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I use Apple's hardware so do often try out their services but can safely say YouTube, Play Music, Search, Maps, Drive, Gmail, Photos are all far superior to Apple's alternatives in every way (and many more that are arguable). Google's ecosystem just seems better in every way to me. But, I doubt I'm going to change your mind.
I don't think anybody would disagree that Apple's cloud services aren't always the best, but there are better and more privacy-friendly alternatives from other companies for many of these services. For example, Outlook.com does not scan your emails to build a profile about you (and is also the better email service all around, IMO), Dropbox or Spideroak are better than Google Drive, Startpage allows you to use Google Search without giving up your privacy, etc. pp.
 
Apple Pay on My Apple Watch is probably one of the biggest reasons that I don't want to switch to android.
 
For example, Google might learn you like coffee from your search history, they'll then give you ads for coffee machines. That's not selling data.

It's more like: if you want to sell coffee to someone whho's birthday is januari 10th 1989, who visits starbucks weekly and sometimes a different chain and lives in this city, has a wife but no kids and is looking for a new car because his honda has brake issues, pay $10. $15 if you want to keep bothering him for a week.

It's data selling. And your data is sold. And they totally could sell data related to payments: where you are, that you paid something.
 
They really need to fire the marketing clown who came up with "If it's not an iPhone, it's not an iPhone." tag line. It's stupid on so many levels and insulting to customers intelligence.
 
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It's more like: if you want to sell coffee to someone whho's birthday is januari 10th 1989, who visits starbucks weekly and sometimes a different chain and lives in this city, has a wife but no kids and is looking for a new car because his honda has brake issues, pay $10. $15 if you want to keep bothering him for a week.

It's data selling. And your data is sold. And they totally could sell data related to payments: where you are, that you paid something.
Everything is automated and everything happens on Google's servers. No data is ever processed or shown to third parties. Essentially its just a company paying Google to show ads to people that most fit their demographics. Its really a case of personal preference and to be honest, I don't see anything wrong with it.

Its a misconception to say that they literally sell our data.
 
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They really need to fire the marketing clown who came up with "If it's not an iPhone, it's not an iPhone." tag line. It's stupid on so many levels and insulting to customers intelligence.
I agree. It appeals to the lowest common denominator kind of customer which already have their heart set on an iPhone. They should focus on the speed, reliability and stability.
 
Everything is automated and everything happens on Google's servers. No data is ever processed or shown to third parties. Essentially its just a company paying Google to show ads to people that most fit their demographics. Its really a case of personal preference and to be honest, I don't see anything wrong with it.
Most people have no idea what kind of information Google can extract by cross-referencing the data they collect from various sources. Political leanings, medical conditions, religion, social connections, eating habits, daily routines etc. etc. are all things that can be extracted from your search history, email, chat logs, shopping transactions and the numerous other data they store about you. Once this information is there, it's a huge temptation not just for marketers, but also rogue employees, hackers, and all kinds of 3-letter agencies. The only data that can't be abused is data that isn't collected in the first place.
 
Once this information is there, it's a huge temptation not just for marketers, but also rogue employees, hackers, and all kinds of 3-letter agencies. The only data that can't be abused is data that isn't collected in the first place.
Yup. But honestly, its impossible for us to escape it today. I don't think your choice of smartphone would really matter in either case. It would be a choice of online services and Apple isn't safe either. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data
 
Yup. But honestly, its impossible for us to escape it today. I don't think your choice of smartphone would really matter in either case. It would be a choice of online services and Apple isn't safe either. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data
Apple are no saints (one particular sticking point is iAds), but often they design their solutions with privacy in mind. Apple Pay NFC transactions don't involve Apple (Google Wallet inserts itself between you and your bank); frequent locations runs purely on the device (Google stores your location history in the cloud); proactive Siri again runs on the device as far as possible (Google Now runs in the cloud). There are quite a few examples like this. The fact of the matter is that Apple simply has less motivation to collect data (and also less competence in data mining) since monetizing personal information is not their main business.
 
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They really need to fire the marketing clown who came up with "If it's not an iPhone, it's not an iPhone." tag line. It's stupid on so many levels and insulting to customers intelligence.
-Double meaning,
-Easy to remember
-Catchy even
-Positioning the iPhone as the only real thing

It's fine. And the timing too.. Samsung tries to get people to switch by offering you a phone for free (for a certain time). Apple simply says; ah well; anything else is just not good enough.

Even the naming is perfect.. Ask people which phone they have: it either "iPhone" or "Samsung galaxy s6 edge"

Simple. iPhone. You either have an iPhone or something complicated that wants to be an iPhone.
 
Apple Pay is a standard. Its just EMV contactless, widely used in most places around the world outside of the US.

Many cards use the same contactless technology.

So Apple Pay works with any machine that accepts those credit cards with chips built into them world wide without extra effort from the retailers? I know those cards have to be inserted in the machine to work
 
So Apple Pay works with any machine that accepts those credit cards with chips built into them world wide without extra effort from the retailers? I know those cards have to be inserted in the machine to work
Almost any machine made in the last 3 or 4 years supports EMV contactless (as do most credit card and debit cards), there are some older chip readers which don't support contactless/apple pay. The only places that generally have the older machines are some bigger chains. Almost all small and mid-sized businesses support it because they're merchant bank automatically provides them with the feature turned on. Even then most bigger chains have them, they just don't have contactless switched on (Mainly because of the £20 limit on cards).

MasterCard has a EU mandate in 2016 for any new terminal, it must have contactless reader and all readers must support contactless or be replaced from 2020 (The UK is expected to reach this much earlier though, some point in late 2016 or early 2017) otherwise they won't be able to accept MasterCard. Visa and AmEx is expected to do the same thing shortly.
 
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But what I don't get is that you seem to imply Apple should somehow single handedly *make* all retailers adopt *their* payment system just because.
I never said or implied anything of the sort. You don't seem to understand how Apple Pay works. It uses non-proprietary NFC standard. The same exact one that is extremely common in contactless credit card transactions everywhere outside US and the same one that Android Pay, Samsung Pay and so on use. So businesses don't need some sort of specialized Apple hardware to accept Apple Pay. They just need standard EMV terminals with contactless capabilities. This is why if you have Apple Pay on your US credit card and come to Canada you'll be able to use Apple Pay and pay with your iphone or Apple Watch everywhere where contactless transactions are accepted. That includes all supermarket chains, all drugstore chains, all coffee shop chains, all fast food chains and so on. So in order for Apple to roll out Apple Pay here Apple only needs to get our banks on board. They don't have to convince our retailers to do anything. Apple Pay will work with existing contactless terminals right off the bat. Same goes for other countries with wide contactless payments infrastructures like Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan etc.
 
Yup! Instead of just taking the card out and swipe, it's much easy to buy a 500$ phone and 400$ watch to perform the same functionality :)

This makes zero sense. I already would own the iPhone, and I did not purchase my AW for the sole purpose of Apple Pay.
 
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I love Apple Pay... Security, privacy, convenience, replacement; all much better than plastic!
Glad to see more merchants coming online.
I go out of my way to shop at Apple Pay merchants!
 
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Really glad to see Apple continuing to go all in on Apple Pay. This is something that is hard, because it relies on external businesses to individually join in.

I'm not sure how much influence Apple can really have to get companies to install NFC terminals, but I hope they do what they can.

AFAIK, the credit card industry was already pushing retailers to NFC enabled terminals before apple pay was announced to support there chip and pin or whatever. Apple released Apple Pay to coincide with retailers being required to update. We will continue to see more and more retailers accept apple pay / google and android wallet just because of this.
 
AFAIK, the credit card industry was already pushing retailers to NFC enabled terminals before apple pay was announced to support there chip and pin or whatever. Apple released Apple Pay to coincide with retailers being required to update. We will continue to see more and more retailers accept apple pay / google and android wallet just because of this.

Chip and pin and NFC are not the same thing.
 
For this to work, they should make it a standard. Thats mean Apple Pay could be integrated in other phones and modern devices.

It already is a standard, there is no reason to do that. Apple pay is just using a current standard to bring mobile payments to the iPhone. Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Ect, they all HELP Apple Pay. This is one situation where everyone is actually working to the same goal, and are all helping the technology get adopted.

Chip and pin and NFC are not the same thing.

This, I am absolutely astounded buy the number of people that don't understand this. Actually I don't, people have trouble understanding something unless there is visual evidence of it, so people equate these new "chip" cards to the contactless ones. I had a huge argument with a guy that cut those chips out of all his new cards because he "swore" they were contactless and anyone could steal his data, and was so mad that the bank was forcing that on him. He said I was wrong, I told him "Good Luck."

Apple Pay will really take off once STORE CARDS work on it. Banks like Sychronity (sp) Target etc will add it. Rewards cards will be a big plus.

I agree with this, and there is a huge benefit too. I hate carrying around all those cards, I would be more willing to shop at those places, thus using those cards, if I had them "with" me. Target would be the killer. I go there for all my "general" shopping, so having my REDCard and it's 5% on my phone is half of my card use right there.
 
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It already is a standard, there is no reason to do that. Apple pay is just using a current standard to bring mobile payments to the iPhone. Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Ect, they all HELP Apple Pay. This is one situation where everyone is actually working to the same goal, and are all helping the technology get adopted.

I actually forgot that Apple Pay doesn't need dedicated hardware and works on what is on the market. This brings me to another point, why different retail stores announce they are implementing Apple Pay if the need to do no extra work on their side? Its just between Apple and the Banks right?
 
Chip and pin and NFC are not the same thing.

Doesn't change the facts.

From the year 2012:

" In the process of upgrading to EMV standards, many merchants will also include the contactless readers and thus will simultaneously become NFC payment ready."
 
Doesn't change the facts.

From the year 2012:

" In the process of upgrading to EMV standards, many merchants will also include the contactless readers and thus will simultaneously become NFC payment ready."

Doesn't mean they'll turn it on. In fact, a fair number aren't, at least not right away.
 
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