Apple

Re/code team takes Apple Pay on a test drive

[VIDEO] Re/code put together a review team of four people, two on the east coast, two on the west coast, to put Apple Pay through its paces.

Our overall conclusion: Apple Pay worked smoothly and quickly in all but a very few instances. But the number of physical and online stores that accept it at launch is still very small. Plus, some common things slow it down, like the need for signatures and debit-card PINs in some stores, its lack of support for loyalty cards, and cashier confusion. So it’s far from a complete replacement for your wallet and credit card, at least not yet.

This simplistic conclusion is only skin deep. The real value of the review is watching Apple Pay at work, with a separate video for each team member. To get you started, here’s Katie Boehret from Washington, D.C.

Detailed review of Pixelmator for iPad

Benjamin Mayo digs in to the Pixelmator image editor, which was shown off by Apple when they rolled out the new iPads. If you are even a little curious about Pixelmator, take a few minutes to read the review. Benjamin does a good job exploring the interface and walking through the image adjustment workflow.

Apple Pay and NFC spoofing

Why NFC spoofing might work with other wallet mechanisms, but not with Apple Pay.

Baseball, hot dogs, and Apple Pay

Major League Baseball has announced that both Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City and AT&T Park in San Francisco will be accepting Apple Pay, starting with tonight’s game one in Kansas City. And that means less time waiting in line for everyone.

The real value of Apple’s new iPads

Charles Arthur, writing for The Guardian, makes the case that Apple’s new iPad release is much more than a speed bump release. Rather, the addition of Touch ID to the iPad line is a huge milestone marker and a critical element in Apple’s Apple Pay rollout and pursuit of acceptance/adoption in the business sector.

On today’s release of Apple Pay

At last week’s event, Apple announced that iOS 8.1 would be released today. The iOS 8.1 feature with the biggest potential impact is, no doubt, Apple Pay.

The evolution of Apple ads

A brilliant collection of Apple ads through the years, plus, Dave finds an old Newton pre-announce poster.

To Siri, with love

A lovely story about an autistic boy named Gus and his BFF, Siri.

How to set up and use Handoff for Yosemite and iOS 8

Handoff is a new feature that lets you edit a document on one device, then continue editing on another device. Sarah Guarino does a nice job walking through the requirements and setup, then takes Handoff through its paces.

Making phone calls using Yosemite

One of the many new features you get for free with Yosemite is the ability to make and answer phone calls from your Mac. Here’s a first hand run through of that experience.

How to upgrade to Yosemite

Ready to upgrade to Yosemite? First thing to do is make sure your hardware will support the upgrade.

Ireland to phase out ‘Double Irish’ tax break

This will impact a lot of companies, Google being a bit of a poster child here. note that the elimination of the “double Irish” provision will not, by itself, change the tax rates negotiated by companies like Apple. That’s a separate issue.

U2 responds to pushback about their massive iTunes album release

[VIDEO] U2 put together a video responding to fan questions. One fan brought up the album that was automatically added to everyone’s library, wanted or not:

Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to peoples playlists ever again? It’s really rude.

Bono sighed, then said:

Oops, um, I’m sorry about that…This beautiful idea. Might’ve gotten carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania. Touch of generosity. Dash of self promotion. And deep fear that these songs, that we’ve poured our lives into the last few years, mightn’t be heard. There’s a lot of noise out there. I guess we, us, we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it.

On the video embedded below, the question starts at about 2:18.