O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: Starbucks

Starbucks app compromised, hackers using auto-reload feature, weak passwords to siphon funds

If you’re going to use the Starbucks mobile app, have a strong password behind it.

This seems to be what’s necessary as thieves have begun accessing users’ Starbucks mobile apps and siphoning money from their credit cards, bank and PayPal accounts. The Starbucks app, which ties into a rewards account, also lets you reload the account by automatically drawing off your bank account, credit card or PayPal account. Once a Starbucks account has been accessed, hackers can add a new gift card, transfer funds over and repeat the process every time the original card reloads.

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May 15, 2015
Apple Pay to arrive at 200,000 vending machines, kiosks, other sites

You’ll soon be able to pay for your vending machine items with Apple Pay.

Per 9to5Mac, USA Technologies today announced it’s bringing support to around 200,000 of these self-serve payment terminals that its customers use for everything from coffee brewers to vending machines, kiosks, laundry equipment and pay parking terminals.

The company offers a suite of services for companies looking to deploy self-serve, cashless terminals. A few examples it lists as current markets include vending machines, pay laundry machines, kiosks, amusement parks and arcades, car washes, and transit services.

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January 28, 2015
Quick change to Apple Pay site hints at retailers that may be unable to incorporate new payment method in 2014

With literally a week left in 2014, a change to an Apple web page hinted at organizations that might not be able to incorporate Apple Pay within 2014.

Per MacRumors, Apple today slightly altered its micro site dedicated to Apple Pay to update the status of several of its partnerships. Retailers that teamed up with Apple and plan to implement Apple Pay support in retail stores and apps in the near future are now listed under sections labeled “Coming soon” instead of “Coming later this year.”

The minor change in language suggests that many of Apple’s Apple Pay partners will not be able to implement Apple Pay support in the last week of 2014, instead rolling out support in the first months of 2015. Many retailers that have chosen to implement Apple Pay may still be working to train employees, update hardware, and swap out point-of-sale systems, leading to variable launch dates.

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December 24, 2014
Apple Pay to launch on Monday, October 20th

Apple Pay will launch in four days.

Per 9to5Mac, Apple announced that it will launch its Apple Pay service for use with the NFC-equipped iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets.

Apple CEO Tim Cook also announced that the company has signed up 500 additional banks since first announcing initial partners last month. The banks will roll out Apple Pay this year and next, according to Cook. Initially the service will only be available for users in the US.

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October 16, 2014
Follow up on the Pebble appstore

Earlier, I reported on my first impressions of the Pebble appstore and the new app for iOS. There have been a few changes that I wanted to post about. As it happens, Pebble posted an update to the iOS app yesterday, version 2.0.1, which lists the changes as; “More Javascript apps included!” and “Fixed a number of crashes”. Before that was released, however, I noticed something that addressed one of my previous concerns. Now, among the links at the bottom of each app description, you can now ‘Email Developer For Support’ which opens a new message in the Mail app. This was something apparently added to the server side of things after my original review since I noticed the option before the update.

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February 11, 2014