Apple Pay Launches in Canada With American Express, Australia Later This Week
Apple Pay is now available in Canada exclusively for American Express customers, allowing newer iPhone and Apple Watch owners to make contactless payments at stores like Indigo, McDonald’s, Sport Chek, Tim Hortons and others that have NFC-equipped payment terminals and accept American Express.
Apple Pay is now live in Canada on iOS 9.1 (Image: Twitter/Bryan)
Apple Pay should now be live in the Wallet app on iOS 9.1 for Canadian users. American Express cards can be scanned or added manually by tapping the “Add Credit or Debit Card” option. The functionality may still be rolling out to some users, so changing your iPhone’s region to U.S. can be done in the meantime.
American Express, an independent credit card issuer in Canada, is not nearly as popular or widely accepted as MasterCard or Visa credit cards in the country, and Apple notes that bank-issued American Express cards like those in partnership with Scotiabank are not accepted at launch.
Apple has reportedly been in talks with six large Canadian banks about launching Apple Pay north of the U.S. border, including the Royal Bank of Canada, TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, CIBC and National Bank of Canada, but negotiations have reportedly been dragging.
TD Canada Trust prematurely leaked an Apple Pay splash page last month, suggesting that Canadian banks may eventually support the mobile payments platform. High interchange fees and potential security issues have reportedly been sticking points in negotiations between Apple and banks.
Canada has been well prepared for Apple Pay, as many retailers and businesses across the country are equipped with NFC payment terminals required for contactless payments. The country was one of the earlier adopters of Chip-and-PIN debit and credit cards that can be tapped against a payment terminal when making a purchase, and Apple Pay is a natural extension of that functionality.
Canada’s largest credit and debit card payment processor Moneris announced Apple Pay support for American Express cards earlier today.
Apple Pay launched in the U.S. in October 2014 and expanded to the U.K. last June, making Canada the third country with support for the service. Beyond Canada, Apple is also partnering with American Express to bring Apple Pay to four additional markets by the end of 2016.
Apple has confirmed with the Financial Post that Apple Pay will support American Express in Australia later this week, with AMEX customer service representatives suggesting a tentative November 19 launch date. Apple Pay will launch with American Express in Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong next year.
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Apple Pay now supports TSB and Tesco Bank in the UK
Apple Pay is now firmly established in the UK, but since the service went live in July, a handful of banks have bided their time and left customers waiting for smartphone payments. Luckily, two more can be ticked off the list today after TSB and Tesco Bank confirmed they have enabled Apple Pay support for their payment cards.
Source: TSB, Tesco Bank
Check out this roundup of VR Cardboard kits for less than $10
Virtual reality(VR) is rapidly picking up in the U.S. With companies like Google, Oculus and Samsung leading the charge, content is growing by leaps and bounds everyday. Enjoy content in a revolutionary way with just lenses and cardboard. Netflix, YouTube and Hulu are among the many who provide virtual reality content for your viewing pleasure.
Gearbest.com makes it cheap and easy to jump into the world of VR as they have a whole host of VR viewers for less the $5 with free shipping included. Gearbest.com also has a 45-day 100% satisfaction guarantee, so if for any reason you aren’t satisfied with your product simply mail it back for a refund. Prices are subject to change so don’t be alarmed if our prices don’t match with Gearbest.com. Check out our roundup of fantastic Cardboard deals from Gearbest.com.
iBlue DIY Cardboard 3D VR Glasses for phones up to 5.5″ – $1.39 – LINK
Material: Corrugated paper
Color: Khaki
Feature: DIY 3D VR Glasses
Special Function: Magnetic sensor
Application : Smartphone
iBlue DIY Cardboard 3D VR Glasses for phones up to 7″ – $4.63 – LINK
Made of high-strength corrugated paper
Installation process is simple and can be completed within 3 minutes
Comes with headband, convenient to wear in daily life
Can control your phone with the magnet
Suitable for 4-7 inch displays
LightsCastle 2015 DIY Cardboard 2 Virtual Reality VR 3D Glasses for phones up to 6″ – $4.59 – LINK
Standard Bi-convex lenses
Adaptive touch technology, keypad touch
Easy to operate, made of customized cardboard, glasses, and some conductive foam
Compatible with 3.5-6 inch mobile phones (including iOS)
EVA Board DIY 3D VR Glasses for phones up to 6″ – $9.39 – LINK
A simple and inexpensive DIY virtual reality glasses
Made of high-strength EVA material
Installation process is simple and can be completed within 3 minutes
Can control your phone with the magnets
Can look at the left-right 3D film
Suitable for 6 inch displays
RITECH 3D Magic Box 3.5 – 5.6inch Universal VR Smart Phone 3D Glasses – $6.50 – LINK
Creative M – box (short for Magic Box) 3D glasses for 3.5 – 5.6 inch displays
Simple operation, you can use it during your travel, leisure and homes
Headband
Adjustable strap
Unique gift for your friends
Head on over to Gearbest.com to check out these great deals on VR viewers.
The post Check out this roundup of VR Cardboard kits for less than $10 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
First Apple Pencil Orders in the U.S. Now ‘Preparing for Shipment’
Though the iPad Pro has been widely available in Apple retail stores since its launch last Wednesday, supplies of the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard have been much more limited. At launch, there were no Apple Pencils or Smart Keyboards available for purchase in the U.S. with in-store pickup, and the first online orders listed delivery dates of November 19 at the earliest, more than a week after the iPad Pro became available.
As of today, pre-order customers with some of the earliest upcoming estimated delivery dates are seeing some movement with their orders, receiving notifications that their Apple Pencils are now preparing for shipment. MacRumors reader Jose‘s Apple Pencil is preparing to ship with an estimated delivery date of November 20 to November 24, and there are a few other reports of Apple Pencil shipment changes on Twitter.
With orders already preparing for shipment, it’s likely customers who managed to pre-order right around midnight on November 11 will start receiving their shipments later this week. A few customers in the United Kingdom have already received their Apple Pencil orders.
Customers who order an Apple Pencil online right now will not be able to receive the device until mid-to-late December, and the same goes for the Apple Keyboard, which is equally scarce. After the iPad Pro’s midnight launch, delivery estimates for the Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard quickly slipped from late November into December.
Some Apple retail stores around the country have been receiving small Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard shipments on a daily basis, but as Apple is not allowing in-store pickup for the Apple Pencil, it’s not possible to use Apple’s website or app to determine which stores have stock. Instead, customers hoping to get an Apple Pencil before December are having to visit their local Apple Stores on a daily basis hoping to get lucky with shipment timing.
The Apple Pencil, which enables pressure sensitive drawing on the iPad Pro, retails for $99. The Smart Keyboard is priced at $169.
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Japanese Cellular Provider KDDI Now Supports Apple SIM
Apple today added Japanese mobile operator KDDI to its list of carriers that support the Apple SIM for the iPad, expanding Apple SIM availability to Japan for the first time. The Apple SIM can now be purchased in Japanese Apple stores in addition to retail stores in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and the United States.
The Apple SIM, introduced in 2014 alongside the iPad Air 2, is designed to allow users to easily switch between different short-term data plans from a number of different carriers. The Apple SIM is particularly useful for traveling abroad, allowing users to switch carriers as needed.
During the early days of availability, the Apple SIM was limited to the United States and the United Kingdom through a partnership with carriers AT&T, EE, Sprint, and T-Mobile, but in June, a partnership with GigSky expanded availability of data plans to more than 90 countries.
The Apple SIM is available for cellular models of the iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4, and iPad mini 3.
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Pandora Acquires ‘Key Assets’ and Employees From Rdio for $75 Million
Two of the biggest Apple Music competitors and most notable names in the streaming music industry are joining forces, with Pandora today announcing its $75 million acquisition of “key assets” from Rdio.
According to a press release on the acquisition, Pandora has gained unspecified “technology and intellectual property,” and a number of Rdio’s employees will be given roles at Pandora. Pandora plans to use Rdio’s assets to “offer fans greater control over the music they love,” with an expanded Pandora listening experience set to launch in late 2016, depending on licensing. Pandora wants to become the “go-to destination” for wherever and however its fans want to listen to music.
“The Rdio team built an acclaimed product and technology platform that has consistently led innovation in the young streaming industry. I’m pleased that many members of the Rdio team will continue to shape the future of streaming music, applying our tradition of great design and innovative engineering on an even larger stage with Pandora,” said Anthony Bay, chief executive officer of Rdio.
Pandora has more than 80 million users and continues to be one of the most popular streaming music services. Pandora offers its users the ability to listen to free, ad-supported radio stations centered around particular artists or songs rather than offering on-demand listening like Apple Music.
Rdio offered a similar ad-supported free listening tier, but it also included Rdio Unlimited, a service that let users listen to any song on demand as is possible with Spotify and Apple Music. With its acquisition of Rdio’s assets, Pandora may be angling to expand into the on-demand market to better compete with other streaming services.
The acquisition hinges on Rdio obtaining permission for the transaction from the United States Bankruptcy Court. With approval, Rdio will wind down its Rdio-branded operations in all markets as Pandora is only acquiring assets and not the Rdio brand.
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Apple Maps Now Using ‘Business Listings’ Data From Foursquare
As of October, Foursquare has become one of the companies that contribute data to Apple’s Maps app, providing information on “Business listings data.” This likely includes details on restaurants, retail stores, and other venues, given Foursquare’s focus on unearthing the “best places to eat, drink, shop, or visit in any city in the world.
Rumors about a data sharing deal between Foursquare and Apple first surfaced in 2012, but Apple Maps Marketing, a site that keeps an eye on Apple’s Maps partners, notes that Foursquare was not added as a partner until October 22.
For those unfamiliar with Foursquare, it’s essentially a Yelp competitor that helps people find nearby venues. Several years ago, Foursquare was popular as it had a built-in check-in feature that let people share the places they’d visited, but Foursquare has always had trouble securing revenue.
In 2014, Foursquare split its app into Foursquare, for local listings, and Swarm, its check-in app, which ended up being an unpopular decision. Since then, Foursquare has struggled to find its niche among competitors, so this data sharing deal with Apple could be a huge boon for the company.
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Apple’s Top Free Charts Incorrectly Ranking Apple Apps on Some iOS Devices
Apple’s Top Free Charts on some iOS devices appear to be incorrectly ranking Apple apps like iMovie, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. As discovered by Sensor Tower and shared by TechCrunch, on some iOS devices, the App Store’s Top Free Chart lists Pages, Numbers, and Keynote at higher ranks than on the desktop App Store and on other iOS devices.
For example, on an iPad mini 2 and an iPhone 5s, we found iMovie, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers all listed within the top 10 free apps, all at different positions. On an iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s Plus, iPad Air 2, and iPad Pro, the only Apple app in the top 20 free apps is iTunes U, which also matches up with the desktop version of the App Store. iTunes U, according to Sensor Tower’s data, is the only app along with GarageBand that should be listed in the top 10 of the free chart.
App Store Top Free Charts on iPad mini
While MacRumors did not see the errant chart behavior on more recent devices, both TechCrunch and Sensor Tower have seen problematic ranking numbers on a range of different devices running iOS 9.1. Devices running iOS 8.3 did not seem to be affected by the problem.
App Store Top Free Charts on iPhone 6s Plus
As TechCrunch points out, it’s not clear if the discrepancy between App Store Top Chart listings is a bug or an intentional manipulation by Apple, but given the significantly different results from device to device, even those that are the same generation, it seems more like a bug than something done deliberately.
The discrepancy, of course, could be related to a bug in Apple’s App Store ranking algorithm, but it’s a persistent one if that’s the case.
It doesn’t appear to be impacting the relative rankings of most other Top applications, besides Apple’s. That is, Facebook Messenger is still at the top of the App Store, followed by newcomer Acapella from PicPlayPost, then YouTube, and then Facebook.
Apps like Pages, Keynote, Numbers, and iMovie are listed in the Top Free Charts because they are provided to iOS users at no cost with the purchase of an iOS device, but these apps are not free, an issue that could potentially be causing chart problems. All of the above listed apps sell for $4.99 to $9.99.
Apple has, however, manipulated the App Store results in the past to highlight its own apps, so it could be the result of a direct work to promote its line of iWork apps to specific devices or specific users, but without comment from Apple, it’s difficult to tell.
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Some iPad Pros Unresponsive After Charging, Requiring Hard Restart
A growing number of users on the Apple Support Communities, MacRumors discussion forums and social media have reported issues with the iPad Pro becoming unresponsive after being charged for a lengthy amount of time, forcing affected users to perform a hard restart to turn the device back on.
MacRumors forum member “BizzaroClark” claims that, on multiple occasions, his iPad Pro has “appeared frozen” and “will not wake” after being charged. After hard resetting the iPad Pro, he said the device has 100% battery life. Dozens of users have shared similar experiences over the past five days.
At least twice I have left my iPad Pro plugged in, once over night, and once during work. When I returned to my iPad it appeared frozen. Black screen, screen will not wake. I had to do a hard reset twice to get the thing to work again. After the hard reset the battery was 100%.
Apple blog Mac Kung Fu pointed us towards Apple Support Communities and Reddit topics about the issue with nearly 5,000 views and 200 comments combined, indicating the problem is rather widespread. iPad Pro user “darkfire.shadows” shared his experience in the Apple Support Communities:
At night it was down to 40% so I charged it and went to bed. When I woke up it was “dead”. It wouldn’t wake up. I needed to perform a hard reset to get it to come to life. Worked on it for a couple of hours and had to run an errand. Plugged it back in as I was going to need a full charge later that day. Came back to it, same thing. Dead.
MacRumors confirmed the issue has affected one of our iPad Pros since last Wednesday.
The issue has affected both 32GB and 128GB iPad Pros on iOS 9.1, including Wi-Fi and LTE models. It remains unclear if the problem is rooted in hardware or software, but some users speculate that restoring from an iCloud backup during setup may be contributing to the freezing issues.
Apple’s support team has provided customers with mixed solutions, ranging from restoring the iPad to factory settings using iTunes to force restarting the device by holding down the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons simultaneously for at least ten seconds, until an Apple logo appears on the screen.
Last month, we reported that some iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 6 users have experienced similar issues with their smartphones randomly powering off, even when left unattended and with sufficient battery power, indicating this could be a broader iOS 9 issue. Apple has not officially commented on the matter.
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Tim Cook Says Apple Won’t Create ‘Converged’ Mac and iPad
While the iPad Pro further bridges the gap between iOS and OS X, and notebooks and tablets as a whole, Apple CEO Tim Cook recently told the Irish Independent that Apple is not interested in creating a “converged Mac and iPad.”
“We feel strongly that customers are not really looking for a converged Mac and iPad,” said Cook. “Because what that would wind up doing, or what we’re worried would happen, is that neither experience would be as good as the customer wants. So we want to make the best tablet in the world and the best Mac in the world. And putting those two together would not achieve either. You’d begin to compromise in different ways.”
Instead, Cook said Apple wants to create the best possible Mac and iPad, suggesting that both products have a strong future. The chief executive is “bullish” about the reverse of declining iPad sales in recent quarters.
“It’s true that the difference between the X86 [personal computer] and the A-series [Apple iPad architecture] is much less than it’s ever been,” says Cook. “That said, what we’ve tried to do is to recognize that people use both iOS and Mac devices. So we’ve taken certain features and made them more seamless across the devices. So with things like Handoff we just made it really simple to work on one of our products and pick it up and work on the next product.”
Last week, Cook rhetorically questioned why anyone would buy a PC anymore — excluding the Mac, which he says is not the “same” — and said the iPad Pro will serve as a replacement for a notebook or desktop computer for “many, many people.”
“I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?” […]
“Yes, the iPad Pro is a replacement for a notebook or a desktop for many, many people. They will start using it and conclude they no longer need to use anything else, other than their phones.”
Many early iPad Pro reviews described the tablet as a powerful creative canvas, but not quite a true PC replacement. Benchmarks found the iPad Pro delivers MacBook Air-class CPU performance and MacBook Pro-class GPU performance.
MacStories editor Federico Viticci, as someone who uses iOS as his main computing platform, felt otherwise. “I don’t see myself using a Mac as my primary computer ever again,” he wrote in his iPad Pro review.
Cook also provided a non-comment about Apple’s rumored electric vehicle plans, emphasizing “a need for a focus on user interface.”
“I don’t have anything to announce about our plans,” he says. “But I think there’s some significant changes in the automobile industry over the next several years with electrification and autonomous driving. And there’s a need for a focus on user interface. And so I think there’s a lot of changes that will go on there.”
Follow our iPad Pro and Apple Car roundups for the latest news about each topic.
Tags: Tim Cook, Mac
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