Tag: m-payments

Leaked training material helps shed light on Apple Pay features

Apple has begun training its retail employees on the various aspects of its new mobile payment service. The company recently unveiled Apple Pay, which represents its first step into the mobile payments space. The service has yet to officially launch, but it has already received strong praise from businesses and consumers alike. Training material acquired by 9to5Mac sheds some light on some of the features of Apple Pay and shows off features of the service that have not yet been revealed officially.

Apple Pay is designed to work with Passbook

According to the training material, Apple Pay can be set up through the Passbook application. Passbook is Apple’s version of a digital wallet, capable of storing a wide range of virtual information, including special deals offered by retailers and financial details. The service can also be set up through the initial iOS 8 startup process for new iOS devices. As many as eight credit and debit cards can be associated with Apple Pay at any given time and these cards can be linked to Apple Pay through a user’s iTunes account.

NFC technology will control mobile transactions made through Apple Pay

Apple Pay will be using NFC technology in order to facilitate mobile payments. This technology has comprised the backbone of the mobile commerce space for some time, but Apple had considered it dangerous in the past. Over the past few years, Apple has been taking a slow approach to the mobile payment space, citing security concerns as the reason for its cautious approach. Apple may have found a way to make NFC technology more secure using biometric technology.

Apple Pay set to launch October 18

According to a leaked memo from one of Apple’s launch partners for Apple Pay, the new mobile payment service is set to see an official launch on October 18. The service will be available for the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices, as well as Apple’s forthcoming wearable devices that is expected to be launched at some point in early 2015.

Biometric technology may be the tool the mobile payments space needs to be successful. Security has long been a problem in the digital commerce sector. When e-commerce first began growing, there were many security risks that consumers and businesses had to deal with before shopping online could be considered safe. Over the years, the digital space has become more secure, but no less dangerous, and companies continue to fall prey to the risks that exist in the online world.

E-commerce is now something that people around the world participate in on a daily basis. Consumers enjoy the convenience that shopping online represents, but it has taken years of trial and error for online retailers to get it right and keep people safe while they are shopping online. The mobile commerce space is experiencing a similar problem, but retailers have had little time to address security issues thus far. Biometric technology could be the solution that businesses are looking for when it comes to security in the mobile space.

Passwords and security phrases can be compromised with varying degrees of effort and malicious groups are beginning to target the mobile space due to its relative lack of security. While hackers can find ways to exploit a wide range of platforms and services, they cannot exploit biological information that is used to keep these platforms safe. Biometric technology can turn a fingerprint into a virtual key, giving mobile consumers a higher level of security that they have not experienced in the past.

At its core, biometric technology is quite simple. It uses biological information, such as a fingerprint or a retinal scan, to control access to a mobile device or other type of electrical system. Because this information is unique for everyone, it is difficult to exploit. Biometric technology is not perfect, of course, but it could be powerful enough to solve some of the security problems that exist in the mobile commerce space. In fact, biometric technology is one of the reasons that Apple has entered into the mobile payments field, a sector it had once considered too risky to participate in.