On Tuesday, September 9th Apple is holding a special event. Presumably this will be to announce new products, and to disclose the release date for their MacOSX 10.10 and iOS8 software – both of which are currently in beta testing. This event will be hosted live on Apple’s website: http://www.apple.com/live/
Although speculation about future products runs rampant prior to these events, one thing is certain – whatever is announced will generate a buzz in tech circles and college campuses across the nation. University faculty and students are turning to Apple products in record numbers, and the number of Apple devices on the OU campus continues to grow. With potential hardware upgrades, and new products announced, the number of iOS and MacOS users on campus could grow significantly over the fall, and we always see a spike of new device registrations in January after the holidays.
With that in mind, it is important to note that the new iOS and MacOS offer features that might cause confusion for some departments on campus. The new software includes a service Apple has branded as “Continuity” and specifically a feature called Handoff which basically allows a user to receive notifications, alerts, and even share opened documents between their devices that are registered with their AppleID and in proximity of one another. You can read more about this functionality here: https://www.apple.com/ios/ios8/continuity/
Although extremely convenient for a user with multiple devices to share these alerts and data between their own devices, our concern lies primarily with departments that have used a single AppleID to register multiple devices or to install software on their devices. As you can imagine, the shared alerts between 15 departmental iPads could cause significant distraction. Until we are able to perform further testing, we are requesting that users updating to the new software ensure that they are utilizing a unique AppleID and not a shared departmental AppleID.
If you are a student or faculty member at OU and have further questions, or would like more information or support with iOS8 and AppleID-based notifications, please contact the OU IT services team at 325-4357 or needhelp@ou.edu.
