Obama administration ENDORSES Apple Pay during Tim Cook's White House LOVE-IN

U.S. President Barack Obama has backed Apple Pay – Cupertino's new payment system – after iThing chief Tim Cook was given a 15-minute-long ad spot at the White House on Friday. That endorsement means that the government will accept Apple Pay transactions for citzens who have federal-payment cards and are, for example, claiming …

[gnasher729]

It would be more honest if you had added that double payments were the fault of one credit card company (ApplePay told them to make a payment, but they paid twice), and that the two companies disabling Apple Pay did this because they joined a consortium that is developing its own ridiculously complicated payment system that gives the merchant direct access to the customer's bank account (which in my opinion is totally unacceptable), and allows them to gather and analyse all information about payments the customer makes using this system. So all in all a system that no customer would want. The exact opposite of what Apple is doing, where they have the major selling point that nobody knows what you are doing with your money.

Now if I had just bought an iPhone 6, had set up Apple Pay, and I found out that a company doesn't just not support Apple Pay, but deliberately made changes to their system to stop Apple Pay from working, I'd be annoyed in a major way. I don't think their decision is good for their sales. At the moment this is probably not a problem yet, but the percentage of customers owning an Apple Pay capable phone, and the percentage among those who use Apple Pay, will be growing and eventually it will hurt them. Give it a year or two, and their systems will be back working.

[phil dude]

paypal...

Paypal does exactly that. Which is why I had the credit union create a "one-way" account, so it is a limited "theft bucket" for a corporation.

I am not the paranoid sort, but sometimes the "in car remote ranting" about the govt using the bank to legally "sequester" the publics money, does not look too fanciful.

But hypothetically, a tax paying non-fruit phone owner, how does the govt give them the same benefit?

P.

[SuccessCase]

It would be more honest if The Register had reported the real news, that Tim Cook did anything but endorse Obama's agenda. He declined politely I'd course, but quite firmly. He stated how history has taught that to compromise personal privacy even a bit is a bad move. He pointedly referred to how the right to personal privacy trumps the desire for government to know. But of course, this is the Register writing about Apple, so we get anything than objective reporting.

[Ian Michael Gumby]

So how secure is NFC payments?

How easy is it for scammers to walk along with a backpack full of tech gear reading your NFC and Blink cards?

Think about it.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can already hear the republicans screaming...

ObamaPay !

[Richard Jones 1]

Less Than No Interest

If someone came along and told me to buy some hopelessly expensive toy to be able to go out a buy something else I would be pretty hacked off with them.

If there was some point to all this hype I might try to become interested. I am sorry but to me it is a problem not a solution.

To start with I hate touch phones, I hate phones that go flat in less than a couple of days, ideally not for 5~7 days. My mobile phone stays untouched inside an inside pocket, though it is activated via a headset and I already have a range of payment methods that work without batteries.

Can someone please explain what the point of this idea could be? So far as a payment system it ranks right up there alongside cow pats, not very nice to handle but get the job done in some locations. At least they do not require recharging at regular intervals though they do make lousy, if not buggy phone calls.

[James 100]

Re: Less Than No Interest

The situation is rather different for people who aren't like you, of course; nobody is suggesting that you buy an iPhone in order to pay for things, but that those of us who do have them can use them instead of carrying and using a separate piece of plastic.

I was pretty sceptical about the touchscreen at first, but it actually works a hell of a lot better than any of the physical keypad phones I've tried so far. It's easy to have great battery life on a device with no functionality, but since my main use for my mobile is email and web access, a voice+SMS only phone would be almost completely worthless to me even if it had a year-long battery life: it doesn't do what I actually want a device for!

FWIW, it seems my usage last month consisted of 3 outgoing text messages and a single minute of voice call, probably to open the car park barrier at work; all my other usage was data. If I lost the ability to make or receive voice calls, I probably wouldn't even notice for a week or more.

Looking at the post above, I'm given a mental image of a deaf person baffled by the popularity of MP3 players...

[Ian 55]

Re: Less Than No Interest

MP3 players are a dying breed, of course.

Neither of us, I suspect, are teenagers. They use SMS and voice far more than we do.

What I find bonkers is the obsession with shaving a millimetre off the thickness of a phone at the expense of its battery life.

[phil dude]

Re: Less Than No Interest

Yes, Swype (TM) is very good on a touchscreen.

Oh , wait a minute, does Apple allow Swype?

P.

[dB.in.Oz]

Re: Less Than No Interest

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/swype/id916365675?mt=8

dB

[phil dude]

Re: Less Than No Interest

ahh my apologies for forcing the exercise of the "downvote" limb...

I have never seen an iPhone user ACTUALLY use swype in the wild.

Except of course, when I give them my phone to enter their details....

P.

[Richard Jones 1]

Re: Less Than No Interest

@James 100, One point, deaf people have trouble with voice calls and those I have known deal with texts or other written methods.

I do have a touch phone, I can see it in the rack of my desk, totally useless. I have tried to use the deadbeat over the last two years. My demand for data while out is zero. E-mail while out is useless, too slow and fumble filled, have you tried it while dealing with dog walking?

When I am out and about it is to do something. Sure I could load up the device with 'music', but why? I have no time to listen while busy.

If I need 'entertainment' the car radio does what I need.

So perhaps touch phones maybe be great for all those who have to walk about with a pocket computer hoping no one calls them, but for some of us roaming data is a liability not an asset.

Apart from the PPI parasites, my voice calls are direct NOW emergencies due to family health and support issues. A dead battery just does not cut it when that happens. E-mail and text are not NOW services so are for me they would be a useless liability.

So, I too have a mental image of someone cut off from the real world living in a bubble of portable sound walls, contactable only via a few random spikes of data that may penetrate your defensive shield.

Still, since you did nothing to show me the 'error of my ways' at least you did see that buying a madly expensive device to augment what already meets all my needs has no point FOR ME.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Less Than No Interest

Who is telling you to buy an iPhone "to be able to go out and buy something"? Apple Pay uses the EMV standard, so anywhere it works an EMV compliant credit/debit card (which will be all of them before long) will also work, and vice versa.

Apple Pay is neither a problem nor a solution, just another option. No one is trying to force it on you!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Less Than No Interest

I think we can safely say that this isn't catering to you then, is it?

You may be content to stay with your Nokia 3210, but there are quite a few people that would like to use their mobiles to pay for things. Stop implying people are stupid for wanting to use this sort of thing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Veblen goods?

People claiming benefits can afford iPhones?

Are the benefits ridiculously generous?

Do they have alternative means of undeclared income?

Are iPhones cheap?

Oh well, I guess if a benefit-claiming crack dealer can afford one, they can't be all that exclusive these days.

[BigFire]

Re: Veblen goods?

It's the Obamaphone baby. Obama will pay my mortgage.

[Murray C Park]

People claiming benefits may have been able to afford iPhones before their circumstances changed. They may also own houses, cars and big screen TVs too.

[sisk]

As if I needed another reason not to like the current administration...

[Andrew Meredith]

NFC Unsafe

I remember reading about several different demonstration hacks against the NFC function on Droid phones. I don't remember if any of them involved the payment function, but if the assumed "security" of requiring close proximity to work is bogus, then I do wonder how safe these pay-by-bonk systems involving NFC really are.