Apple Pay and CurrentC Skirmish, Tim Cook Comes Out, iOS 8 Adoption and Tips, Next Office for Mac - MacRumors

Apple Pay Faces Off Against Retailer-Backed CurrentC Mobile Payments System Following Apple's launch of its Apple Pay mobile payments system in the U.S. with the release of iOS 8.1 early last week, tensions have escalated rapidly as several retailers including pharmacy chains Rite Aid and CVS shut down their NFC payment terminals in order to prevent customers from using the systems for Apple Pay and other mobile wallet systems. The retailers are part of a consortium known as Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) that is pursuing its own complicated mobile payments system planned for launch in early 2015. Just hours after MCX publicly confirmed that consortium members are required to exclusively support CurrentC, the company began notifying pilot testers and those who had expressed interest in the service that their email addresses may have been accessed without authorization, undermining the group's claims of an emphasis on security. In a virtual press conference, MCX executives speculated that the group was being attacked for "challenging the status quo", but argued that its partner merchants know their customers and feel they are looking for a robust solution like MCX to manage payments, coupons, and loyalty programs in one location. For its part, Apple is choosing to focus on the positives of Apple Pay, with Tim Cook noting on Monday that users had registered more than one million cards in the first 72 hours of Apple Pay availability, quickly making the service larger than all existing competitors combined. Apple has called the response to Apple Pay "overwhelmingly positive" and noted it is working hard to add retail partners to the service.   Read Full Article Popular Stories Oct 30, 2014 Apple CEO Tim Cook Publicly Comes Out as Gay in Letter Declaring Support for Equality It's not likely to be a surprise to many people who have followed Apple and its CEO, but Tim Cook's public acknowledgement that he is gay marks a significant event in the business world. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Cook is the first Fortune 500 CEO to voluntarily come out as gay. In his letter on the magazine's website, Cook notes that he prefers not to think of himself as an activist, but believes in promoting equality and if his openness can help comfort or inspire others, it is worth the tradeoff of a measure of his personal privacy.   Read Full Article iOS 8 Now Installed on Over Half of Active iOS Devices Customer adoption of iOS 8 has been slower than other recent major iOS updates, but with iOS 8.1 launching last week and numerous iPhone 6 units making their way into the hands of consumers, iOS 8 has now passed the 50% mark as measured by App Store activity. To help users take advantage of some of the new features of iOS 8, especially Continuity features that allow Macs and iOS devices to work more seamlessly together, we've been publishing some how-to posts and videos on such topics as Instant Hotspot, Handoff, and AirDrop. Users with older machines that don't officially support Handoff have also been interested in the Continuity Activation Tool as a potential solution.   Read Full Article Next Version of Office for Mac Shown in Leaked Screenshots, Launch Planned for First Half of 2015 Microsoft has been quiet on its plans for Office for Mac, which has not seen a major update in four years, but it looks like the company is getting closer to releasing the next version of its productivity suite for OS X. Leaked screenshots of "Outlook 16" for Mac reveal a flatter look and a follow-up set of internal Microsoft presentation slides reveal closer feature parity and more consistent look with the Windows version of Office, while enhancing support for Microsoft's various cloud-based services. A leaked timeline indicates Microsoft is targeting the first half of next year for its next Office for Mac launch.   Read Full Article FTC Sues AT&T Over 'Misleading' Unlimited Data Throttling Practices While not strictly an Apple issue, an announcement by the Federal Trade Commission that it is investigating AT&T for throttling speeds of customers on unlimited data plans proved extremely popular with our readers. The FTC accused AT&T of insufficient disclosure of the throttling policy, which involves severe speed reductions of up to 80-90% for these exceeding certain data thresholds. For its part, AT&T has called the allegations "baseless", asserting that it has been "completely transparent" with its customers and that the policy has affected only 3% of customers with users receiving text message warnings before any throttling is applied.   Read Full Article Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Apple Over 2011 MacBook Pro Graphics Issues For nearly a year, we've been tracking the growing reports of graphics issues with 2011 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models, with affected users claiming the issue is a hardware defect related to soldering of the graphics chip and pleading with the company to institute a repair program to cover affected machines. But with Apple so far proving unwilling to address the issue, a class action lawsuit has now been filed on behalf of customers affected by the issue. The suit seeks to have Apple acknowledge the issue, assess potentially affected machines, and provide free repairs or reimbursement for past repairs to affected users.   Read Full Article AT&T Locking Apple Interchangeable SIMs in iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 With the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, Apple quietly introduced an Apple SIM, a multi-carrier SIM card that could potentially allow users to switch carriers as needed. The reality, however, is a bit more limited, with AT&T opting to lock SIM cards once they are activated for use on its network, forcing users to obtain a new SIM card if they wish to switch to another network. T-Mobile CEO John Legere addressed the issue in an interview earlier this week, touting his carrier's policy that gives users complete flexibility to join or leave T-Mobile's network. Apple marketing vice president Greg Joswiak noted in a separate interview that the Apple SIM grew out of a desire for customer convenience but that with phone purchases still generally tied to carriers, users should not expect the Apple SIM concept to expand to the iPhone over the near term.   Read Full Article

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