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Apple announces Apple Card credit card

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Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#561

Post by desas »

bk_mtn_man wrote: post #63
nabaraz wrote: post #25

With the rise of smartphone payments like Samsung Pay, Android Pay and Apple Pay , is there even a need for credit cards? How long until these companies start skipping payment processors like Visa and Mastercard and take the whole pie?

I don't live in a tech hub city but in all my shopping I have never seen anyone use one of the Apple/Samsung payment methods where I live. Even when I spent months in Silicon Valley I can count the number of times I saw it used on one hand.

In the UK basically every shop that allows paying with card allows contactless payment and also apple and Android pay. I can't remember the last time I used my actual physical card. It's really commonplace.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#562

Post by bakul »

chx wrote: post #511
photonios wrote: post #449

I got all excited and then realized that almost none of the new services that were announced will offer me anything as a European. Apple Card most likely won't be coming to Europe any time soon. The streaming service is also not likely to come to Europe as it includes US-only services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime. I am aware that this is a bit of a 1st world problem, but all of these services being US-only can be re…

This entire field is completely messed up. One of my favorite movies this year is from India, I don't usually see Bollywood movies but Manikarnika rocked. It opened in January and now, it's been out on Amazon Prime since Saturday: https://www.justwatch.com/ca/search?q=manikarnika In Canada. In the USA? https://www.justwatch.com/us/search?q=manikarnika Not so much. This only drives piracy -- it obviously has been ripp…

? It's available on Amazon Prime in the US. In Hindi, Tamil 7 Telugu. With English subtitles. Smart TVs these days allow Amazon Prime so why would try Chromecasting from your computer?

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#563

Post by miguelrochefort »

photonios wrote: post #449

I got all excited and then realized that almost none of the new services that were announced will offer me anything as a European. Apple Card most likely won't be coming to Europe any time soon. The streaming service is also not likely to come to Europe as it includes US-only services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime. I am aware that this is a bit of a 1st world problem, but all of these services being US-only can be re…

Americans don't realize how good they have it. A few years ago, I made a list of over 100 things that are available/possible in the US but not in Canada. It almost made me feel like Canada was a third world country. I'm sure I could find it.

Here are some examples I can remember:

- Amazon Prime

- Amazon selection and prices

- Amazon Dash

- Amazon groceries

- Amazon third-party selling

- Free shipping in most online stores

- Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay (now available in Canada)

- Google Voice

- Google Fi

- T-Mobile unlimited international data

- Credit card churning

- Credit card cashback (up to 6%)

- No taxes on online purchases

- Most prestigious schools in the world

- Netflix content

- MoviePass

- YouTube Red

- Venmo

- Pandora

- Spotify (now available in Canada)

- McDonald's dollar menu, $5 pizza

- Bitcoin exchanges (some options in Canada now)

- Charles Schwab (no international fee)

- Robinhood (zero fee stock trading)

- Cheap Costco booze

- Uber (now available in Canada)

- Airbnb (now available in Canada)

- Planet Fitness ($10, 24-hour gym chain)

- Walmart open 24/7, can camp in parking for free

- You can carry a knife

- Super Bowl ads

- US dollar (most recognized and best exchange rates internationally)

- Dirt cheap chicken and eggs

- Grass fed butter (not strictly US, but impossible to find in Quebec)

- Google Maps satellite resolution and Street view (now available in Canada)

- Best military

- Best Olympic athletes

- Best sport leagues

- Best space program (NASA)

- Most bands tour in USA

- Trader Joe's, Aldi

- You can find American brands (restaurants, foods, cars, clothes, sport teams, movies, electronics) everywhere in the world

- Over 90% of movies and TV shows I've watched are from the US

- Over 50% of the music I listen to is from the US

- Over 90% of podcasts I listen to are from the US

- FAANG, and the quality/compensation of American tech companies

- Most popular guitar brands are American

- Some of the most diverse climate and natural landmarks (Redwoods, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, beaches, deserts, Alaska, Hawaii)

- The world knows more about US politics than their own country's politics (at least that's my case, e.g., everyone can name the US president)

- Most online communities (HN, Reddit) are US-centric (they assume every user is an American)

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#564

Post by eli_gottlieb »

andrekandre wrote: post #508
eli_gottlieb wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We get up in arms about it because we think that it's unethical in all but the last case. Society as a whole should be publicly deciding which personal transactions are forbidden, not the payment processing platform.

hey, that sounds like democracy! ^_^ seriously though, i don’t really think it’s in a company’s purview to promote those values, otherwise they’d let their employees vote on who their ceo should be or wether their jobs should be outsourced or not etc... it definitely is in their purview to maximize their profit and at least in the short-term it would seem banning is “easier” (aka profitable) since it quells any “cont…

>seriously though, i don’t really think it’s in a company’s purview to promote those values, otherwise they’d let their employees vote on who their ceo should be or wether their jobs should be outsourced or not etc... it definitely is in their purview to maximize their profit and at least in the short-term it would seem banning is “easier” (aka profitable) since it quells any “controversies” quickly enough...

Indeed. I may not support the political views of (checks notes) ultra-nationalist furries, but I damn well think in a free society, their right to (checks notes) draw furry pr0n with Nazi flags in it should be abridged only by democratically discussed and broadly supported hate-speech laws.

An "ew no" to one is an "ew no" to all!

Or, a little more seriously, if we're not going to go through with actual social control over these decisions, we shouldn't control them at all. The lived experience of freedom is simply having the smallest possible number of choke-points between you and what you want, subject to not violating anyone else's rights or doing anything so morally horrific it was actually banned by the government (eg: organ trafficking or whatever). Our society needs to stop accepting that privatized, for-profit choke-points somehow give us "more freedom" than a law banning the choke-points (ie: common carrier regulations, First Amendment restrictions on state action, etc).

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#565

Post by rickycook »

marcrosoft wrote: post #547
photonios wrote: post #449

I got all excited and then realized that almost none of the new services that were announced will offer me anything as a European. Apple Card most likely won't be coming to Europe any time soon. The streaming service is also not likely to come to Europe as it includes US-only services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime. I am aware that this is a bit of a 1st world problem, but all of these services being US-only can be re…

I'm surprised you're not used to it by now. It's much easier to launch new ventures in the US due to considerably less regulation.

source? because it sounds like that’s an unfounded knee jerk reaction that’s not backed up by fact. there are lots of factors that contribute to fewer enterprises in the EU, and i’m not sure that regulation is anywhere near the top for the majority of cases

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#566

Post by photonios »

chillacy wrote: post #556
photonios wrote: post #449

I got all excited and then realized that almost none of the new services that were announced will offer me anything as a European. Apple Card most likely won't be coming to Europe any time soon. The streaming service is also not likely to come to Europe as it includes US-only services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime. I am aware that this is a bit of a 1st world problem, but all of these services being US-only can be re…

Some people are mentioning regulation but for streaming a lot of it comes down to market size. The US is a huge singular market which all speaks one language. In europe there are many smaller markets each with its own language and set of countries and regulations. Even at big-ish US companies that serve europe, there might only be a small team that services just FR or just GB, and almost never any smaller countries.…

This is totally true. As I mentioned in my first comment, I do understand the reason.

Doing business in the EU is just a lot harder. Even though a lot of regulation is on an EU level, each country has their own rules and laws on top of that. Just invoicing your customers is a total mess. It's incredibly complicated. Then there is a ton of privacy and data protection regulation (GDPR for example). Germany for example has a dozen or so more rules on top of that. It's one of the reasons why Google Streetview is non-existent in Germany. I haven't even gotten to the the fact that each country has a different language. Although most people of younger generations do speak and understand English just fine.

I totally understand why companies avoid the EU as a result of this. It's a mess. Ironically, I do support a lot of these regulations.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#567

Post by timdellinger »

czbond wrote: post #486

I laughed only when I read the last sentence "The company also promises that “Goldman Sachs will never sell your data to third parties for marketing and advertising.” Never trust Goldman when a profit is already built in.

Aren't these recognized as "weasel words" nowadays? We won't sell your data, but maybe we'll sell a summary of your data, or maybe we'll use the data to put you in a category, and sell a list of members of the category, or...

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#568

Post by akoncius »

chillacy wrote: post #556
photonios wrote: post #449

I got all excited and then realized that almost none of the new services that were announced will offer me anything as a European. Apple Card most likely won't be coming to Europe any time soon. The streaming service is also not likely to come to Europe as it includes US-only services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime. I am aware that this is a bit of a 1st world problem, but all of these services being US-only can be re…

Some people are mentioning regulation but for streaming a lot of it comes down to market size. The US is a huge singular market which all speaks one language. In europe there are many smaller markets each with its own language and set of countries and regulations. Even at big-ish US companies that serve europe, there might only be a small team that services just FR or just GB, and almost never any smaller countries.…

somehow Netflix is available in majority of europe with english-only content and it’s fine. sometimes you can get subtitles even. so I don’t think that it is main reason why europe is second-class citizen in this regard.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#569

Post by tfehring »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #514
tfehring wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those of us who use credit cards with rewards, the rewards significantly exceed the price increases, because most of the price increases are paid by people using other payment methods.

They're mostly paid by people who carry a balance and incur interest payments. They fuel the rewards programs.

I'm sure interest revenue plays a role in determining the rewards that are offered, but the data suggest that merchant fees, which are largely paid for by non-credit-card-using households in the form of higher prices, are a bigger contributor. The average credit-card-using household receives a net transfer of over $1,000/year from non-credit-card-using households [0] (2010).

[0] https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/public-policy-discuss...

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#570

Post by rickycook »

013a wrote: post #555
photonios wrote: post #449

I got all excited and then realized that almost none of the new services that were announced will offer me anything as a European. Apple Card most likely won't be coming to Europe any time soon. The streaming service is also not likely to come to Europe as it includes US-only services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime. I am aware that this is a bit of a 1st world problem, but all of these services being US-only can be re…

Apple TV+ was announced for "100+ Countries at Launch".

but the content won’t likely be the same across regions. netflix for example has a very different library depending on where you are in the world. eg CANADA had about 50% of the US library in 2016 (many other regions sitting with UK/AU around 30-40%)

... but it still costs the same, and that’s not even the part that’s frustrating

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