Apple Pay guided video

Apple has just put out a new guided video walking patrons through the process of using Apple pay.

Do you use Apple pay? Watch the video below!

Record week in the App store!

It’s a good time to be an Apple! The company is currently celebrating their recent successes, namely, Apple Pay customer growth, record breaking App store success and high job creation! Yay!

The first week in 2015 set a new record for Apple’s App Store, bringing in almost $500 million. Now that’s a tasty start to the new year. Apple are also celebrating the record breaking year that was 2014 for the App Store, with a 50% increase in billings, and developers earning more than $10 million from revenue.

“This year is off to a tremendous start after a record-breaking year for the App Store and our developer community,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “We’re so proud of the creativity and innovation developers bring to the apps they create for iOS users and that the developer community has now earned over $25 billion.”

So… 2014 was the time to turn that dumb idea that you secretly though was the best most genius thing ever into an App. But… we think it’ll probably work in 2015 too, so go knock that bad boy out of the park!

Apple is also celebrating Apple Pay customer growth, and job creation from the industry surrounding iOS and the App Store. With just over a million jobs created or supported by Apple in the U.S,  a massive 627,000 are related directly to iOS and the App Store.

You can see the full press release here!

Apple Pay Making it’s Debut Monday!

Apple pay will be making it’s spectacular (ish) debut this coming Monday the 20th October!

Secret sauces ( mmm KFC, uh…) spilled the beans last week that retailers who will have Apple Pay enabled at their point of sale systems have already completed their training for the payments process AND THEN Tim Cook confirmed at the iPad media event on Thursday that Apple pay will indeed be up and running on Monday.

Banks however look like they’ll begin to support the payment system at different times (makes sense) making the release more of a staggered release. For example, USAA, one of Apple’s bank partners, has claimed that it plans on starting to support Apple Pay come November 7th.

Apple Pay will be enabled on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus with a free update to iOS 8.1 and will be available in over 220,000 merchants country wide, including some big name chains such as Macy’s, Bloomingdales, McDonalds, Staples, Sephora, Walgreens, Whole Foods and, obviously, Apple. Because it would be weird if they didn’t.

You will also be able to use Apple Pay within the apps of companies such as Groupon, Lyft & Uber, Airbnb, OpenTable and Target. You will be able to use Apple pay with iPhone 5, iPhone 5S and iPhone 5c’s with the addition of your very own Apple Watch next year.

Hooray for Apple Pay? It’s spectacularish because it should be awesome, and a solid improvement to how payments are processed BUT not everyone can use it yet and there will probably be some (non-security related) bugs to work out before it becomes totally stable. BUT WE think it’s pretty exciting!

Therefore, Hooray!

Paypal attacks!

It looks like PayPal might be feeling a little threatened by Apple’s announcement of their payment system Apple Pay, as they have gone on the offense. Last week they pulled a full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle making sly digs about Apple’s security.
“We the people want our money safer than our selfies,” reads the PayPal ad. “PayPal, protecting the people economy.”

Obviously they are referring to how some celebrities have had nude photos stolen from their Apple iCloud accounts. The conclusion they want people to have is: How can that security – that failed so many so drastically – possibly be safe enough for your money?

It’s a good effort, and I imagine that a lot of people will agree with what they say, even if it’s not strictly true. Paypal relies on passwords, as does apple, however the celebrity hack was not a security problem on Apple’s side, more so a combination of  pretty smart hackers, likely poorly chosen passwords and the mistake of not using the 2-step verification Apple offers as an option. Something Paypal is also vulnerable to. Apple pay will also have the advantage of the Touch ID.

Although not direct competitors – yet – Apple pay will be a system to contend with. It will launch next month at  220,000 retail locations as well as some big name chain stores such as Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Walgreens, Duane Reade, Staples, Subway, McDonalds, Wholefoods, Disney and Sephora. And, the Apple retail stores. Duh. Online stores that will use Apple Pay such as Target, Groupon, Uber and the MLB store, will allow you to make the payments within their mobile apps.

On the other hand, PayPal processes 9.3 million payments each day online and has announced that it will be available in 2 million physical in store locations soon.

If it does come down to a choice you make about who you trust with your hard earned money, make sure it’s a personal choice, not swayed by ads like this. Both companies are obviously reputable and respectable- neither want any of your personal data hacked.

Also make sure that whichever one you choose, (if you indeed have to make a choice) you remember that you are also responsible for the security of your data, and adjust your personal passwords and 2-step verification options accordingly.

Yay for competition making it easier to spend out hard earned dollars! We think.

Apple Pay

Apple Pay is the new service introduced by Apple this morning, and although it’s something that people have been waiting for for quite some time, it’s pretty exciting that it’s finally here and seems to be worth the wait in terms of design and simplicity of use.

Apple Pay uses NFC (Near Field Communications) to make purchases securely and simply – by holding up your phone to an Apple Pay reader in a store to complete the transaction.

Added to the 220,000 merchants across the United States, Apple has gotten some of the biggest chains and brands to get on board the Apple Pay train – such as Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Wallgreens, Duane Reade, Staples, Subway, Macdonalds, Wholefoods, Disney and Sephora. And, the Apple retail stores. Duh.

So what does this mean for you? Well, Apple is hoping to replace your wallet and put your purchasing power directly in your phone, making it

easier and more secure to make payments.

You simply load Apple Pay with a credit card (and it will work with Amex, Visa, Mastercard and -so far- 6 of the biggest issuing banks along with a few more) from iTunes or by taking a picture of it with the phone’s camera.

Apple will automatically verify with your bank that you are the owner of the card, and then you can go ahead and make purchases. In store, you place the phone near a sensor with your finger on touch iD. Online, stores that will use Apple Pay such as Target, Groupon, Uber and the MLB store, will allow you to make the payments within their mobile apps.

So how is it more secure? It’s a combination of the Touch ID and a new chip called the ‘secure element’ which stores all payment information encrypted. Your card numbers are never actually stored within Apple Pay. With each transaction the only information that is shared with the merchant is a device only account number, a one time only payment number and a dynamic security card.

This means that if your iPhone is lost or stolen, you can use Find My iPhone to suspend all payments BUT you don’t have to cancel the card.

We’re looking forward to this catching on. It’s great forward thinking technology. There will assuredly be some hiccups down the line, but, there’s still hiccups (pretty major ones, Hi Target) with the current credit card system, and that’s some 50 years old. Time to move on, we thinks.

So, hey.. Developers? We were wondering how long it will be until Apple Pay includes Bitcoin?

Apple Pay will launch in October and will be a free update in iOS 8. 

The Apple announcement!

This morning, at 10:00 AM Pacific time, Tim Cook took to the stage at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of De Anza College in Cupertino.

Over almost 2 hours, we were introduced to two new models of iPhone, a new service in ApplePay and the Apple Watch. A lot of rumors were confirmed, some were seen to be false (bye easy to type iWatch) and a raft of new services not foreseen were revealed.

The live stream was not the best thing anyone’s ever seen, far from it actually, from consistent pauses and breakdowns in the streaming video, to the addition of a lovely Chinese translator (we’re assuming?) cutting in over Tim Cook’s sentences. It seemed to work itself out after about 40 minutes thank goodness, but not before Twitter was set on fire annihilating Apple for being unable to use simple streaming technology.

But, it worked itself out. Shout out to the guys over at MacRumors for live blogging so we could understand anything we missed! We were introduced to the two models of the iPhone 6 – the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. They are, as rumored, a 4.7 inch model and 5.5 inch model respectively. They both have a bunch of updates and improvements and we’ll delve into them in a little bit in our detailed iPhone 6 blog post.

We had confirmation of NFC capabilities with ApplePay, aiming to make payment transactions in a bunch of online and in-store retailers all over the US simpler and more secure.

Then; One more thing!

Those magic words that we haven’t heard in a while! That one more thing? Nope, not the iWatch. Natch. It’s the Apple Watch. And it’s so very pretty! And functional! And innovative, and useful. We’ll be going into far more detail in our Apple Watch blog post coming soon. But all you need to know for right now? There are two sizes and three models – the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Sport, and the Apple watch Edition. They’ll be coming in early 2015, they’re highly customizable, they start at $349, and you’ll probably want one.

Tim Cook ended the event with a performance by U2 and the announcement of their new Album ‘Songs of Innocence’. And Apple just made the album free to all half a billion iTunes users!

We’ll be bringing you the details of both models of the iPhone 6, Apple Pay and Apple Watch shortly.

Photos courtesy of 9to5mac.com