iPhone 6 will make you fork over with Apple Pay if you want to BONK NFC has struggled to get off the ground as a major smartphone feature. And despite Apple finally deciding to include it in the upcoming Apple Watch and iPhone 6, it doesn't sound like Cupertino will be doing the tech any real favor – because third-party app developers won't be able to access it. Citing an Apple spokesperson, …
No - it's actually pretty normal for Apple. You do know that they have "header police" that manage what goes into header files, the naming of functions and variables, and a lot more. They are very, very picky.
And even more so with changes to an interface after it has been publicly "released" and made available to developers. That's why some APIs are known but still not permitted for use on iPhones. If your app uses a "private" API then it will be rejected.
It's not spin, it's exactly what they've done with TouchID and other features before. As the sole user of this new API, they can make whatever changes they want and not worry about killing third-party apps. Once they've released the API, they have to support it, pretty much forever, so it makes sense to get it right before releasing it.
Its spin. Apple still dont support Bluetooth profiles yet, only the ones that suit apple, not what suits users.
If you want good Bluetooth support, android is your only choice (windows phone is z bugfest of bluetooth horrors even on the limited profiles it supports)
Nfc waa put in the iphone purely to make money for apple, not so you can pair your speaker.
Hmm, I wonder if you have a WinPhone to test that statement on, I do.
I use BT all the time to play music via A2DP over headphones.
It happily lets me connect two devices, one for music and one for hands free, correctly routing the sound and the commands (this is not such a strange use case if you have BT as a music system in your car).
It happily allows music track control via a headset, voice commands via the car headset and even works when I connect it to a laptop whose sound is connected on to a decent audio system. Windows then pops up an AV control dialog which also works.
I regularly transfer files to and from other phones using NFC/BT or just BT, this also works well and seems to use BT4.0/1 features such as high speed too.
I have sent contact cards over BT also.
Still, not having looked at BT profiles lately I suppose there could be ones that I need, just not sure what they are. The ones I have seem far from bug-infested.
For payments at least, that last line reflects my own reason for objecting; anything the banks 'want' is usually far more for their benefit than for customers, and can on occasion bite back at those customers. Like the Natwest customers who had money taken via telephone banking in unauthorised transactions, for with Natwest refused to compensate. In some cases the customers claimed they hadn't even enabled the service.
I personally don't struggle to find way to pay in shops as it is with the methods available, and cash has the advantage that it's quick, impersonal where personal details are concerned, and for larger transactions the shop will waste more of my time with queueing than the extra 3 seconds it takes to get my card out and put it away.
The most stupid justification for NFC is that you might lose or be mugged for cash; fine. I'll be a hundred quid light, but thats as bad as it gets afterward.
What are you smoking, and can I have some?
Sign up a NEW contract and it may "only" cost you 299 - up front. Get it nicked a week later, trust me, your telco will not cough up a new one for "just" 299. And they may even screw you out of the insurance they sold you too, probably due to exposing it in public and making a display" or some other BS answer to wriggle out of their obligations and still sting you for a swift $900-1000 for somthing less capable than a laptop half it's price...
Whilst i agree about the whole "less capable than a laptop..." line i would love to see you take a laptop out of your pocket to answer a call!
It is the same for any top end phone - they all cost as much as, or more than, a very nice laptop and are all less useful to me in one way or another (can't run Visual Studio / SQL management studio on any of them)... But then i wouldn't try and carry my laptop in my pocket either...
Cheers
Hmmm, isn't that the point of Apple Pay? i.e. it has to work with other bits of kit that has been made by lots of different copmanies?
Secnario:-
Walk into store with iPhone 6/6+. Merchant has Brand 'X' Point of sale. As long as it is NFC enabled, it will work with apple Pay.
Walk into next store and use yopur iPhone on Brand 'Y' POS.
rinse and repeat.
I don't think that's how crApple Pay is meant to work. A non iDevice won't work on a crApple Pay reader. It may have a compatability mode that allows a regular chip on a card to work, but it will block an Android or other competing smart device.
The point is that native NFC payment works fine. Only crApple needs it's own dedicated payment system for fill it's own pockets.
The retailer's NFC card reader is standard, if the retailer needs a new card reader it's because they don't have card readers which deal with NFC at the moment.
While this means little change in Europe as iPhones will use the same terminals that you can already use for paying with contactless bank cards, it means wholesale card reader upgrades in the US which is expensive as NFC card readers have yet to be rolled out en masse. iPhones and contactless bank cards don't work in Walmart or Best Buy because they won't upgrade to NFC card readers, instead Walmart and Best Buy have their own mobile payment app called CurrentC which doesn't use NFC at all.
Apple came to a deal with retailers, maybe that deal included subsidising card reader upgrades in the US or maybe they just sold them stories of hoards of fanbois paying by bonk in their shops.
Apple's deal with the banks is if they're willing to have their cards registrable in Passbook and willing to pay Apple a commission of 0.15%. Apparently they view Passbook with Touch ID as secure enough to warrant such a high (in the banks' view) commission. I'm sure Apple's commission will be recovered by the banks by raising merchant fees anyway.
/IF/ you are inclined to use NFC for payments, then you have to trust someone not to be stealing your money while you're doing it. Personally, I'd be more inclined to trust a massive company to at least be making it as secure as possible, . The alternative is that you're placing your trust in some unknown 3rd party developer who's released a payment app for free, but for some reason, it also asks you to take a photo of your card and type in your social security number...
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