Apple Pay

If Apple’s most recent hardware events were about going bigger (larger iPhones, a jumbo iPad, and a new Apple TV), Apple’s March 21st event is about going smaller. Apple yesterday officially sent invites to its much-anticipated event to be held at its Cupertino campus with the tagline “Let us loop you in.” The event, which was originally internally scheduled for a week earlier, will focus on Apple’s new 4-inch iPhone SE, a smaller, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and new Apple Watch bands. The company will likely also reveal the final versions of iOS 9.3, tvOS 9.2, watchOS 2.2, OS X 10.11.4, and an iTunes update. We’ve reported nearly the entirety of what’s expected to come at the event, so read on for a full roundup of everything we’re likely to see. (Updated March 18th with the latest information):

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If you’ve been wanting to pay for your gas at ExxonMobile stations using Apple Pay, the good news is that you now can, reports CNET.

Apple Pay went live Tuesday in more than 6,000 Exxon and Mobil-branded gas stations across 46 US states. The service will be added to about 2,000 more stores by mid-year and will be available in nearly all of the company’s 10,000 locations by the end of 2016.

But if you were expecting to just wave your iPhone or Apple Watch at a reader on the pump, that’s not quite how it works …

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Since launching in China two weeks ago and adding 3 million users in just two days, Apple Pay is continuing its expansion across the United States as well. The addition of Mainland China started with another dozen participating banks, and today another 27 banks have joined the 1,000+ partners in the US. These are the latest:

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Apple Pay looks to have been a big hit in China, Internet Retailer reporting that three million bank cards were activated in the first two days of the launch. Apple had been expecting big numbers, using a gradual rollout of the service on day one, something not well communicated to cardholders.

In the first two days after the Feb. 18 launch, 3 million consumers linked their bank cards to Apple Pay according to China Merchants Bank, one of 19 Chinese banks involved in the rollout.

It’s an impressive number, but with card processor UnionPay having a monopoly on card processing, a single deal by Apple meant the service is available to a staggering total of 5B cards …

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There have been many attempts at mobile wallet products over the years, from letting your phone simulate a swipe of your magnetic strip through NFC-based replication of contactless cards to the laughable CurrentC that relies on scanned QR codes. Over on Android phones, there’s Google Wallet, Android Pay and Samsung Pay – along with a whole slew of smaller competitors.

But for iPhone users, Apple Pay is the undisputed champion. Security is unrivalled. Your card details are never stored at all, replaced with a unique Device Account Number. That number is stored in the Secure Enclave. And a one-time code is generated for every single transaction.

Convenience too is maximized. iPhone users need only hold out their iPhone with their thumb or finger on the Touch ID button, while Apple Watch owners simply raise their wrist to the reader. I didn’t think there was any way to improve on it, but Google may be about to prove me wrong with its Hands Free service …

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Following reports that Apple Pay would be launching in France before the end of this year, it now looks like the service could be coming to a handful of other countries, as well. According to a MasterCard roadmap received by 9to5Mac from an anonymous unproven source, Apple Pay could potentially launch with support from at least MasterCard in Japan, Singapore, Brazil, and Hong Kong by the end of this year. The document also shows that Apple Pay in Canada could gain the support of MasterCard by the end of the year, as well. Currently Apple Pay in Canada is only supported on American Express cards.

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I said last summer in my Apple Watch Diary series that Apple Pay arriving in the UK was the tipping point for me in transforming the Watch from a useful device into something I was reluctant to be without. That was confirmed last week when a fraud attempt left me without Apple Pay for a couple of days.

I received a text from my bank asking me to call them as they suspected my card had been compromised. I call them to find that they’d blocked an attempt to use my debit card for a £1200 ($1700) online transaction. As it was for a gadget purchase, I was impressed that they caught it – though perhaps it was the surprise at a large purchase from a non-fruity company …

Having confirmed that I didn’t make the transaction, they put a stop on my card and said they’d send a new one out within a few days. Interestingly, the UK seems to lack one Apple Pay feature the US has … 
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In case you missed Apple’s fight with the FBI this week, the launch of Apple in China, or any of the other big Apple stories we’ve covered, below we’ve rounded up this week’s top stories and recommended reading to get you up to date over the weekend. Enjoy. 
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Update: Apple has since informed us that the comment by a local representative was not an official statement and has been mistranslated from the Chinese by Caixan. The correct information is that the ability to add cards was being made available on a rolling basis throughout the day. 

With many Chinese iPhone owners reporting they they are unable to register for Apple Pay, an Apple spokesman representative has said the issues are due to too many people trying to sign-up a planned gradual rollout throughout the day. Mashable reports that 38 million bank cards had been linked to Apple Pay by 5pm on launch day, 10M of them registered within the first hour.

Chinese site Caixin cited one example.

“It kept telling me the phone ‘cannot connect to Apple Pay’ or the verification for the card is not available when I was linking a bankcard,” said Duan Ge, a 31-year-old employee of a film production company. Duan said he managed to link his debit card after about 30 minutes of trying, but later when he tried to register another credit card, he “could not even open the app.”

Some had feared that Apple might face an uphill battle in persuading Chinese nationals to use the service, for two reasons …

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After a number of reports in recent months regarding Apple’s preparations to launch its Apple Pay payments service in China, the company today announced the service is now available to customers in the country.

The announcement comes via Apple’s news site for developers and notes that apps and goods in the country can now accept the Apple Pay payments service using supported credit and debit cards. 

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While China is expected to get Apple Pay anytime now, dozens of additional banks and credit unions across the United States have joined in supporting Apple’s mobile payment service. More than 40 new banks have joined the list of Apple Pay partners, which already totals to over 1,000 across the US and 15 across the UK. These are the latest additions:

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Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has confirmed earlier reports that Apple Pay would launch in China this week, social media posts stating that its service will go live on Thursday 18 February. A further 18 lenders are signed up to the service, Reuters reporting that two of them – China Guangfa Bank Co and China Construction Bank Corp – will launch on the same day as ICBC.

Apple has been working on bringing its mobile payment service to China for some time, creating a Shanghai-based company to manage the rollout back in September of last year, with this month long rumored to be the target launch date. China will be the fifth country to go live, after the USA, UK, Canada and Australia.

As Reuters notes, however, Apple may face something of an uphill battle in signing up users in China …

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A new report French website iGen indicates that France could be seeing an Apple Pay announcement in as early as the first half of this year. While Apple announced the UnionPay partnership for China two months ago, there has yet to be any signs that other additional countries outside the US and UK (aside from Australia and Canada’s American Express arrangement) would be seeing Apple Pay any time soon. Other reports believe that China could be seeing Apple Pay, which is promised to go live in early 2016, activated as soon as this Thursday at 5 AM (Beijing time).

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Welcome to the latest edition of Jeremy’s 5, my latest roundup of 5 interesting little things that aren’t big enough for full articles, but are still worth sharing with you.

This week, I’m sharing some thoughts on Just Mobile’s latest iPhone and Apple Watch docks, iOS’s mysterious Error 53, experiences integrating Apple products into a small business, and Apple Pay…

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With Apple Pay continuing its ongoing rollout across U.S. banks and credit unions, Apple’s mobile payment service has added over 30 new partners. Here is the full list of new Apple Pay banks:

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We learned this week that Apple Pay has reached a new milestone with 2 million locations accepting the iPhone and Apple Watch-based mobile wallet. This an impressive climb for the service that launched with just over 220,000 locations on board in fall 2014, but what does it look like in everyday use and what’s next for Apple Pay?

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Bloomberg reports today that Apple’s mobile payments solution Apple Pay is now supported at 2 million locations around the world. In addition to revealing that 2 million locations now support the service, the report also says that Chick-Fil-A, Crate & Barrel, and Au Bon Pain will also start rolling out support for the service soon.

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