Staples now accepting Apple Pay in its retail stores and mobile app

Major office supply retailer Staples began accepting Apple Pay payments at all of its retail stores in the US, according to MacRumors. The company announced in September that it would be supporting the payment system, but didn't offer a specific timeframe for its rollout.

"Our customers will love the convenience of Apple Pay, which will offer an easier, faster and secure way to check-out," Staple's Faisal Masud said. "This is the most recent example of our commitment to innovation that helps our customers make more happen with their business."

Full video of Apple VP Greg Joswiak’s Code Mobile interview now available

In October, Apple’s VP of iPhone marketing Greg Joswiak participated in an on-stage interview at Recode's inaugural Code/Mobile conference. During the 30-minute discussion, Joswiak talked about several topics including the iOS 8.0.1 debacle, Apple Pay and more.

Since Joswiak isn't on Apple's senior executive team, we don't get to see him talk very often, but he offers up some interesting information in this interview. We already covered some of the major highlights here, but now you can watch the whole thing on the video below.

Disable WhatsApp read receipts with this jailbreak tweak

WhatsApp recently introduced a new feature that automatically sends read receipts to the sender once the recipient has seen the message. Showing in the form of two blue check marks as seen in this screenshot above, this new feature could potentially raise privacy concerns for some users. If you don't want your contacts to know whether you've read their messages or not, there are a couple ways to disable WhatsApp read receipts.

You can now ‘Say Thanks’ with Facebook’s personalized video cards

Facebook on Wednesday introduced 'Say Thanks', a new service allowing its members to create and send personalized video cards to their friends and family on the service.

To make a video for a friend, just visit facebook.com/thanks. Upon choosing a friend, the service will generate a preview of your personalized video card. Limited customization features are available, allowing you to change a theme of the video< edit photos and posts that represent your friendship and write a personalized message.

Rdio lowers family subscription plans to $5 for each extra member

In a move designed to match Spotify, which last month launched all-new pricing scheme for family accounts, Rdio on Wednesday announced that up to four family members can be added to a single Rdio account at $5 per month per extra member.

Each additional Rdio listened on a Family Plan can stream more than 30 million songs and enjoy features like radio stations, You FM, playlists on a per-user basis and more.

The new pricing scheme for Rdio's Family Plans goes in effect across the globe starting today, said the firm.

YouTube unveils ad-free subscription service with background play, offline viewing and more

Google-owned YouTube on Wednesday announced a long-rumored service which lets you stream ad-free music, play tracks in the background through mobile apps for iOS/Android and on YouTube.com, mark individual music videos and other clips for offline playback and much more, in exchange for a flat monthly fee of ten bucks per month.

Dubbed YouTube Music Key, it's releasing in beta next week.

The service integrates with Google's existing subscription music service called Play Music (formerly Google Play All Access), which includes more than 30 million songs. If you'll be taking Music Key for a spin when it launches, Google will treat you to a promotional subscription fee of eight bucks per month.

Big fingers? ThickButtons enlarges keys you’ll most likely tap next

Lviv, Ukraine based custom software development company N-iX, founded by Andrew Pavliv, has created a nice keyboard for iPhones, iPads and iPods running iOS 8 through its spin-off firm.

Named ThickButtons, it helps big-fingered users type more efficiently by using patented technology which enlarges and highlights keys you'll most likely press next while shrinking the remaining ones to reduce the chance of making an error.

Such an input method arguably makes typing with one finger more accurate, especially on four-inch iPhones. The software doesn’t require additional training and doesn’t depend on dictionary.

ThickButtons is $1.99 in the App Store.

Apple Watch UI tweak Aeternum now available in Cydia

Aeternum, a jailbreak tweak that mimics the Apple Watch UI on iPhone is now available for download in Cydia. Developed by SpiritOfLogic, Aeternum has received Jeff's praises as he called it the best looking and best functioning Apple Watch UI-inspired tweak so far.

As highlighted in our recent preview, Aeternum comes with features you might expect from such a tweak. More specifically, it allows you to disable or enable the dock, and rearrange icons to your liking. But maybe more importantly, the tweak uses clean and smooth in and out animations when launching apps.

Cydia Substrate receives key developer-oriented updates

Cydia Substrate had been updated twice, once to version 0.9.5100, and again to version 0.9.5101. Both updates are mostly developer oriented with no consumer facing features that everyday users will notice.

The first update can inject into more iOS 8 daemons, find more private symbols, and more. The second update fixes an incompatibility with the first update. Check inside for the full change log.

Business Card Reader Pro gains vCard and Salesforce exporting [bonus: giveaway]

Business Card Reader Pro by German developer Shape allows you to quickly add contacts to iOS by scanning their business card with your iPhone's or iPad's back camera.

Featuring an accurate text recognition engine supporting fifteen languages, background image processing, LinkedIn search and integration with CRM systems, Business Card Reader Pro gets the job done whether you're scanning a few business cards or adding hundreds of new contacts to your shared company address book.

Released Wednesday, the new Business Card Reader Pro version 3.3 allows you to export your entries in the industry-standard vCard format for hassle-free importing to a myriad of online and desktop address book apps and PIM tools.

The new version also fixes crashes on iOS 8 and enables exporting to Salesforce. Best of all, Shape has kindly provided us with a few promo codes that we're giving away to you guys at the bottom of this article.

Business Card Reader Pro is $6.99 in the App Store.

Beats launches $300 Solo2 Wireless Headphones

A re-engineered version of Beats by Dr. Dre Solo2 headphones, revealed last week in FCC documents, officially went on sale Wednesday morning. Like its predecessor, the new Solo2 Wireless offers much the same features while ditching the cord in favor of Bluetooth-enabled connection which lets you listen to your music wirelessly from up to 30 feet away from the device that you're streaming from, The Verge reported.

Compared to its wired counterpart, the Solo2 Wireless has the same on-ear design and is available in the same red, black, white and blue variants, with the exception of the red version that remains a Verizon Wireless exclusive through the end of 2014.

Monument Valley ‘Forgotten Shores’ expansion arrives with 8 new levels

As promised, a ‘Forgotten Shores’ expansion for the acclaimed puzzler Monument Valley, an Apple Design Award winner, is now available in the App Store, delivering eight brand new levels on top of the original ten levels.

The new levels have been added between the penultimate and final levels of the game. Unfortunately, this isn't a free update as developer Ustwo Games is providing Forgotten Shores as a $1.99 In-App Purchase.

Download Monument Valley for $3.99.