With the triple promise of “easy, secure, private,” Apple announced Apple Pay, a mobile payment system that takes advantage of the Touch ID sensor in the iPhone 6 and also works in the forthcoming Apple Watch. With Apple’s market clout behind it, Apple Pay could be the nudge the payment industry needs to move beyond today’s insecure credit card system.

 

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

With the triple promise of “easy, secure, private,” Apple announced Apple Pay, a mobile payment system that takes advantage of the Touch ID sensor in the iPhone 6 and also works in the forthcoming Apple Watch. With Apple’s market clout behind it, Apple Pay could be the nudge the payment industry needs to move beyond today’s insecure credit card system.

 

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Tim Bray, A Word on NFC:

There is a large and in­ter­est­ing class of prob­lems where push­ing bits across nar­row gaps is use­ful. For a sub­set, re­quir­ing ac­tu­al phys­i­cal in­ti­ma­cy is a must-have; for the rest, it’s not a prob­lem. So here’s hop­ing Ap­ple pub­lish­es a sen­si­ble API in iOS.nex­t.

Det grekiska parlamentet har antagit en ny hårdare antirasistisk lag som också gör det kriminellt att förneka förintelsen.

Det grekiska parlamentet har antagit en ny hårdare antirasistisk lag som också gör det kriminellt att förneka förintelsen.

Folkpartiets ledare Jan Björklund vill införa en ny värnplikt för både unga män och kvinnor. Tidigare under valrörelsen sade han att han ”inte utesluter” att värnplikten behöver återinföras. Men nu skärper han alltså tonen.

Folkpartiets ledare Jan Björklund vill införa en ny värnplikt för både unga män och kvinnor. Tidigare under valrörelsen sade han att han ”inte utesluter” att värnplikten behöver återinföras. Men nu skärper han alltså tonen.

FP-ledaren Jan Björklund var först ut i TV4:s direktsända utfrågning av Alliansens fyra partiledare. Efter en inledande fråga om romernas situation gled diskussionen snabbt över till skolan.

FP-ledaren Jan Björklund var först ut i TV4:s direktsända utfrågning av Alliansens fyra partiledare. Efter en inledande fråga om romernas situation gled diskussionen snabbt över till skolan.

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC has a lengthy investigative report about China's efforts to create and expand artificial islands in the South China Sea. They've been going to coral reefs and atolls, dredging the bottom for material, and dumping it on top of the reef to create new land. On at least one of the new islands, China will build an air base large enough for fighter jets to use. This highlights one of China's main reasons for constructing these islands: sovereignty and strategic control of the surrounding area. "The U.S. government does not acknowledge China's claim, and the U.S. Pacific fleet continues to sail regularly through the South China Sea. But the Chinese navy is beginning to grow more assertive. In December 2013 China sailed its brand new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, into the South China Sea for the first time. Shadowing it, at about 30 nautical miles, came the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Cowpens. A Chinese amphibious assault ship approached and ordered it to leave the area. The commander of the Cowpens refused, saying he was sailing in 'international waters.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC has a lengthy investigative report about China's efforts to create and expand artificial islands in the South China Sea. They've been going to coral reefs and atolls, dredging the bottom for material, and dumping it on top of the reef to create new land. On at least one of the new islands, China will build an air base large enough for fighter jets to use. This highlights one of China's main reasons for constructing these islands: sovereignty and strategic control of the surrounding area. "The U.S. government does not acknowledge China's claim, and the U.S. Pacific fleet continues to sail regularly through the South China Sea. But the Chinese navy is beginning to grow more assertive. In December 2013 China sailed its brand new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, into the South China Sea for the first time. Shadowing it, at about 30 nautical miles, came the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Cowpens. A Chinese amphibious assault ship approached and ordered it to leave the area. The commander of the Cowpens refused, saying he was sailing in 'international waters.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Off the top of my head, before thinking things through…

I want the watch. I want to write software for the watch. I want the watch. Want.

I think I’ll go for the super-big iPhone. I’m a sucker for screen real estate. Might as well go all the way. (But I might change my mind once I hold one in real life.)

At this point, Apple could, and should, slow down a little. Yearly OS X and iOS releases mean a lot of work for developers. Consider not just the usual updates we need to do — now we have watches and extensions and handoff and a new language. Wonderful things, but also a ton of extra work.

My favorite OS X release ever was 10.6 (Snow Leopard) — that was the year Apple didn’t add any features (except for some very cool developer features such as blocks). Apple fixed a ton of bugs and made everything faster. My hope is that Mac OS X 10.11 and iOS 9 are Snow-Leopard-like releases. If they switched to a longer interval between releases, I would not complain.

I like U2. I thought they were old and tired by the time I was in college (1986). (Their last good album was War, said me.) But now I realize that the young me was a jerk. U2 was and is a great band.

Every time anyone said “intimate” during the event I cringed a little.

I think health and fitness are massively important (doi) and I look forward to these features. But my liberal heart breaks every time I think about how much easier is it for the affluent to be healthy and fit than for people who can’t afford fancy watches. But that’s not a reason not do it. And I’ll be happy to take advantage of those features.

I actually missed huge chunks of the video. I’ll watch it later tonight once it’s available.

I’m massively worried that Xcode 6 and iOS 8 are not really ready for release. But then I have this same worry every time. I’m glad it’s not my job to make that call. Are the bugs fixed?

I hope bars get in on Apple pay.

I want the watch. Waaaaant.

Ebolaepidemin har exploderat i Liberia och tusentals nya fall väntas de närmaste tre veckorna, varnar WHO. ”Vi för nu ett krig mot viruset”, sade WHO-läkaren Sylvie Briand på tisdagen.