Amazon Visa Rewards Card Now Compatible With Apple Pay

According to reports on Twitter, Reddit and MacRumors forums, Amazon’s Visa Rewards card is now compatible with Apple Pay. Amazon reportedly enabled the feature today, moving quickly to bring the mobile payments service to consumers who were disappointed in Amazon for not supporting Apple Pay at launch.

Apple Pay launched on Monday with support from a large number of credit card companies and banks. Among the launch partners were Chase, which is the issuing bank for the Amazon Visa Rewards card. Amazon reportedly was the only Chase card not supporting Apple Pay, sparking rumors that the retailer was deliberately rebuffing Apple’s mobile payment efforts for competitive reasons.

Hey, Amazon Chase Visa cards now work with Apple Pay, complete with Amazon logo on the card and all. That was fast.

— Dave Rutledge (@_) October 24, 2014

Amazon dispelled these rumors by confirming it would enable Apple Pay soon, but few expected the rollout to happen so quickly. Customers with an Amazon Visa Rewards card should be able to add the credit card to Apple Pay with full support for mobile payments.

iHeartRadio for iOS Updated with Support for CarPlay [iOS Blog]

Radio streaming service iHeartRadio has updated its official iOS app to include support for Apple’s CarPlay iOS vehicle integration feature. Users can now search and play any live or favorited radio station through their CarPlay-compatible in-dash car system, and can also listen to archived on-demand episodes from multiple categories like News, Sports, and Comedy.

This newest update also brings a new Today Widget for the Notification Center which allows users to access recently played stations quickly. Apple announced in June that iHeartRadio would be getting CarPlay support along with other popular apps like Beats Music, MLB At Bat, and Spotify, which received its CarPlay update earlier this month.

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

iHeartRadio and Rdio are ready for CarPlay, but your car isn’t

Online radio streaming app iHeartRadio has just made good on its promise to add support for CarPlay, Apple’s new car infotainment system. But, it’s not the only app joining Spotify on CarPlay today — Rdio, a free music streaming service with offline playback, is tagging along. By introducing optimized apps for Cupertino’s car platform, both online services make it easier for users to navigate their interfaces on an onboard screen. Sadly, there are very few people who can actually enjoy the updates right now, as CarPlay’s only available on Ferrari FFs and select Pioneer in-dash systems, though most automakers promise to load it on their vehicles’ entertainment systems in the future. Other web services also vow to eventually introduce optimized apps for the platform, including CBS News Radio and, of course, Beats Music.

Filed under: Transportation, Apple

Comments

Via: Apple Insider

Source: Rdio (iTunes), iHeartRadio (iTunes)

Powerful Image Editing App ‘Pixelmator’ Comes to the iPad [iOS Blog]

Pixelmator, a popular Photoshop replacement on the Mac, was released for the iPad today. The image editing iOS app is similar to the Mac app, incorporating many of the same tools to allow users to retouch and enhance photos and images.

The app includes a complete set of painting tools and a painting engine that can take advantage of a range of brushes from crayon and marker to pencil and paintbrush to create works of art from scratch or improve photos.

It offers several photo editing tools, including advanced retouching tools that let users remove unwanted objects from images in just a few minutes. There are color adjustment tools (including levels, brightness/contrast, curves, white balance, and more) to improve the look of photos, and a selection of more than 14 pre-created effects can be applied to images.

Pixelmator for iOS supports non-destructive layer styles and it includes powerful selection tools along with image straightening and cropping tools. There are also built-in shape and text tools.

Pixelmator comes with a set of top-quality retouching tools so you can easily make every picture absolutely stunning. With the innovative repair tool, quickly and easily get rid of unwanted image elements simply by painting on them or, with just a simple tap fix red eyes, brush away blemishes, smudge to smooth out hard lines, paint to boost the colors, bring in some light and so much more. Advanced technologies used in retouching tools make them incredibly fast and accurate, so that you can seamlessly bring an image to perfection.

Loaded with dozens of breathtaking effects, Pixelmator for iPad gives even more ways to enhance pictures. Add gorgeous effects like blur, vignette, vintage, black & white, light leak, bokeh, miniaturize and many more — in an instant. You can even combine different effects for unique, near-effortless artistic creations and see the stunning results in real time.

The app has been designed from the ground up for iOS 8 and it fully supports several different iOS 8 features. It uses iCloud Drive to store images, for example, and with Handoff, it’s possible to start editing an image on the iPad and pick it up on the Mac.

There’s Document Picker support to allow users to edit images in other apps, and there’s a Pixelmator Photo Editing extension designed for the Photos app. It’s also possible to share images with other apps with Share extensions.

When Apple unveiled the new iPad Air 2 on October 16, it invited the Pixelmator team to take the stage to demo the Pixelmator app for the iPad Air 2, as it is designed to take advantage of the tablet’s powerful 64-bit processor. Though created to utilize a 64-bit processor, Pixelmator for iPad is compatible with iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini, iPad mini 2, and iPad mini 3. iPad 4 or later is recommended for the best performance, however.

Pixelmator can be downloaded from the App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]

Facebook Announces Anonymous Chat App ‘Rooms’ [iOS Blog]

Facebook today announced the release of a new anonymous sharing app called Rooms, which will allow users to create an anonymous invite-only chat room based around any theme.

Rooms is a standalone app that is not integrated with Facebook and does not require a Facebook login. No personally identifiable information is required within chat rooms and users are identified by nicknames. A user can join a chat room via a QR code that can be shared online, offline, privately, or publicly. While Rooms does not monitor user location, it does store messages on Facebook’s servers.

Rooms will be using the same community standards used by Facebook, so content flagged for bullying, threats, spam, and more can be deleted by Facebook. The site can also ban members or disable entire chat rooms, and each Room moderator has the power to ban users who join.

Chat rooms, which can be created on any topic, are also customizable with different colors, emojis, and more. According to Facebook Product Manager Josh Miller, who spoke to Re/code, Rooms is not designed to emulate anonymous sharing apps like Secret or Whisper, instead aiming to provide people with a place to chat with others who “care about the same stuff you do.”

Rooms lets you create places for the things you’re passionate about. Pick a topic, customize the look and feel, be whoever you want to be and share with others. It’s perfect for the things you love and interests that make you unique.

– Pick a topic: Create a home for people who are as into the topic as you are.
– Customize the look and feel: Pick a color, choose an emoji for your like button, and more!
– Be whoever you want to be: Choose nicknames for yourself, real or made up.
– Share with others: Invite other people so you can share photos, videos, and notes with them.

Rooms was created by Facebook’s Creative Labs branch, which has also created Paper and Slingshot. While news reader Paper has enjoyed success in the App Store, video and photo messaging app Slingshot has not been as popular.

Rooms is an iPhone-only app that can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Apple to Continue Evaluating GT’s Sapphire Production Progress, Looking for New Uses for Arizona Plant

Earlier today, GT Advanced Technologies officially announced its settlement with Apple, which will see the two companies dissolving their partnership, ending their production agreement, and eliminating contractual ties that kept GT from selling its sapphire to other parties.

Under the agreement, GT Advanced will be selling off its remaining sapphire, along with 2,000 sapphire furnaces, with much of the proceeds going to Apple to repay the $439 million loan it provided to get the operation underway.

Apple has now commented on the settlement with GT Advanced, telling Re/code that GT’s sapphire manufacturing process simply wasn’t ready for production, and that a relationship in the future remains a possibility as the company’s sapphire production techniques improve. GT will continue research work focused on creating sapphire boules over 165 kilograms.

Apple also says that it is going to look for other ways to use the Mesa, Arizona facility that it purchased for GT Advanced, which will be unused after GT fully shuts down operations at the end of December

“Apple put a lot of effort into an ambitious new sapphire manufacturing process with GTAT which is not ready for production. We’re going to continue evaluating GTAT’s progress on larger sapphire boule development, as well as consider other options for the facility. We remain committed to the city and we’re going to work with Mesa and Maricopa County to help the GT Advanced employees who will be impacted by this find new jobs.”

GT Advanced first filed for bankruptcy at the beginning of October, but the company was reportedly missing technical milestones as early as February, hinting at the trouble to come. While Apple was widely expected to use sapphire from GT Advanced for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus displays, the company opted to stick with Corning’s Gorilla Glass after it became apparent GT would not be able to produce sapphire of the quality that Apple required.

Approximately 650 employees at the Mesa, Arizona sapphire plant have already been laid off, and a limited number of employees will remain employed until the end of the year in order to help GT Advanced wind down production at the factory, finishing the sapphire boules that are currently growing and shutting down and cleaning furnaces for storage and sale.

‘Continuity Activation Tool’ Enables Handoff on Older Macs

With iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, Apple introduced “Continuity,” a set of features designed to allow for deeper integration between Macs and iOS devices. Unfortunately, some Continuity features are limited to Macs with Bluetooth 4.0, which leaves many older Macs unable to access the new features.

Additionally, even though the 2011 MacBook Air and 2011 Mac mini include Bluetooth 4.0, Apple has opted not to allow them to access Continuity features. Luckily, many resourceful members of the MacRumors forums have come up with solutions to allow them to enable Continuity on their older Macs, and discussion on our forums has led to the creation of a set of instructions and a Continuity Activation Tool that should get Continuity working on Macs unable to explicitly support the feature.

Created by Dokterdok (based on instructions compiled by UncleSchnitty) and available on Github, the Continuity Activation Tool is designed to activate Continuity by doing a compatibility check, creating backups of original System drivers, and disabling a Mac-model blacklist in the Bluetooth code that prevents Continuity from working on ineligible Macs. From there, it also whitelists Mac board-ids within the Wi-Fi code to get the feature working.

The tool can be downloaded as a zip file from Github and is installed by double clicking the app and following the instructions provided on the screen.

The Continuity Activation Tool will enable Continuity on the mid-2011 MacBook Air and the mid-2011 Mac mini with no additional hardware required, as both of those devices include Bluetooth 4.0. That means installing the tool should get Continuity up and running on those machines in just a few minutes.

On older Macs that do not come equipped with Bluetooth 4.0, new wireless cards will need to be installed, which makes it more difficult for casual users to get access to Continuity. USB dongles that provide Bluetooth 4.0 will not work with the Continuity Activation Tool, and a list of wireless cards that will provide Bluetooth 4.0 for each older Mac can be found on the MacRumors forums.

Both MacRumors forum members and Redditors have confirmed that this method is able to successfully enable Continuity on a variety of Macs, including the mid-2011 MacBook Air, the early 2011 MacBook Pro, and the mid-2011 Mac mini.

The Continuity Activation Tool appears to enable all Continuity features when used successfully, allowing older Macs to access Handoff, Instant Hotspot, SMS forwarding, and Mac phone calls without an issue. Some of these Continuity features may work already on older Macs as they use a variety of different connection methods ranging from Bluetooth to Wi-Fi, but the tool is confirmed to get Handoff and AirDrop, both of which require Bluetooth, to work.

Users should exercise caution when using the Continuity Activation Tool, as it moves around low level files and there’s a possibility it could cause problems. A backup is recommended before attempting to install the tool.

Apple’s TestFlight Beta Testing Service Now Available for Developers [iOS Blog]

Apple today began notifying developers that its TestFlight Beta Testing platform is now live and available for immediate use. TestFlight Beta Testing is designed to make it easier for developers to invite users to test pre-release versions of apps.

You can now invite up to 1,000 testers to beta test your iOS apps by simply sending them an email invitation through iTunes Connect. Once they accept your invitation, testers can install your beta app on their iOS devices, get updated builds, and provide feedback, all within the TestFlight app.

TestFlight has long been used as an app beta testing platform by developers, but Apple acquired the service earlier this year with its purchase of Burstly, the company that initially developed the testing platform. After the acquisition, Apple redesigned TestFlight and relaunched it as an integrated iOS 8 service for both developers and testers.

While there are several beta testing services including HockeyApp, TestFlight aims to make the beta testing process simpler by removing the need for UDIDs and provisioning profiles. Developers can invite users to test an app with just an email address, and there are built-in tools for both internal and external testing.

End users who are invited to beta test an app will be instructed to download the TestFlight app for iOS, which became available in the App Store last month. The app is designed to deliver apps for testing, notify testers each time a new build is available, and provide tools for feedback.

Rite Aid Disables Apple Pay Support After Initially Accepting Payments

A growing number of Apple Pay users are angry with retailer Rite Aid following the reported disabling of the mobile payment service within the past 24 hours. Apple Pay should technically be compatible with any point-of-sale systems supporting NFC technology, but customers who made successful Apple Pay payments earlier this week have found their payments were being denied yesterday and today.

Among the disgruntled users was Josh Hundall, who shared his experiences and his conclusions that Rite Aid is deliberately crippling its payment systems to prevent Apple Pay transactions.

Today, Allison asked me to pick up a few things on my way home from the office, and I’m a major nerd, so naturally I was all too happy to oblige. I was equally disappointed, then, when my transaction was declined with a message on the terminal informing me that Apple Pay was not supported. The terminal mentioned Apple Pay by name. So the system is smart enough to know about Apple Pay and to decide not to take it.

Hundall spoke to an associate who claims Rite Aid recently sent an email informing stores that the retailer is not accepting Apple Pay payments, and Hundall speculates it is because Rite Aid is a supporter of the upcoming CurrentC payments system from Merchant Customer Exchange. Competitor Walgreens is also one of Apple’s biggest launch partners for Apple Pay.

According to Twitter reports, the retailer also unexpectedly turned off support for Google Wallet at the same time. Rite Aid has not confirmed the shut down of these services, nor commented publicly on these reports.

@Futment @riteaid system IS compatible. @riteaid blocked it and Google Wallet today. Both worked yesterday. Bad business decision.

— Yoshi (@YoshiTheShiba) October 22, 2014

Apple Pay launched earlier this week in a debut that was relatively smooth for most customers. As demoed in a McDonald’s transaction, payments are processed almost instantly at supported terminals with the press of the Touch ID sensor on the phone.

The most publicized hiccup occurred with Bank of America customers, who were accidentally charged twice for their purchases. Bank of America confirmed that the issue only affected a small number of users who will receive refunds.