I've mentioned before in the past that Apple will be the company to push technology into the Future.
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How Apple Is Invading Our Bodies
Lev Grossman @leverus Matt Vella @mattvella 1:33 PM ET
The Silicon Valley giant has redrawn the line that separates our technology and ourselves. That may not be a good thing
With the unveiling of the Apple Watch Tuesday in Cupertino, California, Apple is attempting to put technology somewhere where it’s never been particularly welcome. Like a pushy date, the Apple Watch wants to get intimate with us in a way we’re not entirely used to or prepared for. This isn’t just a new product, this is technology attempting to colonize our bodies.
The Apple Watch is very personal—“personal” and “intimate” were words that Apple CEO Tim Cook and his colleagues used over and over again when presenting it to the public for the first time. That’s where the watch is likely to change things, because it does something computers aren’t generally supposed to: it lives on your body. It perches on your wrist, like one of Cinderella’s helpful bluebirds. It gets closer than we’re used technology getting. It gets inside your personal bubble. We’re used to technology being safely Other, but the Apple Watch wants to snuggle up and become part of your Self.
This is new, and slightly unnerving. When technologies get adopted as fast as we tend to adopt Apple’s products, there are always unintended consequences. When the iPhone came out it was praised to the skies as a design and engineering marvel, because it is one, but no one really understood what it would be like to have it in our lives. Nobody anticipated the way iPhones exert a constant gravitational tug on our attention. Do I have e-mail? What’s happening on Twitter? Could I get away with playing Tiny Wings at this meeting? When you’re carrying a smartphone, your attention is never entirely undivided.
The reality of living with an iPhone, or any smart, connected device, is that it makes reality feel just that little bit less real. One gets over-connected, to the point where the thoughts and opinions of distant anonymous strangers start to feel more urgent than those of your loved ones who are in the same room as you. One forgets how to be alone and undistracted. Ironically enough experiences don’t feel fully real till you’ve used your phone to make them virtual—tweeted them or tumbled them or Instagrammed them or YouTubed them, and the world has congratulated you for doing so. Smartphones create needs we never had before, and were probably better off without.
read more here:
http://time.com/3318655/apple-watch-2/
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WILL APPLE PAY CONVINCE YOU TO LEAVE YOUR WALLET AT HOME?
Eddy Cue, Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, discusses the new Apple Pay product. // Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
Apple announced its mobile payment service — called Apple Pay — Tuesday, effectively sending shivers down the metaphorical spines of competitors like Coin, Google Wallet, and Softcard.
But what is Apple Pay? Apple's Eddy Cue pretty much covered it during the (painfully) slow intro video: Instead of wasting your precious time rummaging around for your credit card, why not use your phone — which probably never leaves your hand — to digitally pay with a single tap instead?
Apple Pay, though, isn't the first service to command your credit cards. Here's how it stacks up against other wallet eradicators.
Apple Pay
What It Does: By using NFC (near-field communication) technology, the service will store credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, and American Express) and encrypt each transaction made at participating stores using receivers for devices with Apple Pay.
Why It's Cool: It eliminates the wallet and will certainly speed up the process — even if the process doesn't take that long in the first place. Either way, it takes away the middleman at a slew of stores already, including Subway, Disney, Walgreens, Macy's, Sephora, and more.
Why It's Not So Cool: Three major questions remain: A) Do we really need it? B) When your phone runs out of battery, will you end up needing your physical cards anyway? and C) Do we want to put all our credit card information into one device, given privacy concerns running rampant already over services like the iCloud? Tim Cook says it's all the more reason you'll need Apple Pay: "We're totally reliant on the exposed numbers, and the outdated and vulnerable magnetic interface — which by the way is five decades old — and the security codes which all of us know aren't secure," he said on stage, showing off the Touch ID confirmation feature required to carry out a transaction.
the alternatives and more, here:
http://www.nextgov.com/mobile/2014/09/will-apple-pay-convince-you-leave-your-wallet-home/93671/
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Cashless Society Update:
5 reasons Apple is poised to finally usher in a cashless society
BY TRICIA DURYEE on September 8, 2014 at 4:54 pm
A endless list of companies — from wireless carriers and handset makers to tech giants as big as Google — have tried to muscle their way into the mobile payments market, by releasing clunky ways to get consumers to pay for their groceries or a movie ticket with a swipe of their phone.
Now the speculation is that Apple is gearing up to take a shot at building a better mobile wallet. Expectations are high for the Cupertino, Calf.-based company. The prevailing thought is that Apple’s mobile wallet will be the first to take off thanks to the company’s ability to develop elegant and easy-to-use services that appeal to a wide audience.
So, if the rumors are true, and Apple does roll out a mobile payments platform tomorrow, we’ve come up with five reasons why Apple will be one of the major factors in changing the way we pay.
1. Apple has been laying the groundwork for years
2. Apple controls both the hardware and the software, so it can make the right technology choices.
3. Apple is already a payments kingpin
4. Mobile payments are on Apple CEO Tim Cook’s radar
5. Apple will succeed because everyone wants it to
the details here:
http://www.geekwire.com/2014/five-signs-apple-will-successful-ushering-cashless-society/
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Are We Becoming A Cashless Society?
August 21, 2014 6:55 AM
(Photo illustration by Ed Fischer)
By Hadas Kuznits
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Could America be turning into a cashless society?
Folks tell KYW Newsradio when it comes to their purchases, they’re using less green and more plastic:
“I mostly spend credit.”
“I don’t carry cash at all, I always sue my debit card.”
“I don’t carry cash on me.”
So why the switch from cash to credit?
“I don’t know, I guess probably because it’s easier to carry around.”
“Well, maybe you can get robbed.”
“Like change, you don’t have to jingle it in your pockets and your purse isn’t as heavy.”
This woman says while she’s not a fan of a cashless society, she accepts that many want to pay using credit:
“That hurts us as business owners every time because we get charged for every transaction but it’s the way of the world and if we don’t use it then we don’t make that money.”
Many people seem to agree, they’ve especially noticed the younger generation using less and less cash over the years:
“Yes, eventually I see it — I think my children everything is going to be debit cards and they’re gonna be like, ‘mom, can you put money on my card?’ Not, ‘mommy can I have money?’ (laughs) they’re gonna say, mommy can you put it on my debit card — they’re not even gonna call you anymore! They’re gonna text you!”
here:
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/08/21/are-we-becoming-a-cashless-society/
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Survey Shows Shift Towards Cashless Society Driven By Millennials
September 1, 2014 3:54 PM
Credit cards. (DAMIEN MEYER/AFP/Getty Images)
Jeff Bell
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— When it comes to making small purchases, Americans prefer cash over plastic, but according to a new survey that’s likely to change.
“We are moving towards becoming a more cashless society,” said Creditcards.com Senior Industry Analyst Matt Schulz “Two-thirds of American card holders still use cash for purchases under $5.”
Age plays an important factor in what we prefer. For those who are over 50, they tend to use cash more than plastic.
“77-percent of people aged 50 or older use cash, but that number drops to only 52 percent for those who are younger than 50,” Schulz said.
18 to 29 year-olds actually prefer plastic for purchases of less than $5.
Schulz said technology has something to do with these age-based preferences. “The younger generation is a little more used to buying things online, using plastic,” he said.
Americans also have strong preferences when it comes to using debit versus credit. He said generally people prefer debit to credit at about a 2 to 1 ratio. For millennials that ratio grows to about a 3 to 1 ratio.
cashless society - 05.09.2014
http://globalistnews.blogspot.com/2014/05/cashless-society-05092014.html
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Is this 'The Mark"?
No
It's just another step in conditioning the masses to accepting the cashless society which will eventually lead to The Mark of the Beast.
People are going to be trained to tap their wrist watch near another device for scanning, to make payments for everyday things.
Think about that for a moment.
cashless society - 05.09.2014
http://globalistnews.blogspot.com/2014/05/cashless-society-05092014.html
cashless society update - 07.07.2014
http://globalistnews.blogspot.com/2014/07/cashless-society-update-07072014.html
cashless society update - 05.20.2013
http://globalistnews.blogspot.com/2014/05/cashless-society-update-05202013.html
Cashless Society Update - 06.21.2014
http://globalistnews.blogspot.com/2014/06/cashless-society-update-06212014.html
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UPDATE:
2:03 pm ET
Feb 6, 2014
By TOM GARA
October 2015: The End of the Swipe-and-Sign Credit Card
(We have corrected this article to reflect the fact that customers will still be able to sign for credit card payments after October 2015.)
It’s a payment ritual as familiar as handing over a $20 bill, and it’s soon to go extinct: prepare to say farewell to the swipe-and-sign of a credit card transaction.
Beginning later next year, you will stop swiping the credit card. Instead, you will insert your card into a slot, just like people do in much of the rest of the world, where the machine will read a microchip, not a magnetic stripe. You’ll still be signing for the time being, but the new system also enables the use of PIN numbers, if card issuers decide to add them to their cards.
The U.S. is the last major market to still use the old-fashioned swipe-and-sign system, and it’s a big reason why almost half the world’s credit card fraud happens in America, despite the country being home to about a quarter of all credit card transactions.
The recent large-scale theft of credit card data from retailers including Target and Neiman Marcus brought the issue more mainstream attention, leading to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week. Executives told the senators that once the country transitions to the new system — which includes credit cards embedded with a microchip containing security data — these kind of hacking attacks will be much more difficult to pull off.
The shift is coming though: both MasterCard MA -0.53% and Visa V +0.35% have roadmaps for the changeover, and both have set October, 2015 as an important deadline in the switch. But why has it taken this long, and how will the changeover work for card users and businesses?
We spoke with MasterCard’s Carolyn Balfany, the company’s expert on all things related to the new payment system, known as EMV, that will lead to the end of the swipe-and-sign and the beginning of the chip-and-PIN. Here’s what she had to say.
more here:
http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/02/06/october-2015-the-end-of-the-swipe-and-sign-credit-card/
and here:
Why Apple Pay could succeed where others have had underwhelming results
Not because Apple is a huge and influential company, but because the timing is right.
by Megan Geuss - Sept 14 2014, 1:00pm CDT
"Apple Pay beta"
A couple of months ago I was visiting New York City and had to catch an early flight out of LaGuardia. At 4:30am I hailed a taxi on Houston Street and the driver and I sped to the airport over dark, empty streets.
On the way, I found a Samsung Note 3 in my bag that Review Editor Ron Amadeo had sent me a few weeks before. The thing had a Near-Field Communications (NFC) chip in it, and I had set up my Google Wallet account on it earlier. I also noticed that the taxi I was in had a tap-to-pay terminal displayed in the backseat. I am a consummate morning person, and a rush of new-day adrenaline told me that it was time to make my first Google Wallet purchase in three years—my last one occurring in 2011 when I reviewed the service at its debut for PCWorld.
As we pulled up to the curb, the driver continued to ignore me as I got out my phone. I touched the Note 3 to the terminal. The phone vibrated, but nothing happened. At this point, the driver turned around. I gave an embarrassed laugh and he said a few polite words but he had no idea how to help me. “Nobody ever uses their phone to pay,” he said. I tried again. Nothing. But the driver was curious now, and maybe because it was so early in the morning and he had nothing else going on, he got out of the taxi and came around to my side.
“Maybe you should select Debit from the screen first,” he suggested. I selected debit and re-tried the phone. Nothing. But there appeared a screen that asked me to select a tip amount. I chose 20 percent and held the phone back up to the NFC reader. It vibrated and finally on the phone’s screen I got a notice of success. Success!
more here:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/why-apple-pay-could-succeed-where-others-have-had-underwhelming-results/
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