Apple Pay mobile payments service to launch on Monday
Apple is rolling out its mobile payments service Apple Pay on Monday, CEO Tim Cook announced at an event on Thursday. He said enthusiasm for the service has been huge, with 500 new banks partnering with Apple since the service was announced last month."It's easy, it's secure and yes, it's a private way to pay for things," Cook said at the event in Cupertino, Calif., Thursday. "We think that it is going to be profound." Apple unveiled Apple Pay with the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in September. The company has partnered with Visa, Mastercard and American Express, along with several issuing banks, to allow iPhone users to store their credit card accounts. Apple Pay will be available in 220,000 US merchant locations that already take mobile payments via the NFC chip's short-range, secure wireless capabilities. Previously, Apple announced that it's also working with many retailers -- including Macy's, Walgreens, Duane Reade, Staples, Subway, McDonald's, Disney and Whole Foods, among others -- to bring Apple Pay to physical store locations. McDonald's is even adding Apple Pay to the drive-through, Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet software and services, said last month. Disney is expected to have all of its retail locations outfitted with Apple Pay by Christmas. Mobile payments is a natural progression for Apple. The company already lets hundreds of millions of users -- about 800 million, as of Apple's earnings in April -- buy music, books and apps through an iTunes account linked to their credit cards. Expanding this payment process into a digital wallet is a feasible shift for the company. Related LinksApple takes NFC mainstream on iPhone 6; Apple Watch with Apple PayHello, Apple Pay, good-bye credit cards? All bets are offApple Pay to launch October, streamlines online and retail transactions with iPhone 6 handsetsGet to know Apple Pay, the successor to your wallet Cook said last month that Apple's vision is to replace a wallet, and more specifically to replace antiquated, plastic credit cards. Cook noted that there are more than 200 million credit card and debit card transactions processed per day in the US with consumers spending more than $12 billion every day between credit cards and debit cards. The service works by allowing users to simply tap their iPhone devices to payment terminals and then touch their devices' fingerprint sensors to purchase items. Both the devices and the terminals must have near-field communication (NFC) chips that store payment credentials -- something that limits the service to the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones. But Apple Pay has another component that doesn't require an NFC chip but does need the company's TouchID. People now can pay for items in apps using a single touch on their device's fingerprint sensor, something that removes time and the hassle of entering credit card and address information over and over. Previously, Apple allowed consumers to use the fingerprint sensor to quickly buy content just from its iTunes, App and iBooks stores. Apple also announced Thursday that it was adding Touch ID to its iPads. Cue previously said that Apple Pay will be integrated with several apps, including the car service Uber; a food app from Panera; Major League Baseball's app, which will allow you to order tickets from your phone; and Open Table, which will allow you to pay your bill from your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. Apple will also be making an application programming interface available in iOS 8 to allow other app developers to integrate Apple Pay into their applications.This content is rated TV-MA, and is for viewers 18 years or older. Are you of age?YesNoSorry, you are not old enough to view this content.Play Jim McCarthy, Visa's vice president of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, called these in-app purchase options the real "game changer" despite the buzz around NFC technology. This will allow developers to connect with Apple Pay for a myriad of purposes, and create new services that people haven't imagined possible, he told a group of journalists on Wednesday before Apple's event. That said, McCarthy did not downplay the value of using Apple Pay in the physical world, particularly through connected devices. This includes Apple's Apple Watch, which was also unveiled last month. The watch will sync with an iPhone to receive the same security credentials as the handset. The wearer can then leave the phone behind and purchase items simply using the watch, which will be matched to the wearer's heartbeat. Once the watch is removed, the device will unlink from the phone as a security measure. Even further down the line, McCarthy can imagine a connected car that will allow the driver to pay for gas from inside the car through Apple Pay. Mobile payments has been promised for a long time but so far has struggled to gain much traction. The goal with offerings like Google Wallet was that people could get rid of all their credit cards, loyalty cards and coupons that filled their wallets and instead store and access them from their mobile phones. While the idea itself sounded great, a year after launch Google Wallet still only worked with one credit card and bank combination. And it only worked on one wireless network: Sprint. It's not surprising that Apple has waited until now to introduce the payments service. The company tends to stay away from new technologies until it has had a chance to smooth out the kinks. Typically, Google Wallet and other offerings have relied on hardware-based short-range wireless technology known as near -field communication, or NFC. Using this technology, consumers could load credit card information into an Android app that stored the information in a secure element that was part of the NFC chip, and then, using the short-range wireless technology, it transmitted the payment information from the phone to the sales terminal with a simple tap. The problem with NFC, however, was that both mobile devices and the point-of-sale processing terminal needed the same hardware. But that's changing, with merchants required to switch out machines to include new security technology introduced by the credit card industry. It's not surprising that Apple would see potential not just in payments but in the mobile payments market specifically. According to Gartner, the global market for mobile payments is forecast to be about $720 billion worth of transactions by 2017. This is up from about $235 billion last year.
LockerSync 3.0 secures your music online
LockerSync 3.0 secures your music online
The appeal of a system like MP3tunes and LockerSync, is that gives computer-hopping digital music junkies a means to sync all their scattered DRM-free music to one central, secure, online locker. Not only can all your computers (work, home, laptop) upload to this online storage locker, but they can download from it as well, ensuring that every computer in your life can automatically refresh from one central music database. As someone who often laments the disconnect between the music collection on my work computer and the music collection on my home computer, LockerSync is one of the better solutions I've come across that can consolidate my music in one place. Trouble is, I just don't know if the problem of dislocated music libraries bothers me enough to install the LockerSync upload/download utility on all my computers. For serious music junkies with digital music haphazardly spread across multiple computers, LockerSync might be just the answer. Pick and choose what you want uploaded to your music locker, or just upload everything you've got.To get started with the MP3tunes LockerSync system, you'll first need to download the LockerSync utility in order to upload and download files back and forth to your computer. Once up and running, you can use the utility to upload your entire music library, or a specific artist, album, song, or music folder. LockerSync supports MP3, WMA, M4A, and OGG audio files. Album artwork will upload as well, so long as you already have album artwork associated with your tracks. Even without the artwork, once you have music uploaded you can use an MP3tunes feature called 'Tune Up' to scan the All Music Guide (AMG) database to dress up your naked files. After uploading is completed, its a good idea to go to the Sync Schedule tab determine how often the LockerSync utility checks your hard drive for new music to upload. You can schedule the sync to happen every day, or just once or twice a week. If you don't schedule an automatic sync, the point of the whole system sort of falls apart. Beyond keeping your music collection synced across all the computers in your life, another benefit of the MP3tunes LockerSync system is the ability to stream your online music library using a browser-based jukebox application. When users log into their locker, their music collection is presented to them in an iTunes-like Web application. Unlike feature-limited Web radio jukeboxes such as Pandora, or Slacker, the music in your locker is yours to do with as you please--it can be deleted, repeated, shuffled, and dropped into playlists. The audio-streaming quality pumped out of the jukebox is determined by your connection speed, however, you can manually lock the audio streaming quality to a specific setting in order to keep it from eating up too much bandwidth. Accessing and streaming your uploaded music collection may have limited appeal, but it could be a good solution for those wage slaves who aren't allowed to store music on the company computer.If you're wondering what the financial motivation is for MP3tunes to provide this free service, their hope is to lure you into upgrading to their Premium Locker service. For $40 a year, the premium service enables users to directly stream music to net-connected devices, including laptops, mobile phones, and home stereos.Once your music is uploaded, the MP3tunes locker Web application acts as a full-featured jukebox you can access on any device with an Internet connection. The ability to view your music's album artwork is crippled until you upgrade to the premium account.
The appeal of a system like MP3tunes and LockerSync, is that gives computer-hopping digital music junkies a means to sync all their scattered DRM-free music to one central, secure, online locker. Not only can all your computers (work, home, laptop) upload to this online storage locker, but they can download from it as well, ensuring that every computer in your life can automatically refresh from one central music database. As someone who often laments the disconnect between the music collection on my work computer and the music collection on my home computer, LockerSync is one of the better solutions I've come across that can consolidate my music in one place. Trouble is, I just don't know if the problem of dislocated music libraries bothers me enough to install the LockerSync upload/download utility on all my computers. For serious music junkies with digital music haphazardly spread across multiple computers, LockerSync might be just the answer. Pick and choose what you want uploaded to your music locker, or just upload everything you've got.To get started with the MP3tunes LockerSync system, you'll first need to download the LockerSync utility in order to upload and download files back and forth to your computer. Once up and running, you can use the utility to upload your entire music library, or a specific artist, album, song, or music folder. LockerSync supports MP3, WMA, M4A, and OGG audio files. Album artwork will upload as well, so long as you already have album artwork associated with your tracks. Even without the artwork, once you have music uploaded you can use an MP3tunes feature called 'Tune Up' to scan the All Music Guide (AMG) database to dress up your naked files. After uploading is completed, its a good idea to go to the Sync Schedule tab determine how often the LockerSync utility checks your hard drive for new music to upload. You can schedule the sync to happen every day, or just once or twice a week. If you don't schedule an automatic sync, the point of the whole system sort of falls apart. Beyond keeping your music collection synced across all the computers in your life, another benefit of the MP3tunes LockerSync system is the ability to stream your online music library using a browser-based jukebox application. When users log into their locker, their music collection is presented to them in an iTunes-like Web application. Unlike feature-limited Web radio jukeboxes such as Pandora, or Slacker, the music in your locker is yours to do with as you please--it can be deleted, repeated, shuffled, and dropped into playlists. The audio-streaming quality pumped out of the jukebox is determined by your connection speed, however, you can manually lock the audio streaming quality to a specific setting in order to keep it from eating up too much bandwidth. Accessing and streaming your uploaded music collection may have limited appeal, but it could be a good solution for those wage slaves who aren't allowed to store music on the company computer.If you're wondering what the financial motivation is for MP3tunes to provide this free service, their hope is to lure you into upgrading to their Premium Locker service. For $40 a year, the premium service enables users to directly stream music to net-connected devices, including laptops, mobile phones, and home stereos.Once your music is uploaded, the MP3tunes locker Web application acts as a full-featured jukebox you can access on any device with an Internet connection. The ability to view your music's album artwork is crippled until you upgrade to the premium account.
Apple's Beats, Bose settle patent spat over noise-canceling tech
Apple's Beats, Bose settle patent spat over noise-canceling tech
Bose and Apple's Beats have agreed to settle a patent lawsuit related to noise-canceling headphones that was filed by Bose in July. In a court filing in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, attorneys for the companies said "they have settled their respective claims" and want to dismiss the case. Both parties will be responsible for their own costs, expenses and attorneys' fees, they said. The companies didn't disclose any information about the settlement.Apple declined to comment. A Bose spokeswoman said "the issue has been resolved, and terms aren't being disclosed." She declined to provide any further information. Headphone and speaker maker Bose filed suit against Beats in July, accusing the (at the time, soon-to-be) Apple companyof infringing five patents related to noise-canceling headphones. The accused products included the Beats Studio and Studio Wireless headphones, and Bose asked for financial damages and an injunction to ban the sale of infringing Beats products.Bose said in its complaint, lodged with the US District Court in Delaware and with the US International Trade Commission, that it had "suffered and will continue to suffer damages, in an amount yet to be determined, including due to loss of sales, profits, and potential sales that Bose would have made but for Beats' infringing acts."See alsoBose sues Beats over patents on noise-canceling headphonesApple may change Beats brand as it spins up music serviceBeats claims NFL players' DNA affected by headphone banColin Kaepernick: NFL fined me $10,000 for wearing Beats headphonesIt added that for almost 50 years, it has "made significant investmentin the research, development, engineering, and design of proprietarytechnologies" used in its products. Its current line of noise-cancelingheadphones, for instance, uses inventions protected by at least 22 USpatents and 14 pending patent applications.Apple, meanwhile, in May agreed to buy Beats for $3 billion, giving the electronics giant a popular headphone business and subscription streaming music service. The acquisition brought Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre to Apple's management team, and Apple said it would continue to use the Beats brand. Beats controls about 60 percent of the $1 billion premium headphone market, according to NPD Group, and it has proved popular with everyone from celebrities to tweens.The deal closed at the beginning of August, and Apple has started promoting the music service with current iTunes users and prominently featuring the headphones in its online store. However, the company may change the Beats brand for the music service, instead folding the streaming offering into its iTunes product. Meanwhile, Apple blog MacRumors on Friday reported that Apple planned to remove Bose products from its stores.Apple declined to comment about the report. Bose didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about the issue. The two companies' feud has spilled over to professional sports. The NFL, which has a deal with Bose, recently banned football players from wearing Beats headphones. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick revealed that he was fined $10,000 for wearing his pink Beats to last Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs.Beats flaunts gold version of Studio Wireless...See full gallery1 - 4 / 7NextPrev
Bose and Apple's Beats have agreed to settle a patent lawsuit related to noise-canceling headphones that was filed by Bose in July. In a court filing in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, attorneys for the companies said "they have settled their respective claims" and want to dismiss the case. Both parties will be responsible for their own costs, expenses and attorneys' fees, they said. The companies didn't disclose any information about the settlement.Apple declined to comment. A Bose spokeswoman said "the issue has been resolved, and terms aren't being disclosed." She declined to provide any further information. Headphone and speaker maker Bose filed suit against Beats in July, accusing the (at the time, soon-to-be) Apple companyof infringing five patents related to noise-canceling headphones. The accused products included the Beats Studio and Studio Wireless headphones, and Bose asked for financial damages and an injunction to ban the sale of infringing Beats products.Bose said in its complaint, lodged with the US District Court in Delaware and with the US International Trade Commission, that it had "suffered and will continue to suffer damages, in an amount yet to be determined, including due to loss of sales, profits, and potential sales that Bose would have made but for Beats' infringing acts."See alsoBose sues Beats over patents on noise-canceling headphonesApple may change Beats brand as it spins up music serviceBeats claims NFL players' DNA affected by headphone banColin Kaepernick: NFL fined me $10,000 for wearing Beats headphonesIt added that for almost 50 years, it has "made significant investmentin the research, development, engineering, and design of proprietarytechnologies" used in its products. Its current line of noise-cancelingheadphones, for instance, uses inventions protected by at least 22 USpatents and 14 pending patent applications.Apple, meanwhile, in May agreed to buy Beats for $3 billion, giving the electronics giant a popular headphone business and subscription streaming music service. The acquisition brought Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre to Apple's management team, and Apple said it would continue to use the Beats brand. Beats controls about 60 percent of the $1 billion premium headphone market, according to NPD Group, and it has proved popular with everyone from celebrities to tweens.The deal closed at the beginning of August, and Apple has started promoting the music service with current iTunes users and prominently featuring the headphones in its online store. However, the company may change the Beats brand for the music service, instead folding the streaming offering into its iTunes product. Meanwhile, Apple blog MacRumors on Friday reported that Apple planned to remove Bose products from its stores.Apple declined to comment about the report. Bose didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about the issue. The two companies' feud has spilled over to professional sports. The NFL, which has a deal with Bose, recently banned football players from wearing Beats headphones. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick revealed that he was fined $10,000 for wearing his pink Beats to last Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs.Beats flaunts gold version of Studio Wireless...See full gallery1 - 4 / 7NextPrev
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