Free Flickr accounts will be limited to 1,000 photos and videos next year

There are also more perks coming to Flickr Pro.

For years now, Flickr has been the go-to destination for people that want to share their photography skills with like-minded individuals. Today, the company announced a few big changes in an effort to make sure Flickr is around to thrive for many more years to come.

The biggest announcement is that people that use Flickr for free will be limited to just 1,000 photos and videos starting on January 8, 2019. This change comes as part of Flickr’s recent acquisition by SmugMug that’s correcting Yahoo’s decision to give everyone 1TB of storage at no cost.

Per Flickr’s blog post:

the free terabyte largely attracted members who were drawn by the free storage, not by engagement with other lovers of photography. This caused a significant tonal shift in our platform, away from the community interaction and exploration of shared interests that makes Flickr the best shared home for photographers in the world. We know those of you who value a vibrant community didn’t like this shift, and with this change we’re re-committing Flickr to focus on fostering this interaction.

Flickr Pro will continue to cost $49.99, and in addition to unlimited storage, ad-free browsing, and advanced stats, you’ll also now also get priority support, up to 10-minute video uploads, 5K photo uploads, increased exposure for your pictures, more detailed stats on mobile, and extra partner discounts.

If you’re a free user and currently have more than 1,000 uploads on Flickr, you can upgrade to Pro for 30% off your first year.

Lastly, Flickr also says it’s making its log-in process easier and removing the requirement to have a Yahoo account.

Learn more at Flickr

Apple Expected to Report Its Best Fourth Quarter Ever Today Following iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max Launch

Apple is set to report its earnings results for the fourth quarter of its 2018 fiscal year at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time today.

The quarter began July 1, 2018 and ran through September 29, 2018, according to Apple’s fiscal year accounting calendar.

Apple provided the following guidance for the quarter back on July 31:

• revenue of $60 billion to $62 billion
• gross margin between 38 and 38.5 percent
• op. ex. of $7.95 billion to $8.05 billion
• other income/expense of $300 million
• tax rate of approximately 15 percent before discrete items

Apple’s guidance suggests it will report its best fourth quarter results ever, by revenue, comfortably topping its 2017 record of $52.6 billion:

• 2014: $42.1 billion
• 2015: $51.5 billion
• 2016: $46.9 billion
• 2017: $52.6 billion
• 2018: $60+ billion

Wall Street analysts forecast that Apple will report $61.5 billion revenue, above the midpoint of its guidance, and earnings per share of $2.78, according to 32 estimates averaged by Yahoo Finance.

Key Takeaways and What to Look For

• iPhone unit sales of around 47.5 million, according to a FactSet estimate. Apple began accepting iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max pre-orders September 14, just over two weeks before Apple’s fourth quarter ended. Apple sold 46.7 million iPhones in the year-ago quarter.
• Apple doesn’t break out iPhone sales on a model-by-model basis, but the iPhone’s average selling price should reveal whether customers are leaning towards higher-priced iPhones such as the iPhone XS Max. iPhone ASP was $617.99 in the year-ago quarter.
• Mac unit sales should be boosted by 2018 MacBook Pro models, released on July 12, nearly two weeks into the quarter. Apple sold 3.72 million Macs last quarter, its fewest in any single quarter since the third quarter of 2010, due to seasonality and a largely outdated lineup. Mac sales totaled 5.39 million in the year-ago quarter.
• Apple’s guidance for its first quarter of fiscal 2019, which began September 30 and encompasses the launch of the iPhone XR and the new iPad Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini models. Analysts expect record revenue of $92.9 billion, based on 31 estimates averaged by Yahoo Finance.
• Continued growth of Apple’s Services category, including the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, iTunes, Apple Pay, and AppleCare. Last quarter, Apple’s services brought in a record $9.5 billion revenue. Apple said it is still on target to double its fiscal 2016 services revenue by fiscal 2020.
• Continued growth of Apple’s Other Products category, including the Apple Watch, Apple TV, HomePod, AirPods, Beats, iPod touch, and accessories, as Apple diversifies revenue beyond the iPhone.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri will discuss the company’s earnings results on a conference call at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time today. MacRumors will loosely transcribe the one-hour call as it occurs live.

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Apple Reports 4Q 2018 Results: $14.1B Profit on $62.9B Revenue, 46.9M iPhones

Apple today announced financial results for the third calendar quarter and fourth fiscal quarter of 2018.

For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $62.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $14.1 billion, or $2.91 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $52.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $10.7 billion, or $2.07 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue, profit, and EPS were all-time records for the September quarter.

Gross margin for the quarter was 38.3 percent, compared to 37.9 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 61 percent of revenue. Apple also declared an upcoming dividend payment of $0.73 per share, payable November 15 to shareholders of record as of November 12.

For the quarter, Apple sold 46.9 million iPhones, up slightly from 46.7 million in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales fell to 9.7 million from 10.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, while Mac sales dipped to 5.3 million from 5.4 million.

For the full fiscal year, Apple generated $265.6 billion in sales with $59.5 billion in net income, up from $229.2 billion in sales and $48.4 billion in net income for fiscal 2017. Both figures are also all-time company records, exceeding standards of $233.7 billion in sales and $53.4 billion in net income set in fiscal 2015.

“We’re thrilled to report another record-breaking quarter that caps a tremendous fiscal 2018, the year in which we shipped our 2 billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Over the past two months, we’ve delivered huge advancements for our customers through new versions of iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac as well as our four operating systems, and we enter the holiday season with our strongest lineup of products and services ever.”

Apple’s guidance for the first quarter of fiscal 2019 includes expected revenue of $89-93 billion and gross margin between 38 and 38.5 percent.

Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q4 2018 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Conference call starts at 2:00 PM Pacific – No need to refresh

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Apple’s Services Revenue Up 17% Year-Over-Year in 4Q 2018, Hits All Time High of $10B

Apple’s services category, which includes iTunes, the App Store, the Mac App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Pay, and AppleCare, continues to be an increasingly important revenue driver for Apple, and services growth is once again at an all time high.

During the fourth fiscal quarter of 2018, Apple’s services segment brought in $10 billion in revenue, up 17 percent from the $8.5 billion services earned in the fourth quarter of 2017.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, services growth was actually at 27 percent if a one-time favorable adjustment from the year-ago quarter is excluded.

Several services categories, including the App Store, AppleCare, Apple Pay, and Apple Music hit all-time revenue records. 330 million Apple customers subscribe to Apple services, a number that has increased 50 percent compared to a year ago.

Cook highlighted Apple Pay’s success during the quarter. Apple Pay transaction volume tripled year-over-year, with Apple Pay generating significantly more transactions than PayPal mobile and growing 4x faster.

With the rollout of Apple Pay at Costco locations in the United States, 71 out of 100 major retailers support Apple Pay, and 60 percent of all U.S. retail locations support the Apple Pay service.

Apple has said that it is aiming to reach $14 billion in services revenue per quarter by 2020, a goal the company is well on its way to achieving.

Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty predicted that over the course of the next five years, services revenue growth will contribute more than 50 percent of Apple’s total revenue growth.

Apple is working on bolstering its services category in the future, breaking into the television industry. Apple has more than a dozen original television shows in the works right now, which it is rumored to be planning to distribute via television streaming service set to debut sometime during the first half of 2019.

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Apple’s Wearable Category Sets New September Quarter Revenue Record With Growth Over 50%

Apple’s “Other Products” category, which includes AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, iPod touch, HomePod, Beats products, and Apple-branded and third-party accessories brought in an impressive $4.2 billion during the fourth fiscal quarter of 2018, representing a 31 percent increase in revenue.

Apple does not break down the specific sales numbers of products in the “Other” category, which makes it difficult to determine specific sales numbers for products like the HomePod, AirPods, and the Apple Watch, but Cook says its wearables category set a September quarter revenue record with growth over 50 percent.

Much of Apple’s “Other Products” growth can likely be attributed to the Apple Watch Series 4, which came out in September.

Cook said the Apple Watch Series 4 has become even more essential to people’s daily lives, and response to the new model has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

Cook highlighted new ECG capabilities coming to the Apple Watch Series 4 in the United States later this year, which he described as an “unprecedented and potentially life changing feature.”

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Apple to Stop Providing Unit Sales Data for iPhone, iPad and Mac Starting With December Quarter

During today’s fourth quarter earnings call, Apple CFO Luca Maestri announced that going forward, Apple will not provide unit sales of iPhone, iPad, and Mac during its quarterly earnings reports.

This marks a major change to the way that Apple reports data and it will make estimating iPad, Mac, and iPhone product sales a more difficult task. Apple is perhaps making this change because its unit sales are decreasing while revenue is growing due to rising ASPs.

This quarter, for example, iPhone unit sales were flat at 46.9 million, but iPhone revenue was up 29 percent.

According to Maestri, Apple does not believe that unit sales over the course of a 90-day period are an indicator of the underlying strength of its business.

Apple also plans to rename the “Other Products” category to “Wearables, Home, and Accessories,” a change that will also be made in the December quarter. This category will continue to include the Apple Watch, Apple TV, AirPods, HomePods, Beats headphones, and more.

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What you Need to Know about Patch Management Software

What is patch management software? It is a system that scans and manages patches in a network to ensure it is secure against malware and hacking. This is because it detects weak and susceptible infrastructures in software application and operations systems that compromise your network’s security. Besides, it approves or restricts patches used on PCs, servers, laptops and other mobile devices. It ensures all patches are properly installed and tests them after installation.

Who is Patch Management Software Designed for?

Patch Management software is for any entrepreneur who wants efficient network management, easy management of updates and a secure network. Both large and small businesses can use it. The larger the company, the more essential it is to have this software.

Advantages of Patch Management

1. Security

Security comes first because it is the most obvious benefit. Using a patch at the right time will eliminate security breaches of all types.

1. Productivity

Another benefit of this automated software is reduced downtime. Usually, patches have performance improvements for products they fix crashes. This helps your employees increase productivity.

1. Updates

The technology world is quickly advancing.  Having automated software in place keeps you up with the latest updates without you doing much about it.

Choosing the Best Patch Management Software for your Company

Operating system, platform, and application

An operating system, platform, and application are vital to patch management. You don’t want to purchase a product that can’t support all your platforms. As much as possible, compare and choose that supports platforms deployed in your business.

Do you want patch management that includes support for mobile devices? So far no single management tool offers support for conventional PCs, server, and mobile devices.

Integration with other management systems

This is another crucial factor to put into consideration. It ensures cooperation and integration with your infrastructure management software.

One of the best framework-based configuration, monitoring, and management tool is Microsoft SCCM.  Top patch management tools such as Quest KACE and HEAT PatchLink integrate with SCCM via plugins. This allows IT experts to perform patch management from SCCM admin console.

If you are considering purchasing one of the above management tools just because it integrates with SCCM, it is important to understand how that integration works. It helps verify your needs. Some tools integrate through data exportation and importation at the same time supporting a direct connection to SCCM database.

Additional Features and customer support

Other factors to consider are additional features like physical desktops and servers, virtual desktops and servers, cloud-based computers and vendor support.

Well, it is difficult to gauge a vendor’s support mechanism. But you can use their online chat, call their support line during a proof of concept for authorization or post question in their support forum. How responsive is the support staff? Be sure to talk with the support team rather than sales personnel.

Cost

If cost is your primary consideration, there is a wide range of patch management software that can suit any budget. It is expected that framework-based patch management tools like those included in Microsoft System Center to be expensive. This may not be the case; it depends on your Microsoft licensing scheme.

For instance, Microsoft System Center patch management services can be in a more extensive suite that addresses different system management aspects. This means if your business has an enterprise licensing agreement with an organization like Microsoft or Heat, you can start using the patch management capabilities of those products for little or no extra licensing cost.

Performance

Unlike cost and features, performance is the best metric for comparing and choosing patch management tools. All vendors will tell you their patch management software is high performance. The best way to know if that is true is by testing your preferred tools in your IT environment.

Factors such as applications on the PC to be patched and network bandwidth and utilization can affect the perceived performance. This is where a software’s free trial version comes in handy. Most vendors provide a free trial of their management software.

Top 3 Patch Management Software in 2018

• SolarWinds Patch Manager

SolarWinds is a very intuitive software with many outstanding features. It enhances automated Microsoft servers patching, workstations, and third-party applications. Some of the third-party applications supported include VLC, adobe, UltraVNC/ Realvnc, Citrix, Apple, Dell, Google, and Apache…just to name a few.

The software also integrates with SCCM and WSUS directly. This helps you analyze and install updates to many applications, vendors, and systems. You can also build your own .EXE or .MSI files to set up within your network.

Another benefit of this software is its dashboard. You can track all your patches as well as check update status on a single panel. This keeps you updated with compliance and auditors.

• ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus is another intrusive patch management tool that keeps your network secure and patched. It is an endpoint software that patches all your computers at the same time from one point of a console.

This software comes with a ban list feature that removes any software added to the ban list from any detected device.

Some options offered include:

1. Patch compliance
2. Approve or decline patches depending on priority and severity
3. Implementation of test groups of your computers
4. Real-time audits

• GFI LanGuard

GFI LanGuard is another top solution for your patch management needs. It offers not only essential platform updates but also Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Moreover, it is a robust system with numerous scanning capabilities and configuration options.  It conducts more than 60,000 vulnerability assessments thanks to industrial strength vulnerabilities database integrating SANS Top 20 standards and OVA. This makes sure your devices and network are kept up to date with the latest updates and patches.

It comes with features such as:

1. Intuitive reporting console
2. Antivirus patch management
3. Ability to view security issues within your network

Final Thought

Planning and coming up with a requirement list will help identify the best patch management software for you. Remember to use the above-discussed factors. Implementing the right tool in your business gives you peace of mind knowing your business’s data, users and platforms are secure.