Apple’s iOS 8.1 update is now available to download. The biggest addition is the new Apple Pay service which goes live today alongside iOS 8.1. Apple Pay will allow iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3 owners to pay for goods within compatible apps by simply swiping a finger with Touch ID. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners will also be able to use their phones to tap card readers in participating stores to pay for goods using a combination of Touch ID and NFC. Apple Pay integrates into the existing Passbook feature on iOS 8.1, allowing you to setup and store credit and debit cards. More info at The Verge.
Apple releases iOS 8.1 with Apple Pay
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Eugenia Loli
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You don’t actually swipe with Touch ID, it’s one of the differences between it and other mobile finger print systems, you just touch the home button. I just got an iPhone 6, my first iPhone with Touch ID, and I find it’s so responsive that all I do is click the home button to wake the device up and if I leave my finger in place the iPhone instantly unlocks.
BTW I think one area Apple Pay may make a bigger initial splash than in store purchases is online purchases as Apple Pay can be used for web transactions. I am not sure from a web design point of view how one does this so if anyone knows of further data on this do please post the links.
I think it’s as simple as Safari will auto-detect that you are checking out, the same as AutoFill currently works, and then will present a button option to “Pay with Apple Pay.”
My bad: currently not supported on mobile web sites. Online purchases are supported through apps, for which there is SDK support to add it to retailer apps.
OTA update from 8.0.2 to 8.1 went smoothly here with the iPhone 5 and no problems so far. My experience updating from iOS 7 to 8 wasn’t as pleasant. Updated okay, but went to the settings menu after the update to check app permissions and the device went into an infinite boot-loop. Had to hook it up to my computer and do a full restore with the single most vile application in the universe – iTunes. Bleergh!!
My contract’s up in November. Still unsure whether to get the iPhone 6 or go back to Android with a Nexus 6. iOS annoys me less than Android and generally has better third party apps, but my Android devices never needed some cop-out synching-with-bloated-proprietary-PC/Mac-application to fix a botched OTA update.
C’mon Apple!! Why brag about “Post-PC” when you still need to hook the damn thing up?!
Edit:
Sorry, was supposed to be a fresh post but somehow ended up as a reply to Tony Swash. I must’ve goofed up somewhere.
Edited 2014-10-21 00:16 UTC
From my experience as an owner of an iPhone 5s and several Android devices, you’ll simply be swapping one set of headaches for another. Not to say the iPhone is any ‘better’, but ALL of these devices have issues. For example, I can’t get turn-by-turn voice navigation to work over my car’s bluetooth using my 2013 Moto X, for whatever reason. Works fine on my Nexus 4, but that phone’s glass back is as slippery as two eels screwing in a bucket of snot. It has one crack on it from magically sliding off of a counter, so I had to put ghost armor on the back.
I’ve NEVER had a phone that didn’t piss me off in one way or another. Thus, I wouldn’t let this be the deciding factor in your choice of platforms.
Edit: I forgot to add… it is a very bad idea to update to a new version of an OS the day it comes out. Better to wait at least a week, and let everyone else be the guinea pigs.
Edited 2014-10-21 00:38 UTC
Yet you could admit that iTune is the biggest headache of all
Not for me… I don’t even have it installed.
Not for me… I have it installed and it works great… especially the latest version.
Yeah I don’t really see why the software is so hated. I hardly need to use it, but when I do it works fine. Maybe it’s not the lightest weight software out there, but I’ve seen many media players that did less and were slower.
If you live in the U.S., consider using an MVNO instead! There’s a million to choose from, they use the same cell towers as the big service providers, often have no contracts, better customer service, and can be WAAAY cheaper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_mobile_virtual_n…
(I apologize if I sound preachy. I just love my MVNO.)
The reason everyone else went from image based fingerprint systems like Apples to a swipe based (“sliced image” type) is that the later is more secure. When swiping there is no residual fingerprint image that can be used to circumvent the security.
Apple’s solution doesn’t require you to complete the transaction with your finger print. It’s possible, but it’s not required.
Haha good one. You really think that the fact there might be a fingerprint on the TouchID sensor makes any difference on a device that you hold in your hand all day long and is covered in your fingerprints? Funny stuff.
Though I’m a technophile, my preference for open tech keeps me from being terribly enthused about an Apple-specific payment system, elegant though it is. I do like that Apple doesn’t have access to the transactions, as I understand Google would via Android NFC payments, and the tokenization approach that doesn’t enter my debit card numbers into the big box computer systems for (apparently) easy access by hackers.
Of course, I get similar benefits and convenience snapping a QR code in Mycelium and paying with bitcoin where available, and avoiding bank fees entirely (I do usually pay a much smaller tip to the miners to add the transaction to the blockchain, of course). I would love to see bitcoin follow the same trajectory as the Internet did in dominating proprietary network solutions such as AOL back in the day – AOL was similarly more convenient, but the Internet’s openness proved to be irresistible to innovators. May history repeat itself.
Of course, I’d be happy if my spell checker would just stop flagging bitcoin as a mispelled word!
Luckily Apple Pay uses the standard NFC terminals so it’s not like there is really any downside to the payment system for the non-apple using public. Those terminals will be required anyway to enable NFC credit cards.
Have you seen the latest news about the Chinese government attacking iCloud?
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/22/apple-warns-of-ne… The Guardian