Dang, that’s something to wonder about, is this going to be a repeat of the deal with the American issuers not adopting Chip-and-PIN credit cards… (and is this now going to be an excuse for the American issuers *never *doing so…)
Credit card companies are already moving on to NFC, anyway. VISA paypass and Mastercard Paywave, I believe. So maybe the US skips a generation of technology, it’s not the worst thing.
How would this “wave the phone to pay” thing even work in most stores? Wouldn’t the store have to *have *a set-up to actually wave the phone over? Or is it scanned by the barcode scanner?
Yes, they need a reader.
So, it’s not going to magically work at any location that isn’t ready for NFC, but it’s a start.
Many places already have terminals that include NFC readers, I believe. Look for things like MasterCard PayWave, Visa PayPass, Interac Flash, etc. It would be more a matter of the software being updated to accept the Apple system.
But that raises a whole bunch of questions. Is Apple Pay essentially a whole new payment network? Or does it pretend to be existing cards? Does it work with EMV contactless, magstripe contactless, or is it a new system? If it is a new system, it would take someone with the heft of Apple to even start to push it into the market…
Apple knows what they are doing. It was announced at the unveiling yesterday that there are already lots of major retailers ready for this on Day 1.
I’m on the “tock” part of the upgrade cycle. I’ve currently got a 5S, so I’ll be waiting for a 6S, or whatever. I personally thought that the 4S was the best physical design. It felt perfect in the hand and the weight was also just right. I have to do a weird shuffle thing with the 5/5S size to use it with one hand, or just resort to two-handed use. 4.7” being the new “small” size is going to be annoying in some ways until I get used to it. 5.5 is just bloody ridiculous.
Yeah. I have to admit I did smirk a bit (and my friends have joked about it) when whoever it was in the keynote mocked the “fifty year old” technology that “we” still use. Not around here they don’t …
I went to the local AT&T store and they showed me phones from other suppliers that are the same size at the 6 and 6+. I’m a Levi 501 guy and the 6+ would fit in the pocket but be too big to be comfortable. I’ll be on my Apple Store ap on my soon to be ex-phone getting a 6.
It turns out I’m only eligible for AT&T “next” and upgrading to a 64Gb 6 would push my monthly bill above $100/mo, I don’t want to spend that much, I’ll just wait out the remainder of my contract, by Jan. 2015 I’ll be eligible for another 2 year contract, I’ll upgrade then
Right now my bill is around $70/mo for the grandfathered unlimited plan, and I don’t want my monthly bill to go up…
I’ve been mulling over getting the similarly XXL Galaxy Note 3, and was likewise concerned about the size. I asked about this on another forum, and everyone who responded, men and women both, said keeping it in a pocket was no problem–front or back in the case of guys. I think we perceive these devices as huge in comparison to other mobile phones, but in the overall scheme of things that we carry around with this it’s a minor issue.
Of course you’d still lose the ability to carry the phone in the fifth pocket, but you shouldn’t let that stop you if you really want the bigger screen.
Who says you have to get rid of it? You’re allowed to own more than one phone, after all. I fully intend to keep my current Galaxy for the foreseeable future, using it primarily as an at-home music player/streamer/web browsing tool.
My 2c for what it’s worth:
An important distinction is that Apple has always been a high-end brand, and as such pulls in a lot of enthusiasts, in addition to many wealthier consumers who buy the most expensive brands of everything anyway, but who may not be particularly interested in or knowledgeable about what makes an Apple device different from an HTC or Samsung device.
By contrast, Android devices have historically from the whole gamut from very basic low-end to very high-end. My first one was very limited in processing speed and memory, and I was often frustrated by its tendency to freeze and simple inability to run one app or another. I don’t know if the major OEMs are still offering such low-ball Android phones, but the fact that they used to exist makes it inevitable that they lured many people into buying their first smartphone, and define the Android experience for too many of them. But this fact is becoming less and less relevant as the quality of devices improves, as a result of which the typical experience of an average Android user likewise improves.
For those who want the best and are willing to pay for it, Apple is no longer the only option out there. That said, Apple is still different, in that the HW and OS come from the same place. Their mobile devices aren’t nearly as customizable as those running Android, but it’s arguably true that Apple does a better job of design in the first place, so there’s less desire or need for customization. And the fact that you don’t have scores of different manufactures can mean fewer issues with bad system updates down the line. By contrast, Android OEMs are usually responsible for rolling out the next version of Android for their devices, and mistakes have been known to happen. When they do, they affect potentially everyone who owns that particular phone model.
US Credit card companies had more contactless credit cards a few years ago, they seem to have removed contactless from the cards that have it. I have 40 separate credit card accounts and none of them have contactless, where as before the cards expired I had 2 or 3 that did (Chase Contactless (Blink) Being Discontinued - myFICO® Forums - 3084990)
Edit to add:
And I’m not getting an Iphone 6 because I won’t ever get an Iphone - not because they aren’t good hardware, but because I use exclusively prepaid service and Iphones are very overpriced vs nexus phones when there is no subsidy involved. Samsung Galaxy # whatever and Note phones are the same way, which is why I don’t have one of those either.
There’s also the issue that Android phones are all over the map as far as which version of Android they’re running, and not all of them are upgradable. At least with an iPhone you get free updates to the latest version for a reasonable amount of time. I remember seeing a graph one time showing the Android versions being run by a whole slew of different Droid phones, and only a tiny percentage (it was something like 4-5%) were actually running the latest and greatest version. Most of them at the time were still running several versions back. Which means that, though it’s true that the latest Android version has as many bells and whistles as the iPhone (some better, some worse) you have to take into account that unless you have one of the phones that’s running it, you don’t have these features.
If I do get an iPhone, it’ll be a 5s. Except for the larger screen of the 6+ model, I don’t see anything wrong with being a generation behind, either.
Don’t know about that small screen though. A major factor in my satisfaction with a mobile device is the extent to which I can use it instead of a notebook or desktop. Going smaller would be a step in the wrong direction.
I have my iPhone 6 (space grey) in my hands right now. Well, it’s still in the box. I’ll configure it after work. It’s beautiful.
Did you wait in line for it, or preorder?
Pre-order. I was watching the FedEx tracking and went home and got it when it arrived. I live pretty close to work and it conveniently arrived a little after noon. I couldn’t stand to have it sitting on my porch all afternoon plus I got to show it off at work to the other nerds.
Ten thousand dewy-eyed [del]ijjits[/del] true believers here in midtown. We crossed the fringe of the crowd at the Park Avenue mother ship and could only point and laugh. Jayzuss.
Ironic that you’re bagging on them for having nothing better to do. Nice threadshit, bro.