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Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

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Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#291

Post by mritzmann »

throwaway22032 wrote: post #224

Hacker News is such a bizarre place. On the one hand, we have threads about how browsers are fingerprintable and some app is using telemetry and endless discussions on theoretical zero-knowledge protocols and the importance of cryptography and Snowden saying this and that that get voted up to the top. On the other hand, something like this comes up which is basically another step along the "no-one accepts cash" funne…

I love the fact that both are represented on HN and yet there is - in most cases - a great disscussion culture.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#292

Post by throwaway894345 »

cromka wrote: post #288
throwaway894345 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same in the US. I virtually never use cash. The only real problem I run into is the occasional "open bar"--drinks are free but there's still an etiquette that you should leave a tip which generally means cash.

> drinks are free but there's still an etiquette that you should leave a tip which generally means cash. In my experience on such rare few occasions I was able to tip with Venmo.

Is there a "tip with venmo" poster displayed or do you have to ask the bartender their venmo account name? I've never seen this before, but agreed that it's rare.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#293

Post by [deleted] »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #245
melling wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The long slow road to contactless payments. Almost 2 decades along in the technology adoption curve. I was ready for this in 2005. https://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/debt-manage... If course as the article points out, it wasn’t even new technology back then: “ Not Exactly New Tech Mobile introduced the Speedpass in 1997. Speedpass is a small device on a keychain (called a fob) that users wave in front o…

When I visited Australia in 2015, I was really impressed with the ubiquity and speed of TAP to pay. We aren't quite their in the USA yet, but I do 90% of my payments outside using my Apple watch (with a bit of a lag that I didn't see in Aus). At least we aren't stuck using QR codes.

[deleted]

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#294

Post by hackmiester »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #260
brimble wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've only just gotten used to the slide-it-in-the-slot kind. Whatever that's called. The thing that's replacing the magnetic stripes, more or less. I always forget about contactless. I think all my cards can do it? Not knowing for sure is why I never try, and just stick the card in the slot, which always works. I think I've paid with my phone one time ever. For some reason I can't bring myself to trust it to work 100…

> I've only just gotten used to the slide-it-in-the-slot kind. I always called this "chip". My UK friends called it "chip-and-pin" in 2012. But yeah, no idea what the technical or widely-accepted colloquial terms are. > Not knowing for sure is why I never try, and just stick the card in the slot Yeah, for some reason the UX for contactless is terrible. Sometimes something will show four evenly-spaced green lights (an…

The easier flow is to bring up the card while you’re next in line, then tap it to the reader when it’s time to pay.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#295

Post by emteycz »

profmonocle wrote: post #209
melling wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The long slow road to contactless payments. Almost 2 decades along in the technology adoption curve. I was ready for this in 2005. https://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/debt-manage... If course as the article points out, it wasn’t even new technology back then: “ Not Exactly New Tech Mobile introduced the Speedpass in 1997. Speedpass is a small device on a keychain (called a fob) that users wave in front o…

Something I was thinking about the other day is how some modern credit cards technically have four different ways to pay. Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible, though I haven't seen a merchant actually do this since maybe the mid-2000's. Then you have magstripe, chip, and RFID all in the same card. Pretty impressive backwards compatibility, although I think…

I had a merchant use the numbers on paper method in 2017.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#296

Post by cromka »

adventured wrote: post #189
throwaway894345 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear, the US has contactless payments all over and probably has had them since ~2015, it just took some time for people to "discover" them.

People will still be talking about how the US doesn't have contactless payments another five years from now. It's an inexpensive way to feel good.

> People will still be talking about how the US doesn't have contactless payments another five years from now. It's an inexpensive way to feel good.

From my personal experience, there were roughly about 80% of shops in NYC, up until the beginning of pandemic, that did not accept contactless or where it did not work. One particular supermarket next door had the proper POS for 3 years and it still wouldn't work even this May when I left.

The restaurants were even worse.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#297

Post by hackmiester »

irrational wrote: post #57
jacquesm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU has contactless paying for a while now, but it uses a chip embedded in the bank card.

The US has contactless payment with a chip on the card too, but this is different.

How? I was under the impression this tech was the same. Just like our cards’ chips are compatible.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#298

Post by stavros »

MikeKusold wrote: post #289
throwaway22032 wrote: post #224

Hacker News is such a bizarre place. On the one hand, we have threads about how browsers are fingerprintable and some app is using telemetry and endless discussions on theoretical zero-knowledge protocols and the importance of cryptography and Snowden saying this and that that get voted up to the top. On the other hand, something like this comes up which is basically another step along the "no-one accepts cash" funne…

Paying with your phone is actually more secure than the old mag-swipe method. Your phone will tokenize your credit card information, which makes it significantly harder to track credit card usage across various merchants. Of course it isn't as private as cash, but it is a step forward from mag-swipe. Square has a good explainer if you want to read more: https://squareup.com/us/en/townsquare/what-does-tokenization...

Harder for whom? The attack vector here isn't "hackers compromised everyone and can correlate your data", it's "Visa knows everything about you".

I agree with the GP, this is a huge privacy blind spot.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#299

Post by websap »

joshstrange wrote: post #254
websap wrote: post #247

Did they just completely destroy Square's POS device business?

No support for Swipe or Dip but this is pretty awesome. I still need swipe/dip so I'm stuck with my BTLE device for that stuff but this is pretty awesome for contactless.

Yeah, but this seems like a pretty e2e solution to me now. Most people get an iPhone before their first credit card. They can not get an Apple Card directly on their iPhone with a few touches that instantly gets added to their wallet (the physical card takes days to ship), the card in the iPhone Wallet can now directly be used.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#300

Post by prepend »

This will be nice.

A few months ago a street vendor was selling a book he had written. He seemed like a nice guy and I wanted to support his initiative. The book was only $10.

He didn’t take cash, nor Venmo, nor PayPal. He took cash app, Apple Pay and a bunch of other things I had never heard of. I don’t use cash app and wouldn’t sign up just for him.

We tried to use Apple Pay but couldn’t figure out how to add his contact info and send money. I’m sure we could have eventually figured it out, but we gave up. He also had an android phone with some apps there but couldn’t work with my iPhone.

This sounds like it would have been really useful. I’ll settle with “just give $10 to this person who has an iPhone, I don’t care about anything else” as a step closer to “just give $10 to this person who has anything”

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