Uber Update Spotlights ‘Upfront Fares’ While Burying Surge Pricing Notifications

Ride hailing app Uber has begun testing a version of its app in six United States cities, with a new UI that makes periods of surge pricing more subtle to discover for users. Surge pricing is a term dedicated to windows when riders greatly exceed drivers, resulting in heightened fare prices due to the increased demand.

When this would happen prior to Uber’s new test, anyone signing into the app would get a pop-up notification that surge pricing was in effect, along with a general multiplier that they would have to add into their driving fare to figure out its total cost.

The update nixes both features, simultaneously making it harder to know when surge pricing is in effect without notifications, but also benefitting users thanks to an “upfront fare” with “no complicated math and no surprises,” according to Uber.

Upfront fares are calculated using the expected time and distance of the trip and local traffic, as well as how many riders and nearby drivers are using Uber at that moment. And when fares go up due to increased demand, instead of surge lightning bolts and pop-up screens, riders are given the actual fare before they request their ride. There’s no complicated math and no surprises: passengers can just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Now, when users want to know when surge pricing is in effect, a faint line of text references “increased demand” beneath their fare. The company is testing the upfront fare system in New York City, Miami, San Diego, Philadelphia, Seattle, and some parts of New Jersey, in addition to five cities in India: New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai. The surge pricing update is expected to hit the rest of Uber’s markets around the world “in the next few months.”

Previous Coverage: Uber Attempts to Address Driver Concerns With New App Update

Tag: Uber
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KFC India’s ‘Watt-A-Box’ will charge your phone while you eat

KFC India has come out with a brilliant promotion to advertise its 5-in-1 meal box. Dubbed “Watt-A-Box,” the meal is packaged in a box that contains a portable battery along with micro-USB, USB, and Lightning connectors, allowing you to plug in your and charge your phone as you eat.

The promotion is currently live in Delhi and Mumbai, although KFC isn’t handing these meal boxes out to everyone. The restaurant chain is randomly handing out boxes to customers ordering from its stores, and is giving them away on Facebook.

You’re not going to be able to fully charge your phone from the meal box, but it is a novel way to quickly top up your phone while getting some grub. Who wants one?

See at KFC India

The Galaxy S7 edge Olympic Edition breaks cover

Earlier this year, it was reported that Samsung would be coming out with a special variant of the Galaxy S7 edge for the 2016 Olympics. Thanks to Evan Blass, we now have an idea as to how the Galaxy S7 edge Olympic Edition will look like:

From the image, the phone will have gold accents around the earpiece and home button, with the power button decked out in red and the volume rockers coated green. At the back, the camera sensor sees blue accents, with the Olympic rings located at the bottom.

No information on when the Galaxy S7 edge Olympic Edition will be made available, but it should be debuting in time for the Olympics, which kick off on August 5. Who’s interested?

Netflix may enable offline viewing by the end of the year

It looks like Netflix may offer an option to download and watch videos offline, much like Amazon’s Prime Video. According to LightReading (via PhoneArena), the ability to save videos for offline viewing should make its debut by the end of the year.

The publication is citing the Penthera, a software company that facilitates delivery of TV shows on mobile devices. From its COO Dan Taitz:

We know from our sources within the industry that Netflix is going to launch this product. My expectation is that by the end of the year Netflix will be launching download-to-go as an option for their customers.

A Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst Dan Rayburn also corroborated the claim:

It’s a natural progression for Netflix to want to have some of their content available for consumers to watch offline, and we’ve been hearing for months now that they are in fact going to roll something out soon.

Netflix hasn’t said much on the subject, with spokesperson Anne Marie Squeo remaining noncommittal on the issue:

While our focus remains on delivering a great streaming experience, we are always exploring ways to make the service better. We don’t have anything to add at this time.

Google Nexus 6P by Huawei: Today’s Phone for Tomorrow’s VR Landscape [sponsored]

The Nexus 6p is perfect for the next stage of technology.

Every year or two, we come up against the same question: Should I upgrade my smartphone to a new(ish) model? Assuming that your device isn’t suffering from physical damage, a depleted battery, or the ever-popular “It’s gotten so sloooow!” malady, the best reason to upgrade is for new features and functionality.

Many phones come to market with small, incremental improvements that don’t fundamentally change your smartphone experience. However, when you get a new phone — particularly a Google flagship (in the Nexus family) with a major new Android release, new USB connector type, leaps in camera features, and full Google Cardboard virtual reality (VR) support — maybe it’s time to take a closer look at the total value package. Here’s a phone that’s worth upgrading for.

Huawei launched the Nexus 6P in September 2015, although it remains the latest Nexus phone model to date and one of a select few poster children for the still-in-beta Android N operating system. Our focus here will be on the VR side of the Nexus 6P experience, but to get there we should circle back and recap the handset and what makes it so suitable to this cutting edge application.

External Overview

Huawei’s Nexus 6P phone delivers outstanding build quality without sacrificing class. The all-metal body shows almost no flexion under reasonable twisting, and the monolithic black, Gorilla Glass 4-coated front is only subtly broken by stereo speakers located at the top and bottom. Beyond the polished metal accent edging, the phone’s back and sides come in four colors: matte gold, aluminum, frost, and graphite. The 6.27″ x 3.06″ x 0.29″ dimensions make for a larger handset but still allow for a comfortable grip with just enough texturing to avoid feeling slippery.

The 5.7″ AMOLED screen, with 2560 x 1440 (WQHD) resolution at an impressive 518 pixels per inch, offers a sharp, high-contrast display with whites that don’t blind and blacks that nearly match the thin bezel even at max brightness. Colors impress with depth and richness without looking oversaturated, and we found almost no color shifting even at nearly perpendicular viewing angles. When used for VR, adds up to a remarkably vivid — literally in your face— display that preserves its integrity against the inevitable light leaking in from around the headgear’s edges.

And what of the audio? Phone manufacturers have three basic options: terrible sound from terrible speakers located behind (hopefully) two pinholes, a decent down-firing speaker or two, or stereo front-firing speakers at the top and bottom of the devices. This last option is definitely what you want for the most immersive VR experience possible without resorting to external speakers. While Marshall’s London phone may arguably have today’s most audiophile-optimized design in this regard, the Nexus 6P puts up a good fight on overall audio quality without giving up so many other qualities, as Marshall did. The 6P performs well through the highs and mids, stays undistorted through all but the toughest tracks at maximum volume, and makes a token push at representing bass ranges, which is still more than most phones attempt. Best of all, you get a broad physical separation of stereo channels, so the sound engulfing your head actually feels true to life rather than purely mono or artificially stretched into pseudo-surround.

Huawei rightly extends the 1mm lens bubble across the breadth of the phone so that the device rests wobble-free on a flat surface. The 12.3MP rear camera is widely praised for its low light sensitivity, dual flash, and 30 fps 4K capture capabilities. The 8MP, f/2.4 Sony IMX179 front-facing camera takes selfie quality to a new level while delivering much more professional results for videoconferencing.

Last but not least on our external tour, the Nexus 6P comes with a USB Type-C connector on its bottom edge. We’re strongly of the opinion that all phones should now adopt Type-C, if only for convenience and future compatibility with high-performance client systems. However, the Nexus 6P, like the 5X before it, backs its Type-C port with USB 2.0, not USB 3.1. Of course, the true allure of Type-C is its fast charging and ability to let host devices, including the Nexus 6P, act as a charging source for other devices, such as your friend’s phone that’s diving into the red of imminent shut-down.

Internal Overview

Huawei outfitted the Nexus 6P with the 2.1 version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 SoC, an octo-core firecracker clocked at 2.0 GHz and backed by 3GB of LPDDR4 DRAM. The 800 series tops Qualcomm’s mobile processor line, and within the 810 rests the Adreno 430 GPU, which for a time topped the phone graphics benchmark lists in 2015. Needless to say, VR is one of the most graphics-hungry apps you can throw at a smartphone, so this core processing setup becomes crucial. Huawei also built in a second processor subsystem to handle all of the phone’s sensor traffic in order to offload that burden from the CPU. Good call.

Nexus 6P models cover 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB of storage. Other noteworthy specs include:

Broadcomm’s BCM 4358 Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5.0 GHz)
2×2 MIMO dual-band antennas
Bluetooth 4.2
NFC
Digital compass
Carrier-unlocked across GSM, UMTS, CDMA, LTE, and CA DL
3,450 mAh nonremovable battery

Huawei quotes a battery life of up to 440 hours in standby and 23 hours of talk time. In our everyday use, we clocked in the range of 10 to 13 hours when under frequent use with moderate brightness and all primary radio services active. Naturally, video playback will drop you under 10 hours, and VR will drain your battery even faster.

However, we should note one observation here about our VR testing with the Nexus 6P. We tested using the LeNest VR headset, which provides some but not a ton of ventilation. It didn’t take more than 10 minutes for our phone to get quite warm when running demanding VR apps within the headset. Regardless of whether it was the software load or the heat (or both) accelerating battery drain, we found that recharging became a more common necessity during VR enjoyment. Good thing we had fast charging via USB Type-C.

We won’t bother with rehashing benchmarks and such here. Suffice it to say that the Nexus 6P is not the fastest phone on today’s market, but it’s dang fast. More to the point, it feels just as fast as today’s fastest handsets, with none of the screen swipe and app switching lag that so frequently plagues lesser devices. The Nexus 6P runs like a fluid dream under common use, including gaming and HD video. It has the horsepower where and when it counts.

Android N

Huawei launched the Nexus 6P with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but the beauty of the Nexus brand is that it’s Google’s baby and thus at the front of the line for OS updates. Marshmallow’s successor, still known only as Android N as of this writing, is due for final release in the third quarter of 2016. Developer previews appeared in March and April, and Google announced that the May 18 release, which we reviewed, had achieved beta caliber. More importantly, the beta now delivers VR Mode for Android.

What makes Android N noteworthy? Let’s start with the trite: a lot more emojis — over 1,500 of them, in fact. Then, we can look at the small but handy, such as how notifications now appear in stacked bundles. This is a thoughtful compromise between shutting off messages and notification overload. You’ll see at a glance who recently messaged you and expand it if you like with a two-finger swipe. No more having to go into Messages every time you want to reply to someone. Better yet, if you hold down on a notification, it brings up a slider bar allowing you to select application importance ranging from “Never show these notifications” to “Show at the top of the notifications list, peek onto the screen and allow sound.” We love this.

In another signal that big smartphones are looking to edge further into the small client space, Android N expands multi-window support. In short, if you find keeping multiple windows open and visible to be useful, you now have the ability to do so easily under Android N. Imagine being neck-deep in a new Jessica Jones episode while wanting to keep a Skype chat running simultaneously without constantly switching away from your video every time a new message arrives. Multi-mode does this, although we may have chosen a bad example. Netflix, like many other apps we tried, pops up a warning about possibly not working in multi-mode. Sure enough, when we tried to watch a video, the right half of the display showed as a black bar. Keep in mind that this is still betaware and may have some of these kinks worked out by late summer.

Google has made several subtle improvements that should help incrementally with battery life, from reducing system requirements (less demanding components can translate into lower power consumption) to expanding on Marshmallow’s Doze functionality, which puts the system into a deep sleep state much earlier than before. File sizes are expected to drop considerably under Android N and install much faster, both of which will help slightly with resource loads. And did we mention that Android N takes a big jump in allowing apps updates to download in the background without annoying pop-ups prompting users, including major system patches? It does.

VR and Daydream

To us, everything we’ve mentioned so far is only a prelude to the real reason to grab a Nexus 6P: virtual reality support. Of course, the headliner name in VR today is Oculus, now owned by Facebook, and its Rift headset. The Rift is the Cadillac of modern VR. However, a fleet of would-be rivals — competitors on the order of family sedans and econo-compacts — have emerged to give Oculus a run for the VR future, and nearly all of them are fueled by slip-in smartphones rather than integrated screens. The idea couldn’t get much simpler: Your smartphone screen gets divided in half. One half shows an image for your left eye, the other half an image for your right. Voila — you’ve got 3D. Add in 360-degree panoramic imagery set within a virtual 3D space and you have bona fide virtual reality, just like the VR you might have seen in 1990s malls, only 100 times cooler and for 1/100 of the budget.

Google understands that VR is going to be a very big deal for consumers and possibly for business niches, too. If nothing else, VR poses a lucrative opportunity for value-added content likely to draw eyeballs, and those eyeballs can see lots of Google ads. No matter its motivations, Google now finds itself looking for ways to push VR into the tech mainstream as quickly as possible, and no better vehicle exists than Android.

With this writing on the wall, Google launched its Cardboard platform in June of 2014, principally for VR application developers. Cardboard entails a series of software developer kits, including one for iOS, and apps began to proliferate in earnest by 2015. To help people experience Cardboard, Google released specifications for a headset viewer made, of course, out of cardboard. The apparatus folds up into an enclosure designed to accommodate smartphones with up to six-inch screens. With included Velcro tabs and a pair of 45mm focal length lenses, you can find DIY kits for sale online for under $5. Our amply padded, more durable headset from LeNest shipped from Amazon for $25. Part of why we chose this unit was because it advertised being large enough to accommodate eyeglasses. In reality, this was stretching the truth. Moreover, it turned out that we could see just fine by using the set’s interpupillary and focal distance adjustment knobs. Be aware that, unlike the basic Cardboard headsets, the LeNest and many like it lack a magnetic switch for indicating an input selection. You may need a handheld Bluetooth controller to get around in some applications.

We spent many hours roaming around in the Nexus 6P’s virtual worlds, which, aided by the phones exceptional 1ms display refresh time, looked crisp and fluid. On a whim, we grabbed some nearby grade schoolers and gave them their first taste of VR. The reactions were exactly what you see in countless YouTube clips: slack-jawed, wobbly-headed expressions of wonder and joy. Our impromptu test crew especially enjoyed the Cedar Point VR roller coaster app and Vanguard V, an outer space third-person rail shooter. With an excellent soundtrack driving Vanguard V, this visually vibrant title in particular really showcased how strong the Nexus 6P can be with VR.

Google Maps with Cardboard is undeniably impressive. A 360˚ panorama of world monuments is impressive, but not as impressive as feeling you’re inside the scene. (We can’t wait for platforms such as Google Jump to get more popular and broadly showcase live motion video for affordable VR hardware.) Similarly, Cardboard-enabled YouTube videos can look anywhere from breathtaking to awful. At worst, you’re going to see a jumbled mess of widescreen content crammed into 4:3, but for the best check out this YouTube playlist from the 360° Videos channel: Immersive Videos With Spatial Audio. Almost literally, this is what the outstanding graphics and audio capability of the Nexus 6P was made for.

Taken all together, though, our VR testing on the Nexus 6P convinced us that VR is here to stay this time. Google currently boasts eight phone manufacturing partners that are now or soon will be Android VR-certified, but the Nexus 6P was the first device to earn certification status. When Android N finally launches, Google will likely transition Cardboard into a platform named Daydream. With Daydream, we should have Netflix that actually works, along with Hulu, IMAX, Lionsgate, CNN, HBO, and many other content partners. We don’t know if we’re ready to jump up and down for conventional movies and shows seen in 3D VR, especially since that jumping would be very uncomfortable while wearing VR headgear. But for next-gen, interactive content? The kind hardly anyone has thought of yet? Oh, yeah — bring it.

If you want into this VR future today, grab a phone like the Nexus 6P and dive in. The content is there, the hardware is ready, and it’s all just getting started.

This post was sponsored by an independent company and does not reflect the opinions of Android Central or its editors.

Best arcade games for Android

Bring back all the nostalgic feels with these arcade classics for Android.

For all the great new games that are released on Android, sometimes you want to play something … familiar. Maybe something a little retro that reminds you of those arcade days spent plugging quarters into standalone machines for hours on end.

You can relive those moments on your Android phone with these great arcade games available in the Google Play Store.

• PAC-MAN
• Galactic Nemesis
• Metal Slug 3
• R-Type
• SoulCalibur
• Pinball Arcade

PAC-MAN

The quintessential arcade classic has been ported to Android over and over again, with a dozen of different twists on the tried and true gaming formula. But if you’re looking for a pure Pac-Man experience, Bandai-Namco’s free PAC-MAN app is everything you’ll need.

In Classic Mode, you’ll find everything looks and plays as you remember — minus the need for a stack of quarters. Once you’ve had your fill of the classic mazes, check out the collection of new mazes which add a new layer of strategy.

Tournament mode adds another layer of replay. Try and set the high score in regularly occurring tournaments against players from around the world.

PAC-MAN is a free download in the Google Play Store, and includes in-app purchases for different maze packs.

Download:PAC-MAN (free)

Galactic Nemesis

Galactic Nemesis is an updated version of arcade classics like Galaga and Galaxian for your Android phone. Blast your way through wave after wave of alien invaders, upgrading your ship as you go.

Controls are dead simple. Tap and drag your finger around the screen to move and shoot at the same time. Power-ups collect along the right side of the screen, so simply tap them when you need a little help.
You get the first world for free but will have to pay $1.99 to unlock 3 other worlds. You’ll also get 10 ships to unlock, over 50 in-game challenges, and no ads.
With great pixel art, simple controls, and a winning gameplay formula, you can’t go wrong with Galactic Nemesis if you’re into classic arcade games.

Download: Galactic Nemesis (free with in-app purchases)

Metal Slug 3

A classic run-and-gun arcade title, Metal Slug 3 has been perfectly ported over to the Google Play Store and is worth checking out if you’re a fan of the original games or simply enjoy action arcade shooting games.

The Android version gives you multiple ways to play.There’s a single player campaign, which you can play in classic Arcade Mode or Mission Mode, which allows you to play your favorite mission or practice a particularly tough mission.

If your friends have the game, you can connect up via Bluetooth and play co-op modes. Metal Slug is always more fun with friends, so the addition of wireless local multiplayer greatly enhances the replay value.

Download: Metal Slug 3 ($2.99)

R-Type

Fans of R-Type will enjoy how smooth this classic side-scrolling shoot-em-up game plays on Android. Man your ship and take down the alien invasion one level at a time.

The game lets you control your ship directly via touch or using an on-screen joystick (Bluetooth controller support would have been nice here) and has a toggle for autofire. We’ve found the touch control to be the best compromise for allowing full control for evading enemies without obstructing too much of the screen.

Having reliable controls is important because this game is as tough as you remember it being. With wave after wave of enemies, tough boss battles, and one-hit deaths, you’re in for a real challenge with R-Type.

Download: R-Type ($1.99)

SoulCalibur

We’d be remiss to have a list of best arcade games without at least one fighting game making the cut. This port of Soul Calibur is one of the nicest direct ports we’ve seen, featuring (thankfully) updated graphics from the 1998 original.

Beyond the classic Arcade Mode, there are multiple game modes to enjoy: Time Attack challenges you to beat all characters as fast as you can, Survival sees how far you can go in sudden-death battles, and Extreme Survival cranks things up to see how far you can go without being hit.

Before you click your heels and jump into the Google Play Store to get this one, here’s the bad news: the price. At $13.99, this is priced more along the lines of a console download than a mobile offering. But this is essentially a full-fledged console game on your phone. This might be strictly for the hardcore SoulCalibur fans, but if you’re looking for a quality fighting game for your Android device, SoulCalibur is as good as you’ll find.

The only other downside besides the price is its lack of controller support; however, the virtual gamepad is surprisingly responsive and fully customizable.

Download: SoulCalibur ($13.99)

Pinball Arcade

For fans of pinball, nothing will quite replicate the experience of playing on a glass-top pinball cabinet. Pinball Arcade for Android might just be the next best thing, featuring 70 classic pinball tables.

Each table is faithfully reproduced with all original features and graphics in rather stunning 3D graphics.

You get the full Arabian Nights table for free and are able to play free versions of all of the other tables included in the game, but you must plop down some serious cash to get full access to the other tables, which are sold individually ($5-$9 per table) or as part of a Season Pack ($35-$42 per season pack).

These prices are going to be way too steep for most, but if you’re a hardcore Pinball fan who collects pinball cabinets, you’ll appreciate the ability to test and play classic tables for a fraction of the cost of owning one in real life.

Download: Pinball Arcade (free with in-app purchases)

Any arcade games we missed?

In our research, there were a number of games we seriously considered but dropped for one reason or another, including Atari’s Greatest Hits (too many in-app purchases), Double Dragon Trilogy (game wouldn’t load for us), and Crazy Taxi Classic (also wouldn’t load). Let us know in the comments below if there are obvious ones we missed.

Fallout: New Vegas comes to Xbox One backwards compatibility, you can finish it at last

Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360 version of Fallout: New Vegas is now compatible with Xbox One.

It was one of the most requested games not yet on the list, not least by is, but now you can play the game from a disc you already own, or bought from the Xbox Store.

The 360 version of Fallout: New Vegas costs £11.99 from the store, as part of the Xbox One Backward Compatibility line-up. You might need to search for it, but the full game and all of the DLC add-ons are now available.

ICYMI: @Fallout New Vegas is now available on Xbox One Back Compat: https://t.co/L8YpEpGupI pic.twitter.com/OkbkGwbmpI

— Xbox UK (@xboxuk) June 24, 2016

As well as the Fallout sequel, has added Blood Knights, Comic Jumper, Crystal Quest, Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, I Am Alive, Joe Danger Special Edition, and Red Faction: Battlegrounds in this latest batch of compatible titles.

The full list now contains more than 200 games that will work on the Xbox One (although one or two aren’t available to buy on the store). You can find out the entire line-up in our handy guide to Xbox One backwards compatibility here.

Another Bethesda game that has been top of a lot of Xbox One owners’ wish lists for compatibility is Skyrim, but with a full, remastered version inbound, that is never likely to happen.

READ: Bethesda trailers from E3 2016: Prey, Dishonored 2, Skyrim and Quake, plus Fallout VR

As Xbox boss Phil Spencer told us in a recent interview, publishers might not want the Xbox 360 version to overshadow a dedicated release. “There are some instances where people are doing HD remakes of their back catalogue as well, so they might not want the HD remake and the backwards compatible version to come out at the same time,” he said.

EE films Glastonbury in VR. to view on and off site on Gear VR

EE has been the technology partner of the Glastonbury Festival for many a year and each time comes up with a new way to integrate its tech into the everyday goings on at Worthy Farm.

This year virtual reality is on the rise, so it makes sense that EE has crafted a way of including VR in its Glastonbury plans.

The network is filming parts of the action with 360-degree cameras and editing it on site, so festival-goers can watch highlights through Samsung Gear VR headsets while they are there.

In addition, those not at the event can visit EE’s flagship London store in Westfield, White City on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 June to see the action for themselves.

The 360-degree footage will show attendees arriving, performances from the Circus Field, and the Field of Avalon and Park areas.

READ: Your EE 4G phone will work “everywhere you go” by 2020

As in previous years, there will also be an EE Recharge Tent at Glastonbury, for visitors to top up their mobile devices.

“We’re so excited to film the first ever virtual reality experience at Glastonbury, focusing on all the weird and wonderful things going on at Worthy Farm,” said Mat Sears, communications director at EE.

“Even if you’re attending, it’s impossible to see every inch of the UK’s biggest festival. We’re using cutting edge VR technology to ensure people can experience as much of this amazing place as possible.”

Barclays Contactless Mobile: How to setup, manage and pay with your Android phone

Whether Barclays was in or out has perhaps been the UK’s biggest mobile banking debate. Apple Pay launched and Barclays wasn’t on the list. Android Pay was a long time coming, and Barclays wasn’t on the list.

Barclays has now quietly enabled the contactless payment side of its Mobile Banking app, finally completing the circle and letting you pay for things with a wave of your phone.

How’s how it works and how to get setup.

What is Barclays Contactless Mobile?

Barclays Contactless Mobile is the name that Barclays has given to mobile payments. 

Unlike other platform-level solutions, like Android Pay and Apple Pay, Barclays is doing this through its own app, but essentially uses exactly the same contactless payment system that’s already in place in the UK.

Barclays customers have had contactless payment cards for many years, so the system of touch to pay will be familiar, and you’ll probably already be using it to pay for your Costa coffee, your lunchtime Boots meal deal or to ride on the Tube. 

What do I need for Barclays Contactless Mobile?

There are two essential ingredients: you need an Android phone with NFC and you need the Barclays Mobile Banking app.

The good news is that this isn’t restricted to a single manufacturer or network, so there are fewer hoops to jump through than in the past. But beware – some cheaper or older devices don’t have NFC and there have been some phones, like the OnePlus 2, that left it out.

You’ll also need some money in your accounts, of course, and somewhere that accepts contactless payments – a network that’s rather extensive now, with 400,000 locations covered in the UK, according to Barclays.

Pocket-lint

Setting up Barclays Contactless Mobile payment

Setup is easy as long as you have the Barclays Mobile Banking app on your phone. If not, download it, register and verify yourself using your PINsentry and you’ll be able to get it up and running.

To setup the mobile payments, you’ll have to tap on the Contactless Mobile option in the left-hand menu. 

This will guide you through the process, letting you choose the card you’d like to use when you tap to pay. 

As part of the setup process, you’ll also have to turn on NFC, if it isn’t already on. The app will link you through to your device settings to make this happen.

When it’s all setup, there’s an icon in the top left-hand corner of your phone with a contactless payment logo. Swiping down the notifications pane will display the message that you can make mobile payments – this stays in place and you can’t get rid of it.

Pocket-lint

What about other mobile payment systems?

Barclays Contactless Mobile only covers Barclays accounts and doesn’t include Barclaycard, which is offered through its own separate app.

Likewise, if you have an account with a different bank and you’ve been using Android Pay, then you have a potential clash of payment systems. 

This is perhaps the downside of Barclays going it alone, rather than having one app to cover all the mobile payments, which ultimately would be the aim of Android Pay. 

Choosing the default payment system is handled within Android through the “Tap and pay” settings. In the settings menu you’ll find the options, with a list of those payment apps you have installed. If you want Barclays to pay when you tap your phone, simply set it to default and you’re good to go.

Barclays

Paying with Barclays Contactless Mobile

When you want to pay for something, you simply present your phone to the contactless payment terminal, exactly as you would do when paying with a contactless-enabled card. You might have to move it a little to aid detection and knowing where the NFC chip is will help.

The payment limit is £30, as it is with cards, designed to make it easy to pay for small items with minimal fuss. If you don’t want those payments up to £30 made without you having to enter your PIN, you can opt to turn that on. 

If you want to pay for something over £30, the Barclays app will let you, but you’ll have to enter your PIN at the time of purchase. You’ll also have to find a retailer happy for you do so.

With most only expecting payments up to £30 with a card, there’s plenty of potential for confusion and over the past few days of testing Barclays Contactless Mobile, we’ve had a few failures, which retailers have suggested could be because their payment systems need to know they can accept payment from Barclays via the app.

Once a payment is successful, however, you’re presented with confirmation on your display, saying how much you’ve paid.

Overall, it’s pretty simple and easy to use. Happy shopping!