North America’s Busiest Commuter Trains Now Support Apple Pay
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has announced the MTA eTix app for iPhone now supports Apple Pay, enabling commuters to conveniently and securely purchase tickets for New York City’s Long Island Railroad and Metro-North Railroad trains.
As of this week, commuters can use Apple Pay to purchase one way, round trip, ten trip, weekly, and CityTickets tickets — as well as monthly passes — through the MTA eTix app, which can be used at all LIRR and Metro-North stations.
Image Credit: Lionel via The New York Times
“The New York commute just got that much easier thanks to Apple Pay in the MTA eTix app,” said Apple Pay vice president Jennifer Bailey. “Now you can skip the line entirely to buy train tickets right on your iPhone.”
MTA’s Long Island Railroad, operating between Manhattan and the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island, is the busiest commuter train in North America, with an average weekday ridership of over 300,000 passengers.
MTA’s Metro-North Railroad, operating between Manhattan and upstate New York, plus parts of southwestern Connecticut, is the second busiest commuter train in North America, with an average weekday ridership of over 285,000 passengers.
MTA eTix, free on the App Store [Direct Link], eliminates the need to stand in line to purchase tickets from a vending machine. Instead, your iPhone serves as your electronic ticket, which you activate before boarding a train.
Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tag: New York City
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Where to buy Sony’s Xperia XZ in the UK
Sony’s smartphone launch timetable has been pretty questionable of late. After bringing the Xperia X Compact to the UK the day after Apple’s iPhone announce, the company is back with a poorly timed release of the Xperia XZ, just as the dust is settling after Google’s big Pixel event. Nevertheless, the Xperia XZ is Sony’s first smartphone of the year bearing all the hallmarks of a flagship. It may only pack slight improvements over the uninspiring Xperia X Performance, but between the handset’s industrial design, powerful innards and laser-autofocus camera, there’s still plenty to like. And as of today, it can now be yours.
| Cheapest contract (with upfront) | £38.49 (£50) | £34 (£70) | £32 (£120) | £28.49 (£90) on EE | £18.49 (£325) on EE | £23 (£175) on O2 |
| Cheapest contract (lowest upfront) | £51 (£10) | £37 (£0) | £42 (£20) | £36 (£0) on EE or O2 | £36 (£0) on EE | £42 (£0) on Vodafone |
| Pay-as-you-go | — | £552 | £550 | — | — | — |
| Unlocked (SIM-free) | — | — | — | £540 | £519 | — |
Typically, Sony phones don’t get this amount of traction among carriers and contract resellers, but it seems they’re all ready to show the Xperia XZ some love. There aren’t any particularly cheap options, though, so you’re either looking at an upfront payment of some variety, a high contract cost or low monthly allowances, if not all three. Speaking of Three, the carrier will be offering the Xperia XZ but hasn’t nailed down its pricing structure just yet. We’ll be updating this post just as soon as Three adds the phone to its online store.
It appears giffgaff is the only MVNO ranging the Xperia XZ, at least on launch day. The provider’s pricing starts at £35 upfront on a £35.49 per month contract (this goes down if you pay more upfront), or you can buy the phone outright for £549 and bundle it with plans starting at £10 per month.
If unlocked is more your style, then Buymobiles.net has the best deal we can find currently at £519. Mobilephonesdirect.co.uk is pretty close with its £523 pricing, but right now there’s no point looking elsewhere, with most other retailers charging between £540 and £550 for the device.
Xbox exclusive ‘ReCore’ gets a 30-minute demo
When ReCore was first announced, it looked fresh and exciting. An agile explorer flanked by cute, adorable robots in a sprawling desert. Oh, and Mega Man legend Keiji Inafune was attached to the project. The concept was intriguing, at the very least. But then the game came out, and its $40 price-tag made sense; in short, it just wasn’t very good. To help with ReCore’s less-than-stellar reception, Microsoft has announced a 30-minute trial version for Xbox One and Windows 10. There’s no fee, or expectation to buy, but if you do pick up the full game your progress will carry over.
To tempt new players, the ReCore team has pushed out a “significant update” to the game. Load times have been reduced, and both the music and visuals have been tweaked. On a technical level, you should also see “improvements” to the waypoint system, as well as better checkpoints, respawns and collisions. These changes, while welcome, will do little to save the game’s underlying faults. But maybe, just maybe, they can help people to look past those rough patches, and appreciate ReCore’s redeeming qualities — namely decent exploration and fun puzzle solving.
Source: Xbox Wire
Game Fnatic: See what it takes to be a ‘League of Legends’ pro
It’s on. The Engadget video series Game Fnatic follows four amateur and semi-pro League of Legends players as they attempt to win a spot on Fnatic, one of the world’s most successful and famous teams. The first five episodes are live right now, right here. Even if you’re unfamiliar with League of Legends, the debut episodes break down the basics and introduce the four competitors, each of whom brings a unique skill — and personality — to the series.
Game Fnatic is a behind-the-scenes look at Fnatic’s League of Legends philosophy and what its star players look for in a teammate. The competitors not only have to learn how to train like a pro, which includes physical activity and hours upon hours of game time, but they have to prove they can play well with Fnatic’s superstar lineup, which features Martin “Rekkles” Larsson, Fabian “Febiven” Diepstraten and Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim, all of whom have competed at the League of Legends World Championships. The 2016 Worlds tournament is live through October 29th, so now is a great time to get a closer look at what it takes to be a professional League of Legends player.
Game Fnatic is a 10-part series, so once you’re done devouring the first five episodes, keep an eye out for the second half in the coming weeks. You know where to find us.
ASUS’ Zenfone 3 and its Snapdragon 821 arrive this month
If you want the fastest Android phone in the US, you can pre-order Google’s Pixel phone starting at $649, and get it around October 20th. There is another option, though — ASUS will release its 5.7-inch Deluxe Special Edition ZenFone 3 smartphone with the same Snapdragon 821 processor in the US for $799 by the end of the month. Both have metal unibodies, but the ASUS is the flashier of the two.
For many, the ability to get Android updates first on Google’s Pixel devices or use the Daydream headset will be a deciding factor. But the ZenFone 3 does have a few things going for it — it has 6GB of RAM instead of 4GB, 256GB of (expandable) UFS II storage (instead of 128GB max on the Pixel) and is the first device with Sony’s new Exmore IMX318 23-megapixel front camera sensor. Both have 1080p screens, but the 5.5-inch Pixel XL sports a Quad HD display and significantly higher $869 price tag.
If both of those options are too rich, ASUS has tamer variants of the ZenFone 3, including the Deluxe 5.7-inch 4GB model with a mere Snapdragon 820 for a very decent $499. The 5.5-inch Deluxe sports a mid-range Snapdragon 625 CPU, 4GB of RAM and a $399 price tag.
ASUS also confirmed the final price and availability for the ZenWatch 3. As a reminder, that’s a stainless steel Android Wear watch that can be recharged to 60 percent in just 15 minutes — it’ll run $229 and arrive at the beginning of November. Meanwhile, the ZenPad 3S 10, a middling 10-inch, 2,048 x 1,536 tablet with an Octacore MediaTek CPU and 4GB of RAM also comes in early November for $299. All devices and pre-orders are available at the ASUS store.
ICYMI: Airbag helmets might save your noggin
Today on In Case You Missed It: Stanford researchers just wrapped up a study of bike helmets that found a clear winner with the caveat that it’s not available in the US yet. Airbag helmets (like these or these) are only sold in Europe but are far superior at keeping test heads safe in an impact.
Meanwhile, the ancient city of Pompeii has been partially recreated with 3D imaging, putting back together a wealthy person’s house, right down to the correct paint color and in some cases, what sort of surfaces these ancient people walked on. Pompeii was destroyed by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD so this level of detail is pretty astonishing.
The story about the Nike Mag shoes we all want in our hearts (seriously, just admit it) can be found here. Proceeds from the raffle go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research plus if you win, you’d be the coolest person anyone knows for at least a month.
If you’re interested in the US Department of Energy video touring a 3D printed house, that’s here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Apple’s Services Teams to Start Working Together to Improve Siri, Maps, iCloud, and iTunes
Apple plans to unify its cloud services teams, including Siri, Apple Maps, iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple News, and parts of iTunes and Apple Music, at its existing Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino, California, according to Bloomberg.
Moving the teams into a single campus should streamline growth of Apple services, as the current structure of having teams spread out throughout various office buildings in Cupertino and Sunnyvale contributed to software bugs and slowed product development, the report claims.
The cloud services teams could be on the move again in the near future as Apple completes work on its new Campus 2 headquarters, where well over 13,000 employees are expected to work. Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company will begin moving employees to the new campus in 2017.
The report adds that Apple is also planning to shift its services to a single, Apple-made backend system, codenamed Pie. The infrastructure change will reportedly give Apple “more control” and “may speed up load times.”
Apple has begun moving over parts of Siri, the iTunes Store, and Apple News to the new platform, one of the people said. Apple plans to move other services, including Maps, to its new system over the next few years. Apple has also developed an internal photo storage system dubbed McQueen to gradually end its reliance on Google and Amazon servers, the people said.
In March, it was reported that Apple is working on an in-house cloud storage system called “McQueen” to reduce its dependence on services like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, with today’s report specifying it will be an internal photo storage system.
Apple experienced its first-ever iPhone sales decline earlier this year, but its services category continues to grow. In its most recent quarter, Apple reported nearly $6 billion in revenue tied to services like the App Store, Apple Music, AppleCare, Apple Pay, iCloud, and the iTunes Store, up 19% compared to the year-ago period.
Tags: Siri, Eddy Cue, iTunes, Apple Maps, iCloud, Infinite Loop
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Grab this NFC-enabled charging car dock for just $22.95 today!
Looking for a safe place to charge and store your phone while in the car? If so, check out iBOLT’s mPro car dock. The dock has a built-in Micro-USB cable for charging, as well as NFC for completing simple tasks when the phone is docked. Right now you can grab one for just $22.95!
Note 7: Samsung obtains hazardous materials permit for defective phones, CPSC investigating Southwest plane report
Details emerge of how Samsung will retrieve more than 100,000 potentially dangerous phones. Meanwhile, the U.S. authorities are investigating a reported fire involving a ‘new’ Note 7.
With the Galaxy Note 7 recall progressing, and Samsung resuming sales in the U.S. and South Korea, we’re starting to learn exactly how Samsung will get some of the unsold Note 7s in the U.S. back to its Korean headquarters. Fierce Wireless reports that Samsung has obtained a hazardous materials permit from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, allowing it to ship 137,000 unopened Galaxy Note 7 devices from U.S. retailers back to Korea.
According to the permits that Samsung applied for from the DoT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the company cannot ship the gadgets via airplane, and likely will use specially designed shipping boxes to move the returned Galaxy Note 7 smartphones from retailers like Verizon and Best Buy back to Samsung’s facilities.
The PHMSA says two permits were issued to Samsung on September 7 and 15. The first provided “a quantity-limited, thermally insulated outer package designed to contain fire or smoke,” and the second allowed “un-opened Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone devices from retail locations back to Samsung via truck, rail, and cargo vessel,” adding that transporting the phones via air was not permitted.
As anyone who’s traveled by air since the Note 7 recall began will know, many airlines and aviation authorities continue to ban the use or charging of Note 7s onboard airplanes, even as “safe” models get to consumers through the recall program, and Samsung recommences sales.
Meanwhile the U.S. authorities have begun investigating yesterday’s report of a “safe” Note 7 catching fire during boarding on a Southwest airplane. According to The Verge, the phone was switched off when the incident occurred, which prompted an evacuation of the plane. The outlet later reported that the phone was a post-recall Note 7 bought from AT&T, confirming the telltale black square on the box, and checking the unique IMEI number on Samsung’s website.
Pictures published by The Verge appear to show a pattern of scorch marks similar to those seen in recalled Note 7s.
In an emailed response to Techno Buffallo, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) chairman Elliott F. Kaye said:
CPSC is moving expeditiously to investigate this incident. Thankfully, reports indicate that all of the passengers were able to make it off the plane without harm. Agency staff has already reached out to the FAA and Samsung to gather the facts about the incident. Agency staff will also reach out to the consumer who experienced a serious incident with his phone. I want to reiterate my call for consumers who have the recalled Galaxy Note 7 to keep their smartphones powered down and to immediately take advantage of the remedies being offered by Samsung. Consumers should know that one of the remedies is a refund.
After initially claiming there was “no evidence” that a new Note 7 was responsible for the incident on the Southwest flight, Samsung late last night offered an updated statement:
Until we are able to retrieve the device, we cannot confirm that this incident involves the new Note 7. We are working with the authorities and Southwest now to recover the device and confirm the cause. Once we have examined the device we will have more information to share.
This remains an isolated report in which we don’t yet know all the facts. In recent weeks Samsung has investigated overheating reports from new Note 7s in China, which it has blamed on “external heating” from outside the device. For its part, the manufacturer has strenuously asserted that the new Galaxy Note 7 is safe to use.
But needless to say, the possibility of a verified safety issue with “new” handsets would be catastrophic for Samsung, worsening an already dire situation and likely killing the Note 7 for good.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
- Galaxy Note 7 recall: Everything you need to know
- Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
- The latest Galaxy Note 7 news!
- Here are all four Note 7 colors
- Complete Galaxy Note 7 specs
- Join the Note 7 discussion in the forums!
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Firmware flash enables fingerprint on U.S. Xperia XZ + X Compact
Bafflingly, the U.S. models’ biggest feature gap seems to be a software limitation.
For the past year, high-end Sony phones sold in the United States, in the Xperia Z5 and X series, have lacked the fingerprint scanner tech found in their international cousins — a major feature omission for a modern high-end phone. The same applies to the recently launched Xperia XZ and X Compact — fingerprint internationally, no fingerprint in the U.S.
Now it appears that the U.S. models’ fingerprint sensors may merely be disabled in hardware. XperiaBlog has discovered that flashing UK firmware to a U.S. Xperia XZ results in a fully functional fingerprint sensor. The relatively simple flashing process is detailed over on XDA. With the UK firmware flashed, the fingerprint scanner works just like it would on an international Xperia XZ or X Compact.
The revelation only makes the lack of a functional fingerprint sensor in U.S. models appear more strange.
Android Central put the question of the missing fingerprint sensor to senior Sony representatives at the IFA tradeshow in Germany this August, but the company wasn’t able to give a clear answer on why the U.S. models lacked such a key feature.
One possibility is that Sony didn’t want to pay the licensing costs attached to fingerprint technology, and so chose to ship the same hardware as the global version, but disable the feature in software. Another is that some outstanding agreement with the U.S. carriers — back when Sony was selling to Verizon and T-Mobile — may not allow it to. We’ve reached out to Sony U.S. for comment on today’s news, and we’ll update this story with any response.
MORE: Sony Xperia XZ review
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