Apple in February unveiled a new "Tap to Pay on iPhone" feature that will allow compatible iPhones to accept payments via Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets, with no additional hardware required.
Apple began testing the feature at its Apple Park Visitor Center earlier this month, and now Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has tweeted that the feature will begin rolling out to Apple Stores across the United States starting today, allowing customers to try it out. The feature might not be available at every Apple Store immediately.
Apple said the feature would launch in the U.S. later this year, but the company has yet to share a specific launch timeframe. The feature will allow small businesses and merchants to accept contactless payments through supported iOS apps using an iPhone XS or newer. At checkout, the merchant will simply prompt the customer to hold their own iPhone or Apple Watch, contactless credit or debit card, or other digital wallet near the merchant's iPhone, and the payment will be securely completed using NFC technology.
Currently, merchants that accept contactless payments on an iPhone must rely on additional hardware like the Square Reader, which comes in various models that work wirelessly or connect to an iPhone's Lightning connector or headphone jack.
Wednesday March 12, 2025 6:05 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The upcoming iOS 18.4 update for the iPhone includes a smaller but meaningful improvement for Apple's in-car iPhone mirroring system CarPlay.
Specifically, CarPlay now shows a third row of icons, up from two rows previously. However, this change is only visible in vehicles with a larger center display. For example, a MacRumors Forums member noticed the change in a Toyota Tundra with a...
Tuesday March 11, 2025 3:26 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Despite being released over two years ago, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 continue to dominate the wireless earbud market. However, with the AirPods Pro 3 expected to launch in 2025, anyone thinking of buying Apple's premium earbuds may be wondering if the next generation is worth holding out for.
Apart from their audio and noise-canceling performance, which are generally regarded as excellent for...
Apple is planning for a major design overhaul of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac interfaces with the introduction of iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16 later this year, reports Bloomberg. The update will "fundamentally change" the look of Apple's operating system, introducing a more consistent cross-platform experience.
Apple plans to update the style of icons, menus, apps, windows, and system...
Wednesday March 12, 2025 7:39 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Daring Fireball's John Gruber today shared some strongly-worded comments about Apple's delayed personalized Siri features. Gruber is a well-known Apple pundit who has been writing about the company for more than two decades.
In a blog post titled "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino," Gruber said Apple's credibility has been "damaged" by the delay:Keynote by keynote, product by...
Wednesday March 12, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
iPhones are finally getting a much-requested setting, but availability is limited.
The upcoming iOS 18.4 update introduces an option to set a default navigation app, other than Apple Maps, but unfortunately this new setting is limited to users in the EU. There, you can now set an app like Google Maps or Waze as your default navigation app on the iPhone by opening the Settings app and tapping ...
Apple is set to release iOS 18.4 in early April, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a neat new capability to iPhone 15 Pro devices, new emoji, and more.
While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.4 still introduces enhancements that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've listed 12 new...
Apple One allows you to subscribe to up to six Apple services for one discounted monthly price. There are three Apple One tiers: Individual, Family, and Premier.
Over the last month, the highest-end Apple One Premier plan has gained two additional perks.
Here is what Apple One Premier already included, for $37.95 per month:Apple Music
Apple TV+
Apple Arcade
Apple News+
Apple Fitness+...
Thursday March 13, 2025 3:07 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to feature a significant design overhaul, and a new image apparently taken on an assembly line for the unreleased devices appears to confirm the biggest rumored change.
Render of an iPhone 17 Pro model shared by Jon Prosser
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to adopt a horizontal camera bar reminiscent of Google's Pixel...
Thursday March 13, 2025 9:32 am PDT by Juli Clover
The Apple Intelligence features that Apple introduced with iOS 18 are not pushing people to upgrade their iPhones, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reiterated today. Apple's recent Siri failures are also going to have an impact on 2025 iPhone shipments, which the market is beginning to realize.
As early as last July, Kuo said expectations that Apple Intelligence could drive iPhone upgrades were...
So square devices and similar are now dead? Reminds me of when Google Maps/directions was released free. That basically killed the dedicated GPS device market. Prior to google, map companies were charging $20-$30 a month for their directions app
I thought I read a while back it would require a third party like Square to enable the payment acceptance to work. I dont think its exactly direct payment but instead uses the NFC service via an app to accept on the phone. It would eliminate external hardware but not necessarily a company like Square who would still be there to process. Maybe I am mistaken?
Five minutes later EU bureaucrats now demanding Apple open this to everyone.
This is a great technology. I see people at garage sales and farmers market using square. This is another good option.
Nah, they’ll demand that Apple get rid of it because it’s “anti-competitive.” Even though Apple makes no money from it and it’s beneficial for consumers.
So square devices and similar are now dead? Reminds me of when Google Maps/directions was released free. That basically killed the dedicated GPS device market. Prior to google, map companies were charging $20-$30 a month for their directions app
I'm just excited for this to roll out to the third party payment services, and then later (a year later maybe to avoid all the hungry Eurocrats) open it up to using Apple Pay peer-to-peer without needing a third party app. Just baked into iOS 17 or something.
