Taiwan

Apple Pay goes live in Taiwan

As noted on Apple’s website, the Apple Pay mobile payment service is now available to customers in Taiwan. Financial institutions supporting the service include Cathay United Bank, CTBC Bank, E. Sun Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank, Taishin International Bank and Union Bank of Taiwan.

Apple Pay launches in Ireland, coming to Italy and Taiwan soon

Apple Pay has officially expanded to Ireland today for customers of KBC and Ulster Bank, two of the country’s big four banking institutions. The service also works with EU’s Boon prepay system tied to MasterCard. Irish customers who register their Visa or MasterCard credit or debit cards via the Wallet app can start using the service to pay securely for goods in “tens of thousands” of stores, including Aldi, Boots, Burger King, Harvey Norman and Lidl.

Apple Pay is also supported in compatible apps and on some websites. The Cupertino company has added related Apple Pay details to its regional website in Italy, signaling an imminent launch in the 60 million people market. Also, major banks have recently gained regulatory approval to launch Apple’s payments service in Taiwan.

Taiwanese carrier relaunching iPhone 6 in Gold

Taiwan Mobile announced Thursday that it’s relaunching Apple’s discontinued iPhone 6. The Taiwanese wireless carrier has begun taking pre-orders for the 32-gigabyte version of iPhone 6, but it’s only available in Gold. The handset will go on sale on March 10. Last month, Apple relaunched 32-gigabyte editions of iPhone 6 in China, priced at 3,900 yuan unlocked, or approximately $567.

The iPhone 6 lineup was discontinued last September, when iPhone 7 launched and iPhone 6’s spot as the entry-level iPhone has since been taken by iPhone SE.

Suppliers gearing up for production of iPhone 8’s curved-glass chassis

In 2017, the iPhone should undergo a top-to-bottom industrial design overhaul with a number of hardware improvements planned for the handset, such as a wraparound AMOLED display curved at both sides like that on Samsung’s Note 7 and the Galaxy S6/S7 range, as well as an all-new glass enclosure.

According to a recent Chinese-language Commercial Times report cited by DigiTimes, Taiwanese suppliers are now ordering machinery for the production of curved glass chassis for next year’s iPhone lineup. The glass casing should help differentiate the Tenth Anniversary iPhone, as the media affectionally calls the device, and give Apple fans more reasons to upgrade.

Taiwanese pop idol claims he’s been photographed using dual-lens 5.5″ iPhone 7 Plus

Taiwanese pop singer, actor and race car driver Jimmy Lin is certainly no stranger to publicity stunts involving Apple leaks. In September 2012, for instance, Chinese social media lit up as he posted photos of himself using a then-unreleased iPhone 5.

Now, the attention-seeking star is back at it: he appears to have been photographed while using a dual-lens iPhone 7 Plus handset in Rose Gold.

iTunes carrier billing expands in Japan, Taiwan and Switzerland

Following initial launch of iTunes carrier billing in Russia with Telefonica’s O2 and in Germany with VimpelCom’s Beeline unit nearly a year ago, Apple has now brought this alternative option to customers in Japan, Taiwan and Switzerland, according to reports from CNBC and Mashable.

Carrier billing lets customers without access to credit or gift cards have their app and media purchases charged directly to their monthly mobile phone bill or deducted from their prepaid amount.