Thread: Apple Pay Live Today

Originally Posted by AetheLove

Help me out here: on the Shady Scale, is lower better or worse?


Æ

Yeah, I guess that was kinda confusing. Higher would be MORE shady. I may be wearing a tinfoil hat, but I REALLY have trust issues with anything Google gets their hands on. I hate that they bought NEST and see my thermostat. I am waiting for a firmware update that plays ads every time I want to change the temp.

Google is just the Second Coming of Apple. Don't forget that Apple started as the Everyman Giant Slayer only to become the propriatary giant themselves.

That being said....I like GMail and my ipods. I use them, and don't let them use me when I can help it. What I steer well clear of is MyFace. Anyone who bitches about Visa (or Apple, or Google, or...) knowing too much about them, but turns around and journals their every move on MyFace, doesn't deserve the privacy they are lacking.

Misty, water colored memories, of the way they were:

Originally Posted by HeavyG

Yeah, I guess that was kinda confusing. Higher would be MORE shady. I may be wearing a tinfoil hat, but I REALLY have trust issues with anything Google gets their hands on. I hate that they bought NEST and see my thermostat. I am waiting for a firmware update that plays ads every time I want to change the temp.

You and I seem to have a similar hierarchy of shady.

One difference between Google and Facebook vs Apple is that for the former two, you are their product. They're in the creepy business. I think it's possible to do marketing and advertising in a non-creepy way, but these two are all-in on the creepy.

Apple's product is hardware/software. Some of their software products piss me off, but their basic motivation (and their profit) is pretty straight-forward. I don't think they're angels, but their business model doesn't seem inclined to sell me out.

Google's and Facebook's business is to extract my soul, dissect it, chop it into parts, add me to a soup made from people who taste similar to me, and sell Cans of my Concentrated Cohort to whoever pays the most.


Æ

bigdog would dislike all this anti-Google talk. He'd have sex with Chrome if he could.

Originally Posted by AetheLove

I'm really interested in how it works out. It's the first system from a major player that I think has potential to not suck.

I've looked at the basics of their security and information model. There is a lot to like about it, in particular the extent to which it isn't passing around a lot of info.

The merchant gets paid, but doesn't get the details of the payment account (they don't know, and can't steal, your credit card info).

Apple facilitates the transfer, but doesn't get to know what you buy. That was particularly impressive to me, as every other system I've heard of attempts to monetize your behaviour by tracking your purchases; basically making themselves into a "shopper's club card" for everything you buy.

The issuing bank still knows what you buy, but you can switch which account you use for any particular purchase. I keep separate accounts for different categories of purchases, but that means carrying extra cards. The Apple Pay system would make it easy for someone to have many more accounts.

CVS Stores Reportedly Disabling NFC to Shut Down Apple Pay and Google Wallet - Mac Rumors

Retailers are disabling NFC readers to shut out Apple Pay | The Verge

CurrentC Mobile Payments may be retail’s alternative to Apple Pay

A bunch of retailers (Merchant Customer Exchange, “MCX”) are developing a system called CurrentC and have disabled NFC payment systems in their stores. In at least some cases these systems were working with ApplePay, but the merchants subsequently turned them off.

CurrentC doesn't work with credit cards, only with pre-paid store cards and debit cards tied directly to a bank account.

CurrentC captures all your transaction data - what, when, where and how you buy - and saves it. It uses your identifying and behavioral data to integrate "qualifying offers, coupons, participating merchant rewards, loyalty programs and membership accounts".

It works by having the Point Of Sale system generate and display a QR Code. The customer then uses their phone to read the code (visually - the customer uses the camera in the phone). The phone generates a payment token, and then the phone "connects with the cloud for authorization and sends the approval to the merchant" (the articles are a little light on details).

QR codes? Also, the system is supposed to launch "some time next year".

It's clear that a major goal here is to cut credit card companies out of the loop. I like that. But their own description of the system makes it sound clunky, and at this point it's completely vaporware. Also, they're not freeing their customers from all the tracking and big-data-shenanigans of Visa, they're trying to take that for themselves.

MCX members are prohibited from accepting ApplePay.

In any case, we'll all get the chance to judge for ourselves "at some point next year".

Maybe.


Æ

Sigh...another thing that's only just now getting the attention it deserved a while ago cause Apple finally does it. I've been waiting for NFC support from more stores(and ATT) for about 2 years now. They never supported the requirements to get the ball rolling on my device(or similar devices), but now that Apple wants to do it then they're gunna stop everything and accommodate.

Originally Posted by AetheLove

CVS Stores Reportedly Disabling NFC to Shut Down Apple Pay and Google Wallet - Mac Rumors

Retailers are disabling NFC readers to shut out Apple Pay | The Verge

CurrentC Mobile Payments may be retail’s alternative to Apple Pay

A bunch of retailers (Merchant Customer Exchange, “MCX”) are developing a system called CurrentC and have disabled NFC payment systems in their stores. In at least some cases these systems were working with ApplePay, but the merchants subsequently turned them off.

CurrentC doesn't work with credit cards, only with pre-paid store cards and debit cards tied directly to a bank account.

CurrentC captures all your transaction data - what, when, where and how you buy - and saves it. It uses your identifying and behavioral data to integrate "qualifying offers, coupons, participating merchant rewards, loyalty programs and membership accounts".



Æ

This is where it gets interesting. Apple doesn't like to share. They are now getting a taste of their own medicine. I hope they enjoy.

From the battle between the software side of things (Apple, Google, Others) to the battle of the hardware side of things (QR Codes vs. NFC, vs. whatever's next), this is far from over. I see it being similar to the blu-ray vs. hdvd or the vhs vs betamax wars. Everyone knows there can only be one winner. Nobody wants to have 5 different apps to pay for things at 5 different places, or have their cards tied to multiple apps. Conversly, retailers aren't going to have 5 different machines on their counters.

We are just watching the opening bell of Round 1.

They've picked a fight with Google and Apple now.