Maccast 2015.07.23

Written by: Adam Christianson

Categories: Podcast


Download today’s show here! podcast-mini2.gif MC20150723.mp3 [34.8MB 01:12:06 64kbps]

A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Episode 534. Apple Q3 2015 is good. iPhone 6 series A9 Chips enter production. What else is next? New iPod Touch details. New rounds of OS Betas. Why we’re still Homekitless? Apple Music connection issues. iCloud App Specific Passwords. Manage Apple Music Subscription and renewal. Thing of the Moment: HeadsUp – Webcam Viewer (App Store).

Special thanks to our sponsor:
Smile on My Mac
Smile – smilesoftware.com

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  1. Alan Brash | Jul 28 2015 - 10:08

    Hi. Great show which is listen to from here in Scotland in the United Kingdom, aka Great Britain.
    Two pieces of feedback.
    1. Apple Music – unlike you i was not impressed with Music at the time of launch and quickly turned off the subscription auto renew. Why? I enjoy the Now feature on Spotify…whether I am driving to work, working at my desk, going around the supermarket on a Friday with that Friday feeling after work; I can always find new and great music. It also can be varied e.g. french cafe music, classical, soothing, energetic (60. 70 & 80s British pop as an example). I can even quickly get to my MacCast pod cast. It is easy. I discovered Activity Playlists on Music and thought I may be converted over to Apple. However the playlists just don’t do it for me.. why would I want rock to work with? Also, i selected ‘Listen While You Work: 80’s Hits’, mmm not the 80s I remember, very few British songs and US focused. No complaints on the US music, I just wanted to hear more tunes that reminded my of my teenage years in the UK. So the jury is still out.

    2. Apple Pay – I am with HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Company) and today it began to support Apple Pay in the UK. Hurrah. It was easy. However contactless payments have been about here for a number of years, so it is easy for me to take out my preferred card and simply touch the NFC terminal and that is all that is need to pay for anything up to £20. I have three cards that support this. So today I went into Boots to by my sandwiches for lunch and a few things. It totalled £3.34. I had to go into my wallet to bring out my loyalty card to gather the points for the spend and right next to that is my contactless bank card. So it is easy. Of course I am a gadget free so I just had to try apple pay and after a wee bit of making sure I held the iPhone correctly in order to get my finger on the itouch sensor and position it above the keypad on the payment terminal the payment went through. The boys was that the transaction details are right on my phone. Great to keep track of your small spends. I have read that those retailers that have upgraded their terminals to truly support apple pay limitless payments are far and few between. The 250000 often quoted by Apple are those stores that were already accepting contactless payment cards NFC with a £20 limit. I think the break through here in the UK will be the limitless payments growing as terminals are updated to support the token payment technology. We have a long way to go yet. So the contacless cards v Apple Pay when they both do the same thing and are both limited to the £20 in the majority of the 250000 stores makes it is a close call. My first Apple Pay transaction was fun though!

    You also questioned that the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Scotland, both adopters were the same bank. No they are different banks. One is Royal one is not. Hope that helps.

    Keep up the good work, enjoy the podcasts.

    Alan