IOS 9.3 features.

[RLR]

Just read this article . All sounds very promising. Especially the apple ID management.

[mike_graham]

The full page at Apple has a pretty good rundown: http://www.apple.com/education/preview/
It looks like Apple's actually paying attention to K-12's needs.

[brushj]

Sounds like a lot of features that were needed for a while. We use casper focus but the remote capabilities are a welcome addition.

Multi-user iPad integration is great as well.

We'll see how it all goes, right now we would settle for the fix for automatic app updates.

[bpavlov]

While this is great for K-12 (although it seems to me that any organization can benefit from some of these offerings depending on the environment setup), I fear what this means for MDM vendors that need to implement features around these new offerings. Hear me out....it's no secret that companies like JAMF try to implement new features/specs as soon as Apple makes them available. That's usually great.....except this means that other widely requested features take a back seat and get delayed. I hope that these new offerings supplement offerings from MDM vendors rather than create new work for vendors to implement new features. For example, look at the 9.80, 9.81, and 9.82 releases and how many new features are non-MDM/iOS/DEP related.....https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/featureRequests.html?version...1 out of 16.

[Emmert]

Two thoughts:

1. Is Apple's Classroom app going to replace Casper Focus? There hasn't been any demand for it from teachers here yet, but they're certain to ask as soon as they find out about it.

2. Getting us set up in the new management portal is going to be a struggle, since we have a somewhat obscure SIS. There's no way Apple will support us out of the box.

[mhasman]

Seems great! Wonder how many those "for school" features may be adopted for enterprise

[H3144-IT]

Managed Apple IDs would be great for Company owned / supervised Devices - so for example very helpful in the Hospitality Sector, where we use a lot of iPod Touch Devices!

[Salbacka]

I would love a response from JAMF on this. Are they ahead of the game (did Apple give them a preview months ago)? When can we expect support.

In our large school district we run into 'can we test it in time for next fall?' The Fall iOS releases were a bear but it gave JAMF time to release updates in time for testing and planning for the next fall. This spring release looks better but if JAMF can't have this ready in Casper 9.9 in March we are too late for testing. An estimated timeframe would be appreciated.

[davidacland]

I really like the look of these new features. So many schools in the UK use carts of shared iPads.

I wonder about the overlap with Casper Focus as well.

Bit sceptical about the multi-user feature though. Will be keen to take a closer look, but there's a chance its not quite what we think it would be.

[brandon_heldsta]

I don't know about anyone else, but I am paying very close attention to the Screen View function. Depending on how it's done, this could be a godsend to remote support...

[St0rMl0rD]

@brandon.heldstab so are we, so are we...we just contacted our Apple reps to give us access to test this, let's see how it goes.

[CasperSally]

@Salbacka - not a timeline but Dean Hager (JAMF CEO) had a tweet or 2 about it yesterday, which is hopefully promising. We too need to start testing ASAP to prep for large summer redo of our ipad shared deployment.

Tweet

[scottt]

I just hope its a world wide release, and not US only to begin with like VPP, DEP where!

I hope Casper allows us to manage the same things it looks as though we need to do on a separate website (adding staff and student users) and allows us to control the Focus-a-like app via the JSS and again not via a separate website. Although looking at the features of that app, its almost identical to Focus in its features, wonder if Apple have just licensed Focus from JAMF, or if it was part of the enterprise announcement a few months back with Apple, JAMF and IBM??

Lets hope the API's are all ready available to JAMF to get this all implemented.

[jgwatson]

Anybody notice what versions of the iPad this will work on....I get a bad feeling about this.

[RLR]

@jgwatson From a reliable source I have had heard iPad Air, Air 2, Pros. They're not sure about iPad4 yet. They didn't mention mini's either as we don't own many.

I hope they introduce something so we can transfer current apple id's to this managed apple id solution. Very doubtful though as I guess they're seen as personal apple IDs.

[CasperSally]

Wonder if they will finally cut off iPad2s with iOS10? I doubt they'll cut them off with iOS 9.x. Lots of schools, like ours, have tons of iPad2s I'd imagine. We have a few hundred we are not replacing until Summer 2017.

[Emmert]

Which models is this available for?

The developer downloads are under NDA, but here's a hint: if they drop support for something like the iPad 2, it'll be big news. You'll be reading all about it on the tech sites when it happens. If/when it hypothetically happens.

[CasperSally]

@Emmert Welp if they drop support for iPad2s with 9.3, they better release 9.2.1 to fix their existing mistakes with 9.2 !

[bbelew]

I'm sure apple will release it in a timely manner ( sarcasm of course :P ) It'll probably come out in September after school has already started.

[RLR]

@bbelew I've heard it will be ready before September. This kind of makes sense as Apple usually release their new IOS (10) early into the academic year. So it only makes sense that IOS 9.3 would be released around August time or earlier.

[CasperSally]

August is too late. If it's after June 1 it's probably too late for us to fully vet the MDM processes in time for summer set up assuming a JSS update is also needed. We'll see.

[bbelew]

They didn't release iOS9 until Sept 16, a full month after school started for us.

[mtward]

iOS 9.3 will be released way before summer; my bet is on the day of the rumored spring event/keynote they have planned. They will talk about iPad Air 3 (moved back to a spring release schedule like iPad 1-3), Apple Watch 2, and the new features in iOS 9.3, .. released "today!"

^^^^^ My Opinion ^^^^^

Typically there are 5-6 betas of a new iOS point version before public release and those releases come usually about every 2 weeks. So, if that holds true, we'll see iOS 9.3 Mid-late March.

[nnewport]

Update to 9.3 DEP issues

Someone had moved the iPad over to the Beta JSS which is no longer active. That is why it wouldn't enroll with DEP. Once I figured that out and moved it, it worked fine.

[cbrewer]

No issues here with 9.3 and DEP, but that was with beta 2.

[conitsupport]

If JAMF dont adjust or create an update to address the new features in 9.3 would it be worthwhile setting up a mac server to get the best from 9.3? or is it worht waiting for an update to Casper???

[conitsupport]

Just read this as well?

Mobile Device Management (MDM) For Homescreen Layouts And App Controls

There is a feature included in iOS 9.3 that will let administrators at companies lock the layout of the home screen belonging to employee iPhones so that apps cannot be moved around. The layout lock requires OS X Server, Profile Manager and supervision configured on a device

So does this mean we also need a mac with osx server installed or will casper eventually have these features?

[davidacland]

Not sure if it's a config profile, if it is you could possibly create it in profile manager, export and upload into Casper. Until the features make it into the JSS.

[RLR]

@conitsupport Jamf posted this saying there will be a casper upgrade on the same day IOS 9.3 comes out (31st March)

[St0rMl0rD]

Some very exciting features coming in this release.

[Rhinehart]

Classroom App requirements
https://help.apple.com/classroom/ipad/1.0/#/cadc1b9b4f8a

[bpavlov]

@RLR iOS 9.3 was released yesterday. As in you can update your iOS device to 9.3 starting yesterday.

[CasperSally]

thanks to erik over on slack for posting that there's also a 32GB requirement for Shared iPad. That pretty much kills the Classroom App and shared iPad in general for us, unless Apple real quick makes some educational bundle available with 32GB Air2s at a very reasonable price.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206177

[RLR]

@bpavlov Thanks! Not sure how I missed that.

[RLR]

Anyone got any plans on providing current students/staff with managed apples ID's even though they've created a Consumer ID using their school email address?

[RLR]

Next question: Anyone successfully signed up to the school manager system yet? https://school.apple.com/

Asks which country we're from and auto populates United Kingdom which is correct but doesn't let me go any further. I've noticed the only country in the drop down box is United States.

[bbelew]

All I get is "you must sign in with a managed apple id". I signed up for this a month or so back in beta and never apparently got approved for it. I'm curious if it's even technically released yet.

[gregleeper]

@CasperSally That pretty much makes features in 9.3 useless for many institutions out there. It only supports the newest models of iPad as well, iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 4. Very short list there and a 32GB storage minimum cuts out a lot of education customers.

[CasperSally]

Yup, crossing it off our list for years to come probably. Well done, Apple! The only thing that would save it for us is if they started offering cheap 32GB models to edu & even then the amt of space needed per student I'm not sure it would work for us.

We're replacing about half our iPad2s this summer, probably will stick with the 16GB models if pricing stays the same as it is now. I'm not sure all the shared stuff is enough to warrant us spending $100 more per device.

We're lucky our ipads are used in KG and 1st graders where it's not REALLY needed, they've gotten along this far without unique user profiles. If I had ipads in shared middle school environment, I'd be much more annoyed.

[bpavlov]

Maybe they plan on eventually phasing out 16GB storage on the Air and Mini? Yea, it won't help you today but after sometime this will become the norm. There's gotta be a technical reason beyond them just getting organizations spend more money on new devices.