Another possible explanation: The Apple Card’s magnetic strip is oriented on the flip side of where most credit cards strips are — on the bottom of the rear of the card instead of the top — and isn’t as obvious as most strips. It looks like a silver design element in contrast to the white, which may have confused some merchants.
Because there were no records of declines on my card, the only conclusion I (and Darnell) could come to was that the card had been swiped incorrectly.
As incremental upgrades go, the iPhone 11 family is pretty great. Focusing on cameras and battery life was the right call. Apple has lengthened its lead on the processor front while doing a good job of catching up to the state of the art in computational photography.
Most importantly, the iPhone 11 is a great mix of features at a very good price, and it’s now the default model in the iPhone family. That’s a decision that benefits Apple’s entire product line and properly places the iPhone 11 Pro models in context in terms of price and functionality. If you already have an iPhone X-class phone, you probably don’t need to upgrade this cycle. But if you’re desperate for a new iPhone that will give you more battery life or let you shoot better photos and video, this is the update for you.
If you're looking to live in Apple's mobile ecosystem, but you don't care about bleeding-edge OLED displays or attention-grabbing designs and premium materials, this is the way to go. Like the iPhone XR last year, we're giving it the Ars Approved badge and recommending it as the iPhone to buy for most people. Just be ready to spend a little more than the price of the phone on extras like AppleCare+, protective cases, or AirPods if you want the best experience.
From the original Inside Macintosh programming reference book from Apple: "Since Macintosh users usually divide their time among several applications, they would be confused and irritated if they had to learn a completely new interface for each application. [...] [T]he bread-and-butter features, the kind that every application has, should certainly work the same way so that the user can easily move back and forth between applications."
So, if every single credit card out there has the magentic strip at the top, shouldn't Apple's credit card also place the magentic strip at the same position?
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Thanks for reading.