Apple

FilePane, more power for your drags and drops

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There are a number of drag and drop utilities available for the Mac. They all work by inserting themselves in the drag and drop command chain, intercepting a drag event and then presenting their interface to receive and process the drop.

FilePane is an interesting take on this approach.

NFC, credit card disruption, and the future of Apple Pay

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Interesting piece from Seeking Alpha (reg-wall):

Once paying for purchases at retail with a smartphone becomes commonplace, regardless of whether you believe Apple will roll out its own AppleCard, the credit card companies will fall one by one, starting with American Express. How can it possibly be prestigious to carry a Platinum or Black card when the card never leaves your wallet?

Apple replaces Samsung as top mobile brand in China

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CNET:

Samsung was replaced by the iPhone maker as No. 1 in China’s mobile sector this year, according to the China Brand Research Center’s 2014 China Brand Power Index ranking report released Tuesday.

Buy a Disney movie in iTunes, watch it on Android device, and vice versa

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Back in February, Disney launched its Disney Movies Anywhere (DMA) service on iOS. In effect, Disney movies you buy via iTunes are available in your DMA locker for you to stream on your iOS devices. Now, Android has joined the fray, meaning you can watch all those iOS-purchased Disney movies on your Android device and, if you buy movies on an Android device, you can watch them on your iOS device.

The true origins of MCX and CurrentC

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This article appeared back in January 2013, long before CVS and Rite Aid pulled the plug on Apple Pay, and long before Apple Pay was even announced. There’s a lot of detail here that answers many of the current questions about CurrentC and MCX.

Learn to sing, train your voice

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Have you ever wanted to train your voice, learn to sing in pitch, develop a better ear? The SingTrue app uses a wide range of pitch recognition exercises to develop your sense of pitch.

CurrentC and antitrust implications

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There’s been a lot of discussion about the legal implications of the recent move by CVS and Rite Aid to drop support for Apple Pay. A little more light is shining on this issue.

Apple has a huge TV opportunity thanks to proposed FCC rule change

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Earlier this week, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed a far reaching rule change (detailed in this blog post) that would level the playing field and give non-traditional video suppliers access to programming that is currently only available to cable and satellite providers. This would open up a huge opportunity for Apple.

A tale of three companies

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The quarterly mobile sales numbers from IDC are out and here’s what they say about the top three mobile phone companies.

Tim Cook speaks up

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Tim Cook posted an essay in Bloomberg Businessweek this morning saying, in a nutshell, that he’s proud to be gay and felt it was important to make this public statement.

Apple Pay cancellation smoking gun

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Two articles make the case that MCX merchants are contractually forbidden from accepting payment schemes (such as Apple Pay) that compete with CurrentC.

Video review of the Retina 5K iMac

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Terrific review of the Retina 5K iMac. So well done. Trying hard to resist the urge to order one right this second.

On the brewing battle between Apple Pay and CurrentC

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There’s a major battle brewing in the payments industry. On one side, Apple Pay sits on top of the existing credit card model, adding a layer of anonymizing security and ease of use.

On the other side is CurrentC, the brainchild of a consortium called the Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX. CurrentC seeks to eliminate the credit card companies, and their fees, from the system. CurrentC is an alternative to credit cards, not an add-on. Here are the big issues.