O'Grady's PowerPage

Category: iPhone 15

  • Tap to Pay on iPhone feature to expand to several high-end stores in the U.S. later this year

    Tap to Pay on iPhone feature to expand to several high-end stores in the U.S. later this year

    Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone feature will become available at checkout at several high-end U.S. stores later this year.

    Luxury company LVMH today announced that Tap to Pay on iPhone will be available at select Sephora, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Celine, and Dior stores in the U.S. later this year. The feature will allow customers to tap their iPhone or Apple Watch, credit card, or other contactless payment option on the store employee’s iPhone, and the payment will be securely completed using the same NFC technology behind Apple Pay.

    The Tap to Pay on iPhone feature, which was launched in 2022, allows iPhone-to-iPhone contactless payments without the need for additional point-of-sale hardware from companies like Square or Clover required. The feature is also available in Australia and Taiwan.

    Any business can currently offer Tap to Pay on iPhone as a transaction method via supported iOS apps like Shopify Point of Sale on an iPhone XS or newer running iOS 15.4 or newer.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via MacRumors and lvmh.com

  • AgileBits announces upcoming passkeys feature support for 1Password

    AgileBits announces upcoming passkeys feature support for 1Password

    Software developer AgileBits has announced full support for the upcoming passkey protocol, the passwordless login credential that Apple has begun transitioning to. The company has announced its efforts to incorporate this feature into 1Password for iOS.

    Over in its blog, AgileBits explained that once a new passkey key been created on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you’ll be able to choose where to store it. The passkey can either be synced between devices, locked to a specific device, or only support syncing within a specific ecosystem. 1Password, in turn, will let you use your passkeys on any device and any major browser.

    Passkeys can then be shared with anyone by placing them in a shared vault or placed in item sharing for short-term access.

    In the current 1Password beta apps, the Watchtower feature will notify you when one of your existing accounts can be secured with a passkey. An on-screen prompt will explain where your new passkey will be stored. If you already have an account with the website, you’ll see an option to update your current credential with the new passkey or save it as a new one.

    Changes to passkey can also be synced across devices and are available in 1Password for Mac, iOS, Windows, Android, and Linux.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via blog.1password.com

  • Apollo service to shut down on June 30 following Reddit’s change of API policy

    Apollo service to shut down on June 30 following Reddit’s change of API policy

    Well, this is a mess.

    Following the recent coverage, including our own, of Reddit’s decision to begin charging access to its API (Application Programming Interface) and the effect this has had on third-party clients, Apollo has announced that the API change is forcing Apollo to go offline completely.

    “Apollo will close down on June 30″ Christian Selig announced today. “Reddit’s recent decisions and actions have unfortunately made it impossible for Apollo to continue. Thank you so, so much for all the support over the years.”

    The issue at hand is Reddit’s decision to charge $0.02 per user for access to its service. While that doesn’t sound like much, Apollo would see a bill that estimated $20 million annually before ever turning a profit from developing the app.

    Christian offered the following explanation as to why increasing the cost of accessing Apollo isn’t a viable idea either:

    “Going from a free API for 8 years to suddenly incurring massive costs is not something I can feasibly make work with only 30 days, he writes. “That’s a lot of users to migrate, plans to create, things to test, and to get through app review, and it’s just not economically feasible. It’s much cheaper for me to simply shut down.”

    As such, Apollo will lose access to the Reddit API on June 30 to ensure that no cost is incurred under the new Reddit policy. Current subscribers will find themselves in a very similar situation to what Tapbots and The Icon Factory faced with Tweetbot and Twitterrific when Twitter effectively killed its free API. Once Apollo’s API is removed, it will no longer be able to access content from Reddit. This, in turn, could lead a number of users to request a refund on annual subscriptions to the app, which Christian estimates that he would be on the hook for a quarter of a million dollars if or when this happens.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via 9to5Mac, the App Store, and Reddit

  • Five Apple Silicon-only features of macOS Sonoma identified, will be excluded on Intel-based Macs

    Five Apple Silicon-only features of macOS Sonoma identified, will be excluded on Intel-based Macs

    The Apple Silicon machines have been around for a few years now, and the time has come for Apple to prioritize some features for its hardware architecture as opposed to the Intel architecture, which will be left behind.

    That being said, here are the five macOS Sonoma features that will only be available for Apple Silicon-based Macs:

    Presenter Overlay: This utilizes a Neural Engine-powered feature called Lift Subject from Background. It places your cutout from the webcam feed over content in a presentation.

    Screen Sharing: This uses macOS Sonoma’s advanced media engine to make screen sharing more responsive over high-bandwidth connections.

    Siri: The newly abbreviated wake word “Siri” is only available for Apple Silicon-equipped Macs and AirPods Pro 2.

    Game Mode: This advantage of Apple Silicon’s SoC design by prioritizing gaming for the CPU and GPU while also reducing latency with wireless accessories.

    Made-for-iPhone: Made-for-iPhone hearing devices will be able to pair directly with Apple Silicon Macs (excluding those with a base M1 chip).

    As Apple continues to update macOS with new features, more will be exclusive to Apple Silicon processors until the entire operating system doesn’t support Intel chipsets. That isn’t macOS Sonoma, but it could happen within a few years.

    macOS Sonoma will release to the public in the fall of 2023 and is thought to be likely to release sometime in October.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via AppleInsider

  • iOS 17 to allow for Apple Maps data to be downloaded and viewed offline

    iOS 17 to allow for Apple Maps data to be downloaded and viewed offline

    A long-awaited feature is en route to iOS 17.

    Apple Maps will finally catch up to Google Maps on iOS 17 by allowing iPhone users to download maps for offline use. iOS 17 will be released to the public later this year for the iPhone XS and newer and is currently available in beta for developers.

    Users will be able to download a specific area of Apple Maps to their iPhone and view it while offline, complete with turn-by-turn directions for driving, walking, cycling, and public transit. While offline, users can also see their estimated time of arrival, and view information like hours and ratings on place cards, and more.

    The downloaded Apple Maps can also be viewed on an Apple Watch provided a paired iPhone is turned on and in range of the Apple Watch.

    The Apple Maps data can be viewed without a cellular or Wi-Fi connection is a significant improvement to the app. Another useful feature in Apple Maps on iOS 17 is the ability to view real-time electric vehicle charging station availability.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via MacRumors