The Apple Beat: Why Apple Pay is sending shockwaves through the payments industry

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

 Apple Pay is actually a very big deal. More than just enabling mobile payments in a handful of partner retailers, the entire system is designed to ‘just work’ once the switch is flipped. Apple Pay will hope to become as prevalent a payment option as Visa, MasterCard or any debit card that people are already using. 

The first public Apple Pay transaction is still a few weeks away from happening, but news that Apple’s solution to mobile payments is coming, is sending shockwaves through the payments sector.

A key feature of the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch, Apple Pay has the backing of major credit card companies, over 800 million ready-to-go credit cards on iTunes, various debit cards plus 220,000 retailers and businesses have already signed up or, at the very least, already have the necessary infrastructure to accept Apple Pay without any large investment in hardware or training.

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Report claims Apple partners with American Express for mobile payments in iPhone 6

Days away from the upcoming Apple event and the rumour mill is abuzz with life. A new report has surfaced saying Apple has reached an agreement with American Express to bring new mobile payment systems for the upcoming iPhone. This is in line with part leaks that have shown the presence of NFC (finally) in the iPhone 6. There are credit card companies that support NFC use for wireless payments and hopefully Apple’s supposed entry into the space might push merchants to support this kind of payment system. We’ll just have to wait a bit more to see if there is any truth to the new rumour.

Source: Recode

Android KitKat build causing NFC issues on Nexus devices

Nexus users seem to be running into trouble with some builds of KitKat operating system. Updating to the new OS causes Near Field Communication or NFC to shut down on their devices once you update to KitKat. It affects Nexus 10 tablets, 2012 and 2013 versions of Nexus 7, Nexus 5, and Nexus 4. The bugs are present in the builds Android 4.4 (KRT16S), Android 4.4.1 (KOT49E), and Android 4.4.2 (KOT49H). Google is working on a fix for this bug and will most likely be remedied by the next firmware release.

The temporary remedy for the issue is to activate airplane mode on the device. It will let NFC work at lease once before the crash loop starts.

Source: Ubergizmo

TimmyMe BlackBerry app with NFC launch event happens today

Celebrate BlackBerry and Tim Hortons' TimmyMe app with NFC. BlackBerry and Tim Hortons announced a fast and convenient payment option for BlackBerry 10 smartphones users, who are now able to use their BlackBerrys to complete transactions at participating Tim Hortons across Canada and the United States. By leveraging near field communication (NFC) technology that's built into every BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

In celebration of this achievement, BlackBerry invites users to coffee and donuts ther BlackBerry 10 customer appreciation event being held at 2:00 PM today at Tim Hortons, 90 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, ON M5H 3V9. Some suprises await visitors.

Update on Friday, January 31, 2014 at 4:53PM by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Joffrey Lupul (Toronto Maple Leafs) buys coffee for BlackBerry users with Tim Hortons TimmyMe mobile app during the app event, launch.