Complicated and Convoluted

CurrentC Mobile App

Complicated and convoluted are the current C-words.

According to The New York Times:

The problem is that under the terms of their MCX contractual agreement, they are not supposed to accept competing mobile payments products like Apple Pay, according to multiple retailers involved with MCX, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. If these retailers break their contracts, they will face steep fines for doing so, these people said.

Target who is a member of Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) is not taking Apple Pay at its 1,801 stores in the United States and 133 stores in Canada. Interestingly, Target is taking Apple Pay as payment method in its iOS App.

Apple Pay Apps

Target offers REDcard® which gives everyday 5% discount on almost everything in its stores in exchange for the customer’s information (nytimes.com).

CurrentC looks like the digital counterpart of Target REDcard® but with a really clunky implementation (techcrunch.com).

currentc-payment

Are those QR-codes?

Reminds me of this collection of “Pictures of People Scanning QR-Codes” (via Daring Fireball).

Apparently CurrentC is the common enemy that spawn a union between Android and iOS users on Reddit. Thread 1 | Thread 2

CurrentC, a c-word, which is both complicated and convoluted.

Apple Pay Setup

Apple Pay (stylized as Pay) comes with iOS 8.1

Currently in the U.S., Apple Pay is supported by:

  • American Express
  • Bank of America
  • Capital One Bank
  • Chase (Visa only)
  • Citi
  • Merrill Lynch (credit only)
  • U.S. Trust
  • Wells Fargo

Apple Pay Setup 3

Apple Pay Setup 1

Apple Pay Setup 2

iOS 8.1: Text Message Forwarding

One new feature in iOS 8.1 is: Text Message Forwarding
Any text messages sent to a phone number on an iPhone will be forwarded to other iOS devices using the same Apple ID.

Go to: Settings > Messages
Enable Test Message Forwarding for other iOS devices. They have to be logged in to iCloud using the same Apple ID with the iPhone.

One thing I noticed is that at this point I cannot forward text messages to other (service-less) iPhones.

iOS 8.1: Text Message Forwarding

Getting Ready for iOS 8.1

Apple will release iOS 8.1 on Monday, October 20, 2014 along with the deployment of Apple Pay.

iOS 8.1 on iPhone 6

There will be a lot of people holding off from updating to iOS 8.1 for many different reasons. Some would be worried if iOS 8.1 update would be a repeat of the botched iOS 8.0.1 Over The Air (OTA) update. A lot of people are holding off from updating to iOS 8 because the do not have enough free space on their iOS devices, which are mostly 16 GB model or less.

I have the habit of updating my iOS devices using iTunes instead of over the air; which what I did to update to iOS 8.0.1.

Wait a few hours after the release of iOS 8.1 before proceeding with the update if you’re worried about some show-stopping bugs. Update your iOS devices using iTunes too. Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes.