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Mastercard Works With Apple To Integrate Apple Pay

September 15, 2014September 15, 2014 PRNEWS Leave a comment

Paying with mobile devices is about to become even more Priceless as Apple unveiled Apple Pay that will enable MasterCard cardholders to use their iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch for everyday purchases. MasterCard built the foundation for secure mobile transactions, so consumers can use their cards when, where and how they want.

MasterCard worked with Apple to deliver a seamless and secure payment experience. For consumers and merchants alike, that means that every purchase made with a MasterCard using iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch will offer the security, benefits and guarantees of any MasterCard transaction.

Apple Pay transforms mobile payments with an easy, secure, and private way to make purchases. By integrating Apple hardware, software and services, Apple Pay creates a unique and incredibly intuitive experience for iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch users.

Owners of the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch will be able to use their MasterCard credit or debit cards from participating banks directly through Apple Pay. At a store, consumers can simply pay by just holding their iPhone near a contactless reader with their finger on Touch ID and their transaction will be authenticated. For purchases within an app, consumers will simply touch to pay and authenticate with their fingerprint or passcode for a seamless experience without having to enter their card number or leave the app.

“Apple has a long tradition of introducing breakthrough products with features that really matter to people. Apple Pay, combined with MasterCard’s payments technology, gives consumers an easy, secure and private way to shop,” said Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer, MasterCard. “We have been a pioneer of mobile commerce innovation for years – including the world’s first contactless and mobile payment solutions. We’re thrilled that MasterCard cardholders will soon be able to make payments from their iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch, knowing that every purchase is secure and offers all the same guarantees and benefits they’ve come to expect from using their MasterCard.”

Apple Pay will be made available for U.S. consumers via a free update to iOS 8 this October. MasterCard cardholders will be able to make simple and secure payments in the apps of top merchants, as well as contactless payments at some of the most frequented U.S. locations including major stores, restaurants, transit providers, fuel and convenience stores, and all Apple Store locations. One of the first to accept Apple Pay via iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch will be MasterCard’s long-time partner Major League Baseball.

To find a listing of contactless-enabled merchant locations, download the MasterCard Nearby app or go to www.mastercard.com/contactless.

7 years of the iPhone

September 12, 2014September 12, 2014 Louie Diangson Leave a comment

Pre-orders for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus starts today, and like the iPhones before them, we expect these two to sell like hotcakes as well. Despite the criticism, we have to admit that the new iPhones are Apple’s best yet and the new embodiment of the company’s ethos of designing and making better products. And to celebrate Apple’s years of ingenuity, we’ve prepared an infographic that showcases the iPhone’s history.

The first iPhone and the iPhone 6 Plus

Click for larger image.

Infographic by Carl Lamiel

The post 7 years of the iPhone appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

10 Game-Changing Things Not Found on the iPhone 6

September 11, 2014September 11, 2014 Bob Freking Leave a comment

Apple has announced lots of big changes for the iPhone 6, but it’s surely far from perfect we tell you. While it’s true that it can do some or a lot of things better than its other competitors, the are definitely lots of features that make the iPhone 6 worth skipping.

iphone 6

1. Wireless Charging

Wireless charging can be found on lots of devices – Nokia & Google being the ones who use it very often on their devices. Apple on the other hand has never utilized it and has used their own Lightning for charging. Basically, what this is is a feature where you have a charging pad and you just place your device on top of it and it will start to charge, even without plugging in a cable to your phone.

wireless charging orb

A lot of manufacturers are placing twists into device charging – fast charging, USB 3.0 to name a few. If Apple were to incorporate wireless charging, it would be interesting to see how they’d design the charger itself. Maybe in the iPhone 6S, we’ll see, but for now, iPhone fans can only dream.

2. Optical Image Stabilization

lumia-1020-lens

If you’ve read into the new iPhones, then I know you’re going to call me out that the iPhone 6 Plus has OIS – the camera technology that allows you to capture with less shake – but to counter, except for the display & the horizontal orientation, you’re paying an extra $100 for an iPhone 6 Plus that exclusively has Optical Image Stabilization. The iPhone 6, which will appeal to the usual iPhone crowd, does not have this feature, and I’m sure a lot of people will believe that the 6 and the 6 Plus are the same. Sadly, they’re not – and if you get the iPhone 6, you’re missing out on OIS, something that, again, Nokia, Samsung, LG, HTC and a lot more have used on their phones already.

3. Laser Auto-Focus

Here’s a flagship feature that’s exclusive to LG, debuting in the LG G3. Laser auto-focus basically allows the camera to focus faster on the subject by firing lasers to get a sense of depth. Apple is going with an approach they’d call Focus Pixels, but in terms of technology, we think we’d put more faith on this type of hardware. And while we have yet to see how the iPhone 6’s camera performs (and we are hoping it lives up to its promises), we can’t deny that it’s at least cool to have lasers. Lasers are cool.

4. Front-Facing Speakers

HTC comes into mind when I think about front-facing speakers, but only because they execute it so well. This type of thing is not exclusive to HTC – Sony has done it, Motorola has done it, Samsung has done it – and in those cases, audio quality has improved for the most part versus your conventional bottom or rear-facing speakers.

htc-one2014

If you think about it, it does make sense to have music fired directly at you, and if the manufacturer can implement stereo, that’d be great. If only Apple implemented front-facing speakers, their new iPhones would be better multimedia machines… but sadly, they didn’t just yet.

5. Buttonless Control

Knocking on the screen to wake it up? Grabbing your phone to look at and it displays notifications? Waving over it to scroll through content? Those things aren’t new, and if not overdone, can prove to be very useful. Apple has done none of these things while LG, Motorola, Samsung and a lot more OEMs are – and they’re all using it to create unique experiences for their flagships.

SGS4 hover

This feature makes more sense on the larger iPhone 6 Plus, but it would be nice if Apple took some tricks and polished them to their own benefit too.

6. Xenon Flash

Again, a not so new feature which goes all the way back to the era of Symbian. Well, we can’t disregard the fact that LED has its pros over Xenon and the other way around, but who says we can’t have both? It really does up the photography experience for a lot of users, so safe to say, that’s one thing a lot of PureView & Galaxy K Zoom users will be enjoying while the iPhone 6 can’t join in.

7. Heart Rate Monitor

back-galaxys5

Something crazy, but not useless – Samsung has incorporated heart rate monitors into their devices for fitness purposes, and it does bring a level of depth to the experience. If you want to keep a closer eye on your heart but you don’t want to buy any wearable, then a heart rate monitor can prove to be useful. Also, it can also be tapped to take photos as announced with the Galaxy Note 4.

8. More Color Options

Nokia Lumia 930 1

Gray, silver and gold – those are all the options that you have for choosing an iPhone 6. Apple may have colors for their iPods and iPhone 5Cs, but those are definitely not flagship material. All I have to do is point you to Nokia’s flagship phones and you’ll find a great range of colors to choose from. Motorola is doing great as well with their Moto Maker, and while Samsung & HTC may have a few subjective design choices, at least they have more than three colors.

9. Better Battery

Apple has made the iPhone thinner once again, they’ve added in more powerful internals and they’ve made everything efficient to compensate for the power hungry hardware; I think this means to say they’re just trying to preserve the usual iPhone battery life, not improve it. Other manufacturers on the other hand are working harder to add in larger capacity batteries into their phones, and so far, the reviews are doing great for them. Why not stay with the iPhone 5‘s thinness and just add in more battery from there? That might be better.

10. Water Resistance / Waterproofing

xperiaz

Finally, the one thing I personally wanted to see in the new iPhone but got disappointed – water resistance or waterproofing. Sony’s Xperia line has been bathing (pun intended) in advertisements and has become known for having waterproof devices in the lineup. Samsung also wishes to follow suit, but they’ve done so with compromises in design that needs more polishing. HTC’s Butterfly is joining in too, and with all of these manufacturers joining in the bandwagon, it’s safe to say there’s a demand for protecting your devices against water. When a flood comes, we might see crazy photos underwater – but they won’t be done using iPhones without bulky cases.

Special Mention: Bluetooth & NFC file sharing – We’re not counting on this, but it is still indeed something that the iPhone cannot do – share files via Bluetooth with other platforms. Also, while NFC is already found on Apple’s new devices, it’s only for Apple Pay – we still don’t have anything similar to Android Beaming.

Did we miss anything important? Or have you been looking for a feature that Apple failed to deliver with the iPhone 6? Feel free to leave your comments and opinions down below! Have friends who are interested in the iPhone 6 — share this with them to see if they still do.

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5 “innovations” for iPhone 6 not new to Android phones

September 11, 2014September 11, 2014 Kevin Bruce Francisco Leave a comment

Apple already unveiled its newest handsets – the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Along with them come features that are pleasant and new to the ears of iFans but have already been experienced by Android users for quite some time now. We list down these features for comparison’s sake.

Ready? Let’s begin the list!

HD/Full HD display

The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 was introduced to have an HD display with a resolution of 1334 x 750. It’s definitely an improvement since prior to that, the iPhone 5S already maxed out at 1136 x 640. The bigger iPhone 6 Plus, on the other hand, boasts a Full HD 1080p display which is the company’s first on a handset.

The thing is, we’ve already been surrounded by HD and Full HD displays for years now. Google is even making 2K resolution (2560 x 1440) sort of the standard for flagships today. There’s the Galaxy Note 4 with Quad HD resolution as well as the LG G3 which sports the same 5.5-inch display as the iPhone 6 Plus but also comes with a 2K resolution screen.

NFC

Android smartphones widely use NFC today for a number of functions – they can share photos, videos, contacts, documents, and even pair their devices with other gadgets that support the same technology. Again, this is something new for Apple and they just limited its function for transactions with the introduction of Apple Pay – something that Google has already been doing and even strengthening when KitKat rolled out.

Wi-Fi calling

As far as we could remember there have been apps for Android since late 2013 that utilize Google Voice so users can call specific numbers using their Wi-Fi connection. During Apple’s keynote early yesterday, the company angled this feature as a means of being able to still make an outgoing call even when you’re at a place with no signal like a basement with Wi-Fi present. This is a pretty smart move for Apple, but a few years late.

OIS

For the larger iPhone 6 Plus, it carries something that its smaller sibling doesn’t: a landscape view of navigating through the phone and OIS or optical image stabilization. This basically makes the camera’s sensor move sideways and up and down to compensate for the hand’s shake while taking photos and recording videos, and as a result the 6 Plus produces sharper images. But yes, this is nothing new for smartphones like the HTC One (M7).

QuickType

Apple is proud to introduce that the annoying autocorrect feature (that sometimes makes you type “play” instead of “okay” or “hemp” instead of “home”) should now be minimized thanks to its predictive typing method that studies and learns the words and phrases you usually type. There will now be a bar over the keyboard that shows words that you’ll likely use. In addition, iOS8 now supports third-party keyboard installations – just like its Android counterpart.

The list doesn’t end there. There are more iPhone 6/6 Plus features that have been present in Google’s ecosystem. A guy named Ron even posted a photo on the Internet enumerating some of them (above) comparing the newly announced iPhone to a 2012 Nexus 4.

So why are people still going loco over the new iPhones?

Right now you’re probably thinking that Apple is just copying off whatever makes Google special, and you may be right. But what makes a lot of people crazy for the new iPhones? Maybe another perspective of looking at it is because these people already love what Apple has done with its iPhone to begin with. While adding these features previously exclusive on Android phones are a big plus and maybe it’s like adding more to their already “awesome” phone which altogether works better for them.

What do you think?

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What changed on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus?

September 10, 2014September 10, 2014 Ronnie Bulaong Leave a comment

Now that Apple has officially announced the new iPhone 6 and its big brother, the iPhone 6 Plus, it’s time to take a closer look at the improvements that Apple made on their new handsets compared to the iPhone 5S.

Design and Construction

In terms of its design, Apple still kept most of the design language on their new iPhones, albeit made the edges of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus more rounded and trimmed some of the excess fat to make it nominally thinner than its predecessor.

Because of the bigger screen found on the new iPhones, Apple had to reposition the power button which is now located on the right flank of the phones, thus making it easily accessible using the user’s right thumb or left index finger (when held upright).

As for the paintjob, there’s an off-colored pinstripe that divides the back portion of the handset into three sections, similar to the previous model. However, Apple dropped the use of a two-tone color for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus’ back panel, and instead painted the top and bottom portions of its posterior with the same color as the middle portion of the handsets.

Display

One of the more notable changes that Apple made on the two new iPhones is the screen size. Since the debut of larger Android smartphones, consumers can’t help but criticize the lack of improvement on the iPhone’s screen size. So the Cupertino-based company answered back by releasing two new iPhones that has a 4.7-inch screen (iPhone 6) and a 5.5-inch display (iPhone 6 Plus).

In keeping with their age-old tradition of providing crisp display, Apple also had to increase the resolution of the display to match its size. From 1136 x 640 on the iPhone 5S, the new iPhone 6 now has a 1334 x 750 screen resolution which equates to Retina-grade pixel density of 326ppi.

The iPhone 6 Plus, on the other hand, is equipped with a 1080p display to match its fairly large, 5.5-inch display, putting in the same league as the other flagship Android smartphone in the market.

Imaging

If you look at each of the new iPhone’s spec sheet, there’s not a lot of improvements on the hardware used for its camera. Both handsets are still equipped with an 8-megapixel rear iSight camera with an accompanying True Tone Flash, similar set up found on its predecessor.

So what changed? Honestly speaking, most of the improvements that Apple made on the imaging department are intangible and can only be appreciated when you actually start shooting with the new iPhones. First up is the new imaging sensor which, unfortunately, was not discussed in details during the launch event.

What was highlighted, however, is the addition of Optical Image Stabilization which will come in handy for users with shaky hands and for long-exposure shots. It minimizes the blur caused by changes in the camera’s position while shooting.

Another thing that Apple put emphasis on was the revamped autofocus feature (pixel focus) of the new iPhones. It uses a similar technology as phase-detection autofocus which, in theory, should be a significant improvement on the last generation in terms of its ability to lock in on the subject.

Video recording

Apart from improving the new iPhone’s imaging capabilities, Apple has also revamped its video recording features. With the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, users can record Full-HD clips at 60 fps, as well as do slow-motion video at 120fps and all the way up to 240fps.

Processor

As with the previous model, the company also announced the new processor that will do the heavy-lifting for their two new smartphones – the Apple A8 System-on-Chip.

Again, the company was not that keen about the details of their new chip, but here are some of the things that was mentioned during the announcement:

1. The Apple A8 was built using 20-nanometer process and has 2 billion transistors.
2. Compared to its predecessor, the new processor boasts a 25% improvement on CPU performance, and 50% mark up on GPU performance.
3. Despite of the claimed performance improvements over the previous generation, the new A8 processor is said to be 50% more power-efficient than the Apple A7.
4. An accompanying co-processor dubbed as M8 will come with its own Barometer which will allow it to calculate distance travelled and elevation. Oh, and it can also determine the difference between running and cycling.

Here’s the breakdown of all the changes that Apple made on the new iPhones (in table form):

Model	iPhone 5S	iPhone 6	iPhone 6 Plus
Display	4-inch, 640×1136 pixels, 326ppi	4.7-inch, 1334 x 750, 326ppi	5.5-inch, 1920x1080, 400ppi
Processor	Apple A7 w/ M7 co-processor	Apple A8 w/ M8 co-processor	Apple A8 w/ M8 co-processor
RAM	1GB	2GB (TBC)	2GB (TBC)
Storage	16, 32 and 64GB	16, 32, 64 and 128GB	16, 32, 64 and 128GB
Cellular Data	LTE	LTE	LTE
Wi-Fi	802.11 b/g/n	802.11ac	802.11ac
Rear Camera	8MP iSight rear camera w/ True Tone Flash	8MP iSight rear camera w/ True Tone Flash	8MP iSight rear camera w/ True Tone Flash
Front Camera	1.2MP front camera	Facetime HD camera w/ f/2.2 lens	Facetime HD camera w/ f/2.2 lens
Video Recording (rear)	1080p @ 30fps	1080p @ 60fps, Slow-Motion capture up to 240fps	1080p @ 60fps, Slow-Motion capture up to 240fps
Battery	1560mAh	1810mAh	TBC
OS	iOS 7	iOS 8	iOS 8
Dimension	123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm	138.1 x 67 x 6.9 mm	158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1 mm
Weight	112g	129g	172g

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