Apple Releases iOS 8.1 With Apple Pay Support, SMS Relay, Camera Roll, and More

[tentales]

I'm still upset that upon upgrading to ios8, Apple deleted all of my iWork documents from the cloud. I've lost all copies of irreplaceable documents from my great grandmother that I assumed was safe. It even deleted them from my iPad that was not updated.
Call me 1000% annoyed beyond belief, and kinda hating Apple

Regardless of which tech platform/company you like/hate. The golden rule of IT is backup! - Backup!! - BACKUP !!!
Yep, at least 3 times if you want to be 99.999% certain that you won't loose precious documents.
I use
1) a Time Machine drive,
2) a 128GB USB 3.0 stick,
3) another drive that I pull out once or twice a year that resides in bank's safety deposit box.

Movies/Music/Books are in the cloud, but personal docs and pics are "near-line" and "offline" !

 

[Shan S.]

Apple Releases iOS 8.1 With Apple Pay Support, SMS Relay, Camera Roll, and More

So tonight I was able to successfully enroll Citibank, Amex and BofA cards with Apple Pay..

Used all three tonight with NFC registers. Pretty simple... All three cards worked. It just turned out to be point and TouchID to pay.. No issues at all..

Probably not faster than swiping the credit card, but definitely much more secure.

I live in the Bay Area of California so people are a bit more tech savvy.. The cash register folks were asking about the 6+ phone and they noticed that it seemed to work a bit faster on the iPhone that on the Android phones..

So far I like it!!!!

 

[BuddyTronic]

Sucks that Apple Pay is US only for now. I know it's going to take some time to really roll it out, was just hoping I could at least ADD my cards. Just because.

If you set location to USA in settings, you can add cards, but if it's not a US bank credit card, it won't be valid. But you can enter the card, or scan the card if you are just interested in the interface for whatever reason. I did that, not a huge thrill, but yeah, I was curious too.

 

[kittonian]

FYI, 8.1 makes integration with BMW systems even worse. Now when loading up each song it stutters when passing any data to the BMW screen. Once it passes all data the song plays fine, but I'm also finding it losing connection with the car at random. When Siri is speaking driving directions it also stutters.

 

[iRock1]

Wow, so much focus on NFC and the possibility of buying some frigging fries at McDonald's.

Let's get to the important stuff. Beside fixing bugs, does iOS 8.1 fix the performance issues, or will the story of the iOS 6 to iOS 7 transition be repeated?

 

[patent10021]

You only have 1.2 GB free on a 128 GB phone? Wow.

I don't think its 128. probably 16 or something. And another user also says he's full on a 16GB iP6+. these people shouldn't be buying iPhones.

 

[orioncrystalice]

Just updated on my 5S. I'm back to being super pleased with 8. 8 at first was awesome, and then went into the doldrums a little with 8.01 and 02, but the phone is FLYING now. This phone wasn't this fast on 7.2. TouchID isn't messing up, the native keyboard is far more accurate FINALLY, zero lag, and no more picture uploads crashing Messages. Good stuff.

 

[MonkeySee....]

funny how the UK is better prepared for ApplePay than the US but not launched here.

Also Bluetooth is still ****ed.

 

[peterh988]

How would it work in the drive thru? Would you need to hand them your phone?

The terminal is on a long curly telephone type cord here in the UK

(Apologies for naff snap)

 

[Bare]

Good luck with that. Just because it has universal NFC reader does not mean it will work with Apple Pay. Too much mis information out there.

It totally worked. Place called The Fresh Market. I had certainly never heard this name mentioned as an "official partner" or in any of the press releases about Apple Pay, yet there it was, working perfectly with Apple Pay.

I'm sure this doesn't work on EVERY SINGLE NFC payment terminal, but it works on far more than the "official partners." Seems like I'm not the ignorant one.

 

[Bare]

Srsly, people. 220,000 locations and 83% of credit card purchases isn't 100% of retailers that have NFC payment terminals, but it's a LOT more than just McDonald's, Whole Foods and Starbucks.

 

[BruiserB]

Has anyone posted a location that takes NFC (i.e. Somewhere that Google Wallet works) where ApplePay doesn't work? I doubt it, but curious.....

 

[ratigator]

Yeah, that was so much faster than swiping a credit card I already have in my hand.

Why would you walk around with your credit card in hand? Lots of people have their phones in their hands 90% of the time anyway. That said, this video doesn't help make Apple Pay look very convenient.

You're in credit card debt, you bought an iPhone, and you're gonna buy something at the highest interest rate "just because".

USA! USA! USA!

I didn't say I was in credit card debt, but yes, I will probably try it "just because". I'm hoping my bank adds Apple Pay support so I can use my debit card soon.

 

[ElectronGuru]

funny how the UK is better prepared for ApplePay than the US but not launched here.

Depends how you look at it. Ignoring population and 'home court' differences, there are two considerations. 1) which market has an easier rollout and 2) which market is easier to dominate. Paradoxically, the nascent US NFC market (all Americans still use checks for certain things and most Americans have never even heard of NFC) should allow Apple to create an electronic payment identity where Apple Pay is actually more prominent than the genetic NFC term. That same reality would be an uphill battle where NFC a is already well established.

I would be surprised if the android version doesn't end up being referred to as GooglePay.

 

[ErikGrim]

Even if the UK and especially Australia which has the highest per capita pay wave merchant penetration of any western country is ripe for Apple Pay adoption I am happy that the home field beta test is taking place over there: It's a limited amount of customers over a limited field of retailers and a limited amount of banks.

Seriously: Let them iron out the bugs. We'll have all the infrastructure ready for them next year.

(honestly, if only 220,000 merchants accepted apple pay to start with here it would be more hassle than it's worth. We (Australians) are starting with nearly 100% NFC acceptance when Apple partners with our banks. That's an enormous friction-less advantage for payments)

 

[ElectronGuru]

OTOH, get a US card and have fun now:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1806214/

 

[ErikGrim]

To put it bluntly: No other country in the world is this ready for Apple Pay: Merchants and customers alike have all been conditioned to use PayWave for years already. It's no big deal. It's no change of behaviour. From now on it will just be a phone instead of a card / wallet.

 

[luckydcxx]

just used ApplePay at a vending machine to buy a bottle of water. it took less than 1 second. Amazing.

 

[eelw]

Why would you walk around with your credit card in hand? Lots of people have their phones in their hands 90% of the time anyway. That said, this video doesn't help make Apple Pay look very convenient.

Yup. With the cell phone glued to most people's hands, no need to reach for wallet.

 

[MrSimmo]

Whoops apple seem to have forgotten to tell siri that ipads can make calls now through the iphone...

Try and get siri to call someone from an ipad

 

[JCrz]

Why would you walk around with your credit card in hand? Lots of people have their phones in their hands 90% of the time anyway. That said, this video doesn't help make Apple Pay look very convenient.

I never see anyone walking around with their phone in their hand. Never. All of a sudden people say this is commonplace simply because Apple Pay is out and they want to make it sound faster and easier than it really is.

Even when your phone is out, it's still faster to swipe a credit card. Look at the complexity of using your phone (and this video actually promotes Apple Pay): http://appleinsider.com/articles/14...-iphone-6-is-quick-convenient-and-dead-simple. In every case I could grab my wallet, pull out my credit card, swipe faster than starting the app, authenticating, etc. And I don't have to hold anything in my hand everywhere I go! That's freedom.

I didn't say I was in credit card debt, but yes, I will probably try it "just because". I'm hoping my bank adds Apple Pay support so I can use my debit card soon.

I just assumed you were—otherwise why would you care that the only card you can use with Apple Pay has the highest interest rate? If you pay off your balance every month then you wouldn't care if the interest rate was high.

 

[crashoverride77]

I never see anyone walking around with their phone in their hand. Never. All of a sudden people say this is commonplace simply because Apple Pay is out and they want to make it sound faster and easier than it really is.

Even when your phone is out, it's still faster to swipe a credit card. Look at the complexity of using your phone (and this video actually promotes Apple Pay): http://appleinsider.com/articles/14...-iphone-6-is-quick-convenient-and-dead-simple. In every case I could grab my wallet, pull out my credit card, swipe faster than starting the app, authenticating, etc. And I don't have to hold anything in my hand everywhere I go! That's freedom.



I just assumed you were—otherwise why would you care that the only card you can use with Apple Pay has the highest interest rate? If you pay off your balance every month then you wouldn't care if the interest rate was high.

The App is all location based and you authenticate with touch ID, thats it no ETC. I mean getting my phone out and authenticating in the lock screen takes 2 secs. Thats a lot faster than opening your wallet and fumbling for your credit cards. The whole point is that its much securer, faster while still using your existing credit cards.

Your last sentence in that paragraph makes makes no sense whatsoever
I don't have to hold my phone in my hand everywhere I go the same way I don't have to hold my credit card in my hand everywhere I go. There are things called pockets, they are magical and with apple pay I need one item less in them. Now thats FREEDOM.

 

[johnediii]

Updating from iTunes

My company is in the developer program and all of my devices have been used in beta since the summer. Did anybody else have a problem updating with iTunes? My devices (iPad Air, iPhone 5s) are only 16GB and quite full. I know about the issue with needing tons of space to update OTA, but with iTunes this is not supposed to be an issue. However, iTunes 12 for my phone says the update server is not available and for my iPad tells me that it is up to date even though the iPad itself is offering me the update but telling me I need to free space. Is there an issue I have missed where you can no longer update through iTunes to get around needing 5GB free on your device?

 

[SteveLV702]

What do you mean. I verified and load my Amex card just fine...

well mine isn't as can see from my screenshot above :-(

 

[jomo25]

I never see anyone walking around with their phone in their hand. Never. All of a sudden people say this is commonplace simply because Apple Pay is out and they want to make it sound faster and easier than it really is.

Even when your phone is out, it's still faster to swipe a credit card. Look at the complexity of using your phone (and this video actually promotes Apple Pay): http://appleinsider.com/articles/14...-iphone-6-is-quick-convenient-and-dead-simple. In every case I could grab my wallet, pull out my credit card, swipe faster than starting the app, authenticating, etc. And I don't have to hold anything in my hand everywhere I go! That's freedom.



I just assumed you were—otherwise why would you care that the only card you can use with Apple Pay has the highest interest rate? If you pay off your balance every month then you wouldn't care if the interest rate was high.

No one's stopping you from continuing on your life paying with cash or credit cards.

However, there are quite a few people, myself included, who see this capability as a well-thought out, easy-to-use, leveraging-what-i-already-have, secure-as-can-be convergence of services, hardware, and technology that stands to improve the point-of-sale experience.