Earlier today, Apple released iOS 8.1 beta 2. Like the previous beta release, it was quickly inspected by UK developer Hamza Sood, best known around these parts for his contributions to the jailbreak community.
With iOS 8.1 beta 1, Sood revealed details regarding Apple Pay's presence in the stock Settings app. This time around, we get our first glimpse of the Passbook setup screens, and credit card data entry screen.
The NFC chip found in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will only work with Apple Pay and won't be opened up to developers who make third-party apps, Apple confirmed on Monday.
The pair of smartphones, due to be released Friday after a record amount of pre-orders, are the first devices from Apple to feature NFC technology. Like Touch ID on the iPhone 5s, Apple is keeping a lock on the technology presumably for security purposes.
Here's another piece of evidence to help complete the Apple mobile payments puzzle: according to a new report by 9to5Mac, Apple and Disney stores in the United States have been upgrading in-store iBeacon transmitters and NFC sensors ahead of the company's big reveal on Tuesday.
The upgraded sensors, which include the new Gimbal Series 20 Proximity Beacons, will allow the companies to track customers inside their stores with an even greater degree of precision.
As it's been widely reported, both the iPhone 6 and iWatch are rumored to be outfitted with a Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip to support mobile payments. It's “one of the hallmark features” of the iPhone 6, according to Wired. The Apple wearable device has “a role in mobile payments,” too, as per The Wall Street Journal.
Bank Innovation shares some new details on Apple's mobile payments project this afternoon, reporting the company has managed to negotiate deals for lower credit card transaction fees with several banking institutions. This includes JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Capital One, and Bank of America.
Citing sources familiar with the negotiations, the site says that the banks have all agreed to give Apple a flat transaction rate for both in-store and online purchases, which is fairly uncommon in the industry. They will also apparently give the Cupertino firm a 10% discount on all of its processing fees.
Adding up to the ongoing conversation about Apple's purported wearable project dubbed by the media the 'iWatch', The Wall Street Journal affirmed Thursday that the fashionable gizmo will connect to the upcoming iPhone 6 via NFC and come in two sizes to appeal to both gender’s preferences.
NFC stands for Near-Field Communication, which is a short-range wireless technology required for the handset's rumored mobile payment functionality.
In their write-up behind the paywall, reporters Lorrraine Luk, Daisuke Wakabayashi and Greg Bensinger quote people familiar with the matter as saying that both iWatch sizes feature a curved organic light-emitting diode screen, or OLED.
There will be sensors to track and monitor health and fitness data, as expected. According to the Journal, Apple's use of NFC technology on the iWatch signals that it “sees a role for the device in digital payments”.
Sonny Dickson, known for his accurate leaks of iPhone and iPad parts, is back to fluster faces at Apple today with newly released images of the logic board from an iPhone 6, complete with an NFC chip made by NXP, as previously reported. Courtesy of Feld&Volk, the leaked photos show several additional chips on the iPhone 6's logic board besides NFC, including the AVAGO chip and Apple's A8 processor, which is supposed to be 2.0 GHz, quite a bit faster than the 1.3GHz A7 chip.
The Financial Times is reporting this morning that Apple has tapped Dutch chipmaker NXP to produce NFC chips for the upcoming iPhone 6. Citing several people familiar with the project, the site claims the secure, short-range wireless technology will facilitate transactions in a new mobile payment service.
The report doesn't add much in the way of new details, but it does corroborate with the ongoing consensus that after shunning the technology for several years, Apple has finally decided to add NFC to its handsets. Wired and Recode had similar scoops yesterday, as did well-connected blogger John Gruber.
According to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Wired, the rumors were in fact true as the next iPhone is reportedly going to have a Near-Field Communication (NFC) circuitry and feature an Apple-branded payment platform.
Apple's contactless mobile payment solution is being described in the report as "one of the hallmark features" of the iPhone 6 when the device is unveiled on September 9 (alongside a rumored Apple wearable device).
"We’re told the solution will involve NFC," reads the report.
For what it's worth, the reliable John Paczkowski of Re/code has “been hearing the same” about the NFC-enabled iPhone 6.
Recent leaks of purported iPhone 6 components have indicated that the forthcoming smartphone could indeed be outfitted with an NFC chip by a semiconductor company called NXP, which currently supplies the M7 motion coprocessor for the latest iOS devices.
There have been rumors swirling for years that Apple will finally bring NFC to the iPhone, and if the schematics of a leak from last week hold true, the iPhone 6 may be the first to hold the communications technology. A MacRumors forum member examined bare logic boards claimed to ship with the iPhone 6, and have found leaked NFC chips fit perfectly.
Expect iPhone 6 rumors to reach a fever pitch (as if they hadn't already) over the next few weeks, as we inch closer towards Apple's announcement. The update is supposed to be one of the largest in the handset's history, so needless to say the anticipation is mounting.
The latest report regarding the device comes from VentureBeat, who claims that a well-informed source has given it a rundown of what to expect next month. Many of the features listed by the site match up with previous rumors, but there are a few new noteworthy bits...
Combing through our archive of posts mentioning "iPhone" and "NFC" is all it takes to realize that talk of Apple allegedly adopting NFC is intensifying, not dying down. In fact, rumors calling for NFC-enabled iPhones date as far back as 2011!
Thus far, however, the iconic smartphone has not picked up support for NFC technology, which is an acronym for Near Field Communication. On the other hand, Apple has numerous NFC-related patents.
Additionally, it doesn't really hurt to mention that a growing number of high-end Android handsets include NFC as part of their standard feature set. Well, today a claimed image has surfaced apparently picturing an iPhone 6 printed circuit board with what appears to be an embedded NFC chip...
It seems like we have a pretty good idea of what to expect, in terms of appearance, for the iPhone 6. Several reports have pointed to the handset having a larger display and a new iPad-like design, and most of the leaked cases and components we've seen thus far match up with that.
But when it comes to features and functionality of the new iPhone, things aren't so clear. The latest of a number of scattershot reports comes from VentureBeat, which cites sources saying that the device will have built-in support for NFC tech, wireless charging capabilities, and more...