Shipping Estimates for iPhone 6 Pre-Orders Slipping to 7-10 Days

Pre-order supplies of the iPhone 6 in the United States have dwindled significantly since pre-orders kicked off last night, with most models of the device now displaying shipping estimates of 7 to 10 days. The new shipping estimates mean customers who place an order now will likely be receiving their phones in October rather than September.

While there are still a some AT&T and Verizon iPhone 6 models available in space gray and gold, silver models for most carriers have now sold out. T-Mobile continues to have some availability in gold, with space gray models carrying shipping estimates of 7 to 10 days.

Though it has taken nearly a day for Apple to run out of most iPhone 6 models available to ship on 9/19, supplies of the larger iPhone 6 Plus were much more limited. Apple’s online store was down until just before 3 AM PT, at which point almost all iPhone 6 Plus models were showing shipping estimates of 7 to 10 days before slipping to 3 to 4 weeks just hours later.

Supplies are similarly limited in other countries where pre-orders were accepted, with the U.K. and Germany seeing iPhone 6 shipping estimates ranging from 7 to 10 days or 3 to 4 weeks based on model. New orders of the iPhone 6 Plus in those countries have shipping estimates of 3 to 4 weeks for all models.

According to Apple, response to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus was “incredible,” with the company setting a new record for overnight pre-orders despite pre-order hiccups.

Though customers will no longer be able to pre-order most models of the iPhone 6 or a 6 Plus from Apple’s site for delivery on 9/19, Apple will have launch day supplies at its retail stores on that date. Oftentimes, people wait in line for hours in an attempt to get a device from a retail store.

Supply of the iPhone 6 Plus seems to be similar to supply of the gold iPhone 5s last year, which became almost instantly unavailable. Unlike last year, however, there were few reports available on supply quantities.

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Apple, Square Acquisition Talks Went South Over $3B Offer

Earlier this year, Apple and Square were rumored to be in talks over a possible acquisition, but no deal materialized. According to a new report from TechCrunch, talks between the two companies failed over purchase price.

Apple is said to have wanted to purchase Square for approximately $3 billion, an offer that Square felt was too low given its valuation at the time.

Separately, TechCrunch has heard that Square and Apple were in acquisition talks, but that Square walked away. Apple wanted the company to come aboard, but the discussed price was a sticking point: Apple wanted to buy Square for around $3 billion, one source said. Square, valued at the time at a firm 66 percent delta to that price point, declined to accept. Apple also showed Square a raft of hardware that would compete with Square’s point-of-sale tools, said the same source.

Earlier rumors suggested that the disconnect between Square’s robust offline payment solution and Apple’s simpler plan to enable payments via iPhone were another reason why talks eventually came to an end. Square has recently raised $100 million in capital, putting its valuation at $6 billion.

Apple on Tuesday revealed its long-rumored mobile payment solution, Apple Pay. Apple Pay is designed to allow iPhone users to make NFC payments using credit cards stored in Passbook, which are then authorized with the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Apple has reached deals with credit card companies, credit issuers, and retailers, and has plans to launch Apple Pay in October.

According to Apple, the program will work with over 220,000 U.S. retail stores, including Walgreens, Duane Reade, Macy’s, Nike, Bloomingdales, Staples, Subway, McDonalds, and more.

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Apple Pay Details: Apple Gets 0.15% Cut of Purchases, Higher Rates for Bluetooth Payments

Apple’s ambitious new mobile payment initiative, Apple Pay, was announced on Tuesday during the company’s iPhone event. Many questions still linger about the service, but information is beginning to trickle out from various sources as retailers, banks, and credit card companies prepare for the service’s October launch.

According to a new report from The Financial Times, Apple stands to make quite a bit of money from its payments service. Banks and payment networks will be forking over 0.15 percent of each purchase to Apple, which equates to 15 cents out of a $100 purchase.

They are also paying hard cash for the privilege of being involved: 15 cents of a $100 purchase will go to the iPhone maker, according to two people familiar with the terms of the agreement, which are not public. That is an unprecedented deal, giving Apple a share of the payments’ economics that rivals such as Google do not get for their services

According to bank executives, Apple was able to negotiate with so many partners and receive choice deals because the industry didn’t see anything threatening in Apple Pay. One executive suggested that Apple’s payment model continued to put banks “at the centre of payments.” Apple may also have been able to negotiate better deals due to the tight security it has in place for Apple Pay. Payments will be made via NFC with a one-time token, and also secured with a Touch ID fingerprint.

Additional details about Apple Pay’s security have been unveiled by MasterCard executive Jorn Lambert, who spoke to Bank Innovation, explaining how each transaction will be secured.

Along with the cryptogram generated between a standard debit or credit card and a point of sale terminal, Apple Pay takes advantage of a token system that encrypts every step of the payment process. Tokenization is already built into the standard NFC specification, so what Apple is really doing is utilizing existing technology and further securing it with its own Touch ID fingerprint authorization system.

Every card added to Apple Pay (and located in Passbook) is assigned a token, which Apple calls a Dynamic Account Number. Each Dynamic Account Number is stored in the secure element of the iPhone and accompanied by a unique cryptogram for each transaction.

[Touch ID] authentication prompts the “secure element” to send the token and cryptogram to the merchant. The network decrypts the cryptogram and determines whether it is authentic or not. If it is deemed authentic, the network will pass it along to the issuer (i.e. the bank), which then decrypts the token. In other words, every party to the transaction decrypts something.

Once the issuer decrypts the token and determines that it is authentic, the issuer/bank authorizes the transaction. Money is then credited to the merchant and marked as an amount owed by the cardholder.

The token system essentially provides an extra layer of security to payments made through NFC, which, as mentioned earlier, allows merchants to pay a lower “card present” rate for NFC purchases. Merchants still pay the higher “card-not-present” rate when payments are made over Bluetooth LE rather than NFC, however, or when a purchase is made in-app using Apple Pay.

According to Lambert, Apple is not handling tokenization, instead leaving it up to credit card companies like Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. He describes Apple’s role as a “channel and not a party,” and Apple itself has confirmed that it won’t store any information about transactions conducted by customers.

Apple has plans to roll out Apple Pay beginning in October, and promises the program will work with more than 220,000 U.S. retailers including Walgreens, Macy’s, Nike, Bloomingdales, and more. Some stores like Walmart and Best Buy claim to have “opted out” of Apple Pay, but users should be able to make payments via the service at any location that has an NFC-capable point of sale system.

Many retailers are currently in the process of updating their point-of-sale hardware, as an upcoming change will see merchants that do not support EMV credit cards being liable for fraudulent, lost, and stolen cards. EMV credit cards, also known as “chip cards,” include integrated circuits to authenticate debit and credit card purchases. The updated point of sale systems with EMV card support being adopted by retailers also generally include NFC, which means Apple Pay may work even at stores that have not specifically chosen to support the service.

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Tim Cook Speaks on Steve Jobs, Apple’s Interest in TV, and Beats Acquisition in New Interview

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke with Charlie Rose in a two-part interview, and the first segment is airing today. In a series of video clips, Tim Cook talks about Steve Jobs, Apple’s Beats Electronics acquisition, the Apple TV, and Apple’s plans for the future.

In the first clip, Cook again comments on Steve Jobs’ ongoing influence at Apple, saying Jobs is in his heart and deep in Apple’s DNA. “His spirit will always be the foundation of the company,” says Cook. Cook also gives one other interesting tidbit about Jobs — his fourth floor office has remained untouched since his passing.

In a second clip, Cook says the hardest decisions Apple makes “are all the things not to work on.” When asked if television is one of those areas, Cook said that TV is an area that Apple “continues to have great interest in.” He went on to say that TV is one of those things “stuck back in the 70s,” and he admits that with 20 million users, the Apple TV has “far exceeded the hobby label.” Cook didn’t divulge any details on the future of the Apple TV however, stating just that it’s an area that Apple continues to look at.

In the third and final clip, Cook spoke on Apple’s decision to buy Beats, reiterating many of the reasons behind the acquisition. “Jimmy and Dre are off the charts creative geniuses,” said Cook, pointing towards Iovine’s knowledge of the music industry and Dre’s connection to artists. He also said that Beats Music’s human curation was a major factor in the acquisition.

The complete first part of Tim Cook’s Charlie Rose interview will air later tonight on PBS, with the second part of the interview airing on Monday night.

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High-End 18-Karat Gold Apple Watch Could Cost Up to $1,200

The Edition version of Apple’s 18-karat gold Apple Watch could cost around $1,200, reports TechCrunch. The site consulted with “jewelers familiar with the material” Apple uses for the Apple Watch Edition, basing an estimate on the size and weight of the device.

18-karat yellow gold Apple Watch Edition with Red Modern Buckle band

Chad Rickicki, a watch expert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania said that a case the size and shape of the Apple Watch in 18 carat gold would cost about $600 to make. The rest — the electronics and markup could double that price.

That doesn’t mean that all of the Apple Watches will rest in the rarified air of haute horlogerie. The lower end sport versions will start at $349 and presumably the standard versions, simply called Apple Watch, will receive a premium over that. The Edition watches, however, are expensive because gold is expensive, even at 18K and intermixed with Apple’s alloys.

Any predictions on possible cost for the gold Apple Watch at this point are fairly rough estimates, as the exact dimensions of the device remain unknown. It is also unclear whether the Apple Watch is gold plated or solid gold alloy.

According to Apple’s site, the 18-karat gold used in the Apple Watch Edition has been crafted by the company’s metallurgists to be “twice as hard as standard gold.” It also comes with a polished sapphire crystal display and rumors have suggested the gold watches will come in special boxes that can also be used for charging.

Early iWatch rumors from KGI Securities Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested the wearable device would come in an array of colors and styles, with some of them costing several thousand dollars. Depending on the pricing of the Edition watches, Kuo’s prediction may not be far off.

While Apple is aiming for the luxury market with the Apple Watch Edition line, the company is also planning to offer the Apple Watch in several other lower-priced configurations. The Apple Watch Sport, for example, does away with sapphire in favor of an Ion-X glass display and a lightweight aluminum casing, making it much more affordable. According to Apple, its line of watches will start at $349 and will begin shipping in early 2015.

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Apple Pushes iCloud Photo Library Back to Beta as SMS Continuity Delayed to October

Though iCloud Photo Library was available during the iOS 8 beta testing period, Apple appears to have demoted it to beta status and removed it from the iOS 8 golden master, the software that will be distributed to the public next week.

Apple has also stripped mentions of iCloud Photo Library from its iCloud preview page, where it used to be prominently featured at the top of the site. Apple’s preview page now focuses on iCloud Drive, the new iCloud storage plans, Family Sharing, and iCloud Photo Sharing, with iCloud Photo Library getting no mention at all.

It is unclear why Apple has demoted iCloud Photo Library back to beta status and removed it from the golden master, but it is possible that the company has decided to push it back in light of the negative press iCloud has received in recent weeks due to the celebrity photo leak.

Along with iCloud Photo Library, it appears that Apple has also decided to delay the SMS Relay feature of Continuity until October as well (via iLounge). According to Apple’s iOS 8 press release from Tuesday, SMS Continuity will be added to iOS 8 in October, while iCloud Photo Library will be available as a beta during that same month.

Touted as one of the major features of iOS 8/OS X Yosemite, SMS Continuity lets Macs and iOS like iPads receive SMS text messages and phone calls through the iPhone.

Though it will be missing a few features, Apple has plans to release iOS 8 to the public on Wednesday, September 17, two days ahead of the September 19 release date of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

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U2’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ Downloaded 2 Million Times After Promotion [iOS Blog]

Earlier this week at its media event, Apple announced that it would be partnering with rock group U2 to offer its new “Songs of Innocence” album to 500 million iTunes customers for free. However, the deal upset some users who did not want the album added to their accounts or automatically downloaded in some instances. Now, Re/code reports that the album has been downloaded over 2 million times by users just three days after being made available.

The move was part of an estimated $100 million deal between U2, Apple, and Universal Music Group, as reported by Billboard Magazine this morning. U2 manager Guy Oseary said in an interview with the magazine that the deal between the band and Apple was a “long-term relationship” while shooting down criticism that the deal was disruptive to the of rest music industry.

The deal has also been very beneficial for U2’s back-catalog on iTunes, as 17 of their prior albums are currently on the iTunes Top 100. U2’s “Songs of Innocence” will be available to download for iTunes customers until the middle of October.

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