Apple Pay Archives - Argyll Free Press

Apple Pay Expands to France, Hong Kong

July 20, 2016 By Kenneth Scott Leave a Comment

Apple Pay is slowly expanding its access to more and more countries. On Tuesday, July 19, was the turn of France, the land of good wine, boutiques, and croissants.

Later the same day, Apple’s mobile payment service was also rolled out in Hong Kong. According to the French website for Apple Pay now shows the service is compatible with Mastercard and Visa debit and credit cards issued by Ticket Restaurant and Carrefour Banque.

At the same time, users can also pay with Apple’s service through Caisse d’Epargne and Banque Populaire, which includes the country’s second-largest banking group (accounting for over 20 percent of current payment cards).

The website also listed Boon and Orange, two other issuers of French credit cards, as “coming soon” to Apple Pay.

On the other side of the world, Apple Pay for Hong Kong has partnered so far with Visa, American Express, and Mastercard credit cards from banks Bank of China (Hong Kong), HSBC, DBS, Hang Seng, and Standard Chartered. HKT and the Bank of East Asia will soon be made available, as well.

Making Apple Pay available in France and Hong Kong represents the second and third new regions that the service has expanded to this month only. Switzerland was the first to get Apple’s mobile payment service in early July.

In the United States, Apple Pay is one of the most well-established services among banks and retailers, as all four major US credit cards support it. But that’s not enough for Apple, which wants to achieve a greater presence abroad in light of rival services – like Samsung Pay and Android Pay – gaining traction.

Several French retailers have already jumped on the Apple Pay bandwagon. As per the official web page of the service, Apple Pay is supported by the Apple Store itself, Sephora, Bocage, Eram, Cojean, and Total, to name some on the list.

Users in France will also soon be allowed to add loyalty cards to the Apple Wallet app and then make purchases with Apple Pay by tapping into the loyalty points they accumulate.

Prior to this latest expansion, the service was already available in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Singapore, and China.
Image Source: ZDNet

Samsung Pay Comes to Australian Users

June 15, 2016 By Michael Turner Leave a Comment

In the not so faraway future, wallets will become useless. In fact, if Samsung’s plan succeeds, you won’t need anything else when you leave the house but its Galaxy smartphone.

The famous Korean company has just launched Samsung Pay in Australia, bringing the contactless mobile payment platform Down Under by partnering with American Express and Citibank.

It means that starting today, Australians who own an Amex- or Citibank-issued card will be able to tap and pay at contactless terminals with their Samsung smartphone. However, the company mentioned the mobile payment method does not apply to Amex/Citibank branded cards from other banks.

After the US, Korea, China, and Spain, Australia has become the fifth major market where Samsung Pay has been launched. Any smartphone running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above is compatible with the payment technology.

A simple swipe to pay interface makes Samsung Pay as easy as using a card, if not easier. But more than being simple to use, the tech is also very secure.

First, swipe up from the home screen to open payments; choose your card; hold your finger on the home button to verify fingerprint; and tap smartphone to a contactless terminal. The company assured its users that card details aren’t shared with retailers and other merchants.

Samsung is not the first to offer contactless payments in Australia; Apple Pay stole the show by launching alongside American Express in October 2015. By April, ANZ was brought into the fold in April, as well as several Australian banks, such as Commonwealth Bank.

But even though it might be a little late to the game, Samsung is more than eager to offer better deals. For example, it promised merchants and financial institutions that the company won’t take a “clip” of interchange fees (like Apple does).

The long-term goal of bringing Samsung Pay to more countries is that of getting more Samsung devices in the hands of more shoppers and smartphone users. As Elle Kim said, the global Vice President of Samsung Pay, “Everyone is so used to tapping and paying with their cards, we have to do more with their phones.”

Therefore, Samsung wants its payment platform to work anywhere. And while the Korean company is keen to work with banks, there might be some financial partners involved in the future.
Image Source: Let’s Talk Payments

One Day Remaining Until Apple Pay Is Released in China

February 17, 2016 By Kenneth Scott Leave a Comment

The much expected launch of the service is nearly here as there is only one day remaining until Apple Pay is released in China. What that means is that points of sale supported by several banks in China will start working via near field communication contact too, enabling individuals to pay with their iPhones only, after they’ve loaded their cards’ information in their smartphones.

This movement is the mere attempt of Apple to make NFC payments a more popular method than paying with cash or swiping your card. Considering that its release of Apple Pay in the United States nearly a year and a half ago was rewarded with only mild success, but far from the amount of adoption that the company was expecting, it would seem that the tech giant is now preferring to look towards a country such as China.

The reason is the fact that China is officially the second biggest market for Apple and its services were also approved and supported by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. This is the factor that may make the difference when it comes to China – part of the reason Apple Pay was not as successful when it tried expanding its services into United Kingdom and Australia was the major banks’ reticence towards the service. They took a while to start accepting the Apple Pay system and support it in stores, so the service too had a slow evolution.

However, while Apple is receiving a huge amount of support for their payment service in China doesn’t make it easy for the company to breakthrough and establish themselves as a wildly popular alternative. They are currently up against 2 other already very popular payment systems: Tencent’s WeChat Payment and Alipay. It’s not known whether Apple Pay’s ‘attraction points’ have what it takes to steer public away from already well established services to themselves.

There are currently 19 Chinese banks that will support Apple Pay on launch in total, counting ICBC, China Construction Bank and China Guangfa Bank in their midst.

There are currently over 358 million Chinese individuals who make use of online mobile payments in China alone and Apple hopes to gain at least a portion of the market by allowing payment via iPhones, iPads and even Apple Watches. However, the company is not only treading in unknown waters, but also waters that their direct competitors have a lot more knowledge and experience in.

Samsung is planning to brings its own version of the payment service, Samsung Pay, to China later this year as well.

Image Source: 1

Apple Pay Comes to Starbucks, Chili’s and KFC Next Year

October 9, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Apple Pay comes to Starbucks next year, says Apple exec. Apple Pay is also heading for Chili’s and KFC. Soon, you’ll be able to pay for your favorite latte, spicy wings and scrumptious egg rolls with your Apple Watch.

Over the the next year, Apple’s mobile payment service dubbed Apple Pay will be featured in Starbucks coffee shops, says vice president of Apple Pay Jennifer Bailey during the Code Mobile conference. However, by the end of 2015 there will be some select Apple-owned Starbucks stores rolling out the mobile payment service. Approximately 7.500 stores will be Apple Pay enabled next year.

Bailey notes that Apple Pay has gained momentum and more and more merchants are opting in. Also, more than 80 percent of Apple Watch owners are actively using it. Moreover, next spring Apple Pay will hit KFC restaurants. Chili will also opt in for the new paying system, but they company did not disclose how many restaurants will feature the new system.

The ability to turn our smartphone into a digital wallet has been hyped for the past couple of years. Yet, only now Android and Apple Pay are seemingly sparking interest in consumers. Apple was the first company to jump start the trend during last year’s venture into contactless mobile payments.

After almost 72 hours after its debut, Apple Pay witnessed over 1 million cred cards used.

Consumers using Apple Watch and newer iPhone models can pay on the go at retailers that support Apple Pay – payment is done via NFC, which is near-field communication technology. Touch ID devices like the iPad Mini 3 and the iPad Air 2 are also capable of in-app purchases. Last month’s iOS 9 update offers users the possibility of consolidating their loyalty – it also offers cards as rewards.

Apple Pay will be enabled in select Apple-owned Starbucks by the end of the year

Apple and Starbucks, sitting in a tree…

We recently talked about Apple’s tokenization system and what it entails. The bottom line is that retailers and merchants never see your data. Samsung Pay works almost the same way, but the consensus is that it’s more secure than Apple Pay.

Apple’s mobile payment service was launched in 2014. Back then, about 500 financial institutions partnered with Apple, along with 220.000 US merchant locations. As of mid 2015, over 2.500 banks support Apple Pay with 1 million retailers, restaurants, merchants accepting the mobile payment service.

Apple says that by the end of the year there will be more than 1.5 million US locations that will support their system. Yet, Google is upping up their game and bringing their hard guns into play. Also, Samsung brought their very own Pay service into the US last month.

Because Apple Pay comes to Starbucks next year, it can very well be a decisive factor which will propel the Cupertino-based company into becoming the most used mobile payment service.

Image Source: 1, 2

What’s the Difference Between Apple Pay and Samsung Pay?

August 20, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Samsung Pay has just been launched in South Korea – it’s a mobile wallet service.

Samsung joins its competitor Apple, which released its proprietary software last year, in trying to convince people to use their smartphones, rather than the traditional plastic card, when they make in-store purchases.

Samsung believes that it has the upper-hand because their tech works with a larger number of payment terminals already present in stores.

In reality, it’s unknown if this trend will start to gain popularity. It has already garnered a small cult following, but what about other non-geeky members of the public spectrum?

The two tech giants, Apple and Samsung are offering full support so the trend kickstarts itself and relinquishes our bulky wallet, or handbag.

A couple of questions are most certain on everyone’s mind – What is Apple, and Samsung Pay? What’s the difference between them?

Basically, this new form of payment replaces your credit card. The huge difference is that Samsung Pay uses a tokenisation system, and Apple doesn’t.

Samsung Pay is only available in South Korea, for the moment being. The company will expand to the States on the 28th of September. The Seoul-based tech firm has plans to further expand into UK, Spain, and China sometime in the near-future. Rumors have it that by the end of 2016, Samsung Pay will be available in the recently mentioned countries.

This represents a more aggressive rollout strategy on behalf of Samsung. Apple’s Pay service has limited itself to the US and UK, with no future plans of expanding its territory.

Samsung Pay will only work on the company’s latest flag-ship smartphones.

Galaxy Note 5
Galaxy S6 Edge plus
Galaxy S6 Edge
Galaxy S6

Those who provide your credit card will have to get involved in this scheme.

How to Use Samsung Pay

All you need to do to use Samsung Pay is to swipe from up to bottom on your smartphone’s/tablet’s face and the app will appear.

Afterwards, you’ll have to choose your credit card from a list. You can add as many as you like. The device will then scan your fingerprint, and you’ll be required to provide the Pin code.

Within 15 seconds of doing this, provide the device to the payment terminal so the transaction can be completed.

Terminals that use tap-and-go through NFC are compatible with Samsung Pay.

How safe is Samsung Pay

Pretty safe. It doesn’t use a static PAN – primary account number; for transactions. In its stead, it uses a tokenissation system to protect against the threat of hackers copying the coded details on a users magnetic stripe.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4

Apple iOS 8.1.2 Update – What’s Apple Up to Now?

December 12, 2014 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Apple has sold around 500 million iPhones, since the release of the original iPhone in 2007, which officially makes the iPhone the most popular phone in history. Smartphone users are usually divided in two: Android users and iOS users. You cannot really like both, because they’re very different, so clashes between the two groups have been going on for 5 years, or so.

But not matter what operating system you use, there will be bugs, there will be issues and there will be annoyances. Because there is no perfection, especially when it comes to operating systems. Still, if you were to ask any tech-savvy person, they will tell you that, as a rule, iOS is a bit more stable and bug-free than Android. Apple is releasing updates almost every other month, and while sometimes, an update isn’t really needed, other times, they are imperative.

Two days ago, Apple released an update to their iOS, called iOS 8.1.2. The decision to release this now took many by surprise, as it was quite unexpected. Today, we’re going to analyze this decision to launch a new iOS update, we’re going to take a look at what the update implies and we’ll see the issues iOS has dealt with in the recent past.

iOS is believed by many to be the best operating system for smartphones in the world. As mentioned earlier, when compared to Android, iOS gets no viruses, less bugs and system crashes. Android proponents argue that Android is much more customizable and personal. But in the end, it all comes down to personal preferences, really! Saying that one is simply better than the other, is not going to help anyone.

Apple’s iOS and iPhone

The first iPhone was launched in 2007, but Steve Jobs started planning the iPhone in 2005. The original iPhone was launched in June 2007 and the first iOS was announced on January 9, 2007 and released with the original iPhone. It was a smartphone operating system like the world hadn’t seen before. Keep in mind that the first version of Android was released in 2008 and before the iOS, there was Symbian and other clumsy operating systems that worked great for non-smartphones.

Apple really did invent the smartphone operating system and because of that, many people consider Apple to have a clear advantage over Android. iOS shaped the way we perceive smartphones and it will continue to do so until something better comes along.

Life after iOS 8.0

But let’s return to more recent iOSs. Out of all the versions of iOS put forth by apple, iOS 7.0 has to be one of the most successful ones. It had a fairly uneventful life, it did its job right, had minimal bugs and issues and people were even happy with it. But then came iOS 8.0, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to stir things up. Maybe it was the fact that the launch of the iOS was quite hurried because of the pressure put on it by the new iPhones, maybe they should have worked more on it, but iOS 8.0 had a plethora of issues and people in general weren’t happy with it at all. Little did they know that the update meant to fix all those issues would be the biggest fail in the history of Apple.

Ever since Apple launched their new iPhones, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, in the fall of 2014, they have had a string of unfortunate mishaps that have begun to chip away at the shiny Apple armor. First came Bendgate, the scandal about the iPhones that would bend in back pockets and then the now infamous iOS 8.0.1 fail.

The iOS 8.0.1 update went so horribly wrong, that many people were left unable to use their phones. The most complains had to do with dropped calls and TouchID fingerprint malfunctioning. Wondering just how many people were affected by the faulty iOS 8.0.1 update? Apple revealed the numbers and they are quite staggering: 40,000 iPhones had issues following the update.

After some serious, but swift, consideration Apple decided to pull the iOS 8.0.1 update. It was something Apple had never done before, launch an update and then only hours later, pull it off the market. Not only that, but before removing the update, Apple told their customers not to update. So many people found it hard to believe that Apple would do such a thing, that it issued a statement to confirm that they had indeed pulled iOS 8.0.1:

We have received reports of an issue with the iOS 8.0.1 update. We are actively investigating these reports and will provide information as quickly as we can. In the meantime we have pulled back the iOS 8.0.1 update.

The next day after they pulled the iOS 8.0.1 update, Apple released a new update, iOS 8.0.2. Many have joked that Apple engineers pulled an all-nighter, but we don’t think it’s a joke at all. We believe that some heads rolled at Apple and most did crazy overtime hours. Apple released this following statement along with their iOS update:

iOS 8.0.2 is now available for users, it fixes an issue that affected iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users who downloaded iOS 8.0.1, and includes improvements and bug fixes originally in iOS 8.0.1. We apologize for inconveniencing the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users who were impacted by the bug in iOS 8.0.1.

Apple Pay and iOS 8.1

After the waters were called down by iOS 8.0.2, Apple released iOS 8.1. The most important update that came with this new operating system, aside from the fixes of bugs and various other tweaks, was the much anticipated Apple Pay. The company had been advertising this new service for quite a while, so when it was finally here, there was some serious buzz around it.

Unfortunately, Apple Pay only works on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus because the service uses the dedicated secure chip and NFC (Near Field Communication) connectivity to communicate with retailers. These two iPhone models also have a secure element that will store credit card information on the smartphone. In addition, they have a device account number, that is unique to each iPhone and that is going to add to the security of your information. With Apple Pay, your credit card information is completely safe!

Apple Pay supports credit cards and debit cards from MasterCard, Visa and American Express, issued by banks including the Bank of America, Citi, Chase, Capital One and Wells Fargo. Did you know that these banks make up 83% of credit card purchase volume inside the United States?

Another very important update that came with iOS 8.1 was the return of the classic Camera Roll. Apple decided to remove the feature without any notice when it introduced iOS 8, but hey had received so many complaints about it, that they decided it was wise to listen to their clients and have the feature return.

The Latest Apple iOS Update – iOS 8.1.2

At the beginning of this week, Apple released their latest iOS Update, the iOS 8.1.2. The update is a small one, around 20MB, but that cannot really tell us anything about the changes that will happen to your smartphone, once you download it. iOS 8.1.2 is available for iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, 5C and 5S, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and all versions of iPad Air and iPad Mini.

Even though the iOS 8.1.2 update has only been on the market for a few days, some iPhone users have already started complaining. The main complaints dealt with battery life issues, installation problems, messages issues, the usual range of Wi-Fi problems and problems with front-facing camera and email, but there is no big issue so far. Not one that would require another less-than timely update.

No iOS release was ever perfect; in fact, if it were, there would not have been any need to improve it and update it. The bottom line is, however, that iOS 8.1.2 is not ridden with issues. It does, have some, but not many. For example, if you have an iPhone 5 and have updated to the new iOS 8.1.2, then you might notice a decrease in performance, but that really doesn’t have anything to do with the update itself, but with the fact that updates are optimized for the latest model of phone, and the older your phone is, the weaker its configuration gets and the worse the operating system performs.

We strongly advise all iPhone users to simply stop updating at some point, preferably right before iOS 9, which will most likely slow down your iPhone 5 quite a lot. Apple doesn’t allow all of its iPhone to upgrade to the latest operating system and this is exactly why, because the tech specs simply can’t handle it. But this is also a way to compel people to upgrade their phones.

iOS 8.1.2 Jailbreak

One more thing you need to keep in mind if you’re planning to stay with iOS 8.1.2 is the fact that you can jailbreak the update. It’s highly uncommon for Apple to release an update to its operating system that can be immediately jailbroken. Usually, when Apple release an update, hackers go back to the drawing board and start coming up with hacks for the new update, but this time that won’t happen because iOS 8.1.2 can be jail broken with the exact same tools as the previous version. We don’t know if Apple did this on purpose, or it was an oversight (quite a large one, might we add), but if you would like your latest iOS to be jailbroken, you can do that!

How to Downgrade to iOS 8.1.1 from iOS 8.1.2

As we mentioned earlier, Apple released their new operating system, the iOS 8.1.2, earlier this week and the main reason why they released it without much notice was to fix a serious issue that affected purchased ringtones. Many iPhone users who bought ringtones from App Store, found that they couldn’t use them if they switched their devices. This caused Apple to speed up the release of their iOS 8.1.2 ahead of its time.

As always, for a very limited period of time (until Apple stops singing it), Apple gives people the option to downgrade if they are not happy with the new operating system. Because even if the iOS 8.1.1 was flawed for some people, it worked perfectly for others. Even if iOS 8.1.2 offers bug fixes for many people, it also comes with bugs and flaws for others.

Next, we will tell you how you can downgrade to iOS 8.1.1 if you’re not happy with the new iOS 8.1.2. If you want to downgrade to iOS 8.1.1, then we recommend you do it as soon as possible, because it’s going to be impossible to do it in a week or so. Then, you will never be able to downgrade. It’s something that has worked for Apple for years and we think they’ll never permanently put the possibility for downgrade on the table.

Let’s begin! To downgrade you need to know that you can’t just open iTunes and downgrade from there. The first thing you need to do is to back up our device because downgrading will erase everything from your iPhone of iPad.

Next, you will need to head over to this website and then download the iPSW iOS 8.1.1 for the iOS device you have. We warn you that the files are pretty big, so depending on your internet connection it could take from anywhere from 3 minutes to a few good hours to download it.

Once the file is in your computer, you need to connect your iOS device to your computer and then open iTunes. Head over to the device’s summary page and then, if you’re using Windows, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and the Option/Alt key if you’re using a Mac. When you click Restore, you need to be holding the key down. This will allow you to browse to find the iPSW file, which iTunes will use to start and complete the restore iOS 8.1.1 process on your iPhone or iPad.

After the installation process is complete, your iPhone or iPad will be running the old iOS 8.1.1! How you proceed after this is entirely your business, but we do recommend that you restore your backup by going to iTunes and click on Restore Backup. Depending on how much you had on your device, the whole process of restore will take around 2 to 20 minutes. Once that is done, you’ll be operating your device as you were before the iOS 8.1.2 update.

We suggest you do the downgrade only if you are experiencing some major issues with the updated iOS 8.1.2. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time with the downgrade. Also, you could wait for the mysterious iOS 8.2 major update which is believed to be approaching with fast steps.

iOS 8.2 – What and When?

Yes, the iOS 8.2 is coming and hopefully it will bring with it less bugs than we’ve seen with iOS 8.1.0, iOS 8.1.1 and now the iOS 8.1.2. There is no denying that iOS 8 has been causing more issues than all of the previous versions of iOS and many hope that this will change with the release of iOS 8.2.

On Wednesday, Apple released the beta version of the iOS 8.2 to developers. This release saw the implementation of additional support for the WatchKit SDK and it fixed a number of issues related to languages. A beta version of any operating system is first released to developers for testing, in case you needed things cleared out.

If you, like the majority of Apple lovers, are not a developer, then you’re going to have to wait just a little longer, before you can download the new iOS 8.2 for your iPhone and iPad. But if you’re a developer and you’re lucky enough to have gotten your hands on the new update, then we wish you good luck on developing your app for the Apple Watch. Because this is what WatchKit does; with the new iOS 8.2, we should expect plenty of new apps made especially for the Apple Watch.

With the new iOS 8.2 beta, Siri now supports Singapore English and more information about international languages should be made available soon. If you are an Apple developer, then you can download the iOS 8.2 beta via the Apple Developer Center or as an over-the-air update.

Have you experienced any problems with iOS 8.1.1? Did you update to iOS 8.1.2? What do you think about it? Are you planning to downgrade or upgrade? Drop us a line and tell us about it!