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Apple Pay

939 'Apple Pay' stories April 2013 - October 2019
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Apple Pay is Apple’s mobile payments solution that allows users to seamlessly use their phone to pay for purchases both in retail stores, apps, and the web. The service was first introduced in 2014 and has been expanding to additional countries ever since then.

The service works in retail stores by simply holding your iPhone over a compatible checkout terminal and authenticating the purchase via Touch ID, or your Apple Watch with no further authentication required once you have unlocked the Watch. It’ss compatible with all iPhones from 6/6 Plus and and beyond, and all versions of Apple Watch.

In apps, it works by pulling in your card information and seamlessly allowing you to checkout using that card information. This prevents you from having to manually enter your card information every time you want to make a purchase. In addition to working with all of the iPhone models previously mentioned, Apple Pay in apps also works on iPads from the iPad mini 3 and Air 2 and beyond. Apple Pay is supported on the Mac and on the web with iOS 10 and macOS Sierra and beyond.

In addition to working with debit and credit cards, Apple Pay also works with rewards cards and store cards. This means that you can add something like your Starbucks card, Walgreens Balance Rewards card, and more to the Wallet app to easily keep track of everything.

To set up Apple Pay on an iPhone, open the Wallet app on iOS 11 and tap the plus (+) icon in the top right corner to begin, then follow the prompts. To add a debit card to the Apple Watch, go to the Apple Watch app on iPhone and look for the Wallet & Apple Pay section, then Add Credit or Debit Card section.

Apple Pay is the dominant mobile payments solution, even forcing its biggest potential competitor to shutdown, and as the service continues to expand, it will only get better. View the full list of retailers and banks that support the service on Apple’s website

Apple Pay is available in the following countries (click the country name to see compatible banks):

Australia

China*

Hong Kong

Japan

Kazakhstan

New Zealand

Singapore

Taiwan

Belgium

Czech Republic

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Guernsey

Ireland

Isle of Man

Italy

Jersey

Monaco

Norway

Poland

Russia

San Marino

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Ukraine

United Kingdom

Vatican City

Brazil

Saudi Arabia

United Arab Emirates

Canada

The United States

Report: EU antitrust regulator enquiring about possible Apple Pay anticompetitive behavior

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Oct 16 2019 - 5:56 am PT
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Apple Pay Cash

Apple’s contactless payment service, Apple Pay, is apparently under scrutiny by the European Commission again. A report from MLex says that the EU is fielding comments from other companies in the payment space on Apple’s market behavior.

Specifically, the investigation covers topics like the prominence of Apple Pay when users set up an iPhone, like the “Set Up Now” notifications that pop up in the Settings app. Another possible issue is the fact that Apple does not let other NFC payment services integrate with the Wallet app, meaning Apple Pay has several exclusive integrations into iOS.


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Apple Pay comes to new banks in Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic [U]

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 15 2019 - 4:01 am PT
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Apple Pay Austria Germany Netherlands expansions

Update: Raifeissen Bank in the Czech Republic also today enabled Apple Pay on all their cards, including partner/branded creditcards.

Apple Pay today continues its European expansion, coming to new banks in Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands — some five years after the mobile wallet service first launched in the US.

Bunq expands today to Austria, its eighth European country after Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain…


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Apple Pay, Apple Watch, and that infamous U2 debacle turn 5 today

Avatar for Michael Potuck Sep 9 2019 - 4:01 pm PT
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Apple Watch Apple Pay Tim Cook U2's Bono finger tap

Today, September 9th marks the fifth anniversary since Apple Watch and Apple Pay were unveiled. It also happens to be the anniversary of when Apple loaded U2’s album Songs of Innocence onto all of its users iTunes accounts before releasing a tool a week later to let frustrated customers remove it (and of course, Tim Cook and Bono’s finger tap). Follow along for a look at how Apple’s payment platform and market-leading wearable have evolved over the years and where they’re heading next.


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Comment: Drawing attention to security is the greatest Apple Card benefit

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Aug 23 2019 - 6:17 am PT
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Apple Card benefits – it's actually all about Apple Pay

Whether the Apple Card benefits justify the hype has been a hotly-debated topic ever since the card was launched. Never before has a mainstream credit card attracted so much media attention and generated so much discussion.

There are those who have been as excited about receiving the card as you’d expect them to be about a new iPhone or Mac. And there are others saying the Apple Card really is nothing special…


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Apple Pay now rolling out to users in Slovakia, Portugal, and more

Avatar for Chance Miller Jun 25 2019 - 7:09 pm PT
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Apple Pay European countries: 7 more coming soon

Update: Apple Pay is also now live in Greece and Romania. As well as: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, and Slovenia.

As expected, Apple Pay is now rolling out to users in Slovakia and Portugal. This was first reported over the weekend, and the wait has been a long time coming for many users. Apple Pay is also expected to roll out to users in Greece over the coming hours.


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Apple Pay Octopus coming to Hong Kong in iOS 13, suggests Apple server code

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Jun 25 2019 - 4:18 am PT
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Apple Pay Octopus card support coming

Now-deleted code on an Apple server suggests that Apple Pay Octopus support is coming as part of iOS 13 – almost certainly with the Express Transit feature, meaning no authentication is needed.

The physical Octopus transit card is used by almost everyone in Hong Kong, thanks to a combination of convenience, automatic top-up and a rewards scheme …


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