Apple Pay Starting October 20

On Thursday Apple® announced that customers can start making payments with the touch of a finger on Monday, October 20, when Apple Pay™ becomes available in the US. Apple Pay offers an easy, secure and private way to pay using Touch ID™ on iPhone® 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in stores and within apps. Users of the just-announced iPad Air™ 2 and iPad mini™ 3 will be able to use Touch ID on their devices for Apple Pay within apps. The new service will be enabled by a free software update to iOS 8.

“Our team has worked incredibly hard to make Apple Pay private and secure, with the simplicity of a single touch of your finger,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The reaction to Apple Pay has been amazing. We continue to add more Apple Pay ready banks, credit card companies and merchants, and think our users will love paying with Apple Pay.”

Apple Pay is designed to protect the user’s personal information. It doesn’t collect any transaction information that can be tied back to a user and payment transactions are between the user, the merchant and the user’s bank. Apple doesn’t collect your purchase history, so when you are shopping in a store or restaurant we don’t know what you bought, where you bought it or how much you paid for it. Actual card numbers are not stored on the device, instead, a unique Device Account Number is created, encrypted and stored in the Secure Element of the device. The Device Account Number in the Secure Element is walled off from iOS and not backed up to iCloud®.

Apple Pay supports

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OS X Yosemite Now Available As A Free Upgrade

Yesterday Apple® announced that OS X® Yosemite, the latest major release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is available as a free upgrade for Mac® users from the Mac App Store℠. Yosemite delivers a fresh, modern look and introduces Continuity features that make it easy to hand off activities between Mac and iOS devices and even make and receive iPhone® calls from your Mac. Yosemite also includes a new Today view, a redesigned Spotlight® and updated versions of Safari®, Mail, Messages and iTunes®.

“OS X Yosemite is the most advanced version of OS X we’ve ever built, with a brand new design, amazing Continuity features and powerful versions of the apps you use every day,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “OS X Yosemite ushers in the future of computing, where your Apple devices all work together seamlessly and magically. It’s something only Apple can do, and it’s available today.”

OS X Yosemite has been redesigned with a fresh, modern look, while maintaining the power and familiarity users expect from a Mac. Streamlined toolbars make more room for your content, and use translucency to reveal additional app content as you scroll. Other translucent elements, such as window sidebars, take on the feel of your desktop picture and give you a sense of what’s hidden behind the active window. App icons have a clean, consistent design, and a new system font improves readability on every Mac and looks stunning on a Retina® display.

Yosemite includes amazing Continuity features that make your Mac and iOS devices perfect companions.* Handoff automatically passes what you’re doing from one device to another, like writing an email or surfing the web. Instant Hotspot makes using your iPhone’s hotspot as easy as connecting to a Wi-Fi network.** AirDrop® now works between Mac and iOS, so you can quickly and easily share content across devices. All the SMS messages that previously only appeared on your iPhone now can automatically appear in Messages on your Mac and all your iOS devices. You can even make and receive iPhone calls on your Mac.***

Yosemite introduces innovative new features, including: 

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