During a press conference on Wednesday, MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson responded to criticism of the retail consortium's CurrentC system, saying merchant fines for using other payment solutions are untrue.
CurrentC, a mobile payment system that has found itself at odds with both Apple Pay and Google Wallet, announced on Wednesday that it has been hacked and that some users' email addresses may have been obtained.
As Apple Pay and Google Wallet users have joined together in an attempt to fight a consortium of retailers that have blocked NFC-based payments, the company behind the CurrentC mobile payment program has come out in defense of itself, saying that members of the public are "misinformed."
Partners of the Merchant Customer Exchange consortium, which include retail giants Walmart, CVS, The Gap and more, are contractually obliged to use the upcoming CurrentC mobile payments solution, a forthcoming competitor to Apple Pay, one report says.
In a rare interview on Tuesday, Apple VP of iPhone, iPod, and iOS Product marketing Greg "Joz" Joswiak mostly toed the company line, but did reveal that issues with last month's iOS 8.0.1 rollout were caused by software distribution issues.
In back-to-back interviews at the Wall Street Journal's tech conference on Monday, Apple's Tim Cook and Alibaba's Jack Ma both expressed interest in discussing a partnership that could see the two companies integrate their respective Apple Pay and Alipay payment systems.
At The Wall Street Journal's inaugural WSJD Live conference on Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed Apple Pay is off to a booming start, with more than one million card activations in its first 72 hours of service.
After members of the Merchant Customer Exchange pulled support for Apple Pay mobile payments this past weekend, specifically Rite Aid and CVS, a major partner in the consortium has offered its take on why Apple's solution is not being implemented.
A new incentive program launched by Wells Fargo on Monday has the bank giving a $20 statement credit to all customers who register their credit card with Apple Pay and make a subsequent purchase.
Apple on Monday issued a statement touching on recent events that saw Apple Pay embargoed by MCX members Rite Aid and CVS, saying the mobile payment rollout has been largely successful and continues to gather steam as additional retailers pledge support.
Though the near-field communications chip in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is currently exclusively for Apple Pay, the wireless functionality may be expanded to new uses such as replacing a public transit card or a secure building access keycard.
Apple's latest iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 incorporate Touch ID and support for Apple Pay within apps, with the same 10 hour battery life of previous models. The full size iPad Air 2 is also now 18 percent slimmer with an improved, antireflective display and gains a faster A8X chip, faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi and LTE wireless, a barometer, and a significantly improved iSight camera.
Two major U.S. drugstores have turned off their NFC payment terminals to stop Apple Pay transactions in an effort to make their own "CurrentC" app-based payment system—which is designed to collect and track information on their customers—the only option, even though it's not actually finished yet.
Apple's newest iPads feature one of the same chips used by iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to handle tap-to-pay NFC transactions, but the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 only support Apple Pay within apps, sparing users the embarrassment of carrying around a gigantic alternative to their credit card.
Owners of the popular Amazon Rewards Visa Card, which awards 3 percent back on all Amazon.com purchases, can now add their card to Passbook for the newly launched Apple Pay service.
Tim Cook's tour of China continues with another interview with local media, this time with the Apple CEO telling users in the country that he had "very open" discussions on privacy and security with the Chinese government, following a series of attacks in the country targeting Apple users.
A small number of Bank of America customers were hit with a double-charge when using Apple Pay this week, but the problem resulting from a glitch between the bank and a payment network is expected to be quickly resolved.
Tap-to-buy quick purchasing buttons with support for Apple Pay may be coming to Apple's iAd mobile advertising network as soon as this fall, according to a new report.
The first television commercials spotlighting Apple Pay did not come from Apple itself, but from launch partner MasterCard, which is running baseball-themed ads hyping the launch of the new iPhone 6-based tap-to-pay system.
With the Apple Pay launch complete in the U.S., Apple may now turn its sights toward launching a new store loyalty rewards program in time for the lucrative holiday shopping season.
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AppleInsider Staff
Neil Hughes
Mikey Campbell
Daniel Eran Dilger
Sam Oliver
Katie Marsal
