Law Firm Investigating Potential for Class Action Suit Against Rite Aid and CVS for Blocking Apple Pay

Law firm Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe, specializing in class action lawsuits, has announced that it has launched an antitrust investigation into CVS and Rite Aid over their decision to stop accepting Apple Pay in their retail stores.

The firm says that it is looking into a potential class action lawsuit that would aim to restore Apple Pay at CVS and Rite Aid stores, and it is currently asking to speak with consumers who may have been affected by the stores’ decision to stop offering the payment method.

In light of this situation, Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe is investigating whether CVS and Rite Aid violated the antitrust laws by banding together with other MCX members in a decision to boycott other payments systems, including Apple Pay. Consumers with phones that support Apple Pay may be able to participate in a class action to restore the service at CVS and Rite Aid retail stores.

Both Rite Aid and CVS stopped accepting Apple Pay just over a week ago, disabling the NFC capabilities of their payment terminals to prevent it from being used. Rite Aid and CVS are both members of the Merchant Customer Exchange or MCX, a consortium of retailers developing their own barcode-based payment system called CurrentC.

MCX has confirmed that all of its retail members, including CVS and Rite Aid, are subject to exclusivity agreements that prevent them from accepting alternate forms of payment at the current time, but all MCX members are free to leave at any point in time. MCX executives have said that the exclusivity agreements are “closer to months than years” and have been put in place to offer “breathing room” for the development of CurrentC.

CurrentC is being tested in a limit number of markets at the current time, with a release planned for next year.

Emoji to Gain Expanded Racial Diversity With Skin Tone Modifier Option in Mid-2015

The Unicode Consortium has released a technical report (via Emojipedia) detailing a new method for handling the representation of multi-ethnic groups in emoji. Previous guidelines have stated that emoji people be “as neutral as possible regarding race, ethnicity, and gender”. Unless the emoji calls out specific gender or racial cues, then a “generic (inhuman) appearance, such as a yellow/orange color or a silhouette” should be used in its place.

A forthcoming update, Unicode 8.0, plans to change all of that. It proposes to introduce a skin-tone modifier which could be added to certain emoji, allowing users to send any emotion using any skin tone. Plans even reach as far as to allow emoji couples to feature individually different skin tones. Planned for release in the middle of next year, Unicode 8.0’s skin tone and racial diversity proposals are only proposed drafts at the current stage.

Mockup via Emojipedia
Although the wide acceptance of new emoji is rather slow-going (no major platforms yet support Unicode 7.0 emoji released earlier this year), Apple has shown previous interest in updating the diversity in its emoji lineup. Earlier in the year, Apple’s then-vice president of worldwide corporate communications, Katie Cotton, spoke to vocalized support in working with the Unicode Consortium and updating its emoji character offerings.

“Tim forwarded your email to me. We agree with you. Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard.”

The most recent major change to emoji on Apple platforms was for iOS 6, when the company expanded native support beyond Japan and made the feature accessible to all users without the use of a third-party app.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

AT&T Announces ‘Next 24’ Payment Plan, Allowing 30 Months to Pay Off Devices [iOS Blog]

Announced today at the AT&T Consumer Industry Analyst Conference, customers of AT&T will soon have another payment option for their wireless phone bills called AT&T Next 24. The plan focuses on lower monthly payments on select phones in the AT&T lineup and a longer grace period to pay them off.

AT&T Next 24 is the newest addition to the company’s Next program that allows customers to purchase qualifying smartphones for $0 down, paying the device off interest-free with monthly payment plans. AT&T Next 24 is a 30-month installment plan and joins the ranks of AT&T Next 12 (a 20-month installment plan) and AT&T Next 18 (a 24-month installment plan).

The new Next 24 plan is available for any current smartphone in AT&T’s selection of devices, and the monthly installments can range anywhere from $10 to $50 depending on the phone selected. If in good condition at the 24-month mark, a device on AT&T Next 24 can be traded in for a qualifying brand-new phone.

For all plans included in the AT&T Next lineup, customers can save $15 each month on that smartphone’s monthly access charge for plans less than 10GB, and $25 per month for plans 10GB or higher.

Beginning today, any customer who switches to AT&T and activates a new smartphone on AT&T Next will also receive a $150 bill credit.

The new AT&T Next 24 service launches November 9.

Amazon Offers Unlimited Photo Storage for Prime Subscribers [iOS Blog]

As part of ongoing efforts to improve its Prime subscription plan, Amazon today announced a new unlimited photo storage option for its Amazon Prime members. The option is part of the retailer’s Cloud Drive service that allows customers to store their files in Amazon’s cloud.

“This time of year in particular, families are capturing thousands of photos of holiday parties, family gatherings and opening presents,” said Greg Greeley, Vice President Amazon Prime. “With free unlimited photo storage, we’re providing one more reason for members to use Prime every day. Prime has always allowed members to conveniently save time and save money, and now with Prime Photos they can save memories too.”

Amazon’s photo storage is accessible via the Cloud Drive Photos app for the iPhone and iPad [Direct Link]. The free mobile app automatically and securely uploads full resolution photos to Amazon Cloud Drive. Users then can view their photos on a variety of devices and share them directly from the mobile app.

This new unlimited Photo storage is one of two new features Amazon has added to its Prime membership after raising the annual cost of the service to $99 earlier this year. Amazon previously debuted its Prime Music streaming service, providing members with unlimited, ad-free streaming from a library of over a million songs.

Owners of 128 GB iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Models Reporting Crashing and Boot Loop Issues

A number of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners have been reporting an issue with the device that causes it to crash and remain stuck in a boot loop following a restart. The issue appears to primarily affect 128 GB models, particularly those with larger app libraries, and some suggest it may be a hardware problem associated with the increased storage available on that device.

While the exact cause of the issues has not been determined, speculation by industry contacts speaking to BusinessKorea (via G for Games) suggests the problem may lie in the controller for the TLC (triple-level cell) NAND flash included in the device. This issue reportedly is new to the iPhone as Apple previously has typically used MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash in its iPhone units. The only recourse for owners experiencing this boot loop is to bring their phone back to Apple and request a replacement.

Some in the industry point out that considering that technical defects mainly occur in the 128GB version of the iPhone 6 Plus, there might be a problem in the controller IC of triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash. […]

As numerous reports of low read performance of the Samsung SSD 840 and 840 EVO using TLC NAND flash have surfaced on the Internet, a problem in the controller IC is considered to be the more likely cause of the defects.

The report says Apple could be facing a “huge potential recall” to address the issue, but the claim is purely speculative given that the prevalence of the problem has not been established and an exact cause remains undetermined.

While Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have generally been praised since their release in September, the devices have experienced a few issues related primarily to software. In a problematic release, Apple’s iOS 8.0.1 update disabled cellular service and Touch ID on the new iPhone models. Other reports pointed to a Bluetooth problem with owners claiming to have difficulty connecting to Bluetooth-enabled car stereo systems after purchasing a new iPhone model or updating their existing phone to iOS 8, an issue that appears to have been largely addressed with iOS 8.1.

Microsoft Adding Dropbox Integration to Mobile and Web Office Suites

Microsoft and Dropbox today announced a partnership that will bring Dropbox support to Microsoft’s suite of Office mobile apps. Microsoft will add this new Dropbox feature in upcoming versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the iPhone and iPad.

The new Dropbox integration would allow Office users to open, edit and share files that are stored in Dropbox. After adding a Dropbox account to an Office app, users will be able browse their Dropbox contents, which appear alongside OneDrive and locally stored files. All mobile edits will be synced to Dropbox automatically with a sharing option available within the Office app.

Over the coming weeks, we’re updating Office apps so that they work with Dropbox, too. With the next updates to Word, Excel and PowerPoint on iPhone, iPad and Android Phone you’ll be able to connect to your Dropbox account, so you can access, edit and share your Dropbox files right from your Office apps. Once you’ve added your Dropbox account to Word, Excel or PowerPoint, you can navigate folders and files on Dropbox for viewing and editing in the native Office apps. And accessing Word, PowerPoint and Excel from your Dropbox app is just as easy. Navigate to the file you want, and the Dropbox app will open the Office app you need.

This collaborative effort is only in the beginning stages, with plans to expand Dropbox integration to other Microsoft products over time. After updating its mobile apps in the coming weeks, Microsoft is planning to add Dropbox support to its Office online web apps early next year.

Apple Looking to Raise $1.2 Billion from Bond Sale Involving Euros

Following yesterday’s report that Apple was preparing to hold a new bond sale that includes a component denominated in euros, the company today filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission outlining its general plans, which include two chunks of debt with staggered maturities. The Wall Street Journal has more details on the prospectus and how its yields will the lowest ever for 8-year and 12-year debt:

The iPhone maker is seeking to raise at least €1 billion ($1.2 billion) from two chunks of euro debt maturing in eight and 12 years.

Those would beat the lowest yields ever paid for euro-denominated, corporate bonds of these maturities, according to Dealogic data, reflecting solid confidence that the bonds represent a safe bet. Bankers managing the bond sale suggested the eight-year notes will give investors a yield of roughly 1.1% and the 12-year notes around 1.7%.

Apple spoke with investors on Monday about issuing bonds and will use the proceeds of the sale for general corporate purposes, including share buybacks and dividend payments.

This would mark first time that Apple would begin issuing bonds in Euros, with Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs arranging the sale. This past April, Apple held a $12 billion bond sale, which followed a record $17 billion sale last year. Apple’s bond offerings are a part of its expanded capital return program, which primarily involves a major stock buyback program and a quarterly dividend that aims to return more than $130 billion to shareholders by the end of 2015.

Samsung and TSMC Reportedly Still Competing for Rights to Produce Apple’s A9 Chip [iOS Blog]

Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) are still competing for the rights to produce Apple’s next-generation A9 chip as a primary supplier is expected to be named by the end of this year, reports Digitimes.

According to the report, Samsung has offered Apple lower pricing quotes in an attempt to secure the rights to produce the A9. The company is also willing to produce other chips like flash memory and perform optimization services in-house. Samsung was the longtime producer of Apple’s A-series chips until Apple struck a deal with TSMC to produce its chips last year.

Last month, Samsung semiconductor head Kim Ki-nam announced that the company would begin work on 14-nanometer processors for Apple, indicating that the Korean company may have already won the bid to produce the next-generation A9 chip. However, it is also possible that both companies could share the production load as Apple looks to diversify its supply chain even further to better fit its production needs.

Last year, it was reported that Apple signed a contract with Samsung to handle 30% to 40% of total A9 chip production, as TSMC would be handling the rest of the production load. Apple’s A9 chip would presumably be featured in next year’s line of iPhones and iPads, as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus currently use the 20-nanometer A8 processor. The iPad Air 2 uses a more powerful triple-core A8X chip which is up to 55% faster than the A8 chip found in the iPhone 6.

Disney’s ‘Movies Anywhere’ Service Now Allowing Users to View Films on iOS or Android [iOS Blog]

Users of Disney’s Movies Anywhere service will now be able to access their movies between iOS and Android as a part of an agreement between Apple and Google, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The company launched its Movies Anywhere app on iOS in February, which allowed users purchase movies or link their iTunes account to sync eligible films to watch on all of their iOS devices. Now, the Movies Anywhere app is available on Android, as users will be able to purchase movies on the service and view any eligible film bought from the iTunes Store or Google Play on their iOS or Android devices. Disney is also allowing users to redeem codes from DVDs and Blu-ray Discs on the Movies Anywhere website.

According to the report, both Apple and Google will pay Disney a wholesale rate for each copy of a film that they sell. Disney Movies Anywhere is currently offering a free digital copy of Wreck-It Ralph with a newly connected account, and currently offers a library of over 450 titles to choose from.

Disney Movies Anywhere is a free app for iOS devices and can be downloaded through the App Store. [Direct Link]