Apple Pay Support in Singapore Expands to Five Major Banks
Apple Pay launched in Singapore in April through a partnership with American Express, and at the time, the Apple Pay website in Singapore said Apple Pay would be available to Visa card holders and major banks in the near future.
Starting today, Apple Pay support is expanding beyond American Express. Apple Pay can now be used with major Visa, MasterCard, and American Express credit and debit cards from five of Singapore’s major banks, including POSB, DBS, OCBC, Standard Chartered, and UOB.
According to The Straits Times, the five banks account for more than 80 percent of the Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards issued in Singapore. Customers with an eligible card can add it to the Wallet app on the iPhone to make purchases within retail stores.
Apple Pay vice-president Jennifer Bailey told The Straits Times: “Now, almost everyone can leave their wallets at home. Apple Pay will be a natural extension of what users have been doing at payment counters.”
Apple Pay can be used at more than 30,000 retail locations in Singapore that accept contactless payments, and Apple’s Apple Pay Singapore website lists several official partners like Starbucks, FairPrice, BreadTalk, 7 Eleven, Toast Box, TopShop, Uniqlo and more.
Apple is working to bring additional banks on board to further expand Apple Pay support in the country.
Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tag: Singapore
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Gululu is a drink-tracking water bottle with a built-in virtual pet for kids
Remember Tamagotchi or Giga Pet?
Well, one company is hoping to bring back the digital-pet trend, but this time in the form of a water bottle. Bowhead Technology also wants to make the chore of drinking water into a game for kids, so it invented Gululu Interactive Bottle.
The interesting thing about this water bottle is that it features a display, home button, embedded sensors, Wi-Fi, and wireless charging. It needs all this tech in order to power a virtual pet that grows and evolves the more your child drinks water while using Gululu. Once you get the bottle, you must set a goal for how much your child should drink, and then it tracks your child’s water intake.
The pet grows every time your child meets the set goals, and you can check progress through a companion app on your mobile device. This app also lets you put Gululu in a school mode to prevent your child from getting distracted in school. The hope is your child will like the digital pet feature so much they’ll want to grow the pet and meet their daily drinking goals.
Gululu
Bowhead is throwing around a study as an excuse for why you should want your child to stay hydrated. Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health, for instance, determined more than half of US children aren’t drinking enough water each day. It’s unclear how much is enough, but that Harvard study linked dehydration to impaired concentration, cognition, and physical activity.
Gululu’s app can still recommend how much a child should drink each day, however. It uses stats like weight, height, and location, and it even accounts for natural water loss and the water your child intakes from food. If any of this interests you, Gululu Interactive Bottle has staretd a Kickstarter campaign in order to raise $100,000. You can get an early-bird special for $89.
The bottle should retail for $99 and start shipping in September.
ComiXology Unlimited offers all of the comics for $6 a month
ComiXology, Amazon’s online comic book service, unveiled a new unlimited content subscription option on Tuesday. The $6 per month ComiXology Unlimited plan gives subscribers unfettered access to the service’s archive, which includes titles from Image, Dark Horse, IDW and a bunch more — basically every notable publisher outside of Marvel and DC. ComiXology will continue to sell individual issues from the Big Two, it just won’t offer them on the unlimited plan.
Via: Android Central
Source: Comixology
Pebble Core Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Meet the Pebble Core, one of the hardest-to-describe products I’ve seen recently. Unlike Pebble’s other wearable devices, this isn’t a smartwatch.
Think of it as a standalone, multipurpose, Android-powered smart button. Or a GPS fitness tracker that’s also a Spotify iPod Shuffle. Or, a 3G-optional GPS tracker. Pebble Core wants to be all of these things — and more.
Pebble Core can be a keychain.
John Kim/CNET
Maybe the best way to think of the Pebble Core is a product that takes features missing from the Pebble Time and offloads them onto a separate clip-on product. The Core has standalone 3G functions, and can track runs via GPS without a phone. Or, it could stream music over 3G cellular wireless (if you invest in a SIM card, and add it to your monthly phone bill). An included headphone jack plus Bluetooth make it, at the least, a Spotify mini-music player (it can play a downloaded Spotify playlists from its 4GB of built-in storage).
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According to CEO Eric Migicovsky, the Pebble Core is programmable and hackable. It can not only run software, but it has two large touch buttons on the front that can be assigned smart-button functions. Send an SOS ping via text, call an Uber, open a door, turn off a light — whatever smart buttons (such as the Flic) do, Pebble Core could theoretically do via a Pebble app interface.
Two buttons and a headphone jack.
John Kim/CNET
The Pebble Core runs for about 9 hours of music playback using GPS, or for days on standby. And it charges using the contactless Qi standard, meaning you don’t need to worry about a dongle, something that even the Pebble watches don’t have yet.
Pebble Core works as an accessory while wearing a Pebble watch, but it also works independently. It can pair with a phone or work on its own.
Pebble Core is available to back on Kickstarter, but it won’t arrive until January 2017. At its current $69 US promotional price, it’s affordable. But it’s not entirely clear whether what it does will be as good as what it promises.
Pebble
The Core could be a truly open type of online mini-computer hub, or hacker’s smart-button dream. Or, it could be a missing link for wearable off-wrist fitness. Or, perhaps it’s a testbed for the direction Pebble watches and products could evolve in the future.
That said, its lack of a screen and more buttons could limit its appeal, especially as a music player.
Features:
- Runs Android
- 3G SIM card slot
- Bluetooth
- Wi-Fi
- Two programmable touch buttons
- GPS
- Syncs with health apps (Runkeeper, Strava, MapMyRun, Google Fit, UA Record)
- Records voice notes
- Wireless Qi charging
- 4GB storage
Volkswagen pours $300 million into Gett’s ride hailing service
Ford and GM aren’t the only big car companies getting cozy with the on-demand transportation industry. Volkswagen has made a $300 million investment in Gett, one of the bigger ridesharing outfits in the world (particularly in Europe). The two are working together to expand on-demand ride services. For VW, this is the “first milestone” toward becoming a top-tier mobility service provider by 2025. The firm doesn’t expect this to be its only partnership, but it’s an important one.
VW also isn’t shy about one of the long-term goals for this deal: self-driving cars. Gett’s AI- and prediction-driven approaches to getting you a ride represent a good “foundation” for a driverless on-demand service, VW says. As with other alliances like this, the two companies are preparing for the day when you’re more likely to hail a car than own one.
Source: Volkswagen
‘Rocket League’ gets cross-network play for Xbox One and PC
Rocket League players will soon have an even wider breadth of teammates to choose from, as Psyonix has announced that Xbox One and PC cross-network play is going live for all today.
Players around the world will be able to match up with cross-network Rocket League aficionados beginning today at 6pm ET/3pm PT. If your buddy primarily takes to their Xbox One and you find yourself gravitating to PC, you can finally play together across both platforms.
This isn’t the first time a platform has allowed for cross-network play, as evidenced with games like Shadowrun back on Xbox 360, Portal 2 on PlayStation 3. But it is a first for the Xbox One, tracing back to an announcement from Microsoft itself back in March.
It’s the beginning of an exciting new precedent where we’ll be seeing Microsoft further expanding its online gaming offerings, and Rocket League is a great choice for kicking things off.
“We’re really excited to bring Xbox One and PC players closer together,” said Jeremy Dunham, Vice President of Psyonix. “Cross-network play has been something that Xbox One gamers have been asking us for since the day we launched, and thanks to Microsoft’s new cross-network policies, we’re proud to give it to them.”
Source: NeoGAF
Sony sells most of its media editing tools
Sony’s quest to get rid of unnecessary businesses continues. The electronics giant has sold off the “majority” of its creative software suite to Magix, a German firm that revolves around pro imaging apps. That’s right — Vegas Pro, Sound Forge Pro and other well-known Sony media editing apps are now in someone else’s hands. Sony will still offer its Catalyst broadcast and production tools, but Magix will be handling development and support from here on out.
Magix’s exact plans aren’t clear, but it already expects to make new versions of Vegas Pro and Movie Studio. It’s not just folding the technology into its own software, thankfully. Still, it’s an odd move for Sony: the company is giving up its rare advantage of making both video editing software and the cameras to record those videos. It suggests that the costs of competing with the likes of Adobe, Apple and Avid might have been too high.
SteelSeries ships its OLED-packing gaming mouse
Did you look at SteelSeries’ display-toting Rival 700 mouse in January and think it was just the edge you needed for your gaming exploits? It’s time to do something about it. The company’s Rival 700 is now available for a pricey (though not outlandish) $100. As before, its centerpiece is a side-mounted OLED screen that both shows data (such as your in-game stats or your team logo) and helps you tweak settings without firing up software on your PC. You can also ‘feel’ events through customizable vibrations, and swap optical sensors when you’re eager for an upgrade. Is this overkill? Probably — but there’s no doubt that you’ll have a distinct gaming experience.
Source: SteelSeries
Toyota is investing in Uber
Toyota is expanding its ride-sharing initiatives by investing in Uber, according to Bloomberg. The publication says that the pair have “entered into a memorandum of understanding to explore collaboration in ride-sharing.” Sure. In 2014, Toyota started testing its own ride-sharing service in France, but I’m willing to bet that this new deal won’t mean your next Uber will be one of those cute i-Road electric cars. By partnering with Uber, the Japanese car manufacturer is able to skip the hassles of setting up its own infrastructure — unlike, say General Motors and its ZipCar-like Maven service — and still be a part of the scene.
The way the press release from Toyota tells it, the company will offer leasing options to drivers through its Toyota Financial Services system and drivers will be able to make their payments with what they’re earning through Uber, directly. The statement also says that the pair are working on devising a fleet program that’d sell Toyota and Lexus cars to Uber.
An Uber spokesperson told Engadget: “Toyota is a global leader in the automotive industry and Toyota vehicles are among the most popular cars on the Uber platform worldwide. We are proud to partner with Toyota in a variety of ways, including the expansion of our vehicle financing program.”
Source: Toyota
Huawei sues Samsung over cellphone patents
No, the fighting between top smartphone makers isn’t done just yet. Huawei has sued Samsung in both China and the US for allegedly violating its patents on cellular technology and software through its cellphones. Unlike what you see in many such lawsuits, though, the Chinese tech leader isn’t demanding a straight financial penalty — it wants a cross-licensing deal where the two sides share patents, much like the ones it has with “dozens” of other partners.
Samsung hasn’t commented yet (we’ve reached out for its take). However, you might not see this turn into a knock-down-drag-out courtroom battle. Huawei’s demands hint that the lawsuit is more of a bargaining chip than an attempt to punish a competitor. Unless Samsung outright refuses to make a deal, it’s entirely possible that the mobile rivals will settle this out of court.
Via: 9to5Google
Source: BBC
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