TD Canada Trust Lends Credence to Apple Pay Launch in Canada Next Month
Just one month before Apple Pay is rumored to launch in Canada, large bank TD Canada Trust briefly provided evidence of the forthcoming launch by prematurely listing the iPhone-based mobile payments service as a method of payment on its website, as spotted by blog iPhone in Canada. The link has since been removed.
Apple Pay was briefly listed under “Ways to Pay” at the bottom of TD Canada Trust’s website, but the link now leads to a blank page. When it was live, the page said that Apple Pay will soon support TD Canada Trust debit and credit cards, with purchases subject to a $100 transaction limit like other contactless payments in Canada.
In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was in negotiations with the Royal Bank of Canada, TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, CIBC and National Bank of Canada about a potential November launch of Apple Pay in Canada. The six financial institutions combined account for more than 90% of Canadian bank accounts.
Apple Pay launched in the United States last October, and expanded to the United Kingdom in July.
TD Canada Trust has around 11 million customers in Canada.
Starbucks starts testing in-building delivery in New York City
Starbucks is no stranger to delivery, thanks to a hand from Postmates. However, the bean-slinging company is taking matters into its own hands with a new delivery option. The “Green Apron” service is in the testing phase inside the Empire State Building in New York City. The idea here is that Starbucks has its own setup in the building and can drop off coffee and food orders in 30 minutes or less. Don’t expect a full-on retail location where you can sit and sip in, though, as the kitchen is dedicated to delivery orders. On the surface it may seem like overkill to have a dedicated Starbucks for one building, but when you factor in the thousands of caffeine addicts that work there, it makes a lot of sense. There’s a dedicated website where orders are placed and the customer is able to specify a meeting spot (the reception desk, for example) to pick up that PSL. While the service is a trial for now, the company could expand it to other large office buildings or packed urban areas in the future.
[Image credit: Craig Warga/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Source: TechCrunch
Play as Jason in the first official ‘Friday the 13th’ game since 1989
When Gun Media’s Wes Keltner and Ronnie Hobbs announced Summer Camp, a slasher-inspired horror game set in a creepy campground, it was already more than an homage to Friday the 13th. The developers were open about their love of ghostly, hockey-masked murderer Jason Voorhees and they had even recruited Friday the 13th veterans to work on the game. This included actor, director and special-effects creator Tom Savini, the man behind the mask in Friday the 13th parts 7-10 Kane Hodder, and the film’s original composer Harry Manfredini.
“Basically, we were a Friday the 13th video game; we just didn’t have the license,” Hobbs said. Five months after the announcement of Summer Camp, Friday the 13th creator and director Sean S. Cunningham reached out to the team with his blessing — and, after a few meetings, the license to the Jason Voorhees franchise.
“We were blown away and humbled at the same time,” Hobbs said. “I’ve wanted to create a Friday the 13th video game nearly my whole life, so to hear him validate our work on Summer Camp was the highest honor…. He said if this license will make your game better, then I’d love for you to have it.”
Now, Hobbs, Keltner and their band of horror-movie masters are building the first official Friday the 13th game since 1989. And there’s another first: You’ll get to play as Jason.
Friday the 13th is an asymmetrical multiplayer game, where one person is Jason Voorhees and seven other players are counselors attempting to escape Camp Crystal Lake. The counselors represent a slew of familiar horror tropes, including a cheerleader, a nerd, a jock, “the girl next door” and “the edgy guy.” The counselors have to sneak through the grounds, in groups or alone, though Jason can hear when players move and instantly show up directly behind them, machete in-hand. For the counselors, it’s a game of stealth, strategy and luck.
Jason is incredibly powerful and he’s designed to take out counselors in the most creative ways possible. Here’s how Gun Media describes playing as Jason on the game’s Kickstarter page (launched today):
You get to stalk camp counselors in Camp Crystal Lake and brutally kill in new and inventive ways (as well as some that will seem all too familiar). Grab a counselor in a choke hold, pick them up off the ground, and smash their face into a tree. Repeatedly. Or how about lifting a counselor up above your head as they kick and scream, holding them aloft long enough to walk near a rack of farm spikes to slam your victim down upon them? Yes, you get to do that because that’s what Jason does. He’s an unflinching, brutal killing force; the ultimate predator, and for the first time ever YOU control this horror icon.
To Hobbs, creative violence is the crux of Friday the 13th.
“Going too over-the-top in the gore department isn’t really a concern to us right now,” Hobbs says. “In fact, the slasher genre is more about creative kills and practical effects than all-out gore. We have Tom Savini leading this department, so expect to us to be very faithful to the slasher genre. In the end, I’m sure the ESRB will make sure we don’t go too far overboard.”
To be clear, Friday the 13th probably won’t be a “T for Teen” kind of experience.
Cunningham, the series creator, will be involved in the game as well, offering thematic support and direction. “We love showing him the progress we’re making and even more so love hearing his opinion,” Hobbs says.
Friday the 13th is seeking $700,000 on Kickstarter starting today, and it’s in development for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. For Hobbs, it’s all a dream (or maybe a nightmare) come true. He’s excited to build a game that puts players in Jason’s shoes.
“But actually what intrigues me just as much, if not more, is the ‘killer vs. victim’ dynamic,” Hobbs says. “This is a staple of slasher films and something we’ve yet to see fully realized in the video game industry.”
[Image credits: Gun Media]
Facebook testing YouTube-like dedicated video hub
Facebook has been pushing video pretty hard lately and today is sharing its plans on making sure users have even more ways to watch tiny movies of their friends and from pages they follow. The most compelling of these experiments is a dedicated video tab that shows all the videos shared by folks and entities someone follows. It’s bit like a cross between Instagram and YouTube within the social networking company’s main app. This new feature will be tested on a small group of users to see how they respond to having almost instant access to videos without having to wade through political postings by family members and their friend’s baby bump photos.
In addition to the dedicated tab, Facebook is also testing a bunch of other video features. One of these is Suggested Videos, a YouTube-like way of surfacing videos that you might find interesting based on what you’re currently watching. It’s also testing a way for folks to watch while still having access to the rest of the newsfeed. And finally, it’s experimenting with a save button for those moments when you can’t watch a clip and would like to bookmark it for later viewing.
Like Instant Articles, all of this adds up to more ways to keep you inside the Facebook experience. The fewer instances you’re pushed out of the newsfeed, the happier you make the company and its advertisers. The tests are being tried out on iPhone with web testing coming soon and Android support coming in a few months.
Source: Facebook
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