32GB of ECC memory, and 1TB of storage. Plus, it would come in Space Gray with matching accessories.

The current base model of the iMac Pro comes with the following specifications:

• 3.0GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W processor with Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz
• 32GB 2666MHz ECC memory
• 1TB SSD storage
• Radeon Pro Vega 56 with 8GB HBM2 memory
• 10Gb Ethernet
• Four Thunderbolt 3 ports
• 27-inch Retina 5K 5120-by-2880 P3 display

While the iMac Pro is still a good machine, it is not being updated. It has not seen any significant updates in its three-years on the market. There have been some processor bumps, and additional options, including an additional graphics card option, but nothing major in the time. The iMac Pro was designed to allow users who have higher-end needs to be able to have an all-in-one machine.

I think Apple is retiring the iMac Pro line for two reasons. The first is that there is another machine, the Mac Pro, which can also fill these needs. The Mac Pro provides even more power than the iMac Pro; however not in an all-in-one machine.

The second reason I think Apple is discontinuing the iMac Pro is because now is a good time to do so. Apple is refreshing the entire Mac line with their own Apple Silicon processors. Apple has indicated that it will take two years to make the complete transition.

The only machines that have been updated thus far as the MacBook Air, the Mac mini, and the lower-end MacBook Pro. The higher-end 13.3-inch MacBook Pros, the 16-inch MacBook Pro, the 21.5-inch iMac, 27-inch iMac,, and the Mac Pro still need to get the new processors.

With the eventual release of an updated iMac, I suspect that there will be significant changes on the iMac. This includes thinner bezels, a redesigned body, and redesigned internal structure. I also suspect that with Apple Silicon there will not be as much differentiation between the iMac lines. With not nearly as much differentiation, there is no need for the iMac Pro. I suspect that the iMac line will have a wide range of customizations, including those that would meet the needs of iMac Pro users.

Furthermore, I suspect that there will be some surprises with the iMac line. I am not sure what they might be. Maybe one of them will be an option for selecting either silver or space gray, but that is merely a wild guess.

It will be interesting to see what Apple will with the iMac line, and given that the look of the iMac has remained the same since 2012, it may be time for a complete re-thinking. Again, this makes it the perfect time to eliminate the iMac Pro. I hope Apple continues to provide an option for professional users. What I would really like to see is a cheaper stand-alone monitor, but that is a whole separate topic.

Last month I created a post about the items that I managed to read/listen to during the month of January. You can see that list here. With February just finished, I have another list with the items that I have listened to. As is the case for most of my books and podcasts, I listened to most of these at 2x.

Over the course of the month of February, I listened to 29 different titles, 12 of them being ones that I listened to for the first time. This is actually more than 1 book per day, which in some cases makes sense given how short some of the audiobooks are. I did not think I would be able to listen to more books in February than I did in January, but I did manage to. We will see if this pace keeps up, but I do not think it will, but we shall see.

Disclaimer: the links below will provide a bit of a commission if you purchase anything.

There are two months down with another 10 to go. I can already tell I do not think I will be able to keep up this pace, but we shall see.

Previous Reading Lists:

• January 2021

UPDATE: February 12th, 2022. Earlier this week Apple released macOS Monterey 12.2, and just as was the case with macOS Monterey 12.1, I updated the same device in the same manner as before, with one difference. Instead of signing out of the mobile account, I used it to perform the update. After I did the upgrade, I was able to login right away without any issues. I have not experienced the "account being locked" issue yet. Time will tell on whether or not I will, but I suspect not. If you are still experiencing this issue on macOS Big Sur, I think the solution is to upgrade to macOS Monterey, so you no longer have to deal with the issue.

UPDATE: December 17th, 2021. Apple released macOS Monterey 12.1 a few days ago and I updated the same device that was experiencing this issue. Once again I was able to login again. However, I did experience the "account locked" issue again prior to upgrading after rebooting the device due to some issues with Wi-Fi. After waiting the hour, I was able to login again. I wonder if there was still something going on with macOS Monterey 12.0.1 that was causing the account lock out problem.

UPDATE: October 31st, 2021. I have just updated the same laptop that was experiencing this issue to macOS Monterey, version 12.0.1, and I was able to login to the Mobile Account immediately after upgrading without any issues. The initial login took a bit longer to actually show the desktop as compared to logging in to the local user account, but it did login. I did notice the screen below when upgrading to macOS Monterey. It popped up before installing (As a note, I upgraded using my local user account and not the mobile account that is on the MacBook Pro)

I do not recall this popup appearing when I upgrade to macOS Big Sur. It very well may have, but I might have not paid attention at the time, or I had logged out before doing the install, I honestly do not recall. I suspect that there was a major underlying system overhaul that was needed and it was too much of a problem to fix for macOS Big Sur, therefore it was pushed off to macOS Monterey, but that is merely a guess. I am not going to call this problem fixed until there is another update to macOS Monterey to be able to verify that the issue (outlined below) is indeed fixed.

The past year has seen a significant change in things throughout the world. It has been almost a year since the entire world was turned upside down with Covid-19. One of the biggest changes that has been made is that many more users are working from home. This has included many people, like myself, taking their work laptops home in order to be able to work.

Quite often laptops are connected to a directory service, like Microsoft's Active Directory, or LightWeight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP. For many, when new devices are setup and configured, they are connected to Active Directory or LDAP. macOS can connect to an Active Directory domain. If you are physically in an office, then it is not a problem, it will always be connected. However, issues can arise when a device is connected remotely. I have run into an issue with my setup. It was originally configured while at the office, and it was connected to Active Directory. This has not been much of a problem, except for an issue that has only turned up since I have upgraded to macOS Big Sur. Before we get to the problem that I am experiencing, let me discuss the setup.

The Setup

As mentioned, my work laptop is connected to an Active Directory domain. I connect to work by using a Virtual Private Network, or VPN. Once I am connected I have full access as if I was in the office. The VPN setup we use requires its own software to use, and I cannot connect using the native macOS VPN connection.

When the MacBook Pro was setup, it was configured to use a Mobile Account. This means that the network credentials can be used to login and be able to use the cached credentials when connecting to resources without needing to enter in the same credentials time and again. This configuration also allows me to use Touch ID on the MacBook Pro.

Along with being configured for a mobile account and active director, there are also two local administrator accounts, as a precaution. One that I know the password to off the top of my head, and the other I would have to look up, but I can look up if absolutely necessary.

When working from home, I typically use my 27-inch iMac for most of my work and my MacBook Pro is used for work-specific applications, like chat, email, and video conferencing. I have all of my favorite development tools on my iMac, so I prefer to use that; along with the larger screen size.

I have a Mac mini that sits at the office, which does not have the same issue, probably because it is always connected to the Active Directory domain. I am typically connected to the Mac mini when I am working, by using Screen Sharing. Now that we have discussed the setup, let us get to actual problem.

The Problem

With each security update to macOS Big Sur I have run into an issue after upgrading. When the update finishes and the login screen shows, I attempt to log in to my account. But I get the following error: "This account has been locked. Please try again in 15 minutes". This is on the first login attempt after upgrading.

The first time I got this, with the upgrade to macOS Big Sur 11.1, I was baffled, but after 15 minutes I was able to login. I noticed it, but was not too concerned. I experienced the same thing again when upgrading to macOS Big Sur 11.2. Again, it indicated my account was locked out for 15 minutes.

I recently upgraded to 11.2.1, and again the same thing issue occurred, albeit with a slight twist, and it was much worse. Instead of being 15 minutes, it was 30 minutes. As was the case in the past, I waited the necessary amount of time and attempted to login. Unlike the prior instances, my account would not login. After trying a couple more times, it indicated that my account was locked for an hour. Again, I waited the hour, attempted to login, but could not. I was able to find a workaround.

The Workaround

Since I could not login with my mobile account, I logged into one of the local administrator accounts, to verify that I could still login, and I could. I then connected to the office using the VPN. This was so that I could verify that it was an issue specific to the MacBook Pro and not my active directory account. The fact that I could login means that it was not an issue with my Active Directory account and this verified that the issue was definitely restricted to my MacBook Pro.

Since I was able to login using the local admin account, I then tried connecting my MacBook Pro to a hotspot to be able to try and connect via the VPN to be able to access resources. Unfortunately, this did not work. The routing just was not setup properly, and since the hotspot I was using was my iPhone, it would be quite difficult to setup a proxy and have everything work as expected.

On a whim, I tried to connect from my iMac to the MacBook Pro, using Screen Sharing, while I was logged into my local admin account. However, instead of using my local admin credentials to connect, I tried to use the mobile account credentials. Shockingly, they worked. It should be noted, that the login window still indicated that my account was locked.

Now, if you have used Screen Sharing before, once you have validated your credentials, whether they are local or in my case a mobile account, you are given two options. You can either "Share the Display" or "Login as yourself". I opted to login as myself, in this case is the mobile account. Again, shockingly, this actually worked. I was logged in again to my Mobile Account, which is great. When I logged in, this disconnected the VPN connection on my local admin account.

At this point, I knew I was logged in, and that the account was working. I then logged into the MacBook Pro locally, and it was logged in. In order to verify that I would be able to login again, I closed the lid so that the laptop would sleep. I re-opened the lid, and guess what I saw. "This account is locked for 28 minutes". Again, I waited 30 minutes, to give it a bit of extra time, and I was able to login without any issues. I repeated closing the lid, opening, and re-logging in two more times just to be sure. As of right now, it is working as expected. Even though I did find a work around, it is not something I would expect a normal user to be able to, nor have to, do in order to access their account. After doing some mulling on the issue, I have a notion as to what is happening.

What I think is happening

I think I have an idea as to what is happening. I think when macOS is performing its updates, it is logging back into the same user account that was logged in when the update was started, in my case my mobile account. When this login happens, I think one of the following situations is occurring.

The first possibility it is logging in and not waiting long enough to validate the credentials. The second possibility is that it is logging in with incorrect credentials and locking the account. The third possibility is that the credentials cannot be validated with the Active Directory server after a reboot, because it is not connected via the VPN, so it is locking the account due to trying to connect, but not being able to do so.

The fourth possibility is that macOS is just messing up and falsely indicating that the account is locked, when in fact it is not. In particular, the Login Window process thinks the account is locked and will not allow it to login. I suspect this may be a possibility because I was able to successfully login using Screen Sharing, which should not have been possible if the account was truly locked. Do not get me wrong, I am glad that I was able to login with Screen Sharing so that I could actually login properly.

If the mobile account was indeed locked and I was still able to login via Screen Sharing, then this would be a significant security issue. However, there may be an explanation for this. When I connected with my mobile account via Screen Sharing, I was connected to my office via the VPN using my local administrator account. Since the VPN was active, I think that it may have been able to authenticate with the Active Directory domain, which may have allowed me to login. Although, if the account was locked, it should not have allowed me to login.

Possible Solution?

I do not have a definite solution. However, I think the next time there is an update I may try logging out of the mobile account and using the local administrator account I have instead of using the mobile account and seeing if the mobile account is locked out again.

Closing Thoughts

I am thinking that the root cause is the fact that it cannot connect to the Active Directory server. I think this because of the fact that I do not have any issues with the Mac mini when performing updates. The only difference is that the Mac mini is connected all of the time, whereas the MacBook Pro requires the VPN to connect the Active Directory server.

I am glad that I was able to find a way around the issue. However, I still suspect that the root cause is macOS Big Sur. There have been numerous other reports of this happening. Some are on JAMF, while there are other reports on the Apple Discussion forums, here, here, and here. It does appear as though all of the accounts are Active Directory accounts.

I hope that logging out of the mobile account and using the local admin account will fix the issue, but I will not be able to know for sure until I update to macOS 11.3, or 11.2.2. macOS 11.3 is currently in beta, and will likely be out sometime this spring. Regardless of this being a workaround, Apple needs to figure out how to work around this issue, particularly given that there will be an increasing number of people who are, and will continue to be, working from home.

There is a new release of wwriteLite, version 7.1.0. This is a bug fix release that does include one tweak.

Tweaks

• Requires iOS 14.4.
• Twitter Support username changed to @wwriteLite, The old username of @waynesworkshop will work as well.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue where “Always Show Ad” would not necessarily show an ad.
• Fixed an issue where tapping on the “info” icon in an Ad would not show the ad information.

As usual, wwriteLite is free and available in the iOS App Store. If you download it and experience any issues feel free to contact support.