ANZ Eftpos Access Cards Now Support Apple Pay in Australia

Eftpos, a debit payments network in Australia, today announced that ANZ eftpos Access cards now feature support for Apple Pay.

ANZ is the first bank in Australia to make in-store eftpos mobile payments available to 1.6 million ANZ eftpos Access cardholders through Apple Pay.

Visa, American Express, and MasterCard credit and debit cards issued in Australia by participating banks already supported Apple Pay, but the addition of eftpos is notable as it’s widely used in the country.

“Today marks a significant milestone for eftpos as we move from our traditional card based payment method into mobile, enabling consumers with an iPhone or Apple Watch to choose the eftpos account they wish their mobile payment to be made from, being either their eftpos CHQ/SAV account. Customers can set their account preference out of CHQ/SAV and then save themselves entering their account each time they pay. After providing trusted, secure card-based payments for 30 years, eftpos can now also be used to make mobile payments,” Mr Jennings said.

“About 1.6 million ANZ eftpos Access cardholders now have the opportunity to make payments on an iPhone or Apple Watch, many of whom may not have had the opportunity to make in store mobile payments before. As Australia’s most used debit card network, we are thrilled to be providing ANZ eftpos Access customers with more payment choice, with added benefits of enhanced security and comfort.”

As Business Insider points out, support for eftpos reduces fees for both customers and retailers compared to other payment methods.

Support for eftpos is now listed on Apple’s Australian Apple Pay website and Apple Pay is available to ANZ Access card customers in Australia immediately.

Related Roundup: Apple PayTags: Australia, ANZ
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Facebook Live Now Offers Built-In Screen Sharing Feature

Facebook Live, the feature that allows Facebook users to broadcast live video to followers and friends, was today updated with support for screen sharing.

As noticed by The Next Web, there’s now a button for sharing your computer screen when broadcasting on Facebook Live.

Image via The Next Web
Using the screen sharing feature requires a Facebook Screen Sharing browser extension to be installed in the Chrome browser.

Facebook’s built-in screen sharing feature lets users decide what to share based on application, with an option available to stream specific browser tabs.

Screen sharing was previously available in Facebook Live, but it required third-party Open Broadcaster Software to use, and it was more complicated to get running than Facebook’s new solution.

Tag: Facebook
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Spray-on cement increases the resistance of existing buildings to earthquakes

Why it matters to you

This new spray-on cement could help retrofit existing buildings to survive earthquake damage.

Earthquakes can cause massive amounts of devastation. Using modern building materials and designs, architects have created a number of impressively reinforced buildings around the world which are able to survive quakes that would level many structures. However, what can you do to earthquake-proof an existing building? That’s a question that civil engineering researchers at the University of British Columbia took on in a recent project.

As a result of the researcht, they’ve developed a brand-new type of concrete, which can be sprayed onto walls, and will successfully protect buildings from being damaged in the event of even major quakes. This is possible thanks to a fiber-reinforced design which allows the concrete to bend, rather than fracture, when it is violently shaken. In simulation tests, the “eco-friendly ductile cementitious composite” (EDCC) was able to withstand an earthquake with a magnitude equal to the 9.0 – 9.1 quake that hit Tohoku, Japan back in 2011.

“We sprayed a number of walls with a 10-millimeter thick layer of EDCC, which is sufficient to reinforce most interior walls against seismic shocks,” Salman Soleimani-Dashtaki, a civil engineering PhD candidate, who worked on the project, said in a statement. “Then we subjected them to Tohoku-level quakes and other types and intensities of earthquakes and we couldn’t break them.”

The strong-but-malleable material the UBC researchers developed is likened to steel in terms of many of its properties, but actually takes advantage of polymer-based fibers, industrial additives, and an industrial byproduct called flyash. Flyash makes the material environmentally friendly, too, since it reduces the amount of cement required — thereby helping cut down on the amount of carbon dioxide released into the environment as a byproduct of cement manufacturing.

Next up, the researchers plan to use it to treat the walls of Vancouver’s Dr. Annie B. Jamieson Elementary School, as well as a school in northern India. (The research was funded by the Canada-India Research Center of Excellence IC-IMPACTS, which promotes research collaboration between Canada and India.) In the future, the hope is that the material can be used in a variety of applications — including homes, pipelines, pavements, offshore platforms, and more.

Venmo users can now make purchases at 2 million online retailers

Why it matters to you

If you have a Venmo account and you’re buying something on your smartphone, you might be able to use your balance.

Withdrawing a Venmo balance can test the limits of anyone’s patience (unless you’re in the beta program), but dayslong bank transfers used to be what it took to get your roommate’s rent check. Thankfully, that’s changing with the launch of Venmo’s web payments feature.

Starting today, Venmo users can shop and make purchases at any of the 2 million United States retailers that have teamed up with PayPal, Venmo’s parent company.

Venmo supported online payments previously, but only from a curated list of partners from Braintree, a PayPal-owned payments processor. “We’re dramatically expanding the number of places you can use Venmo to pay by leveraging the unrivaled scale of the PayPal merchant network,” Bill Ready, PayPal’s COO, wrote in a blog post.

Here’s how it works: When you stumble upon a website run by a participating retailer, you’ll see a button to pay via PayPal at checkout (and in the coming weeks a Venmo/PayPal dual-branded button). Clicking on will pull up a selection screen with your Venmo account, and from there, you’ll have have the option of paying the bill’s full amount or splitting it among friends.

There’s a caveat though: You can’t pay with Venmo on your desktop. Payments only work on mobile websites in apps that already support PayPal. But Venmo’s promising a fix in short order.

“Our vision for Venmo is to not only be the go-to app for payments between friends, but also a ubiquitous digital wallet that helps consumers spend wherever and however they want to pay, regardless of device,” Ready said. “Through 2017 and beyond, we will continue to evolve the payments experience that has helped make Venmo a cultural staple, while also applying that same magic to split, share and pay in new ways.”

It remains to be seen whether or not retailers take the bait, though — Venmo charges a processing fee for each transaction. But for some, the platform’s enormous volume ($8 billion last year, according to PayPal) might just make it irresistible.

Explore our blip in the cosmos with Google Maps tours of Pluto, Ceres, and more

Why it matters to you

These Google Maps of the solar system will make you feel OK about being a mere single planetary species.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have a rather ambitious plan to begin colonizing Mars in the next few years, however, the vast majority of us will sadly never set foot outside planet Earth, let alone on our planetary neighbor. That said, Google recently used millions of images to create interactive 3D maps of moons, planets, and space rocks formerly known as planets, and others in our solar system. So while many of us may never fare the infinite void, we can vicariously venture our little sliver of the cosmos from the confines of our smartphone.

In 2014, Google added Mars to Google Maps to celebrate Curiosity’s second year roving the red planet and with this latest update, Google added 12 new virtual worlds. This brings the grand total to 16 celestial bodies including Dione, Enceladus, Iapetus, Mimas, Rhea, Titan, Europa, Ganymede, Io, Pluto, Ceres, Venus, Mercury, Mars, our moon, and, of course, Earth.

The latest maps were made from images gathered during NASA and European Space Agency initiatives, and the planetary tours are so Saturnian-centric thanks to the vast trove of data collected during the now defunct yet stalwart Cassini mission. It’s important to note that not all of the portions of these maps are nearly as detailed as others. For example, in areas where more comprehensive imagery is unavailable, the maps simply show a broad overview of a region. However, other portions are so thoroughly mapped you can ogle Olympus Mons, the potentially life-sustaining lakes of Titan, and even the massive impact crater on our distant so-called “Death Star” in stunning detail.

To begin the galactic tour, simply open Google Maps per usual and then zoom all the way out until your seemingly adrift around the Earth itself. Then, along the left side of the screen, the 16 available maps (and the International Space Station tour) are clickable to quickly beam you to your desired destination. If you prefer to skip the blast off from Street View you can simply begin the tour from low Earth orbit by clicking here.

If we whet your spacefaring whistle, you may also like to get your Sagan on with our best space photos gallery.

Google Calendar for desktop gets a long-awaited material design facelift

Why it matters to you

The Google Calendar design refresh doesn’t just look better — it could help you be much more productive, too.

Google Calendar is a seriously awesome tool, but the desktop version of the app has felt a little outdated over the past few years. Well, folks, that’s finally changing — Google is pushing out an updated version of Google Calendar on desktop that makes heavy use of Google’s material design language.

We first knew that a Calendar redesign was in the works earlier this year when Google showed off a 2017 product roadmap, so it’s not a surprise — but it’s still nice to see the redesign.

There are a few key changes that Google has made to the desktop version of Calendar. For starters, the website now smartly adjusts depending on the size of your computer screen, which is pretty helpful for those that like a windowed approach to their desktop. Like the previous version of Calendar, you’ll get a view of the month on the top left, under which is a list of the different calendars you have access to. On the top right you’ll find settings and a search bar, as well as a drop-down menu to change the view. The rest of the screen shows your events.

The changes aren’t just aesthetic either — you can also now do things like add links to relevant documents and spreadsheets, so if you’re creating meetings with other people within a company, you can add documents that might be helpful.

Like the previous version of Calendar, you can view your events by day, week, month, year, or four days at a time. The “Day” view allows you to view different calendar side by side, too, which could be very helpful for those that manage multiple calendars at a time.

The redesign is certainly well overdue — the apps for Calendar have featured Google’s material design for some time now, so it’s nice to see Google bringing the desktop version in line with the mobile version.

The update to Google Calendar is rolling out to G Suite users now, and G Suite admins can enable the new calendar by hitting the “Use New Calendar” link in the top right-hand corner of the interface, or you can hit this link.

Google Calendar for desktop gets a long-awaited material design facelift

Why it matters to you

The Google Calendar design refresh doesn’t just look better — it could help you be much more productive, too.

Google Calendar is a seriously awesome tool, but the desktop version of the app has felt a little outdated over the past few years. Well, folks, that’s finally changing — Google is pushing out an updated version of Google Calendar on desktop that makes heavy use of Google’s material design language.

We first knew that a Calendar redesign was in the works earlier this year when Google showed off a 2017 product roadmap, so it’s not a surprise — but it’s still nice to see the redesign.

There are a few key changes that Google has made to the desktop version of Calendar. For starters, the website now smartly adjusts depending on the size of your computer screen, which is pretty helpful for those that like a windowed approach to their desktop. Like the previous version of Calendar, you’ll get a view of the month on the top left, under which is a list of the different calendars you have access to. On the top right you’ll find settings and a search bar, as well as a drop-down menu to change the view. The rest of the screen shows your events.

The changes aren’t just aesthetic either — you can also now do things like add links to relevant documents and spreadsheets, so if you’re creating meetings with other people within a company, you can add documents that might be helpful.

Like the previous version of Calendar, you can view your events by day, week, month, year, or four days at a time. The “Day” view allows you to view different calendar side by side, too, which could be very helpful for those that manage multiple calendars at a time.

The redesign is certainly well overdue — the apps for Calendar have featured Google’s material design for some time now, so it’s nice to see Google bringing the desktop version in line with the mobile version.

The update to Google Calendar is rolling out to G Suite users now, and G Suite admins can enable the new calendar by hitting the “Use New Calendar” link in the top right-hand corner of the interface, or you can hit this link.

Garmin Speak Review

Research Center:
Garmin Speak

While the smartphone has, for many, supplanted dedicated GPS hardware in the car, Garmin hopes its latest navigation device, Garmin Speak, will change your mind. It brings together the company’s GPS navigation service with Amazon Alexa, providing voice-controlled music streams, audiobooks, news and weather, as well as access to compatible smart home devices.

Perhaps the major surprise is that the Garmin Speak delivers these features without the large, color touchscreen that you typically associate with in-car navigation. Instead, the device resembles a tiny Echo Dot that mounts to your windscreen and displays directions via a small, black and white OLED screen. Use voice commands to ask questions you need answered on the road about navigation, entertainment control, or the latest NBA results, and Alexa will get right on it.

Priced at $150 and, at launch, available only in the United States, Garmin Speak is a compact, well-constructed device that includes the iconic blue Echo LED ring and two buttons on the left for manual control (if desired – the idea is to use voice commands throughout, though). There’s a mic button at the top for privacy, while the action button on the bottom can be used to confirm instructions.

Garmin Speak delivers these features without the large, color touchscreen

Powered by your car’s 12V connector, the device is designed to affix to your windscreen via an adhesive, magnetic mounting pad. It holds the Speak firmly in place, but means you’ll be left with a dark blob on the windshield at all times, which is pretty ugly. Worse still, with no integrated battery, you’ll need to find a neat way to hide the long cable that connects the device to your car’s power socket. Garmin suggests unhooking your car’s ceiling panels and tucking the cord away, but it all feels a bit painful for what is, essentially, a wirelessly controlled device.

Once powered on, you pair Garmin Speak with your phone and car stereo over Bluetooth, allowing the device to respond to requests over your car’s speakers. Older cars without Bluetooth audio can connect to Speak using an AUX connection. If you’re desperate, Garmin has integrated a tiny speaker in the device, but you really wouldn’t want to listen to it for too long, The integrated speaker is small, and has lots of treble but little bass, as you’d expect on such a small device. Output is audible, but quite shrill and is an inferior option to connecting to your car’s stereo. From there, download and install the Garmin Speak app and you’ll be guided through configuration. Link up your Amazon Alexa account, enable the Garmin skill, ask Alexa to ask Garmin to activate your device and, some time later, you’re ready to go. Garmin has done its best to make setup as simple as possible – an achievement considering you’re hooking up three pieces of hardware to two distinct software services, but it’s still work and a great reminder why your smartphone is simply a magical device.

If you’ve previously used Amazon Echo or another Alexa-enabled device then you’ll be right at home with Garmin Speak. The device has full access to the Amazon assistant’s core features and third-party skills, so it offers a convenient way to play music from an Amazon library, Spotify or supported Internet radio service, hear the latest news and weather reports, switch on the thermostat at home and even stock up on Tide as you drive past the supermarket.

Garmin Speak Compared To

Garmin DriveAssist 50LMT

TomTom Rider 400

Garmin DriveLuxe 50

Garmin RV 660LMT

Garmin Edge 1000

Magellan RoadMate 5375T-LMB

Garmin nüviCam LMTHD

Garmin VivoActive

TomTom GO 500

Here, a device like Garmin Speak proves how useful it can be to have Alexa (or another personal assistant) available in the car for certain tasks. Whether you need a dedicated, $150 microphone hooked up to your smartphone to perform these tasks, I’m not so sure. Many of these tasks can already be performed on the road by Google Assistant and, if you’re deeply integrated in Amazon’s ecosystem (and I’d suggest you’d need to be to really benefit from the Garmin Speak), you could always drop an Echo Dot into a cup holder for just $50. It’s not as cute, but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper.

Of course, alongside standard Alexa features, Garmin Speak is a voice-controlled navigational device. We’ve previously been a big fan of Garmin’s excellent in-car GPS devices, which are generally simple to use and offer intuitive features such as Real Directions, which uses landmarks to make turn-by-turn instructions clearer. Adding the Garmin skill certainly aces a standalone Echo Dot in the car – the question is how well Speak serves for in-car GPS.

Well, it works, but using Garmin Speak for navigation can be an awkward experience. First, GPS support is delivered through an Alexa skill. So that means you’ll need to ask Alexa to “ask Garmin” to find your location. It’s a double hop that can become wearing, like those times when you get into an argument with your other half and you stubbornly converse via the kids. “David, ask your mom whether we need to turn at the next block or the one after.”

Garmin Speak’s microphone does a decent job of picking up your voice, even on noisy roads, but attempting to set destinations using voice only can be tricky without the confirmation of a screen. If we missed the response to a destination command, we were immediately worried we were heading in the wrong direction. In cases where we needed to visit a particular store with several branches in the vicinity, we really missed the ability to bring up a list of potential locations and simply tap the one that we needed. With Garmin Speak, we found ourselves having to remember the store’s street address or intersection to be assured we would be directed correctly.

In these situations, you can open up the Garmin Speak app on your phone and check where you’re headed. Here you can also configure home, work and school addresses as shortcuts. But you’re back to using your phone as the GPS, making you question what Garmin Speak is really bringing to the table. Over time, perhaps we could re-learn how best to direct a GPS device via voice, or grow to trust Alexa/Garmin Speak a little more. But over the course of a few days with the device, we didn’t feel compelled to switch away from our integrated in-car GPS, or Google Maps and Waze on our phones.

In an attempt to reinvent the in-car GPS, Garmin Speak adds utility with a personal assistant but at the same time removes the simplicity and clarity of a touchscreen user interface.  We have no doubt that personal assistants like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant will become an essential feature in car entertainment systems of the future, but we’re not convinced a dedicated GPS device is the way to deliver them.

Our Take

Garmin’s imaginative reinvention of the GPS proves the benefit of a connected personal assistant on the move, but the loss of a touchscreen makes Garmin Speak less convincing than a traditional GPS, or your smartphone’s navigation app.

Is there a better alternative?

Certainly, Garmin Speak is a cheaper alternative than buying a new BMW or Mini with Alexa integration, but it’s three times the cost of simply dropping in an (admittedly larger) Echo Dot, if you really need Alexa in your vehicle. Depending on your smartphone, you may be able to replicate many of the device’s features with Google Assistant and have the bonus of a large touchscreen interface.

How long will it last?

Garmin Speak is undoubtedly a brave move to reinvent a category – dedicated in-car GPS – that’s in decline. Amazon Alexa is here for the long term, no doubt, but if Garmin Speak fails to gain traction, the question would be how long the hardware and Garmin Alexa service would be supported.

Should you buy it?

If you’re deeply committed to the Amazon ecosystem and you need Alexa as your co-pilot, then you can expect to see a range of in-car integrations heading your way over the next few years. Garmin Speak delivers many of the Amazon Echo’s features (and more) in a small, compact and mobile device. Just don’t be surprised if its novelty factor fades quickly.

Qualcomm announces 5G reference design and Snapdragon 636 chip

Why it matters to you

Qualcomm’s new system-on-chip brings new features to midrange devices, and its 5G reference design lays the groundwork for next-gen devices.

Qualcomm had plenty to announce at its 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong, and it wasted no time diving into the weeds. On Monday, October 16, the company exhibited a 5G handset reference design, a 5G-capable mobile modem, and a new chip, the Snapdragon 636, bound for midrange smartphones.

First up was the 5G connectivity news. Qualcomm redesigned its X50 chipset, which launched in October 2016, to fit in a compact form factor. Thanks to a millimeter-wave antenna that measures the size of a dime — the smallest millimeter wave design on the market, and one Qualcomm plans to shrink 50 percent over the next year —  it squeezes into an edge-to-edge reference design that is 9mm (0.35 inches) thick.

It’s fast, unsurprisingly. Qualcomm says it achieved “gigabit” downloads on the 28GHz millimeter wave frequency band, and that it expects speeds to climb to 5Gbps once 5G deployments are completed.

It will be a while before it hits store shelves, though. Qualcomm said the first consumer devices will launch by the first half of 2019, after the 5G draft spec’s finalization in December.

Qualcomm

A speedy radio and reference design isn’t the only thing Qualcomm showed off in Hong Kong. It took the wraps off the Snapdragon 636, an eight-core, 14nm successor to the Snapdragon 630. The new system-on-chip is up to 40 percent faster than the 630, Qualcomm said, and delivers 10 percent better graphics performance thanks to the Adreno 509.

But the improvements don’t stop there. The Snapdragon 636 supports Full HD+ (2,160 x 1,080 pixels) screens and Qualcomm’s Assertive Display technology, which automatically adjusts the brightness to ambient lighting. On the photography side of the equation, the chip’s Spectra 160 ISP supports either one 24-megapixel sensor or two 16-megapixel cameras, and video recording in 1080p at 120 frames per second (fps) or 4K at 30 fps.

The Snapdragon 636 supports Quick Charge 4, Qualcomm’s newest fast-charging standard that can deliver up to five hours of talk time with five minutes of charging. But it won’t benefit from Qualcomm’s work on 5G, unfortunately. It ships with an X12 LTE modem, which maxes out at 600Mbps.

Qualcomm expects to start shipping the chip to partners in November and it might not be long before the first Snapdragon 636-equipped devices come to market. Qualcomm said the chip’s compatible with boards originally designed for the 630 or 660, which should, in theory, make it easier for smartphone manufacturers to re-use existing designs.

Qualcomm announces 5G reference design and Snapdragon 636 chip

Why it matters to you

Qualcomm’s new system-on-chip brings new features to midrange devices, and its 5G reference design lays the groundwork for next-gen devices.

Qualcomm had plenty to announce at its 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong, and it wasted no time diving into the weeds. On Monday, October 16, the company exhibited a 5G handset reference design, a 5G-capable mobile modem, and a new chip, the Snapdragon 636, bound for midrange smartphones.

First up was the 5G connectivity news. Qualcomm redesigned its X50 chipset, which launched in October 2016, to fit in a compact form factor. Thanks to a millimeter-wave antenna that measures the size of a dime — the smallest millimeter wave design on the market, and one Qualcomm plans to shrink 50 percent over the next year —  it squeezes into an edge-to-edge reference design that is 9mm (0.35 inches) thick.

It’s fast, unsurprisingly. Qualcomm says it achieved “gigabit” downloads on the 28GHz millimeter wave frequency band, and that it expects speeds to climb to 5Gbps once 5G deployments are completed.

It will be a while before it hits store shelves, though. Qualcomm said the first consumer devices will launch by the first half of 2019, after the 5G draft spec’s finalization in December.

Qualcomm

A speedy radio and reference design isn’t the only thing Qualcomm showed off in Hong Kong. It took the wraps off the Snapdragon 636, an eight-core, 14nm successor to the Snapdragon 630. The new system-on-chip is up to 40 percent faster than the 630, Qualcomm said, and delivers 10 percent better graphics performance thanks to the Adreno 509.

But the improvements don’t stop there. The Snapdragon 636 supports Full HD+ (2,160 x 1,080 pixels) screens and Qualcomm’s Assertive Display technology, which automatically adjusts the brightness to ambient lighting. On the photography side of the equation, the chip’s Spectra 160 ISP supports either one 24-megapixel sensor or two 16-megapixel cameras, and video recording in 1080p at 120 frames per second (fps) or 4K at 30 fps.

The Snapdragon 636 supports Quick Charge 4, Qualcomm’s newest fast-charging standard that can deliver up to five hours of talk time with five minutes of charging. But it won’t benefit from Qualcomm’s work on 5G, unfortunately. It ships with an X12 LTE modem, which maxes out at 600Mbps.

Qualcomm expects to start shipping the chip to partners in November and it might not be long before the first Snapdragon 636-equipped devices come to market. Qualcomm said the chip’s compatible with boards originally designed for the 630 or 660, which should, in theory, make it easier for smartphone manufacturers to re-use existing designs.