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Apple Restricting Use of NFC Antenna in iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to Apple Pay

brendu said:
High schoolers with nothing better to do but add buggy and ugly tweaks to their phones.
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Far from it. Can't stand using themes. Adblock I would consider absolutely essential now, "Fullforce" is great for apps that haven't been updated to the iPhone 5 screen aspect ratio (yes there are still some out there!), and the only OS tweak I use currently is Androidlock XT. I prefer it from the standard iOS "PIN unlock".

AndroidLock-Xt-for-Android-iOS-7-Download.png
 
That is actually pretty shocking. I understand making something propriety locked down, but NFC?! Really!
 
Glad I didn't preorder!

:eek:! Now I'm glad I didn't preorder! This Apple ecosystem looks more and more like a jail to me. I have to get out of here while I still can!
 
koruki said:
NFC has been in android and been open and unrestricted for the last 3 years. What have they done with it?

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lol yep and after the jailbreak, when security issues come up. still blame apple
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opening the doors at my campus and getting through the metro station thingies for example
 
so, now as a customer we have a choice? the more ways Apple adds new ways to find secure technologies to do their services, the more we will always be wondering about privacy over it.
 
Closed features. How fun. I had high hopes for my future iphone 6 having NFC.
 
cmaier said:
Almost no one uses them and almost no one accepts them, and half the time the terminals don't work and the clerk has no idea because no one has tried in forever.
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Come over to Europe - we'll teach you;) We already have this magic technology "invented" by Apple - it has been here for like a 5 years already:)
 
I see people from the UK, Australia etc. worrying how fast will they get Apple Pay... You at least have hope. :(

I, on the other hand, have very little to look forward to - living in a small Baltic country, that still has not a single Apple store, no iTunes TV shows, no iTunes radio, super limited Siri, abysmal Apple Maps, and a very poor support of Latvian language - no native spellcheck, no UI, unusable Siri (understanding contact names would be enough).

I understand my country is not an important (large enough) market. But it's an European Union country. We have the Euro currency. We have very advanced banking and IT, one of the fastest internet in the world. Many worldwide companies do business here. Both Microsoft and Google is officially present here, most of the products are localised and locally supported as well. I don't understand why the super rich Apple can't afford to be here oficially and offer quality service and user support for us too. :(
 
lostngone said:
You mean like iMessage?

Didn't they say they were going to allow other venders to use it when it was announced?
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I just re-watched that keynote (for different reasons), I don't recall hearing them say that. If they did, I think it would require them to change how iMessage works, as it uses the proprietary push notification system to transmit encrypted messages, I am sure opening it is possible, however I personally don't see them opening their push notification system up in such a way.

GRSM-IE said:
Come over to Europe - we'll teach you;) We already have this magic technology "invented" by Apple - it has been here for like a 5 years already:)
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Nice, but let's not mince words to make our own RDF.

Where exactly did Apple say they invented NFC, or a payment system? From the keynote, they credit using NFC, and also discuss other Mobile wallets as being a disappointment or not having worked well enough for mainstream adoption. Granted it was a quote from someone else, Jenna Wortham, however Apple featured that comment in their keynote. Not that it matters who actually said it, I am sure the wrong party would receive credit anyway ;)

While NFC payment is popular in many places outside the US, it hasn't caught on, and doesn't work properly (training for the clerks, and incomplete installs in existing registers) for mainstream use in most of the US. I should never Assume, however I believe Tim Cook, and the media on Apple Pay is directed at the US market, since it is also the only market it currently will be deployed in, with plans to expand outside the US later.
 
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Sandstorm said:
I see people from the UK, Australia etc. worrying how fast will they get Apple Pay... You at least have hope. :(

I, on the other hand, have very little to look forward to - living in a small Baltic country, that still has not a single Apple store, no iTunes TV shows, no iTunes radio, super limited Siri, abysmal Apple Maps, and a very poor support of Latvian language - no native spellcheck, no UI, unusable Siri (understanding contact names would be enough).

I understand my country is not an important (large enough) market. But it's an European Union country. We have the Euro currency. We have very advanced banking and IT, one of the fastest internet in the world. Many worldwide companies do business here. Both Microsoft and Google is officially present here, most of the products are localised and locally supported as well. I don't understand why the super rich Apple can't afford to be here oficially and offer quality service and user support for us too. :(
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I feel your pain - it's still what I can't get my head around though, if Visa, Mastercard and American Express are signed up then those are worldwide, near universally accepted payment providers - why can't this be accepted anywhere with NFC payment capabilities and not only the US? (initially at least, how long is "initially"?)
 
Can't they open up non payments side of nfc. This way it can be used for pairing at least! Only wanted to pair my sony camera to be able to use my iPhone as a viewfinder!! Annoying hopefully be implemented in iOS 8.1
 
The point behind closing down NFC to Apple Pay only is simply to hinder people building backdoors to your credit card data through the NFC. Thats all. It has nothing to do with exclusivity - its a simple security measure.
 
Apple...why are you soooo restrictive.

This really sucks , especially for Aussies, where using tap & pay for anything under $100 is the norm throughout the country for MANY years. I was ecstatic when they announced NFC for the iPhone 6 and was one of the major reasons why I bought a iP6+ to switch back from Android.

Some Aussie banks already have android apps that allow tap & pay using any NFC enabled android phone (e.g. Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, CUA etc). I was hoping that NFC enabled iPhone apps would finally be rolled out by the banks, but since Apple decided to lock this functionality down this won't be happening soon.

NFC can be used for more than just financial transactions. Some examples where I use NFC:
  • Auto pair my phone to my camera to create a wifi connection to send photos wirelessly from camera (Sony RX100m3) to phone . Also can use my phone as a external viewfinder and take photos wirelessly.
  • Museums and art galleries use NFC stickers to display information about an artifact/artwork
  • Ticketing for public transport, e.g. Oyster Card in the UK, GoCard/Opal/Myki in Australia
  • Ticketing for events/movies, e.g. No need for a physical ticket, just add a concert/festival ticket to an app similar to passbook
  • Opening doors, such as at hotels.

Apple could have restricted any app used for NFC based financial transactions and opened up the way for other more creative uses for NFC. Instead, they've taken the extremely conservative option and limited innovation.
 
840quadra said:
Where exactly did Apple say they invented NFC, or a payment system? From the keynote, they credit using NFC, and also discuss other Mobile wallets as being a disappointment or not having worked well enough for mainstream adoption
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As they target US market mainly where NFC penetration is generally really low they tell it's something new - and it's not.

The other thing - mobile wallets always will be a disappointment because of one simple thing - a battery. NFC Card works without any power and you can use it 24/7 in a shop and ATM. Sure it's somehow convenient to use a phone as a payment / authorisation method (e.g Oyster) but it won't kill the piece of plastic in a near future
 
Jimrod said:
It's just starting to get a lot more common in the UK these last six months or so - if you've got a chip and pin card most supermarkets, pubs, shops are starting to have NFC on the card reader for transactions under £20, just touch the card on the reader and you're done. No pin needed, really easy. I see Apple Pay as an extension of that but who knows if it will ever make it to the UK.

It's like the HD calls and Cellular call transitioning to WiFi features, all pointless unless you're on the EE network in the UK. I think a lot of Apple users outside the US are massively short-changed on features that should be offered by all major networks. That's another reason this keynote was a big disappointment - all the "wow" features aren't available to many iPhone users and in many cases probably never will be, at least until the iPhone 7 or later.

I'm beginning to think the high prices for Apple hardware are a bit of a con (as many think they are anyway) for those outside the US as we seem to be just subsidising all the features we can't get for the US customers.
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I could be wrong but the only features that hadn't made it to UK is...... the iTunes Radio? And once Apple Pay service launches, I assume that would be too? I genuinely don't know any other.
 
I do not see a problem with this. It only makes sense to me from a business side. No current Iphone owners knows what it is like to have an open NFC chip. So it is not like you are going to miss anything. When I did use Android and the phone had an NFC I used it ZERO times. Because there just was not enough places that accepted it and it was not a smooth process. Apple's implementation I think will far exceed Google's attempt with Google Wallet.
 
alexgowers said:
I do really want to know how it'll roll out in the uk?

We have had chip and pin for years, very quick and secure no magnetic data to steal.

We have Oyster cards for train and bus travel that auto topup from bank accounts and use NFC already so apple should be right on this. Millions of transactions a day!

Most POS terminals have NFC as cards here have had it for a few years, I wonder if apple pay can be activated or if the payment systems in the uk are already ready for it?

Would love more info on it as the phone is here so soon and there is zero info? Anyone
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You live in the UK. So do I. We don't get the good stuff. We'll get to use Apple Pay when we get to use iTunes Radio I guess....

Plus, contactless payments are limited to less than £20 any way, and most shops don't even have them. I'm sure Apple Pay will need an upgrade to hardware in shops, upgrades that this country doesn't want to make. PassBook has been out how long, and I still only use it in Starbucks. Odeon tried it, but nope, still have to get a printed ticket. All this stuff that they announce is cool, but doesn't happen in the real world in countries that aren't USA.
 
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