Mobile Payment

PayPal mobile payments app now available for the Pebble smartwatch

Cody Lee ∙ November 19, 2014

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.

Snapchat app updated with support for new Snapcash service

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Snapchat updated its iOS client today, bringing the app to version 8. The update activates the company's new 'Snapcash' money transfer service, which it announced yesterday, that allows users to quickly send money to one another by simply sending a message.

Snapcash is a collaborative project between Snapchat and Square, built using the SquareCash concept. SquareCash allows users to send money via email, text message and Bluetooth with little friction, so it's not hard to see how they made the jump to Snapchat.

Snapchat and Square launch Snapcash money transfer service

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

Snapchat, the popular ephemeral photo messaging application, on Monday said it's partnered with Square, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's mobile payments startup, on a new service allowing Snapchat users to send and receive money.

Dubbed Snapcash and billed as the first Snapchat product created in partnership with another company, it's simple and easy to use just like Square's SquareCash service.

Apple Pay accounts for 50% of McDonald’s tap-to-pay transactions

Cody Lee ∙ November 15, 2014

The New York Times reported on Friday that Apple Pay now accounts for 50% of the tap-to-pay transactions at all of McDonald's 14,000 US stores. Additionally, the outlet claims that Walgreens' mobile payments at its 8,000+ stores have doubled since the service launched.

The figures were nestled in a broader piece regarding Apple's role in mainstreaming mobile payments. Google Wallet and Softcard—backed by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon—both say that Apple Pay has been a huge tailwind, as they've seen an increase in usage since it debuted.

Airbnb updated with Apple Pay support and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 10, 2017

Airbnb, a popular mobile travel-planning app, issued an update during the weekend which added Apple Pay support to its iOS app. Of course, the ability to book your future trips with Apple Pay requires an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus for the time being.

But with the debut of Apple Watch in early 2015 Apple Pay will be supported on older iPhones that lack NFC, from the iPhone 5 onward.

The sign-up experience is reworked to remove friction, KakaoTalk sharing is new and a simplified Account screen makes managing settings less cumbersome than before.

Airbnb is available free in the App Store.

Apple Pay goes live for U.S. Bank, Navy Federal, PNC, Barclaycard and M&T customers

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2014

Apple's press release announcing Apple Pay said the mobile payments service would later come to Barclaycard, Navy Federal Credit Union, PNC Bank, USAA and U.S. Bank. Monday, U.S. Bank confirmed in a media release that customers can now start using Apple Pay, followed by a similar press release from Navy Federal and multiple reports from readers confirming Apple Pay working for PNC, Barclaycard and M&T customers.

The iPhone maker's support document outlining supported Apple Pay cards and banks had not been updated at post time with new information.

Apple Pay rival MCX already hacked, but insists it’s OK to keep your sensitive data in the cloud

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

The whole CVS/Rite Aid/Apple Pay controversy is about to get uglier as MCX, the consortium of retailers who back the competing CurrentC mobile payment system, on Wednesday responded to accusations that it was purposefully blocking Apple Pay, Google Wallet and other NFC-based payment solutions and requiring participating retailers to use CurrentC exclusively.

Apple Pay has been praised for being secure and protecting your privacy by not sharing customer or transaction data with merchants. According to MCX, it does not store sensitive customer information in the mobile app. Instead, users’ payment data is stored “in our secure cloud-hosted network”.

Maybe I'm reading their blog post wrong, but if customer data and especially payment information is stored in the cloud, then it's not secure and this is precisely why Apple Pay is, in my personal opinion, better.

Apple says Apple Pay response ‘overwhelmingly positive,’ still working to add new merchants

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Apple has commented on the recent chatter regarding Rite Aid and CVS disabling Apple Pay over the weekend, telling BusinessInsider that it's working to bring on as many merchant partners as it can for its newly launched mobile payment service.

Late last week, reports began popping up that Rite Aid stores were disabling support for Apple Pay and other NFC-based payment services, and over the weekend, CVS followed suit. The two retailers confirmed the moves today via press statements.

Tim Cook: bringing Apple Pay to China ‘is on the top of our list’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 19, 2017

Repeating his favorite line that China, home to 1.33 billion people, is a key market to Apple, CEO Tim Cook said bringing Apple's revolutionary mobile payments system to the country “is on the top of the list”.

“China is a really key market for us,” Cook told state-run Xinhua news agency Friday. ”Everything we do, we are going to work it here. Apple Pay is on the top of the list.”

Cook and his teams at Apple were still “seeking to understand” the steps needed to make Apple Pay a reality for Chinese customers, the report added.

Apple Pay now accepts Amazon’s Visa Rewards card

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 24, 2014

In just two short days following Amazon's confirmation that it's been working to enable its Chasse-issued Amazon.com Rewards Visa co-branded card for use on Apple Pay, users can now load that card in Apple's mobile payments software, according to TechCrunch and reports on MacRumors forums, Reddit, Twitter and other social media channels on Friday.

Apple Pay users should now be able to add their Visa Rewards card in Apple Pay, either by entering the card details manually or snapping a picture of their card with the iPhone's camera. Twitter reports prove that doing so puts the correct card image with the Amazon logo in the Passbook application.

The reports of retailers not supporting Apple Pay have been greatly exaggerated

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

With Apple Pay set to launch later this month with support from big retailers such as Macy's, Staples, Disney Store, and many more, there has been some drama building regarding the fact that Apple still has a lot of work to do to convince some big names to get on the Apple Pay bandwagon.

A post on the Daily Dot today exemplifies this, claiming that Pizza Hut, Chipotle, and H&M, Coach, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Sears, Kmart, BP, Starbucks, and more don't plan on offering support for Apple Pay.

This sure makes for great headlines, but this kind of post usually fails to omit that retailers aren't against Apple Pay, they're just not on board with updating their costly point of sale systems.

Square refreshes Cash for iPhone with Bluetooth money transfer ability

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 7, 2014

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's mobile payments startup, Square, on Tuesday issued a nice update to its free Cash for iPhone software which now allows you to transfer money via short-range Bluetooth networking using a new “Nearby Payments” feature.

This is in addition to the ability to send money via text message, email or mobile phone numbers (for free), a feature the startup added to the Cash app in late-August 2014. This release of Cash also features the ability to quickly approve or decline money requests with actionable push notifications and contains other improvements and bug fixes.

Square Cash is a free download from the App Store.