JC Penney (as posted in the linked TechCrunch post):
A third-party credit card brand made the requirement for all merchants to actively support EMV contactless functionality effective April 13, retiring the legacy MSD contactless technology in place. Given the resources and lead time associated with meeting the new mandate, JCPenney chose to suspend all contactless payment options until a later date. Customers still have the ability to complete their transactions manually by inserting or swiping their physical credit cards at our point-of-sale terminals in stores, an option employed by the vast majority of JCPenney shoppers.
As to whether JCPenney will bring Apple Pay back, the TechCrunch post quotes JCPenney CEO Jill Soltau:
“I think that’s one of the key initiatives that we’ll be working on here in the coming months because we’re not being as strategic in how we speak to the customer and engage with the customer through our pricing and promotion,” she said. “And I would frankly say it might be a little bit confusing, and you might not know exactly when you can get the best value at JCPenney,” the CEO added.
The hint here is the importance to JCPenney of customer purchase data, something they lose with Apple Pay:
Customer purchase data allows a retailer to better target its customers with relevant promotions, as stores are able to collect the customer’s name and card number at point of sale, which they can then combine with other demographic data like the customer’s address, phone and email.
Apple Pay, meanwhile, prevents this level of access — something that customers like, but retailers traditionally have not.
The push and pull of marketing and privacy. Is Apple Pay inevitable? Will customers push back on JCPenney’s move away from privacy? Keeping an eye on this one.
Lying on a church pew with his arm over his head, 6-year-old Gordon Andindagaye whimpered a bit — in fear, not pain — as Dr. William A. Cherniak slowly swept a small ultrasound scanner up and down his chest.
Dr. Cherniak and Rodgers Ssekawoko Muhumuza, the Ugandan clinical officer he was training, stared at the iPhone into which the scanner was plugged, watching Gordon’s lung expand and contract.
Gordon had a persistent cough and swollen lymph nodes, and looked tired and unwell. As other boys ran around outside, kicking a soccer ball made of rags and twine, he clung weakly to his mother. The scan on the iPhone’s screen suggested his lungs had fluid in them.
What a great story about phones that aren’t just phones.
Six weeks after the spacecraft completed its orbital launch debut, SpaceX’s first flight-proven Crew Dragon capsule suffered a catastrophic explosion seconds before a planned SuperDraco test fire.
And:
The April 20th event is the first time in the known history of SpaceX’s orbital spacecraft program that a vehicle – in this case, the first completed and flight-proven Crew Dragon capsule – has suffered a total failure. Regardless of the accident investigation’s ultimate conclusions, the road ahead of Crew Dragon’s first crewed test flight has become far more arduous.
After entering the home, the intruder grabbed the victim’s arm and ordered him to connect his computer to the internet.
He put the firearm against the victim’s head and ordered him to follow the instructions. “Fearing for his life, the victim quickly turned to move the gun away from his head. The victim then managed to gain control of the gun,” court records show.
The victim shot the intruder multiple times and called the police.
Read the story. Just wow. But as soon as I read “ordered him to connect his computer to the internet”, I could see how this was going to go.
JC Penney tweet confirming the removal of Apple Pay:
JCPenney made the decision to remove Apple Pay for our stores, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. We will definitely forward your feedback regarding this for review.
In all the stories I’ve read on this issue, no one seems to know why this happened. And the “We will definitely forward your feedback regarding this for review” comment makes it look like this was either done with blinders on (accounting making a decision that impacted in store customer experience, for example), or done as a trial, waiting to see if there is any pushback from customers.
Read the thread comments. Pushback happened pretty immediately. It’d be interesting to know the reason for this decision. A definite step backwards. Penney pinching?
Apple’s latest promotional video for the iPhone XS, released last September, includes a stunning scene: a massive avalanche storming down a mountaintop, enveloping everything below in an opaque cloud of white snow.
“The Making of Don’t mess with Mother,” posted on YouTube today, shows that explosives were used in order to generate the avalanche scene used in the video.
Motherboard emailed Dave McClung, a professor of avalanche engineering and research at the University of British Columbia, and asked if there’s anything that we can geographically conclude about this avalanche, based on the video.
It’s an interesting question but the deeper one might be even more interesting – does the behind the scenes footage unnecessarily glorify a particular culture?
The greatest threat in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Thanos, a powerful warlord who obliterated half of all life in the universe by snapping his fingers. But among the greatest threats to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the eyes of those who created it, is anyone who spoils even the smallest of plot details.
That makes the “Avengers: Endgame” footage that leaked earlier this week almost as terrible as that Thanos snap, as far as spoilers go. While they didn’t respond directly to the leak, directors Joe and Anthony Russo tweeted a letter to fans Tuesday, with the hashtag #DontSpoilTheEndgame, imploring viewers not to give anything away after the movie hits theaters next week.
I honestly don’t get this need to broadcast the spoilers. Why consciously ruin the movie for other fans?
I took a few minutes at the start of this week’s podcast to rant a little about some of the mistakes Apple Music is making lately, and then I talk to Dave about all the things he considered before buying a new TV.
I want to thank Bare Bones Software for sponsoring The Loop this week. Bare Bones Software, makers of BBEdit, is one of my favorite software companies — in fact, I’ve been using BBEdit for more than 20 years. Now, BBEdit is also available in the Mac App Store! Same great features. Same user experience. You can subscribe in the Mac App Store or purchase perpetual licenses directly from Bare Bones Software. Also, you can still get great merch, including Classic and Rebus T-shirts, enamel pins, and more in their merch store!
Earlier that month Facebook had unveiled a major change to its News Feed rankings to favor what the company called “meaningful social interactions.” News Feed is the core of Facebook—the central stream through which flow baby pictures, press reports, New Age koans, and Russian-made memes showing Satan endorsing Hillary Clinton. The changes would favor interactions between friends, which meant, among other things, that they would disfavor stories published by media companies.
And:
Davos provided a first chance for many media executives to confront Facebook’s leaders about these changes. And so, one by one, testy publishers and editors trudged down Davos Platz to Facebook’s headquarters throughout the week, ice cleats attached to their boots, seeking clarity. Facebook had become a capricious, godlike force in the lives of news organizations; it fed them about a third of their referral traffic while devouring a greater and greater share of the advertising revenue the media industry relies on. And now this. Why? Why would a company beset by fake news stick a knife into real news?
This is a perfect weekend read, both riveting and chock full of detail. More detail to add to my growing stack of “Why I don’t use Facebook” arguments. I do love the idea of reconnecting with childhood friends, staying in touch with my family. I wish there was a true, do no evil platform for this.
Smart home devices are potentially one of the bigger security threats since there is no easy way to check what they are up to on your network. That’s a problem Princeton University has set out to solve, with the Princeton IoT Inspector.
And:
The tool is Mac-only for now. Using it, you can see:
a list of all the IoT devices on your home network
when they exchange data with an external server
which servers they contact
whether those connections are secure
Nice find. I’ve long thought about a user friendly device you could add to your network, have it build a list of devices you know about, give them names (such as Dave’s Switch, or Emma’s Mac, etc.), then have it automatically report (send you a text, perhaps) whenever a new, unknown device hopped onto your network.
To extend that idea, how about adding in the ability to detect cellular communications, within a short radius, reporting on those devices as well.
There are lots of solutions out there that do some of these things, but none I’ve found that do all of them, and none in a particularly friendly, efficient way. Please do weigh in if you know of something along these lines.
In the meantime, this Princeton tool is a nice one to explore. Though it’s not part of the Mac App Store, so do so at your own risk.
Facebook confirmed Thursday that hundreds of millions of user passwords were being stored in a “readable format” within its servers, accessible to internal Facebook employees — including millions more Instagram users than previously thought. Affected users will be notified, Facebook said, so they can change those passwords.
“We now estimate that this issue impacted millions of Instagram users,” Facebook wrote. “We will be notifying these users as we did the others. Our investigation has determined that these stored passwords were not internally abused or improperly accessed.”
Facebook is the Samsung of social media. They just can’t stop shooting themselves in the feet. Unlike Samsung, their screw ups can create a lot more damage.
Venice is not just a stage set. It is also a city with a resident population, which has productive activities, transportation and services. But how does the “Venice system” work? How do the tides in the lagoon behave? How are the canals formed? And the embankments? What’s under the buildings?
Venice is a fascinating place. Not only because of its history and culture but its actual physical nature. This is a really well-done video “explaining” the city.
Yesterday, my Twitter feed was littered with complaints about Samsung’s new foldable phone. Here’s but one example (WARNING: Strobe effect in the video):
This is not simply one unit gone bad. One after another, from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman to Marques Brownlee to the Verge’s Dieter Bohn (the author of the linked article), reports of faulty review units kept rolling in.
Samsung’s response:
A limited number of early Galaxy Fold samples were provided to media for review. We have received a few reports regarding the main display on the samples provided. We will thoroughly inspect these units in person to determine the cause of the matter.
Might be that they were poorly made, rushed to market. Just a thought.
To add to the mess, the protective film that covered the units was so poorly applied, it appeared as if it was designed to be removed. And remove it they did. Here’s Joanna Stern’s Fold. Seem’s pretty ripe for peeling to me.
Samsung’s response continues:
Separately, a few reviewers reported having removed the top layer of the display causing damage to the screen. The main display on the Galaxy Fold features a top protective layer, which is part of the display structure designed to protect the screen from unintended scratches. Removing the protective layer or adding adhesives to the main display may cause damage. We will ensure this information is clearly delivered to our customers.
All devices from a user – and their family – can be located using the unified app, including AirPods. Devices can be put in “lost mode” or made to play a sound using the same app, just like Find My iPhone.
I can definitely see using this to get a sense of how new kicks would look on your feet, props for that. But not sure how you’d get a sense if the shoes actually fit.
Same for shirt, pants, other clothes that rely on fit. Perhaps as laser-scanned, 3D models of your body become a standard, this will prove a reliable way to buy.
That aside, this AR looks terrific. Slight glitchiness on the edges, but definitely good enough to give you a feel for the fashion.
Apple today announced a major expansion of its recycling programs, quadrupling the number of locations US customers can send their iPhone to be disassembled by Daisy, its recycling robot. Daisy will disassemble and recycle select used iPhones returned to Best Buy stores throughout the US and KPN retailers in the Netherlands. Customers can also turn in their eligible devices to be recycled at any Apple Store or through apple.com as part of the Apple Trade In program.
And:
To further its research on recycling, Apple today also announced the opening of its Material Recovery Lab dedicated to discovering future recycling processes. The new 9,000-square-foot facility in Austin, Texas, will look for innovative solutions involving robotics and machine learning to improve on traditional methods like targeted disassembly, sorting and shredding.
Follow the headline link and check out the pics. Even better, jump to this CNET article, which shows a pic of Apple’s first recycling robot, Liam, and then some detailed images of Daisy at work.
To demonstrate how easy it is to track people without their knowledge, we collected public images of people who worked near Bryant Park (available on their employers’ websites, for the most part) and ran one day of footage through Amazon’s commercial facial recognition service. Our system detected 2,750 faces from a nine-hour period (not necessarily unique people, since a person could be captured in multiple frames). It returned several possible identifications, including one frame matched to a head shot of Richard Madonna, a professor at the SUNY College of Optometry, with an 89 percent similarity score. The total cost: about $60.
And:
if you’re an adult in America, there’s more than a 50 percent chance that you’re already in a law enforcement facial recognition database, according to researchers at Georgetown.
Unshaky is a simple Mac utility that monitors keyboard input, and then blocks anything it thinks is a double-press caused by a keyboard fault.
The app works by asking you to register it as an accessibility device. It then registers each keypress and blocks any repeated press within the next 40 milliseconds. The delay is user-configurable, with the developer recommending you stick with the default unless it doesn’t solve the problem, and then try first 60ms and then 80ms.
Have to say, this is a pretty clever idea. It should help solve the key-stutter problem (press once, duplicate letters appear). Not so for stuck keys (press once, no letter appears). But still a great idea.
Apple Inc has held talks with at least four companies as possible suppliers for next-generation lidar sensors in self-driving cars, evaluating the companies’ technology while also still working on its own lidar unit, three people familiar with the discussions said.
And:
Current lidar systems, including units from Velodyne Inc mounted on Apple’s fleet of self-driving test vehicles, use laser light pulses to render precise images of the environment around the car. But the systems can cost $100,000 and use mechanical parts to sweep the laser scanners across the road.
And:
What is clear from Apple’s interest in cheaper lidar systems is that it wants to control the “perception stack” of sensors, computers and software to drive an autonomous vehicle, regardless of who makes the vehicle, another person familiar with the talks said.
The idea of Apple focusing on that so-called “perception stack”, the core element of any autonomous vehicle, clicks for me.
Apple needs chips that will connect the iPhone to the new, fifth-generation wireless networks being introduced now or risk falling behind its rivals. The company had bet on Intel Corp., but recently decided its would-be 5G supplier wasn’t up to the task.
And:
That led Apple back to Qualcomm — and spurred a sudden end to a long-running court fight over patents, component costs and royalties for one of the most critical parts of an iPhone.
This is a well written walkthrough of the sequence. A short read, worth your time.
My absolutely favorite line:
Apple’s decision to cut a deal with Qualcomm was an indictment of Intel’s modem efforts.
Later this week on Saturday, April 20, MacStories will turn 10 years old.
It was Monday, April 20, 2009 when, fresh out of a job from which I had gotten fired, I decided to publish the first official post on my self-hosted blog after a few weeks of running a free WordPress.com website. I was 21. My English was terrible and, at the time, MacStories was written in two languages, English and Italian – probably to hide my discomfort as a non-native English speaker.
And:
For the first year, I poured my life into writing MacStories every day and trying to establish my name by reaching out to as many app makers, fellow bloggers, and readers as possible. My girlfriend can confirm this – I was working 15-hour days, including Christmas or my birthday, just to make MacStories happen.
Take a few minutes to read Federico’s story. As a fan, both of Federico and all that MacStories brings to the community, I found this retelling of a ten year look back to be inspiring.
Congratulations, Federico, and to all the rest of the MacStories team, both past and present.
Qualcomm and Apple today announced an agreement to dismiss all litigation between the two companies worldwide. The settlement includes a payment from Apple to Qualcomm. The companies also have reached a six-year license agreement, effective as of April 1, 2019, including a two-year option to extend, and a multiyear chipset supply agreement.
A surprise settlement in a years-long legal battle over licensing and patents has opened the door for Apple to adopt Qualcomm 5G modems, but the chips are not expected to reach iPhone until 2020.
Citing a source familiar with the matter, Nikkei reports Apple and Qualcomm were working toward a settlement for weeks, during which time Apple began evaluations of Qualcomm’s 5G modem for use in iPhone. In addition to what appears to be internal testings, the tech giant also requested partner manufacturers to test the chip, the report said.
Despite the effort, Apple will not be able to build the chipmaker’s 5G silicon into this year’s iPhone. The deadline for integration, both in terms of hardware and software, has likely long passed.
Another tidbit I read was from the well respected Tim Bajarin on Facebook. He thinks Apple will release a 5G iPhone in 2020 – but not in the usual September time frame. Bajarin believes Apple will have a 5G-capable iPhone before the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan.
