Apple

Apple’s iCloud website gets a widget-styled redesign • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 17, 2022Posted in Apple, Apps, design, iCloud, web designNo Comments

Apple has finally launched a redesigned iCloud website with apps appearing as widget-styled tiles instead of icons. People might be used to accessing iCloud through native apps on their iPhones, iPads or Mac, but this is a welcome change for folks who use the website to quickly access some photos, documents, notes and reminders or delete some of the unused files to free up space. The iCloud website is also particularly useful for people who use a different computer at work, or for people who have an iPhone and a Windows laptop. You don’t have to install any app to access and edit your notes from a computer for instance. As MacRumors noted, the company has been testing the new design with app tiles for a few weeks, and now it is rolling it out for all users. iCloud site’s legacy design just showed app icons when you logged in, now it shows details under app tiles such as recent reminders, notes, documents, pages, and photos. There is even a launcher tile with app icons to quickly access some of the apps. iCloud website’s legacy design Image Credits: Apple With the new design, you can create a new page document, a reminder, a note, a keynote presentation, or a numbers spreadsheet by clicking on the + sign on the top menu bar. The grid icon on the menu bar lets you access apps. It also hosts options for checking your storage and change your plan. The websity layout is now customizable. When you click on the ‘Customize’ button, you’ll see the widgets shaking — just like on iPhone or iPad — so that you can move them around or remove them.

Supported iPhones in the US and Canada can now contact emergency services via satellite • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 15, 2022Posted in Apple, Apps, Emergency SOS, Hardware, iOS, iPhone, satelliteNo Comments

Months after it was announced at an event in September, Emergency SOS via satellite, Apple’s service for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro that uses satellite to route emergency calls, launched today. Supported iPhones in the U.S. and Canada updated with the latest iOS 16 can send an SOS even when they’re off the grid, no dish required, thanks to an upgraded wireless chipset and Apple’s partnership with satellite service provider Globalstar. Emergency SOS via satellite will expand to France, Germany, Ireland and the U.K. next month, Apple announced this morning. As my colleague Devin Coldewey noted in his coverage of Emergency SOS earlier this year, the service differs from the satellite-based data and text connectivity offered by Lynk and T-Mobile and Starlink. While those rely on cell towers strong enough to reach and receive a satellite signal, Emergency SOS — via Globalstar — uses bands that normally require a special antenna. It’s a costly venture. Apple recently pledged $450 million through its Advanced Manufacturing Fund toward expanding the infrastructure powering Emergency SOS, including the satellite network and ground stations. A part of the funding went toward installing custom-built antennas designed to receive signals transmitted by Globalstar’s satellite constellation. Testing Emergency SOS via satellite on an autumnal day in Prospect Park. One presumes that Apple intends to eventually recoup its investment. But for now, Emergency SOS is fee-free. Existing iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro owners won’t have to pay for at least two years from today, while new iPhone owners will receive free service for two years from when they activate their phones. On a drizzly Friday morning in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, I — along with other reporters — had a chance to give Emergency SOS a test drive ahead of the launch. Apple spokespeople arranged for us to place calls to 911 using the service, albeit calls that weren’t actually routed to first responders. So how’s the experience? Pretty smooth, I must say. Emergency SOS can be activated either by dialing an emergency number or automatically through Siri or the crash detection feature on the newer iPhone and Apple Watch models and fall detection on the Apple Watch. (In non-emergencies, Emergency SOS can also be used to send your location to friends and family via the Find My app.) After dialing 911, once Emergency SOS detects that cell and Wi-Fi service is unavailable, a prompt appears to launch Emergency SOS via satellite. Image Credits: Apple While active, Emergency SOS prompts you to select one of several types of emergencies — e.g. illness, crime, physical injury — and provide details about the emergency, such as whether you’re struggling to breathe or have medication handy. If you’ve set up emergency contacts, you can choose to notify them along with emergency responders. At this stage, Emergency SOS will instruct you to point your phone at the nearest satellite, showing an animation that indicates when you’ve locked on to the signal. If you’re not in a position to do so — say, unconscious or incapacitated — Emergency SOS will, where cellular and Wi-Fi aren’t available, attempt a satellite connection even if there isn’t a clear view. In my tests, Emergency SOS reliably found a signal through the thick tree branches in Prospect Park. The time to lock on varied from just a few seconds to as long as 10, though Apple says that lock-on success will depend on a number of factors, including the weather and obstructions in the way of the antenna. Like most satellite-based services, Emergency SOS doesn’t work indoors. Image Credits: Apple Apple also notes in a support page that mountains, steep hills and canyons can block Emergency SOS via satellite’s connection. But Prospect Park is devoid of these, so I wasn’t able to truly put Emergency SOS through its paces. Alas. Post-connection, Emergency SOS texts the answers to the aforementioned questions along with your phone’s battery life, location (including elevation) and — if you’ve entered it beforehand — basic medical information to either a public safety answering point (the local call center where emergency calls usually end up) or an Apple-operated emergency relay center. Which party receives the satellite-bound texts depends on whether the nearest public safety answering point supports text to 911. If it doesn’t, staffers in the emergency relay center will communicate the info to an emergency responder via voice, acting as intermediaries. Follow-up Emergency SOS texting happens in iMessage, where responders can ask about your specific location and current status. A notification shows the sending progress of each message; send times can range from a few seconds to up to around a minute for weaker signals. Image Credits: Apple It’s worth noting that Emergency SOS via satellite, as it currently exists, has a number of limitations. It’s only available in English, Spanish and French in Canada and the U.S., as mentioned — excluding Guam and American Samoa. It might not work in places above 62° latitude, such as northern parts of Canada and Alaska. And international travelers who purchased iPhones in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macao can’t use it. But it’s safe to assume we’ll see Emergency SOS via satellite evolve in the coming months to years, particularly if it someday gains a premium component — or Apple Watch support.

The Epic Games-Apple antitrust battle resumes today in appeals court • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 14, 2022Posted in antitrust, Apple, Apps, Epic Games, law, lawsuitNo Comments

Apple’s antitrust battle against Fortnite maker Epic Games is returning to the courtroom after both sides appealed last year’s ruling in a precedent-setting case over Apple’s alleged anti-competitive behavior. Last year, a U.S. District Court judge had largely favored Apple when ruling the tech giant was not acting as a monopolist with regard to its App Store practices. Epic Games was unhappy with that decision, of course, as it had wanted the court to force Apple to support third-party payments which would have allowed Fortnite to maximize its revenues. Meanwhile, Apple didn’t want to agree to the court’s order that said it would hae to permit apps that provide links to alternative payments. Oral arguments will kick off this afternoon at the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit, in what will be an even higher-stakes trial for determining Apple’s future in the app market and its ability to set its own rules around payments and commissions. While the original case was already one of the more high-profile examples of Apple’s market power being challenged through the justice system, the appeals case will bring additional scrutiny as now, the U.S. Department of Justice and the State of California have been granted time to present their own arguments to help explain the proper legal framework for evaluating the antitrust claims against Apple. Although the Justice Department’s arguments won’t technically support either side, it’s in the early stages of filing an antitrust suit against Apple — and the appeals court’s decision on the Epic Games case could ultimately shape its own ability to effectively prosecute Apple further down the road. The DoJ’s filing explained it had concerns over how the lower court had too narrowly interpreted parts of U.S. antitrust law — the Sherman Act — as well as other issues related to the lower court’s misunderstanding of the market and Apple’s monopoly power with regard to pricing, among other things. The appeals court docket is also filled with numerous amicus briefs disputing the original ruling. These include filings by noted Apple critics like Tile, Match, Basecamp, and the lobbying group the Coalition for App Fairness, as well as from other tech companies and game store operators, like Roblox and Microsoft, various consumer advocacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation Consumer Federation of America, and others. In addition, 35 U.S. state attorneys-general have filed in support of Epic Games. Epic Games had originally sued Apple in 2020 after Apple banned the company’s Fortnite app for its implementation of a new payment mechanism that allowed it to bypass Apple’s in-app purchase framework. This laid the groundwork for the antitrust case — a fight that had been brewing for years. Despite the judge’s declaration that Apple was not acting as a monopolist, the Cupertino-based tech giant appealed the ruling because it lost ground in a key area regarding what sort of rules it can make for its App Store. In the original decision, a federal judge ruled that Apple could no longer prohibit developers from pointing to other means of payment outside of Apple’s own payment system. Apple was later granted a stay on the injunction that would have forced it to comply by December 9, 2021 by updating its App Store policies, due to the case being under appeal. Epic Games had also appealed the original ruling, having wanted a decision that would have allowed the company an alternative means of serving its iOS user base, like a third-party app store, sideloading or third-party payment systems. In the months since, Apple has been crusading against the dangers of sideloading, with top execs like CEO Tim Cook and head of software engineering Craig Federighi highlighting the security compromises that sideloading entails. (This is not only due to the pressure from Epic Games, however, but also because the EU’s Digital Markets Act could mandate the method.) Epic’s lawyer Tom Goldstein will kick off today’s proceedings with his oral arguments in the appeals case presented before judges Sidney R. Thomas, Milan D. Smith Jr. and Michael J. McShane, beginning at 2 PM PT/5 PM ET. The hearing will be live-streamed on YouTube.

Twitter’s crazy week drives social apps’ growth, Google expands user choice billing • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 12, 2022Posted in app stores, Apple, Apps, Elon Musk, Google, This Week In Apps, TwitterNo Comments

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly ZebethMedia series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. Global app spending reached $65 billion in the first half of 2022, up only slightly from the $64.4 billion during the same period in 2021, as hypergrowth fueled by the pandemic has slowed down. But overall, the app economy is continuing to grow, having produced a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS and Google Play last year was $133 billion, and consumers downloaded 143.6 billion apps. This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more. Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters It’s a Twitter dumpster fire and I can’t look away Image Credits: Cloudytronics (opens in a new window) / Getty Images Where to even begin? This week Twitter became one of the most chaotic, most disastrous social networks in history — and arguably, also the most interesting, in a sort of rubbernecking kind of way. There was something new taking place either on the platform directly or within the company itself at nearly every minute. In just a handful of days since Musk’s takeover, Twitter has seen the following: The launch of Twitter Blue (11/9) followed by a pause (11/10), followed by its disappearance from the app entirely (11/11). Widespread impersonation of high-profile accounts, including Musk’s own, by Verified users — including, almost immediately, the $8/month Twitter Blue Verified users after the new subscription went live. The launch of Official badges (11/8) for high-profile accounts, followed by their disappearance (11/9) followed by their return (11/11). Elon Musk’s reveal of his plan to have Twitter enter the payments business. Further departures of key execs, including its most senior cybersecurity staffer Lea Kissner (11/10), chief privacy officer Damien Kieran (11/10), chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty (11/10) Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth (11/10) — the latter who has been one of the last remaining sane voices at the company amid the upheaval. Musk held a call with advertisers (11/9) that did not offer any solid assurances that all would be well. After this call, the call’s host and head of ad sales Robin Wheeler, quit. Later, she tweeted “I’m still here” after being persuaded by Musk to stay (11/10). After the departure of key executives across trust, safety, data governance and security, the FTC issued a rare warning to Twitter (11/10). The agency said had been “tracking the developments at Twitter with deep concern,” and that “no CEO or company is above the law.” Twitter was put under an FTC consent order in 2011 after being found to have misused user data. The order requires, among other things, that new product rollouts receive full security reviews and it dictates what Twitter can and cannot do with data. The number of rapid changes, eliminations of departments, departures of key personnel and fast launches and shutdowns of new products are now raising questions as to whether or not Twitter has managed to remain compliant with the FTC’s decree. The lead regulator in the European Union then came after Twitter, setting a meeting for next week to discuss concerns including the data protection officer’s departure and whether Twitter’s main establishment for GDPR purposes is still located in Ireland. Musk addressed employees at an all-hands (11/10) and warned them Twitter may have a net negative cash flow of billions in 2023 and suggested bankruptcy was not out of the question. One can argue that Musk was right to take a new approach at Twitter, which was losing money and failing to grow its user base. Coming in with fresh ideas and swapping out the executive team isn’t that unusual in a takeover, nor are widespread layoffs when a company is in financial trouble. New product experimentation is also to be expected. And revamping Twitter Blue, which has so far failed to attract subscribers, makes sense too. But it’s not the what that’s the issue here, really — it’s the how. Musk clearly had not thought through the impact of his changes and he laid off people who could have offered deeper insight. His move to immediately make deep cuts across Twitter (after weird ideas about code reviews, apparently), meant he missed the opportunity to actually listen to current staff who could explain what Twitter has tried, what’s failed and why they’re doing the things they are. Even if Musk disagreed with Twitter’s current direction, those understandings could be used to better inform his future decisions. Instead, he’s approached Twitter as a toy to be played with, saying even “Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months.” And it already has. Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works & change what doesn’t. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022 Living up to its promise, the first project Twitter landed on saw it reinventing the wheel. Musk, having only perceived the value of a blue Verified badge as a status symbol, believed a wide swath of Twitter users would pay for the privilege of owning one. What he didn’t understand (unlike most of Twitter’s user base), is that Verification is actually a service the platform provides its community, not just an ego-pleasing checkmark. In fact, many of those with the original badge don’t see it as a status symbol, and wouldn’t pay for the “honor” of having one. Instead, the original blue badge was a way to quickly see that someone is who they claim to be or that they’re a trusted source of news and information. Musk, on the other hand, thinks “citizen journalists” and everyday folks

Apple pledges $450M toward expanding the satellite infrastructure powering Emergency SOS • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in Apple, Apps, Hardware, infrastructure, iOS, iPhone, satelliteNo Comments

As a part of its Advanced Manufacturing Fund, Apple will invest $450 million in satellite network and ground stations to power Emergency SOS, its service for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro lineups that uses satellite to route emergency calls, the company announced today. The majority of the funding will go to Globalstar, the satellite provider with which Apple has an existing partnership to deliver Emergency SOS when it launches later this month. In part, Apple’s capital infusion will fund the installation of new custom-designed antennas manufactured by California-based company Cobham Satcom. Designed to receive signals transmitted by Globalstar’s satellite constellation, the antennas have already be installed in the satellite provider’s existing ground stations including facilities in Nevada, Hawaii, Texas, Alaska, Florida and Puerto Rico. “The launch of Emergency SOS via satellite direct to iPhone is a generational advancement in satellite communications, and we are proud that Globalstar’s satellites and spectrum assets will play a central role in saving lives,” Globalstart executive chairman Jay Monroe said in a statement. “With Apple’s infrastructure investment, we’ve grown our teams in California and elsewhere to construct, expand, and upgrade our ground stations, and we look forward to the next chapter in Globalstar’s lifesaving technology.” As CNBC notes, Apple’s investment — one of the largest to date out of its Advanced Manufacturing Fund, through which the company has furnished U.S.-based suppliers including Corning, Finisar, XPO Logistics and Copan Diagnostics with over $1.4 billion dollars combined — underscores the costly nature of satellite-based communications. In addition to substantial technical and communications infrastructure, Emergency SOS requires human-staffed call centers. Apple says that over 300 Globalstar employees will work on the service. Emergency SOS doesn’t support ordinary data, voice or text. But it alerts emergency services with a location and other key information. Once users point their phone at a satellite using an orientation guide in iOS, they can choose between preset messages to be sent along with the phone’s battery level and medical info to local EMS. If supported in the region where the emergency call is placed, iPhone users can have a two-way conversation with first responders. If not, Emergency SOS will route communications through Apple-operated local relay stations that act as intermediaries with emergency services. Emergency SOS will remain free for two years to Phone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro owners when it goes live in late November in the U.S. and Canada. But Apple has left open the possibility of charging for it after that.

Apple limits AirDrop ‘everyone’ option to 10 minutes in China • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 10, 2022Posted in airdrop, Apple, censorship, China, Government & Policy, HardwareNo Comments

A change in the iOS 16.1.1 update for Chinese users is turning some heads. Apple is restricting the “Everyone” option in AirDrop to ten minutes on iPhones purchased in mainland China, according to online user reports. That means people can no longer keep their Airdrop on for an unlimited time, including for strangers and contacts. Some argue that this feature should have long been an option for all Apple users — sometimes one just forgets to switch Airdrop off and end up with unsolicited content from unknown users — but others interpret the decision as Apple’s response to recent incidents in China. Airdrop, which uses Bluetooth Low Energy and peer-to-peer wifi technology to enable instant file transferring, remains one of the few uncensored communication medium in China, which is why people were using the feature to share politically sensitive content with others in recent weeks as the country’s top leadership reshuffled. Despite the rise of local rivals like Huawei and Oppo, Apple has managed to hold onto its dominance in China, especially among more affluent demographics. In the second quarter, iPhones accounted for 13% of handset shipments in China, according to Counterpoint’s research, down from 18% and 22% in Q1 and Q4 respectively. It’s not unusual for Apple to introduce region-specific restrictions to abide by local regulations. In EU countries, for example, users can’t exceed the EU Volume Level as a result of hearing protection standards. In China, Apple has a history of applying more stringent rules on content-related services, including games and podcasts, a closely watched area by the local authorities.

Apple’s Freeform aims to be a collaborative whiteboard for everyone • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Apple, Apps, collaboration, design, Figma, iPadNo Comments

Apple announced its so-called Figma Whiteboard competitor called Freeform at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June. The company hasn’t rolled out the idea board app to everyone yet but if you are using public or developer beta, you will get to play with the app with the iOS 16.2 update, and on Mac with macOS 13.1 update. While Figma is for people who might already have some design experience, Apple’s Freefrom app caters to all kinds of users who just want to dump their ideas with multiple media formats on a board. On the face of it, Freeform is just a large board with a grid that lets you put different things like text, images, videos, notes, objects, documents, and more. Apple wants to provide users with an infinite board and basic tools that hardly requires onboarding. Most folks would have used some of these editing tools like Apple’s own apps like Photos and Notes. For the initial test, we used iPhone and iPad running beta versions of the software. Features When you start Freeform on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you’ll get a blank board. You can start sketching using different brushes that will let you adjust the color and opacity or just select the text box option and start writing. All the options for input are on the top including sketching, text, notes, shapes, and files. If you want to hide this grid, you can tap the Zoom controller in the bottom right and Hide Grid; for Mac, you can access this option through View > Hide Grid. You will get more than 700 shapes available in the shapes library in different categories including birds, symbols, animals, food, arts, and science. Apple said it will keep adding more shapes based on community feedback. Image Credits: Apple You can change the color fillings and outline of the object by tapping on it. There are also additional options like cut, copy, duplicate, send to front/back, lock, and constraint proportion available through the three-dot menu. In addition to that, users can insert any file type including a photo or a video through, a document, or a link (which shows up as a card). You can scan a document to include it on the board, too. You can move around the object by holding and dragging it with one finger. When you’re moving an object around, Freeform will show you alignment guides in reference to other objects that will help you format your document better. To resize these objects you can swipe across the canvas holding the resizing lines around it. For uniformity, if you want to make two objects of the same size, start resizing one object and tap on the other object to match the sizes. To rotate it, hold the object with one finger and use the other finger to move it around the central axis. You can break apart some objects as well— for instance, the sides of a cube. So all in all there are a lot of options for you to play around with objects. Image Credits: ZebethMedia Sharing Notably, all your projects will be synced across the devices — but don’t forget to turn on iCloud sync for Freeform. You can share this board through a link with your friends. If they don’t use Apple devices, that link is not going to work for them. In that case, your only option is to export the board as PDF and share it. Currently, there is no option to export the board as an image. Your best bet at that is taking a screenshot (like the one posted above). Collaboration Freeform is not just a whiteboard for yourself, but it allows you to collaborate with your friends or teammate too — as long as they are in the Apple ecosystem. You can share the link to your board with others through email, Slack, or any other messaging app. If you share your board in an iMessage thread, you can have live collaboration powered by SharePlay. That means you can see participants adding, removing, and moving objects around the board. If you’re not working on the board, you will see activity updates on top of the messages thread whenever someone makes changes. Apple said that it won’t show notifications for every small update as it could be very annoying and intrusive. Apple has tried to make this version simple to include every user. While they may not use designing tools in their everyday workflow, this tool could be handy for things like coaching charts, event planning, pet journaling, and redesigning home with rough sketches and notes. Freeform won’t make professions shift from tools like Figma, but it will let beginners try their hand at collaborations and designing. Freeform will be available for everyone when the stable releases of iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, and macOS 13.1 are released in a few weeks.

Apple is reportedly working to simplify its ‘Hey Siri’ trigger phrase to just ‘Siri’ • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 7, 2022Posted in Apple, Robotics & AI, siriNo Comments

Apple is reportedly planning to simplify its “Hey Siri” trigger phrase to just “Siri,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Right now, the quickest way to access Siri is to say “Hey Siri” and then add a command, but Apple is looking to make that process simpler by letting users drop the “Hey” in the trigger phrase. The company reportedly plans to roll out the change either next year or in 2024. Gurman reports that Apple has spend the past few months training the digital assistant to respond to “Siri” instead of “Hey Siri.” Although this may seem like a small change, it requires a significant amount of AI training and engineering work, as the digital assistant will have to understand the single wake word in multiple accents and dialects, Gurman notes. Apple’s current two-word trigger phrase increases the likelihood of Siri picking up on it. Apple has reportedly been testing the simplified trigger phrase with employees. Switching to a single trigger word will help Apple keep up with Amazon’s Alexa, which is already capable of responding to commands to just “Alexa” instead of “Hey Alexa.” Even Microsoft switched Cortana’s wake phrase from “Hey Cortana” to just “Cortana” before shutting it down. The move would also put Apple a step ahead of Google, which still requires users to say either “Hey Google” or “Ok Google.” Gurman notes that Apple’s decision to simplify its trigger phrase will speed up back-to-back requests by making it easier to string multiple requests together. In addition, Gurman reports that Apple is working to integrate Siri deeper into third-party apps and services, while improving the digital assistant’s ability to understand users and process their commands. The report comes as Apple has been working to enhance Siri over the past years. Earlier this year, Apple developed a new Siri voice that doesn’t sound obviously male or female. The decision to introduce a gender-neutral voice is one that saw the tech giant take a step away from the criticism that digital assistants have reinforced unfair gender stereotypes. Apple first addressed concerns with Siri last year when it issued an update that added more diverse voices and also made it so Siri’s voice would no longer default to being female. The new and fifth Siri voice made it possible to not have to think about the gender of your AI voice assistant at all.

Apple warns of lower iPhone 14 Pro models shipment due to Covid-19 restrictions • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 6, 2022Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Hardware, iphone 14, iPhone 14 ProNo Comments

Apple warned investors and customers on Sunday that it expects to ship fewer iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models as the world’s most valuable tech firm grapples with ongoing Covid-19 restrictions in China. The company said it continues to see strong demand for the pro models of the new iPhone 14 lineup, but has slashed its earlier shipment estimates. “The facility [located in Zhengzhou, China] is currently operating at significantly reduced capacity. As we have done throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we are prioritizing the health and safety of the workers in our supply chain,” the company said in a blog post. (More to follow)

After Stripe and Square, Venmo and PayPal are set to support Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhones • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 4, 2022Posted in Apple, Apple Pay, Apps, PayPal, Tap to pay, VenmoNo Comments

PayPal announced Thursday that it will soon support Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhones. The company said in its Q3 2022 earnings report that both PayPal and Venmo will soon support this tech as a part of its offering. Merchants will be able to accept contactless card payments as well as payments via Apple Pay and other digital wallets (Google Pay). Apple first announced Tap to Pay on iPhone in February to let merchants accept payments without any additional hardware. The company had Stripe as a launch partner with Jack Dorsey-led Square coming on board later in September. Now, with Venmo and PayPal joining the fray, merchants will have varied options of apps and services to choose from to accept payments. “We’re very pleased to be working with Apple to enhance our offerings for our PayPal and Venmo merchants and consumers,” the company’s President and CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement. Apart from Tap to Pay, PayPal is also working on a few other Apple-related programs. The San Jose-based fintech said it will add Apple Pay as a payment option for the fintech’s unbranded checkout flows on merchant platforms, including the PayPal Commerce Platform. What’s more, it said that U.S.-based consumers will be able to load PayPal and Venmo network-branded credit cards to Apple Wallet and use them with Apple Pay next year. Last month, Amazon added Venmo as a payment option for U.S.-based customers ahead of the Black Friday sales. In its Q3 2022 report, PayPal registered $6.85 billion in revenue with 11% year-on-year growth.