NFC

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Contactless iPhone Payments May Be Just Around The Corner

Andrew Orr · · Add Comment

Contactless iPhone payments could be enabled in a future iOS update, Mark Gurman wrote on Wednesday. It means that small business could accept credit card payments directly with an iPhone, without needing a terminal such as Square. Jeff Butts has more information here.

In order to accept payments on an iPhone today, merchants need to use payment terminals that plug in or communicate with the phone via Bluetooth. The upcoming feature will instead turn the iPhone into a payment terminal, letting users such as food trucks and hair stylists accept payments with the tap of a credit card or another iPhone onto the back of their device.

Podcast

Rolling With Wi-Fi — Mac Geek Gab 859

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · Add Comment

Sometimes you’ve gotta go… and sometimes — make that ALL the times — you need Wi-Fi. Never fear, John and Dave are here to help answer the tough (and fun) questions. Listen as your two favorite geeks pour through the mailbag, trying to answer as many of your questions as possible in the time we all have together each week. Don’t forget to send in your questions: [email protected] and they’ll answer yours, too!

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Should Apple Open its NFC Chip to Third Parties?

Andrew Orr · · Add Comment

Karen Webster writes about Apple’s position in the payments industry and how Apple’s restriction of its NFC chip has hurt consumers.

Granted, it’s always hard to prove a negative, but not having access to the NFC chip has likely prevented innovators from investing time and money in developing the innovations that could have made the in-store POS experience better for iPhone users. And since iPhone users skew more to the affluent, it also denied those innovators the opportunity to monetize their spend.

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Yubico Authenticator iOS App Now Supports NFC

Andrew Orr · · Add Comment

While Yubico has a security key that plugs into your iPhone via Lightning, the app also supports NFC YubiKeys now.

Instead of storing the time-based one-time passcodes on a mobile phone or computer, Yubico Authenticator generates and stores one-time codes on the YubiKey. A user must present their physical key in order to receive the code for login. This not only eliminates security vulnerabilities associated with a multi-purpose computing device, but also offers an added layer of convenience for users that work between various machines.