Disney World confirmed this morning that it will be accepting Apple Pay starting Wednesday, Dec. 24.
Supporting Apple's mobile payment solution by Disney's theme park empire in time for the holidays will allow visitors who own an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus to use it to make contactless payments.
Apple Pay will be accepted in most Disney World stores, quick service restaurants, bars and to purchase tickets.
Apple Pay now accounts for 1.7 percent of the mobile payments market after its launch on October 20, still lagging behind Google Wallet's 4 percent share of the market, according to ITG research picked up by MarketWatch.
Apple looks to be gearing up to bring its mobile payment service Apple Pay to countries in Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa, after a launch in the US in October. A job listing on Wednesday revealed Apple is forming a new team focused on Apple Pay at its London office, along with hiring an "Apple Pay Site Reliability Engineer" in China.
"Apple Pay is a new and exciting area in Apple that is set to expand across Europe, Middle East, India and Africa," the company wrote.
Apple on Tuesday told The New York Times that it has signed up "dozens more banks, retail stores and start-ups to adopt Apple Pay" in recent weeks. The mobile payment service launched in October with a handful of official partners, and has been adding new ones on a near-weekly basis.
This latest round of additions includes Associated Bank, BB&T, Commerce Bank, TD Bank North America, UW Credit Union and 5 other institutions. Apple says that with the new partners, Apple Pay now supports the cards that represent ~90% of the credit card purchase volume in the US.
LockGlyph, a tweak that we reviewed last month, was met with a ho-hum response due to some of its shortcomings. It's a tweak that brings the Apple Pay authentication animation and sound to the Lock screen. It was slow, a little clunky, and lacked many of the customization options necessary to make it great. However, some recent updates have quickly changed the perception of this jailbreak tweak.
As reported by Ad Age this morning, Chase, one of early launch parters for Apple Pay, will begin airing its very first television commercial highlighting Apple's mobile payment service later today. The ad depicts Fun lead guitarist Jack Antonoff and his indie band the Bleachers relying on Apple Pay to make purchases at several locations while making preparations for a rooftop concert.
The commercial is meant to boost Apple Pay's appeal in small business environments. Businesses using the Chase Paymentech service for payment processing can now tap the bank's Future Proof Terminal to accept Apple Pay payments at the register. Moreover, Chase has released updated SDK tools for developers to implement paying for goods and services in apps with Apple Pay.
Chase is launching a new promotion to entice its cardholders to try out Apple Pay. As noted by MacRumors, the bank is notifying customers that they're giving away free iTunes music this weekend to anyone who adds their card to Apple's payment service.
From November 21 to 23, those who add their Chase Visa card to Apple Pay will receive early access to David Guetta's new album "Listen." Once verified that their card has been added, users will receive an iTunes redemption code via the Chase mobile app.
Square, the increasingly popular mobile payment and processing firm, is going to support Apple Pay soon. That's the gist of a comment CEO Jack Dorsey (who co-founded Twitter) made speaking with CNN Money. Apple Pay integration in the Square Reader will require a new hardware iteration of the accessory with built-in NFC circuitry.
Apple Pay, which also relies on NFC, will become available as an option for Square users sometime in 2015.
The Disney Store app has received an update, bringing it to version 3.2.1. Just in time for the holidays, the update includes support for Apple Pay, allowing iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users to pay for their purchases using Apple's new payment method.
While in-app Apple Pay is supported by the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, it doesn't appear the iPad version of the Disney Store app takes advantage of it yet. It also looks like folks utilizing Apple Pay will still have to enter all of their shipping info.
America First Credit Union said in a media release Thursday that cardholders can now use its America First Visa credit and debit cards with Apple Pay. In addition, as explained in a FAQ outlining the service, customers can also use their Visa Business credit and debit cards with Apple's mobile payment service.
Apple Pay is accepted at more than 220,000 retailers and does not require any special merchant equipment aside from a standard NFC-enabled terminal.
PayPal has announced that its popular mobile payments app is now available for the Pebble smartwatch. In a blog post, first spotted by VentureBeat, the company said that owners can now pay for goods and services at select locations using their Pebble, linked to their PayPal account.
Users can make PayPal payments using one of two methods: by checking into a store using the PayPal app, or by providing the store with an auto-generated payment code. Both ways require that the particular location support PayPal payments, and the latter requires special POS hardware.
During a Monday night segment of the Tech Report on local LA news station KTLA, Eddy Cue took host Rich DeMuro on a "shopping spree" to demonstrate how easy it is to use Apple Pay for purchases. The pair visited a number of places, including Panera Bread, Bloomingdale's and the Disney Store.
Using his gold iPhone 6 Plus, Apple's SVP of Internet software and services, pre-ordered food from Panera Bread using the restaurant's app, and paid for it via Apple Pay. He then went to Bloomingdale's to buy sunglasses, the Disney Store for a few toys, and of course they ended up at an Apple Store.