MacRumors

Apple Business Chat, a platform for businesses to provide customer service through iMessage, is now available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, Japan, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The feature launched in the United States earlier this year.

The international expansion coincides with 30 additional businesses adopting Apple Business Chat around the world today, adding to 15 brands in the United States that have been using the platform, which remains in beta.

For example, luxury fashion brand Burberry is integrating with Apple Business Chat worldwide to enable clients to check availability on items nearby, ask questions about the size and fit of clothing and accessories, and get help placing an order. Customers can also inquire about special events like fashion shows.

Hotel chain Four Seasons is expanding its adoption of Apple Business Chat to reach 88 properties across the globe with Four Seasons Chat's capabilities to communicate with real people at each property in more than 100 languages, with response times averaging 90 seconds or less.

The full list of brands launching Apple Business Chat today:

North America

• 1-800 Contacts
  

• DIRECTV NOW
  

• Fairmont Hotels, including the Claremont Club & Spa in Berkeley
  

• Kimpton Hotels
  

• Freshly
  

• Mall of America
  

• Macerich malls, including Scottsdale Fashion Square and Santa Monica Place
  

• Men's Wearhouse
  

• Jos A. Bank
  

• Overstock.com
  

• Quicken Loans
  

• West Elm
  

• Hendrick Automotive Group
  

• Lithia Group
  

• SnapTravel (US & Canada)

Worldwide

• Burberry (Worldwide)
  

• matchesfashion.com (UK)
  

• NH Hotels (Europe)
  

• nPower (UK)
  

• Robins & Day (UK)
  

• buddybank (Italy)
  

• Engie (France)
  

• La Redoute (France)
  

• AXA Insurance (Switzerland)
  

• Swisscom (Switzerland)
  

• Vodafone (Germany)
  

• Credit Suisse (Hong Kong and Singapore)
  

• Telstra (Australia)
  

• Harvey Norman (Australia)
  

• KDDI (Japan)

Apple Business Chat launched in iOS 11.3 in March, enabling iPhone and iPad users to ask for information, schedule appointments, make purchases, and complete other customer service tasks directly in the Messages app.

Business Chats must be initiated on an iPhone or iPad, but they can be continued on any other iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch signed into the same Apple ID. You can start a conversation by searching for a business in Maps, Safari, Siri, or Search and tapping on the Messages bubble where available.

Other brands using Business Chat include Apple itself, DISH, Aramark, Four Seasons, Harry & David, American Express, Discover, Hilton, The Home Depot, Lowe's, Marriott, Newegg, T-Mobile, Ameritrade, Wells Fargo, and 1-800-Flowers.

Business Chat requires iOS 11.3 or later. Also note that while the feature has expanded to additional countries, availability varies by brand. For example, when we tried to message Apple through Business Chat in Canada, an automatic reply indicated that the feature remains unavailable in that country.

Update: This article has been updated with additional information from Apple's announcement.

Following a preview at WWDC 2018, Apple today announced that students at three universities in the United States can now add their student ID cards to Apple Wallet to get around campus using just an iPhone or Apple Watch.

Namely, starting today, students at Duke University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Oklahoma can now add their ID card to the Wallet app on iOS 12 and watchOS 5 and use it to pay quickly and easily for laundry, coffee or lunch, and even get into their dorms, the gym, or the school library.

Apple says Johns Hopkins University, Santa Clara University, and Temple University will roll out the capability by the end of this school year.

Students simply hold their iPhone or Apple Watch near the reader anywhere physical student ID cards are accepted — on and off campus. An optional Express Mode bypasses the need to authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode, allowing for the quickest entry possible to buildings around campus.

Apple Pay Cash, Apple's mobile peer-to-peer payments service, could be available sooner rather than later in some European markets.

French tech blog iPhon.fr reports today that an iPhone user in France discovered screens on his new Apple Watch and iPhone XS Max overnight inviting him to set up Apple Pay Cash using a credit card issued by a French bank. Similar reports are also coming in from Apple device owners in other European countries.

Apple Pay Cash arrived on iOS devices in December 2017, although it's currently only officially available to users in the United States. The system allows for quick person-to-person money transfers, much like competing services Square Cash and Venmo.

In addition to the setup screens shared over social media, an Apple support page for Apple Pay Cash has been discovered localized in German that went live on Apple's servers on September 30.

Apple Pay Cash can be transmitted via iMessage and funds are instantly added to the recipient's Apple Pay Cash card in the Wallet app.

When new users receive money for the first time, the funds are added to their new Apple Pay Cash card once they accept Apple's terms. The card's funds can then be used to make purchases using Apple Pay in stores, in apps, and on supported websites, or withdrawn to a bank account within one to three business days.

When Apple Pay Cash does arrive outside the U.S., Apple device owners wanting to use it will need an iPhone 6 and later, iPhone SE, any iPad Pro model, a fifth-generation iPad, iPad Air 2, or iPad mini 3 running iOS 11.2 or later.

Update: One MacRumors reader has found a link to an Apple Pay Cash support page localized for Austria, while support pages have also been discovered for Italy, Poland, Sweden, and Russia.

The Intel XMM 7560 LTE modem in the iPhone XS and XS Max beats the Intel/Qualcomm modems in the iPhone X, but it isn't quite as fast as the X20 modem used in the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, according to data sourced from Cellular Insights and Ookla and shared by PCMag.

Cellular Insights compared Apple's iPhone XS Max with the iPhone X equipped with an earlier Intel modem, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, and the Google Pixel 2 using the 20MHz channel of Band 4, used by Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and several major Canadian carriers. Download speeds were tested at full strength and at a lower signal to determine overall comparative performance.

According to the data, in situations where there is strong signal, the 4x4 MIMO antennas in the iPhone XS and XS Max offer double the speeds compared to the iPhone X, and also help improve speeds in weak signal conditions. Compared to the Note 9 and the Pixel 2, the iPhone XS Max is a bit slower, but the difference is slimmer as signal gets weaker.

At signal levels below -120dBm (around zero and one bar of reception), the iPhone XS Max becomes more competitive with the Android phones using the Qualcomm X20 modem, but at the lowest signal, the Qualcomm X20 modem outperforms the Intel modem in the new iPhones.

Real world testing pulled from Ookla speed test results also suggest the iPhone XS is a good deal faster than the iPhone X. On average, the iPhone XS offers 6.6Mb/s faster download speeds on all U.S. carriers, and even better performance on Canadian carriers with a 20.2Mb/s speed boost.

AT&T is the carrier in the United States that appears to be seeing the biggest speed boost, while the difference is smaller on Verizon and Sprint. AT&T and T-Mobile iPhone X models used Intel modems and Verizon and Sprint used Qualcomm modems, which could account for the difference.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 9 with Qualcomm X20 modem outperformed the iPhone XS in both the United States and Canada, with the Galaxy Note 9 offering mean download speeds of 43.2Mb/s and the iPhone XS offering mean download speeds of 38.9Mb/s. Data for Ookla's speed comparison was collected during the week of September 24.

Despite the favorable results on these performance tests, many new iPhone XS and XS Max users have complained of LTE connectivity issues on the new devices. PCMag speculates that this is due to problems with the first versions of the iPhone XS firmware, which could be causing trouble with signal reception.

During testing, PCMag was unable to find "any issues in the hardware" that would explain negative experiences, suggesting problems people are experiencing can perhaps be fixed through a future software update.

The Apple Watch Series 4 introduces two new watch faces that are exclusive to the new wrist-worn device, Infograph and Infograph Modular. Both of these watch faces take advantage of the larger display on the Series 4 to offer up access to eight complications from Apple and third-party apps.

We took a closer look at the Infograph watch face and the multiple ways that it can be customized in our latest YouTube video, which is worth checking out for anyone who wants to get more out of the Infograph face or who is considering an Apple Watch Series 4 purchase.

With the standard Infograph face, there's an analog clock face with four customizable complications under the watch hands and another four available at the sides of the device.

The Infograph Modular face supports six complications -- one in the upper right, one next to the digital time readout, a larger complication with more info in the center, and three small complications at the bottom.

Built-in complication options available include Activity, Alarm, AQI, Battery, Breathe, Calendar, Date, Digital Time, Earth, Heart Rate, Moon, Monogram, Music, Reminders, Solar, Solar System, Stocks, Stopwatch, Sunrise/Sunset, Timer, UV Index, Walkie-Talkie, Weather, Weather Conditions, Wind, Workout, and World Clocks.

For the dial complications, you can choose to set your favorite contacts to one of the complications so you can contact a person with a tap on the watch face. You can also customize the color of the analog face on the Infograph face.

There are a number of third-party complications available as well, and these will vary based on which third-party apps you have installed on your iPhone and Apple Watch.

There are limitations on which of the available complications can be used in each spot, but most spaces have multiple options available. On the Modular face, for example, you can choose from Activity, Calendar, Heart Rate, Stocks, or Weather Conditions for the large middle spot, while a greater range of complications are available for the smaller spots.

The best way to customize the Infograph and Infograph Modular faces is through the Face Gallery section of the Apple Watch app on the iPhone, which gives easy access to all of the options. It can be done right on the Apple Watch as well, but it's simpler and quicker on the iPhone.

What do you think of the new Apple Watch Series 4 watch faces? Let us know in the comments.

Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of iOS, iPad, and iPhone Product Marketing, recently sat down with Arianna Huffington on the Thrive Global Podcast to discuss the new Screen Time feature that Apple implemented for the iPhone 5s and later in iOS 12.

According to Joswiak, information is the "cornerstone" of what Apple is doing with Screen Time. The company's goal is to provide people with information about how they're using their apps so they can come to their own conclusions about whether they're happy with their usage statistics.

If you ask people how much they're using their devices, they can only guess. If you ask them how much they're using a particular app or category of app, they can only guess. I almost guarantee you their guesses are wrong. So what we wanted to do was provide people with the real information about how much they're using devices, apps, categories of apps, and how many notifications they're getting. These things are very measurable.

With Screen Time, built into iOS 12, users can get a complete overview on how much time is spent on each of their devices on a daily or weekly basis, with Apple offering up a weekly report. Joswiak says Apple wanted to make it as easy as possible, which is why iOS 12 asks people to opt in at sign up and delivers automatic reports each week.

Apple is hoping people will be "more cognizant" of what they're doing on their devices, using the Screen Time information to make better choices. Joswiak believes the vast majority of people will turn Screen Time on and will use the information to regulate behavior. That's how he uses Screen Time - awareness without imposing limits.

For me, I couldn't imagine leaving my home in the morning without my iPhone. I think like most people. I still found it fascinating to be able to open up the Screen Time app and see where I was spending my time. [...] That information was useful for me to regulate myself a to the behavior that I want. I didn't need limits, I just needed that information.

Even with children, Joswiak thinks parents will benefit most from being able to have an "intelligent conversation" about device usage with real data usage rather than implementing parental controls, but the controls are there for parents who need them.

Because of Apple's focus on user privacy, no data about Screen Time or app usage information is sent to Apple or any third party. Apple can tell who has Screen Time enabled and who doesn't for users who send diagnostic information to the company, but data is otherwise "available only to you."

Joswiak also highlighted iOS 12's features for cutting down on notifications, such as Instant Tuning, which lets you quickly turn off notifications for a particularly bothersome app without having to dig into the settings. Do Not Disturb has also been expanded in iOS 12 with new options that let it be turned on for an hour or a critical event.

Apple was not concerned with people using their devices less as a result of Screen Time, because it aims to provide the best usage experience, not the longest. "We don't need to make you use it every minute of every day," said Joswiak. "Our business model doesn't depend on how much you use your devices."

Screen Time was not developed because of the well-known shareholder's letter that called on Apple urging Apple to do more to protect children from smartphone addiction. Screen Time was conceptualized well over a year ago with the idea that Apple "wants to empower people with Apple."

"It's not a kids thing," explained Joswiak. "It's an everybody thing." Apple didn't set out to create a solution for parents to lock down their children's devices, it was created to give everyone information on how devices are being used. "Apple is not reactionary," said Joswiak. "We bring out features we think are going to help people."

Screen Time is available for all devices starting with the 2013 iPhone 5s, and bringing these kinds of new features is to millions of iOS users is something that only Apple can do, according to Joswiak. He says that soon, 80 percent of the user base will be using the latest version of iOS 12, which is "staggering."

Joswiak says that Apple has "lots of ideas" on how to take Screen Time further in the future. "We know there's lots more we'll want to do over time," he said.

Apple this afternoon shared several of the best "Shot on iPhone" photos that it's seen on Instagram and Twitter from customers who have purchased one of the new iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max devices.

The photos were collected from Instagram and Twitter users who included the hashtag "#ShotoniPhone" alongside their photos, with images showcasing Portrait Mode, Smart HDR, more advanced bokeh, Depth Control, and other features introduced with the iPhone XS and XS Max.

Apple's new iPhones continue to offer the same 12-megapixel dual-lens telephoto and wide-angle camera system introduced in the iPhone X, but multiple upgrades result in pictures that are better than ever before.

The iPhone XS and XS Max are equipped with an improved wide-angle image sensor that's 32 percent larger than the sensor in the iPhone X and twice as fast for better image fidelity, greater color accuracy, and improved performance in low light conditions.

A new image signal processor and second-generation Neural Engine included with the A12 Bionic chip allow Apple to process photos in a new way, using a Smart HDR feature for better dynamic range. The new hardware also powers Depth Control and better bokeh when using the iPhone's Portrait Mode for artful background blurring.

The full range of Instagram photos highlighted by Apple can be seen in the Apple Newsroom feature.

Sebastiaan de With, the developer behind photography app Halide, has taken an in-depth look at the front and rear-facing cameras in the iPhone XS and XS Max, providing some insight into complaints about a possible skin smoothing "beauty mode" that results in less realistic selfies than prior iPhone models.

A soft filter on selfies "doesn't exist," says de With, with the smoother look attributed to more aggressive noise reduction techniques and the merging of exposures that eliminates sharp light and dark contrasts where light hits the skin.

Both the front and rear-facing cameras in the iPhone XS and XS Max are using computational geography to improve photo quality, a feature that takes multiple shots at once and then merges them into a single perfect photo.

Apple's iPhone XS website explains all of the different things that are going on behind the scenes when an image is captured, and part of the process involves taking shots that are underexposed, overexposed, and captured at different times, with the camera taking the best elements of each shot and combining them.

According to de With, this results in a "whole new look" for photos that represents a "drastic departure" from images captured with previous-generation iPhones. As the Halide blog post explains, the small areas of contrast seen in photos from older iPhones can make images look sharper, but these areas of deep contrast have been eliminated in the iPhone XS models.

Using the exposure merging techniques, the iPhone XS reduces the brightness of the bright areas and the darkness of the shadows. While the detail is still there, we see it as less sharp because of this loss of contrast. Skin ends up looking smoother because the "light isn't as harsh."

The iPhone XS and XS Max are also using much more aggressive noise reduction techniques than in previous iPhones. de With says this is because the iPhone XS models prefer a faster shutter speed and a higher ISO level, capturing photos quicker but resulting in more noise. Taking care of that noise sacrifices some detail and contrast.

In the front-facing camera specifically, which uses a smaller sensor than the rear-facing camera, the heavy noise reduction paired with the image merging techniques leads to the noticeably smoother selfies that people have seen with the iPhone XS camera.

The tradeoff is that selfies, which traditionally are worse in mixed or harsh lighting (the majority of lighting!) are now no longer blown out, and in most cases it just looks better, if just a little on the smooth side.

According to de With, Apple can tweak these settings through software updates if the majority of people are unhappy with the selfie camera, so we may see a better compromise between noise reduction and the filtering of harsh lighting in the future.

All in all, de With believes the iPhone XS camera is better than the iPhone X camera thanks to its superior dynamic range, with some post processing able to re-add the contrast where necessary.

There are issues with RAW image capture because of the noise level. When taking RAW photos with an app like Halide, de With says it is a must to do so manually and to reduce the exposure. Otherwise, RAW images will end up looking worse than Smart HDR JPEGs.

To account for the changes to RAW image capture, Halide is gaining a new Smart RAW feature that uses the new sensor tech in the iPhone XS to get better images. It avoids Smart HDR all together to cut down on noise reduction and pull out more detail.

Halide's full blog post is well worth a read for anyone interested in an in-depth look at the camera changes Apple has introduced in the iPhone XS and XS Max. The Halide app can be downloaded from the App Store for $5.99. [Direct Link]