Oil giant Chevron is working alongside Apple to develop solutions to integrate Apple Pay directly with its gas pumps in 2015, to allow customers to pay with their phone directly at the pump, the company revealed in a tweet on Monday.
Microsoft is tired of the old-nature feel of Internet Explorer, and is building a new browser for Windows 10 that will look and feel more like Chrome and Firefox, according to ZDNet.
Apple typically handles refunds of digital purchases on a case-by-case basis and with an “All Sales Final” provision. But now, Apple's reportedly switched to a 14-day return policy for movies, TV shows, music, books and apps in most European markets, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France, German blog iFun.de [Google Translate] reported Monday.
Apple's updated policy in these countries states that customers can now cancel their digital purchase within fourteen days from when they received their receipt “without giving any reason,” with the exception of iTunes Match, Season Pass, Multi-Pass and iTunes Gift Cards and Allowances that can't be refunded once you have redeemed the code or activated the service.
Admittedly, Touch ID has popularized and mainstreamed biometric security on mobile devices using an impression made on a surface by the inner part of the top joint of a finger.
Having debuted on the iPhone 5s, Apple's in-house sensor built into the Home button is based on a sophisticated technology by Israeli smart sensor maker AuthenTec, which the Cupertino firm snapped up in July of 2012 for a reported $356 million.
However, existing fingerprint-based security solutions could be easily bypassed by generating a fingerprint image from a series of photos of someone's finger, no physical print necessary whatsoever, according to claims by Chaos Computer Club, Europe’s largest association of hackers.
As relayed by VentureBeat, the hackers have now successfully demonstrated a proof-of-concept by copying the thumbprint of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen.
They used a close-up photograph of von der Leyen’s thumb, obtained during a news conference in October, along with photographs taken from different angles, said Jan Krissler aka “Starbug” at the 31st annual Chaos Computer Club convention in Hamburg, Germany.
Apple's promotion that makes hand-picked apps and games available at no cost for a week typically falls on Thursday.
Given the holiday iTunes freeze, which ended on Sunday, Apple's editors couldn't make changes to the App Store so they haven't gotten around cherry-picking another Free App of the Week until yesterday evening.
A cool adventure platformer called Icycle: On Thin Ice by UK-based published Chillingo, now a division of Electronic Arts, is available at no cost until next Thursday, normally a $2.99 value. Regardless of the fact that it includes optional In-App Purchases, Icycle scored some rather favorable reviews and it fits the holiday theme perfectly so you should give it a whirl.
Just like last year, Apple's iPhone and iPad again dominated online shopping traffic and online mobile sales during Christmas Day, according to an IBM survey first shared by VentureBeat.
Based on data from IBM's real-time Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracked approximately 800 retail websites in the United States, iOS devices were responsible for an average of $97.28 per order spent online versus $67.40 for Android users, a difference of 44.3 percent.
In other words, a commanding 57.1 percent of online shopping via mobile during Christmas Day was carried out using an iPhone or iPad, an increase of 8.3 percent versus the previous year.
Apple's NFC-powered mobile payments service Apple Pay is due to hit the UK market in the first half of 2015, after gaining some ground in the US at the end of this year, reports The Telegraph.
The British publication didn't name which banks specifically are in talks with Apple, but reported "at least one of the biggest banks" has been tricky in negotiating with the company.
For the last six years Apple has been running its "12 Days of Christmas" promotion in the UK, and did so last year in both the UK and US "12 Days of Gifts". It joyed customers by giving away iOS apps, music, films and books over the twelve days following Christmas Day. However as noticed first by MacWorld, it appears Apple is discontinuing its holiday tradition in 2014/2015.
We're now three days out of Christmas, and any type of promotion can't be found. MacWorld reports from a reliable source that we're definitely not seeing the "12 Days of Christmas" app this year.
Apple's Beats Music, with Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre at the helm, is looking to form partnerships with artists for exclusive releases, mirroring success iTunes has had in the past, reports New York Post.
Specific artists haven't been named, however Beats Music has strong partnerships with artists already, from its promotion and endorsements of Beats headphones. Nicki Minaj frequently stars with Beats products in her music videos. Will.i.am, Pharrell, Kanye West and Gwen Stefani are said to be friends of Iovine and Beats lovers.
Developer of iPhone video editing app Videoshop, Joe Riquelme, has my nomination for son of the year award. Riquelme surprised his parents with what may be one of the ultimate Christmas gifts - stopping them from ever having to deal with Bank of America again.
2K is having a holiday sale of a number of its premium iPhone and iPad games, including the high-seas adventure game Sid Meier’s Pirates, the WW2 strategy flight sim Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies, the award-winning first-person shooter BioShock and more.
If you're in the market, now's a good time to pick up these finely done games at a reduced price before the iTunes Connect holiday freeze window closes on December 29.
The Japan arm of Apple announced on Friday that it's once again bringing back its "Lucky Bags" promotion on January 2nd, 2015. A "Lucky Bag" is a Japanese New Year tradition, and also known as a Fukubukuro.