Zzzzzzzz. Apple would be better spending time on improving that thing they call itunes.

I don't think we're going to find out until the carriers enable it, and people have real world experience with it. Not sure where Ars got that info from.

-David

From the looks of it and initial reviews, I kinda like the iPhone 6. I was disappointed when I upgraded my 4s to 5s considering they're practically the same. But the 6 is different especially the issue with battery life. It's interesting how users will review this once it rolls out.

I was in an Apple store yesterday and saw part of the Cooking show with a few other people. Some commented on the quality of the streaming, which fair enough wasn't the best I've ever seen. One bloke who was looking forward to the watch said that he'd be using his Nano and getting a wrist case for it instead, "it'll probably look better than that and be far cheaper." Another made a comment about different screen sizes and apps scaling to fit them. Someone got a laugh by mentioning the recent naked iCloud hacking and said that Apple were obviously the best people to trust with their wallet. It was a typically mixed reaction with other people thinking everything was brilliant and asking for earlier release dates for all of this.

I found the Apple Watch quite a disappointment myself, will probably upgrade to an iPhone 6 though.

As for the whole iCloud hacking, remember no one proved it was a security breach, it was very likely it was just social engineering and that says nothing about iCloud's security, just about carelessness by the celebrities involved, they need to understand that a lot of information about them is public data(birthdate, pets names and similar information in general), and many people make emails and/or passwords using a combination of these little things, its probably not very hard to extract information on these people.

We should know more in a week or so
http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...g-On-Wednesday

The "hackers" did it through a dictionary password attack (theoretically they could have brute forced it as well). Because Apple never enabled locking out the password after x number of attempts, it essentially gave them an unlimited number of tries to guess their password.

Shame on Apple for not instituting even the most basic brute force protection. Double shame on Apple for blaming their *customers* after the breach happened. The good news is, even though Apple denied it was their fault, they did institute brute force protection on find my iPhone logins. 5 tries and the account locks now. This is the way it should have been all along.

I was wondering, should I trust Apple Pay and store my credit cards on the phone or actual credit cards are still better?

Preface: I was a die hard Android guy until my company forced me into and iPhone and also got me an iPad. Now after two years in the Apple ecosystem, I don't think I could ever go back. Apple does a great job of locking people in. I still like and use both OS's, but there are a few iOS features now that I can't live without (Photo Streams, iMessage, better apps, etc.).

My thoughts on iPhone 6. The good:

Apple Pay: This is something I will use. Other phones have had the hardware, but they just didn't implement it in any useable way (which seems to be an unfortunate theme with many Android devices.) I like the idea of being able to use my CC without having to worry about the next hack into x company exposing my CC/name/address info. I don't really find it to be much easier than swiping a card, but I do appreciate the added security. I will do more research on it as it becomes available.

Wifi calling: This will be all about implementation, but I think this will be huge. There are many places where cell coverage is weak but wifi is abundant. My home office is one of them.

"Flinging" calls/work to other devices: I don't think they mentioned this yesterday (my Mandarin is bad), but in the OS X Yosimite announcement, they mentioned being able to take calls on any iOS or OS X device. Again, I'll use this (but not that often). The other part of this is the ability to send open work documents to other devices. Not quite sure how this will look, but as a road warrior, this will be nice.

The expected:
The screen sizes are nice, but they weren't one of the biggest features IMO. I'm a little worried about trying to navigate with one hand on the larger screen, but we'll see.

And the not so good:

Memory is still 1GB (or at least benchmarks I've seen show 1GB). Come on Apple it's 2014...

Battery life is (again) a disappointment. I don't get why they can't put a larger battery in...

No Sapphire screen. I understand Apple wasn't able to get their supply chain ready for this in time. Oh well. iPhone 6 + S

Maortega15.

I would think your credit cards are relatively safe on your iPhone6. The credit number per se isn't on the phone. What is there is a heavily encrypted (in a special chip built for that purpose) special key that communicates with your credit card provider for a virtual one-off credit card everytime you pay. I know computer forensic specialists have an exceptionally difficult time getting data off an iPhone 5s which is not jailbroken. Could someone eventually get it from your stolen iPhone 6? I expect the answer is "yes," but you can kill the cards remotely and I don't think taking the stolen phone offline will work because I think you need to have a good connection to the cellular network. I have a hardtime imagining a mass remote breach of iPhones.

Consider the alternative? How secure is the credit card in your wallet? I don't think it is overly secure against pickpockets, strong armed robbery, or accidentally leaving the card some place.

Since you are partly from HK, I presume some of your cards are Chip & Pin (EVR), but how many stores in the United States does an EVR card work in? You can easily counterfeit the mag strip on an EVR card and use it all day long in the US.

I can tell you that I wish I had shopped at Home Depot last month with Apple Pay. My Amex Platinum may have been compromised and that is what I use for no currency transaction fees outside the US.

The thing is that until majority of the merchants could take the NFC transaction, I still have to carry all the cards with me. I am really not concern about handing my credit card to someone. I would rather have something like the Coin card where the merchants could swipe it. Maybe Apple could come up with a bluetooth version of Coin card linked to the iPhone's Apple Pay now that I would like to have.

My understanding, and this is why I like it, is that Apple Pay uses a one time cipher (hereinafter OTC) for the merchant. It doesn't share the actual card info or user info with the merchant.

I'm guessing it works something like this: You put the card into Apple Pay. Apple makes an agreement with the card issuer (i.e. JoeBank). When you go to make a transaction at "DeeStore", you bring up the payment method in Apple Pay. Then it sends a OTC to DeeStore and then DeeStore uses said cipher to debit JoeBank (obviously the paying bank info is encoded in the OTC).

What I don't know is if the iPhone creates these OTCs on the fly, or whether they query the bank each time it's needed to get a new OTC to give the merchant. I guess we'll find out more about that later. The downside to the latter is that it would require network service which isn't a given in all stores.

Dubai Stu - I live and work primarliy in Hong Kong but I was born in New York. I have both Hong Kong and U.S. based credit cards. Actually, one of my Amex cards is Chip and signature while my other cards have the "blink" feature where you just tap it. Some merchants offer the tap feature but others don't. I'll look into Apple Pay once more info comes out. I'll consider it. Afterall, I don't like a bulky wallet and there's a saying that cash is still king.

1- 5s deja vu. More doesn't mean better
2 - batteries aren't magic, they take up space. More so than almost any other component. The 6 Plus has a bigger battery with the larger form factor. I'd understand wanting more life in exchange for a bigger size, but not understanding why it can't have better battery life seems odd.

3 - I suspect it's more a cost than an ability. They're using it for the watch and the touch/phone components, so the suppliers know how to work with it. But it's pricy. We'll see how the "ion treatments" work. My kids's devices will still get the insurance plan.

We're in the same "locked into the ecosystem" situation, and I have no real concerns about it. Phones are so converged today, I'd find it hard to believe anyone has a real burning need to move in either direction (other than BB/MS diehards moving away).

From talking to an American retail executive recently Chip 'n' pin will be mandatory for the US next year sometime. He said that they were looking forward to it.

So the "blink" feature or those credit cards with the tap and pay like Mastercard's paypass are going away in favor of Chip and signature?

Just for information's sake (and I own a Nexus 5, which is better than the 4)

http://i.imgur.com/HsHQ56y.jpg

Luv it when all the android fanboys come crashing in....adds a little spice to the thread
^^^

And my son luvs his Nexus 4 and I like my backup Moto G running on TMO:D

It's not chip and signature it's chip and pin, it's not good enough to just have the card for purchases you need to know the 4 digit pin and enter it into the terminal at the time of purchase. No pin no purchase, we don't accept UK cards without it and will do a Code 10 on foreign cards without it over a certain amount. NFC cards which is what I assume you mean by blink, normally incorporate chip and pin can only be used for smaller amounts (~£10-£15) paying by NFC as you don't need to enter anything to verify your identity. Larger amounts need to be done via chip and pin so that the identity of the purchaser can be verified.

3rd party keyboards is big (and oh-so late to the party). I hate typing on my wife's iPhone 5. So much more used to the BB physical keyboard and pretty much any Android keyboard (Swiftkey, Swype, my default Xperia keyboard). At least my iPad has enough screen real estate that I can touchtype in landscape model.

I'm pretty sure most people here know what chip and PIN is ;)
Last I heard, most US card issuers were going chip-sig, not chip-PIN.

I prefer this comparison :D http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/09/1...apanese-otaku/

As a lucky apple shareholder since 1991, bring it on. My 401[K] says: "Any news is good news"

LOL. ;)

Fwiw, the first CPU benchmark has been reported/claimed and the lowly dual-core, 1GB iPhone6 appears to slightly exceed the quad-core 2GB Moto X at the top of the phones on the Android CPU benchmarks.

25% faster than the 5s

Benchmarks are worthless because they can be gamed. The only thing that matters is real-world performance. iPhones outperform their specs, there's no doubt about that. The software and hardware are tightly integrated, and they use finesse vs Android's brute force to get tasks done.

What exactly does that mean? I have yet to stress any of my fingers more or expend more calories using a smartphone vs. an iPhone. :confused:

Unless you actually use it.

[Battery capacity does not] have a linear relationship with size, not to mention that's only half the equation. Battery technology is evolving all the time. More power storage in the same amount of space (not to mention even the "small" phone got ~15% bigger). At the same time, newer hardware requires less power. Which tech evolution is happening faster changes day by day. There's no reason that Apple can't shell out a few more bucks and buy a battery with more storage or find a way for its hardware/OS to use less power. It's competitors have figured this out...

And the watches aren't coming out until next year...

RAM doesn't really have anything to do with a *CPU* benchmark test. But yes, the CPU benchmark looks good.

Apple uses clock cycles very efficiently, and everything is tightly integrated to maximize that efficiency. Android handsets use the brute force of more RAM and faster processors to achieve similar results, without the efficiency. This is why Apple handsets meet or even beat Android flagships at many tasks, despite having less RAM and slower-clocked processors with fewer cores. It's also why Apple handsets can last all day on a much smaller battery than a flagship Android device. At the risk of stating the obvious, clock cycles use energy.

I think the real question with apple pay is whether stores will actually adopt it or not. Maybe if who they contract with for their credit card processing machines release a new machine that has both apple pay and chip/pin capability in one device, it could happen. But I honestly don't see a lot of retailers running out to add this feature, especially since they *are* going to be having to replace the devices for machines that can handle chipped cards. The other question is whether they'll put up with the additional fee that's going to be tacked on from apple for the privilege. I certainly wouldn't expect to see this in smaller businesses simply because of that fee, there's a number of small business already that would far prefer you do a debit card than a credit card transaction just because of the larger charge with a credit card. (Personally, I feel this is really a large issue with *all* of the digital wallet type systems.)

Are your talking about external hardware keyboards? I've had a 3rd party Bluetooth keyboard with my iOS deceives going back to when the 4S came out.

Agree with most of that. Apple has the unique ability to control both the hardware and software which lends itself to a lot of efficiencies. However, battery life is not one of them.

Most of the Andriod phones today have batteries that last longer than the iPhones. My iPhone barely makes it to dinnertime most days. From what I hear from colleagues, I'm actually quite lucky to have it last that long. I do try to keep my battery properly conditioned and cool (heat is the enemy of LiIon battery long term health).

Perhaps Android phones just use higher capacity batteries, or perhaps their chipsets use less power or both. This is an area Apple could use some improvement in. Is it bad enough that I wouldn't buy an iPhone, certainly not, but it is disappointing.

No, the poster is not referring to external keyboards but rather alternate, on-screen keyboards (as opposed to the Apple provided one).

The most common example would be "Swype"
http://www.swype.com/

Regards

The iPhone 5s battery is actually pretty good. It is on par with my Note 2 and it does last thru the day. The iPhone 6 plus is supposed to have almost twice the battery life of 5s...

If any company can pull it off, I think Apple can. The technology isn't new, it uses the same "speedpass" (or whatever they're called) sensors that many stores already have.

As far as the fees go, that's an interesting thought. Marinate on this scenario: Merchants today pay a fee to VS/MC/AX for every CC transaction. Por ejemplo: 25 cents + 1% of the transaction fee. If Apple's model cuts their processing out in favor of going directly to the issuing banks...they could offer a lower rate. They don't require all the infrastructure that VS/MC/AX need to be able to network/process transactions. They just need the software for their phones which are already networked. I don't believe this is the plan today, but it would be an interesting business model if it were...

It will be interesting to learn more about Apple Pay as it comes out. On their site they have a list of merchants and banks that will participate.

http://www.apple.com/iphone-6/apple-pay/

But you just stated it, retailers will have to replace their current PEDs (PIN entry device) with new PTS (PIN Transaction Security) devices as the mandate for EMV comes to realization. Many of these new devices come with NFC as an interface to accept payments.

I have a feeling that the merchants may not see the "fee" for Apple Pay. As this article states, the banks will be paying Apple a tiny fee.
http://www.electronista.com/articles...n.discussions/

I'm going to pre-order a (Verizon) Apple iPhablet on Friday. Left Apple two years ago and went to Android for the larger screen (Samsung Galaxy S3.) The new Moto X looks pretty great but once Apple offered the bigger screens I knew I'd be back on an iPhone.

I don't understand what extra security that chip and electronic signature offers over signing the merchant copy of the receipt. The chip authenticates the card and I totally understand how that helps prevent the use of cloned cards. But if you've lost your card and haven't either noticed it or have been unable to report it, then they can still use your card if they can forge your signature.

The merchant fees are going to have to be comparable with Mastercard/Visa for this Apple Pay, as the reason a lot of retailers I know in this country don't accept Amex is because of the high fees.

Well, ok - you and a dozen other programmers might make a buying decision based on efficiency of clock cycles. The rest of us will probably put size, looks, screen size, thinness, battery life, cost, and about 200 other parameters ahead of that in our decision trees. @:-)

I didn't say it did. Just providing a data point. And yes, it does.

The chip is there so you can't duplicate the card if you happen to get "track data". I don't think the card brands are as concerned about you losing your physical card as they are about losing 40 million records from one merchant. Data which in turn can be used to create cloned cards.