Apple today announced that Apple Card is available to everyone in the United States from today. To sign up, simply open the Wallet app on your iPhone and begin the application process.
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Today, Apple extended the 3% cashback offer to third-party merchants too, starting with Uber and Uber Eats. Whilst any Apple purchase qualifies for 3% Daily Cash, Apple Card customers must use Apple Pay with Uber and Uber Eats to get the 3% reward.
The company said it will add more popular merchants to the 3% cashback tier in the coming months. (And the small print says that merchant offers are subject to change at any time.)
The privacy Apple Card offers is probably its biggest advantage. By keeping critical information like your card number, expiration date, and security code buried within the Wallet app, Apple Card discourages you from sharing your information with third parties each time you want to make a purchase.
Apple also generally does a better job at putting the important information you need to see front and center — such as how you're spending your money and the amount of interest you'll be responsible for if you don't pay your balance in full.
Security researchers found this weekend that iOS 12.4, the latest version released in June, reintroduced a bug found by a Google hacker that was fixed in iOS 12.3. That means it’s currently relatively easy to not only jailbreak up to date iPhones, but also hack iPhone users, according to people who have studied the issue.
Apple hasn’t announced pricing for Apple TV+, but is weighing $9.99 a month, the people said, which would match Apple Music and Apple News+.
The pair were initially armed with $1bn to commission original content over their first year but the budget has expanded and the total committed so far has passed $6bn, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Apple is looking to build a library of original programming to take on more established competitors such as Netflix. While Apple’s budget remains well below Netflix’s expected cash content spending of $15bn this year, its more generous payment terms are helping it to win deals in Hollywood.
What if Apple TV+ offered a six month free trial? This would be the longest trial for any Apple property to date, but it might just be what they go for. It gives Apple some breathing room to expand its library of aired originals, build buzz and start accruing viewer retention.
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Apple’s finance SVP Luca Maestri even hinted as much on the last earnings call. He was pretty open about saying “all these services there is a trial period upfront, it is going to be different trial periods” and “the road to monetization takes some time”. I think he was priming investors to cool off a bit and to not expect the video service to contribute to 2019 holiday quarter earnings.
According to a promotional message found in the service, the price for Apple Arcade will be $4.99 / month, including a one-month free trial. As Apple previously announced, the service will allow access to all members in a Family Sharing account.
Apple tells me you’ll be able to order them online beginning on August 22nd at 12:01AM PT / 3:01AM ET.
Last month, Tonya and I spent two weeks in Switzerland, where the public transit system is, at least to us Americans, utterly amazing. It seems that it’s possible to go just about anywhere in the country via transit, and let me tell you, the buses, trams, and trains really do run with the punctuality for which the Swiss—a nation of watchmakers—are known.
While we were there, the apps I used the most were Apple Maps and Google Maps. We had a Swiss Travel Pass that provided free passage on all but the mountain railways (where it gave us a discount), and nearly every day found us mapping routes to our next adventure or destination. I used both apps heavily, often simultaneously, and came up with some observations that you might find helpful on your next trip.
Just like a second-factor token sent via text message or generated by an authentication app like Google Authenticator or Authy, YubiKey provides an additional element after a login with a username and password. Because phone numbers can be and have been hijacked and re-routed to other phones, it’s even more reliable than assuming a text-based code will always wind up at the same physical device.
If you are the type of person that tends to keep busy running from one thing to the next without taking time to pause and reflect, just starting to record your moods like this will probably provide you some immediate insights, but the real value come when you’ve used Moodnotes for awhile and collected enough data to see trends emerge.
"It has become clear that this language on corporate purpose does not accurately describe the ways in which we and our fellow CEOs endeavor every day to create value for all our stakeholders, whose long-term interests are inseparable."
Consequently, the organization's updated document states that corporations should look instead to how they deal with their employees, their suppliers, and the communities where they are based.