Ousmane Bah, an 18-year-old from New York, is suing Apple for $1 billion for false arrest, reports Bloomberg.
According to Bah, Apple's in-store facial recognition software mistakenly linked him to a series of thefts from Apple Stores, leading to his arrest back in November.
In a lawsuit filed today, Bah said that the arrest warrant included a photo that did not resemble him, and that during one of the thefts he was charged with in Boston, he was attending a senior prom in Manhattan.
Bah says that he at one time had a learner's permit without a photograph stolen, which could have been found or stolen by the real thief and used as identification in Apple Stores, leading to his name being mistakenly linked to the thief's face in Apple's facial recognition systems.
Bah says that he was forced to respond to "multiple false allegations which led to severe stress and hardship." Apple has declined to comment on the case, which also involves Security Industry Specialists Incoming.
Update: Apple told The Verge that it does not use facial recognition in its stores, though that does not appear to be the entire story. The NYPD detective in the case said that Apple uses security technology to identify suspects of theft using facial recognition.
There is a security company also involved in the lawsuit (Security Industry Specialists), so it's possible that security footage captured in Apple retail stores is analyzed after the fact by this company.
A spokesperson for AT&T today told Law360 that the matter has been "amicably settled." Details on the terms of the settlement have not been shared, but AT&T is planning to continue to use its 5GE branding.
AT&T earlier this year began displaying a 5GE icon on some iPhone and Android smartphones. 5GE is AT&T's misleading name for an enhanced 4G LTE network and is not actual 5G connectivity, which incensed Sprint.
After AT&T rolled out the 5GE terminology, Sprint filed a lawsuit in federal court against AT&T in an attempt to prevent AT&T from using 5GE labeling. Sprint accused AT&T of damaging the consumer reputation and understanding of true 5G and potentially hurting Sprint's planned 5G rollout this summer.
Sprint also took out a full page ad in The New York Times to call AT&T out for the misleading labeling, calling 5GE "fake 5G." From Sprint's ad:
While Sprint is working hard to deliver mobile 5G and the first 5G smartphone in the U.S., AT&T is hard at work trying to convince you that they already won the race to 5G with something they call "5G Evolution." That is simply untrue.
Don't be fooled. 5G Evolution isn't new or true 5G. It is fake 5G.
They would love for you to believe they are different ... better. The truth is AT&T is simply offering customers a nationwide 4G LTE network just like Sprint and all the other major wireless carriers. It's not 5G.
AT&T uses 5GE for its 4G LTE networks that offer features like three-way carrier aggregation, 256 QAM, and 4x4 MIMO to provide faster connection speeds to consumers. These features are in no way limited to AT&T and are offered by other carriers, but no other carrier is using fake 5G branding.
Unsurprisingly, speed tests have confirmed that AT&T's 5GE service is no faster than LTE from Verizon and T-Mobile.
AT&T has defended its 5GE branding by calling 5G Evolution "first step on the road to 5G" and by claiming that customers "love" the 5GE branding because they "want and deserve to know" when "better speeds" are available.
"We understand why our competitors don't like what we are doing, but our customers love it. We introduced 5G Evolution more than two years ago, clearly defining it as an evolutionary step to standards-based 5G. 5G Evolution and the 5GE indicator simply let customers know when their device is in an area where speeds up to twice as fast as standard LTE are available. That's what 5G Evolution is, and we are delighted to deliver it to our customers.
Smartphones that support true 5G connectivity are only now just beginning to trickle out, and Apple isn't expected to launch one until 2020. No existing iPhone will be able to connect to a 5G network because it requires new hardware.
5G networks from the four major carriers in the United States are going to be available starting in 2019, but expanded coverage and full rollouts will take some time.
The latest version of Apple's "Hey Siri" feature works hands-free without being plugged into power, and it can be found in several recently announced Apple mobile products, including the fifth-generation iPad mini, third-generation iPad Air, and second-generation AirPods.
What's perhaps less well-known is that many of Apple's new Macs also support "Hey Siri" hands-free, meaning that users no longer have to click the menu bar icon or press a keyboard shortcut before they can start talking to the digital assistant.
What follows is a list of Macs that support "Hey Siri" hands-free, and below that you can find instructions on how to enable it on your machine. Note that future Mac models that include Apple's T2 security chip are likely to support the feature, too.
Click the Apple () symbol in the top left corner of your Mac's screen and select System Preferences....
Click the Siri icon in the preference pane.
Tick the checkbox next to Listen for "Hey Siri".
Click Continue to follow the Siri setup process, repeating verbally the commands shown on the screen.
Click Done and then close the preference pane.
Now that you've enabled the feature, simply say "Hey Siri" to invoke the digital assistant and ask a question or give a command. If you're familiar with the Siri function on iPhone or iPad, you should find most of the same general commands work on Mac, too. For more information on how the feature can be useful on the desktop, check out our dedicated guide to using Siri commands in macOS.
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming iOS 12.3 update to developers, two weeks after releasing the second beta and a month after the launch of iOS 12.2, an update that introduced Apple News+, new Animoji, and more.
Registered developers can download the new iOS 12.3 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.
iOS 12.3 and tvOS 12.3 introduce a new version of Apple's TV app, which has been updated with a new look and fresh functionality.
In the new TV app, "Watch Now" and "Up Next" are still front and center for keeping track of what you're watching, but there's a new machine learning-based recommendation engine that will suggest content based on your viewing preferences and history.
The app's interface has been streamlined with sections for movies, TV shows, sports, and kids content, and on iOS, there's a separate bottom bar for the library, search, and Watch Now options.
There's a new "Channels" feature in the TV app, which is one of the major new components of Apple's services push. Channels are subscription services that you can sign up for and watch within the TV app without having to open up another app.
So, for example, if you come across a show you want to watch on your iPhone or Apple TV that's on Showtime, you can tap to subscribe to Showtime right in the TV app, and then you can watch that show without leaving the app.
Some of the new Channels that will be supported include CBS All Access, Starz, Showtime, HBO, Nickelodeon, Mubi, The History Channel Vault, and Comedy Central Now. During the beta, though, users can subscribe to Showtime, Starz, Smithsonian, EPIX, and Tastemade.
You'll still get recommendations for content from services that aren't a part of Channels, you'll just need to watch non-channel content in a third-party app. The TV app also houses iTunes TV shows and movies.
When Apple debuts its Apple TV+ service this fall, all of the company's original TV shows and movies will also be accessible in the TV app. iOS 12.3 will be in beta testing for the next few weeks ahead of a May launch, the month when Apple said the new TV app will be released.
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming macOS Mojave 10.14.5 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after launching the second beta and a month after the launch of macOS Mojave 10.14.4.
The new macOS Mojave 10.14.5 beta can be downloaded through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences after the proper profile has been installed from Apple's Developer Center.
It's not yet clear if there are new features in macOS Mojave 10.14.5, but it likely includes bug fixes and performance improvements to address issues that weren't able to be fixed in the macOS Mojave 10.14.4 update.
This update will make macOS more secure because after macOS 10.14.5, new Mac apps released outside of the Mac App Store that want to have Apple's seal of approval will need to go through Apple's notarization security process.
There were no major changes to macOS discovered in the first two macOS Mojave 10.14.5 betas, but if we discover anything new in this beta, we'll update this post.
The prior update, macOS Mojave 10.14.4, brought the Apple News+ subscription service, expanded Apple News to Canada, and introduced a new automatic Safari Dark Mode feature for websites.
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming watchOS 5.2.1 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the second beta and almost a month after the release of the watchOS 5.2 update, which introduced AirPods 2 support and expanded the ECG feature to Europe.
Once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Apple Developer Center, the new watchOS beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software update.
To install the update, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it has to be in range of the iPhone.
It's not yet clear what features will be introduced in the watchOS 5.2.1 update, but as 5.x.x software, it's likely to focus on bug fixes and other under-the-hood performance improvements.
No changes were found in the first two watchOS 5.2.1 betas, but should we find new features in the third watchOS 5.2.1 beta, we'll update this post with details.
Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the new tvOS 12.3 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that's installed using Xcode. There's also a new second beta software update for the third-generation Apple TV model.
tvOS 12.3 brings a revamped TV app that was first shown off at Apple's March 25 services-focused event. The TV app is an updated version of the original TV app, providing access to TV shows, movies, sports, news, and more, along with a dedicated section for children's programming.
The TV app features a refined interface with a fresh look and feel that's more modern. It keeps the "Watch Now" section with the "Up Next" feature for keeping track of the TV shows and movies you're watching, and there's a new machine-learning based "For You" feature that surfaces content based on what you've previously watched.
There's a new "Channels" option built in to the app, which is a major part of Apple's new services push. Channels are subscription services that you can subscribe to and watch right in the TV app without having to swap over to a third-party app.
During the beta, you can subscribe to Showtime, Starz, Smithsonian, Tastemade, and EPIX, but additional Channels will be available when the new TV app launches.
In the future, Apple plans to add its new TV+ subscription service to the TV app, with TV+ offering all of Apple's original TV shows and movies. The TV app is available on the Apple TV and iOS devices so you can pick up whatever you're watching no matter which device you're on.
The new TV app is set to be released in May, so tvOS 12.3 will be in beta testing until then.
While Apple has built out a significant network of data centers to support iCloud and other services, it still relies on other companies to help support those services. According to CNBC, Apple has a multiyear agreement with Amazon Web Services that sees Apple paying Amazon $30 million per month.
In a February job posting, Apple said it was looking for someone who could “lead and architect our growing AWS footprint.”
Indeed, that expenditure is on track to expand.
At the end of March, Apple’s spending was on track to average more than $30 million per month in the first quarter of 2019. That would be more than 10 percent higher than a year earlier, according to two people familiar with the spending.
The report's sources indicate that Apple's current agreement with Amazon involves a commitment to spend at least $1.5 billion on AWS over five years, making Apple one of the top customers for Amazon's rapidly growing AWS business.
Apple is of course continuing to invest heavily in its own cloud infrastructure, revealing last December as part of its new Austin campus announcement that it planned to spend $10 billion over five years on U.S. data centers, including $4.5 billion by the end of 2019.
Samsung initially said it remained committed to launching the Galaxy Fold on April 26, but the rollout is now expected in the "coming weeks." The company has yet to confirm the delay, but it wouldn't be surprising given that at least some of the folding smartphones appear to have a serious hardware issue.
Galaxy Fold launch events in Hong Kong and Shanghai have already been postponed, according to Engadget's Richard Lai.
Samsung earlier confirmed that it would "thoroughly inspect" the affected devices to determine the cause, but it has yet to provide an explanation. Samsung also cautioned that removing the protective layer on the display could cause damage, but some displays failed even with the protective layer in place.
The delay would be an embarrassing mishap for a smartphone that starts at $1,980, but the right move before the Galaxy Fold gets into the hands of thousands of customers around the world and potentially turned into a larger problem.
Update: Samsung has confirmed the delay in a statement provided to CNBC, noting that it will announce a new release date "in the coming weeks" and "will take measures to strengthen the display protection."
We recently unveiled a completely new mobile category: a smartphone using multiple new technologies and materials to create a display that is flexible enough to fold. We are encouraged by the excitement around the Galaxy Fold.
While many reviewers shared with us the vast potential they see, some also showed us how the device needs further improvements that could ensure the best possible user experience.
To fully evaluate this feedback and run further internal tests, we have decided to delay the release of the Galaxy Fold. We plan to announce the release date in the coming weeks.
Initial findings from the inspection of reported issues on the display showed that they could be associated with impact on the top and bottom exposed areas of the hinge. There was also an instance where substances found inside the device affected the display performance.
We will take measures to strengthen the display protection. We will also enhance the guidance on care and use of the display including the protective layer so that our customers get the most out of their Galaxy Fold.
We value the trust our customers place in us and they are always our top priority. Samsung is committed to working closely with customers and partners to move the industry forward. We want to thank them for their patience and understanding.
In a recent interview with TechRadar, Beats president Luke Wood discussed how the company has changed under Apple's leadership, and the upcoming Powerbeats Pro headphones.
The new Powerbeats Pro
According to Wood, the Powerbeats Pro is "the culmination of the full integration of [Beats and Apple] working together from a technological standpoint." The company even took into consideration its reputation for creating bass-heavy products when building the Powerbeats Pro.
Wood said the company has "learned the tools of [its] trade" over the years and improved its products, particularly after being acquired by Apple.
“We thought we were pretty good until we got to Apple, and then we started learning what ‘good’ really was”, he admits between sips of green tea.
What was Apple doing that Beats wasn’t? “Apple had so much incredible discipline and rigor around product quality” Wood says.
When asked if a Beats product would ever add in biometric sensors for heart rate monitoring, Wood said he doesn't think that will happen: "We never want to labor customers with a bunch of useless, borderline avant-garde tech." He pointed out that many users already have smart watches with this ability, and having it in a headphone would be unnecessary.
Apple announced Powerbeats Pro earlier in the month, with a launch planned for May 2019. The $250 headphones are completely wireless and are sweat and water resistant, with earhooks and tips in four sizes that ensure they will stay put during workouts. Apple said the headphones feature up to nine hours of listening time, and they also come with a charging case like the AirPods.
iOS 13 will enable developers to integrate Siri into their apps for several new use cases, including media playback, search, voice calling, event ticketing, message attachments, flights, train trips, and airport gate and seat information, according to 9to5Mac's Guilherme Rambo.
In a report today, Rambo detailed several other developer-focused features that he expects Apple to announce at WWDC in June, including the ability for iOS apps ported to the Mac to use Mac-specific features such as the Touch Bar and keyboard shortcuts along with support for multiple windows.
Rambo says enabling Mac support for an existing iOS app is "as easy as checking a checkbox" in Xcode, akin to adding iPad support to an iPhone app.
Apple's augmented reality platform ARKit is said to gain "significant improvements" this year, including a brand new Swift-only framework for augmented reality and a companion app that lets developers create augmented reality experiences visually. ARKit is also said to gain the ability to detect human poses.
Developers are also expected to gain access to a handful of new frameworks that allow for expanded use of the Taptic Engine, document scanning in third-party apps, and the ability to capture photos from external devices such as cameras and SD cards without having to go through Apple's Photos app.
Last, on the Mac, apps will supposedly be able to offer file provider extensions, improving the integration of apps like Dropbox with Finder.
Today is Earth Day, an annual event celebrated around the world that brings attention to various environmental causes. Apple is taking part in the event in a variety of ways, from green Apple logos in retail locations to providing an update on its mission to conserve mangrove trees in Colombia.
As it does every year in its retail stores, Apple has turned the leaves of the Apple logo green in honor of Earth Day. Select locations have also provided workers with green t-shirts to mark the event, and all Apple stores today will promote environment-themed Today at Apple sessions.
The company is also hosting an Apple Watch challenge today, asking users to get a 30 minute workout done before the day ends. Apple usually hosts Activity Challenges for major holidays and well-known events, and for the past several years there's been an Earth Day Challenge with the same goal as 2019 -- complete a 30 minute workout.
Apple today also shared a press release that provides an update on its efforts to preserve the mangrove trees in Cispatá Bay in Córdoba, Colombia. Last year on Earth Day, Apple partnered with Conservation International to protect and restore Cispatá Bay, due to the area's importance in the battle against climate change. "Globally, we've lost half of the world's mangrove forests since the 1940s," said Apple VP of Environment Lisa Jackson. "So it's high time we start preserving and protecting them."
The company has also marked Earth Day across its services. Beginning with Apple Music, the Mixtape for Mother Earth has been refreshed this year with curation by Jaden Smith. It includes tracks like "Come Together" by The Beatles, "Summertime Magic" by Childish Gambino, and more. Jaden joined his parents Will and Jada at Apple Park last week to discuss the environment and Jaden's company, Just Water.
Apple is also marking down a collection of environmentally-friendly films on iTunes Movies in a new sale. This includes a suite of Disneynature documentaries for $9.99, and films focused on climate change, the natural wonders of the planet, and animated features for kids with environmental messages like Wall-E and FernGully.
A similar section has appeared in iBooks as well, providing readers with books themed around the environment. These include books that allow you to "Explore the Natural World," "Get Informed," "Do Your Part," and a section focused on kids' books like Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" and "Curios George Plants a Tree."
Earlier in April, Apple announced that it has nearly doubled the number of suppliers that have committed to run their Apple-specific production on 100 percent renewable energy, bringing the total number to 44. This includes iPhone assemblers Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron; Gorilla Glass maker Corning; Face ID module provider Finisar; A-series chipmaker TSMC; Apple Watch manufacturer Quanta Computer; and AirPods assembler Luxshare.
The company continued its environment-friendly announcements later in the month by revealing a new "Material Recovery Lab" had opened in Austin, Texas, dedicated to looking for innovative solutions that will improve on traditional methods of recycling. Apple also revealed a major expansion of its recycling program, quadrupling the number of locations where United States customers can send their iPhone to be disassembled by its recycling robot Daisy, which was introduced around last year's Earth Day.
Sony today announced that some of its upcoming smart TVs will support AirPlay 2 and HomeKit in summer 2019, including its A9G series of 4K OLED TVs, Z9G series of 8K LED TVs, and X950G series of 4K LED TVs.
The TVs themselves will be released on a staggered basis, starting with the X950G series in late April and followed by additional models in May and June, including a 98-inch 8K TV for a whopping $70,000. AirPlay 2 and HomeKit will presumably be rolled out in a subsequent software update.
Apple also lists Sony's upcoming X850G series of 4K TVs in its AirPlay 2–enabled TVs list, but no timeframe for those features was provided for that model.
AirPlay 2 support will allow users to stream videos, music, photos, and more directly from an iPhone, iPad, and Mac to compatible Sony smart TVs, complete with lock screen controls. HomeKit support will enable users to easily control the TVs using Siri voice commands or the Home app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Interestingly, Kuo expects Samsung to be the other supplier in select markets. Apple frequently aims to diversify its supply chain in an effort to reduce risk and have improved bargaining power, potentially reducing its costs as multiple suppliers engage in a price war to secure the lucrative orders.
An excerpt from Kuo's latest research note, obtained by MacRumors:
Apple and Qualcomm's end of patent dispute and entrance into a six-year licensing deal implies new 2H20 iPhone models will support 5G; Qualcomm and Samsung are potential 5G baseband chip suppliers: The market was worried that Intel's disappointing 5G baseband chip development might be the most severe uncertainty for the new 2H20 iPhone models' adoption of 5G. But we believe the uncertainty has been removed after Apple and Qualcomm's end of patent dispute and entrance into a six-year licensing deal, and Intel's announcement that it will exit the 5G baseband chip business. We expect Apple will likely adopt 5G baseband chips made by Qualcomm (focus on mmWave markets) and Samsung (focus on Sub-6GHz markets) for lowering supply risk, reducing costs and having better bargaining power.
Kuo believes that 5G will be a boon for both iPhone sales and Apple's supply chain in 2020. He forecasts total iPhone shipments of 195–200 million units in 2020, including 70–75 million 5G models released in the second half of the year.
The new line includes five wireless products at launch, including the three-channel Formation Bar, carbon-domed Formation Duo speakers, elliptical-shaped Formation Wedge speaker, Formation Bass subwoofer with a Class D amplifier, and the Formation Audio that brings wireless audio streaming to any passive audio system.
AirPlay 2 enables multi-room audio playback between the Formation products and other AirPlay 2 devices, such as the HomePod, Apple TV, and Sonos speakers. AirPlay 2 speakers also appear in the Home app across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch and work with Siri for controlling music playback.
The high-fidelity, high-resolution Formation Series products are also high-priced, of course, with prices ranging between $699 and $3,999.
PayPal has returned with the latest 15 percent discount on App Store and iTunes gift cards this week, offering customers the chance to get the $100 gift card for $85 on eBay. This matches previous iTunes gift card sales on PayPal's Digital Gifts eBay storefront, which we haven't seen for a few months.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with eBay. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
To get the discount, head to eBay and click "Buy it Now" on the iTunes gift card's page. The 15 percent discount is automatically applied, and once you complete your order it will be delivered to you via email within a few hours. The sale is only available to customers in the United States.
App Store and iTunes gift cards can be used to pay for iCloud storage, to rent films on iTunes Movies, and even on subscriptions to Apple Music, Netflix, Hulu, and more. Thanks to sales on the gift cards, you're able to save a little bit of money on these purchases, so be sure to visit PayPal on eBay this week if you've been looking to stock up on iTunes credit.
If you're shopping around on iTunes Movies after purchasing the gift card, Apple has debuted a new Marvel-themed sale this week in preparation for Avengers: Endgame. The sale has a collection of Marvel Cinematic Universe films for $9.99 and under, including the first two Avengers movies, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Thor: Ragnarok, and more.
Update: PayPal is currently restricting the iTunes gift card sale to pre-approved buyers only, requiring shoppers to email the seller to be placed on a list for purchasing the card. We've reached out to PayPal and eBay for more information, and will update this article with any details they provide.
Update #2: The iTunes gift card deal is now live for all U.S. shoppers.
The popularity of OLED smartphones with in-display fingerprint sensors will continue to gather pace in 2019, DigiTimes reports this morning, despite Apple's decision to move away from the technology in favor of face recognition.
Citing industry sources, the report says that rising popularity for fingerprint scanners in smartphone screens is being driven by a reduction in sensor prices and the price gap between OLED and LCD panels.
The market size of OLED panels with in-display fingerprint sensors has expanded significantly as handset vendors including Samsung Electronics, Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo have extended the adoption of in-display fingerprint sensing technology from the premium smartphones to mid-range models, said the sources.
The introduction of optical fingerprint sensing solutions by vendors including Synaptics and Goodix Technology in 2018, which came with more competitive pricing and fitted with the prevailing all-screen display design for smartphones, has helped bring down overall prices of in-display fingerprint sensor chips and therefore further drive up the popularity of such a technology, said the sources.
Apple was widely rumored to be attempting to integrate Touch ID under the display on the iPhone X, but the company's hardware engineering chief Dan Riccio later said it ditched any form of fingerprint scanning after hitting "early line of sight" with Face ID.
Apple has since done away with fingerprint recognition entirely in its flagship smartphone lineup, which includes the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and LCD-based iPhone XR. All have a notch at the top of the screen housing the TrueDepth sensing camera in lieu of a Home button, which contains Touch ID's focused capacitive drive ring in earlier iPhones. Apple's latest iPad Pro models have also inherited Apple's cutting edge face-recognition tech.
Apple's biggest rival, Samsung, includes an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner embedded into the screen of its latest Galaxy S10 smartphone. Samsung's tech uses sound waves to create an intricate 3D map of the user's fingerprint. The Galaxy S10e meanwhile uses an electrostatic fingerprint scanner on the Power button.
Apple has explored various in-display fingerprint scanner solutions in the past, including fingerprint sensing MicroLED displays. So far, Apple has not developed in-screen fingerprint technology for a consumer device, while Touch ID has found a new lease of life on laptop keyboards, specifically in Apple's MacBook Pro with Touch Bar range and the latest MacBook Air.
JCPenney made the decision to remove Apple Pay for our stores, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. We will definitely forward your feedback regarding this for review.
— Ask JCPenney (@askjcp) April 20, 2019
The option to use Apple Pay at checkout in the JCPenney iOS app has also been removed, reports Appleosophy, catching many mobile shoppers off guard.
The retailer began trialing Apple Pay in late 2015, before rolling it out to all of its stores across the United States and adding support for the payment method to its app for iPhone and iPad shortly after.
JCPenney also made its credit card available on Apple Pay, enabling customers to earn shopping points through its JCPenney Rewards loyalty program, directly in the Wallet app on iPhone.
Assuming JCPenney still takes NFC contactless payments, it's unclear whether the company has switched merchant account providers to one that doesn't support Apple Pay, or has simply disabled support for Apple's digital wallet at its transaction terminals. We've contacted JCPenney for more information on their reasoning behind the decision and will update this article if we learn more.
Update: In a statement to TechCrunch, JCPenney says that it stopped supporting Apple Pay and other contactless payments because of an April 13 deadline from Visa for retiring legacy magnetic stripe (MSD) contactless technology in favor of more secure EMV technology.
A third-party credit card brand made the requirement for all merchants to actively support EMV contactless functionality effective April 13, retiring the legacy MSD contactless technology in place. Given the resources and lead time associated with meeting the new mandate, JCPenney chose to suspend all contactless payment options until a later date. Customers still have the ability to complete their transactions manually by inserting or swiping their physical credit cards at our point-of-sale terminals in stores, an option employed by the vast majority of JCPenney shoppers.
Rather than upgrading its technology, JCPenney opted to discontinue contactless payment support, at least for the time being.
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