KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has twiceclaimed the next 5.5-inch iPhone, tentatively referred to as the iPhone 7 Plus, will carry 3GB of RAM for improved performance, and now DigiTimesechoes that in a new report.
Increasing built-in memory capacity at next-generation smartphones, including new iPhone devices, will further ramp up demand for memory products in the third quarter, said sources, noting that the mobile DRAM capacity of the next-generation iPhone is expected to increase to 3GB from 2GB previously.
The report stops short of specifying whether the 4.7-inch, 5.5-inch, or both iPhone 7 models will have 3GB of RAM, but in general it will mark an increase over the 2GB of RAM in the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone SE.
DigiTimes has a mixed track record at reporting on Apple's upcoming product plans, but its supply chain sources have provided accurate information on occasion in the past, and the rumor is backed by the more credible Kuo. The increased RAM should prove valuable given the camera improvements expected with the new iPhones, including a dual-lens system on the 5.5-inch model.
Apple and Broadcom have jointly filed counterclaims against the California Institute of Technology in an ongoing Wi-Fi-related lawsuit, denying any alleged infringement of the technologies and urging the court to invalidate the asserted patents, according to court documents filed electronically this week.
Apple argued that Caltech did not file the lawsuit until May 26, 2016, more than six years after the publication of the 802.11n wireless standard, and thereby the time limit to collect damages has passed under U.S. law. It also argued that Caltech does not make, use, or sell any product that practices any claim of the asserted patents.
Caltech's patents, granted between 2006 and 2012, are highly technical and relate to IRA codes that utilize simpler encoding and decoding circuitry for improved data transmission rates and performance. The technologies are implemented in both the 802.11n and 802.11ac Wi-Fi standards used by many Apple products.
In a May 2016 court filing with the U.S. District Court for Central California, Caltech accused Apple of selling various Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch models, along with other Wi-Fi products, that incorporate those IRA/LDPC encoders and/or decoders and thereby infringe upon the four asserted patents in question.
Apple provided a series of other defenses, including Caltech's failure to disclose prior art, which is any information or evidence that might be relevant to a patent's claims of originality, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In this case, Apple said Repeat-Accumulate codes ("RA codes") were well known prior to IRA codes.
Apple and Broadcom, one of the company's main suppliers of Wi-Fi chips for select MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch models, have demanded a jury trial in the lawsuit. The case is officially titled "California Institute of Technology v. Broadcom Limited et al" on the docket.
Apple Settles With Dot 23 Technologies
Dot 23 Technologies, LLC has filed a motion to dismiss a patent lawsuit against Apple with the U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas. The two companies have agreed to settle out of court, but the specific terms of their agreement have not been publicized.
Dot 23, a Texas-based entity that generally fits the description of a "patent troll," filed suit against Apple in January, claiming that Siri on iPhone and iPad violated a trio of its patents related to voice dialing and recognition. The firm was seeking damages of an unspecified amount plus interest and fees in the case.
Time Warner has officially taken a 10 percent ownership stake in popular streaming service Hulu, joining a list of companies already invested, including Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast/NBC Universal. Time Warner is preparing to invest $583 million into Hulu, "implying Hulu is worth nearly $6 billion," as Variety pointed out.
The split now divides Hulu up by 30 percent shares for each of the previous three owners, leaving 10 percent for Time Warner's new co-ownership. The new partner won't directly contribute any of its network shows into Hulu's current services, but it will help bolster the company's upcoming live-streaming service with Time Warner's line up of channels. Specifically, Time Warner owns TNT, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, Boomerang and Turner Classic Movies.
Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins said, “This investment from Time Warner marks a major step for Hulu as we continue to redefine television for both consumers and advertisers. Our two companies have long enjoyed a productive relationship – which includes the availability of past seasons of popular Turner shows on our current SVOD offerings – and we are very proud that Turner’s networks will be included in our planned live streaming service.”
Earlier in May, it was rumored that Apple had considered purchasing Time Warner, to potentially use the company's assets as a basis for Apple's own streaming TV service. Yesterday, in an interview with Bloomberg, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes mentioned that this idea -- reportedly begun by Apple Executive Eddy Cue -- landed more on the side of a mutual partnership rather than an outright merger and acquisition.
That particular one is more about the efforts of the technology companies, Apple included, who we’ve been trying to help because we want this better user interface, and what they should do and how would they get involved. That’s more about that than M&A. I don’t think M&A was serious.
Although many believe that the universal shift to online video-streaming TV bundles is inevitable, Bewkes himself still thinks traditional paid-cable packages will have legs for at least the next decade. The CEO believes that the cable companies will retain their traditional bundle sizes and price points, but that eventually these companies will begin to placate potential cable cutters with "full video on-demand and very good search recommendation and navigation engines."
Hulu's upcoming live-streaming service is believed to also offer a cloud-based DVR functionality that will let users record shows and set reminders in an attempt to ease the transition for any user coming from traditional cable boxes. Still, the reportedly $40 per month service "isn’t looking to offer all the hundreds of channels found in the traditional cable bundle," but merely be an amalgamation of the channels offered by its now-four investors.
Popular writing app and Apple Design Award winnerUlysses gained WordPress publishing and Dropbox support today, in a simultaneous update to its iOS and Mac apps.
The changes that come with version 2.6 of the writing app mean that bloggers can publish their texts straight to a WordPress account, complete with tag, category, excerpt, and featured image support.
Writers using the iOS or Mac app can also schedule the publishing time and preview their posts before they go live, all from within Ulysses. German developers The Soulmen say the app supports blogs hosted on WordPress.com as well as self-hosted installations, and also allows publishing to multiple accounts.
As with the Mac, iPad and iPhone users can now also sync their texts over Dropbox instead of via iCloud, with full support for adding Dropbox folders to Ulysses' hierarchical text library.
In addition, plain text and Markdown files stored in Dropbox folders behave just like native Ulysses sheets – supporting the app's sorting tools, filters, group goals, favorites, and so on – so users no longer need to import their files manually.
The 'Quick Open' feature on Ulysses for Mac has also made its way over to the iOS version, allowing users to perform entire library searches and open sheets without navigating through text hierarchies.
Meanwhile, Ulysses 2.6 brings Typewriter Mode to iOS, which promises the same focused writing experience to be found in the Mac app, allowing writers to highlight paragraphs and sentences, fix scrolling, mark the current line, and more.
Lastly, Ulysses 2.6 has been optimized for accessibility, to better cater for visually impaired writers working in macOS and iOS, with support for VoiceOver on both platforms.
Ulysses for Mac costs $44.99 and can be found on the Mac App Store. [Direct Link]
Ulysses for iOS is available as a universal app on the App Store, priced at $24.99. [Direct Link]
Twitter has quietly introduced new keyboard shortcuts for iPad owners using Bluetooth and Smart Keyboards, in the latest update to its iOS app.
The new shortcuts were revealed in a series of tweets by Twitter app developer Amro Mousa yesterday. Mousa let it be known that holding down the Command key brings up a shortcut sheet on connected devices running iOS 9 or later.
Holding down the key shows shortcuts for a new tweet (Command+N), move left one tab (Shift+Command+[), and move right one tab (Shift+Command+]), but there are others available, as Mousa later highlighted.
@amdev CMD+R to reply in tweet details or a DM conversation. And CMD+Enter to send. 😋
— Amro Mousa (@amdev) August 2, 2016
The additional shortcuts are for closing a tweet dialog (Command+W), replying in tweet details or a DM conversation (Command+R), sending a tweet (Command+Enter), and another way of cycling through Home, Notifications, Moments, Messages, and Me screens in the app (Command+1 through 5).
Twitter can be downloaded from the iOS App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Mozilla announced the release of Firefox 48 for desktop yesterday, introducing a long-awaited multi-process feature to the browser along with a handful of interface tweaks.
Firefox 48 is the first version of the browser to include Electrolysis (or e10s), a multi-process feature Mozilla developers have been working on for over seven years.
Multi-process Firefox separates web content and UI processes, so that when a web page is consuming a large amount of processing power, other open tabs, buttons, and menus don't become unresponsive. Mozilla says it will be activating the feature behind the scenes in a staggered rollout for Firefox 48 users over the next few weeks.
While Safari and Chrome browsers have offered a similar feature for some time, this version of Firefox is also running Mozilla's Rust language, which is designed to offer performance comparable to C++, but without the latter's susceptibility to security flaws. Firefox 48 also blocks Adobe Flash Player by default, as the big online media companies like YouTube increasingly switch to HTML5.
Elsewhere, Mozilla has improved the Awesome Bar, which now offers more relevant search suggestions, while the Discovery Pane has been redesigned to make it easier to read. In addition, Reading Lists have been merged into Bookmarks and Synced tabs have been relocated to the History Panel.
Lastly, version 48 also ships security improvements that enhance download protection in Firefox, such as flagging uncommon downloads that appear to mimic popular installation packages for malicious purposes.
Firefox 48 is a free download for the Mac, though users of older Mac system should be aware that it drops support for OS X versions older than 10.9 Mavericks. [Direct link]
Apple Music started rolling out across Israel today, over a year after the streaming service was launched in 110 countries simultaneously. The splash screen for a three-month free trial began appearing on Macs and iOS devices for a number of users in the country this morning.
Once the free trial is up, Apple's individual plan starts at 19.90 ILS ($5.21) per month, with a family plan costing 29.90 ILS ($7.83), putting Apple Music at a similar price point as existing services in the country, such as Pelephone Musix.
Rumors that Apple Music was coming to Israel first appeared in November last year, although initially it was thought the service was debuting in the first quarter of 2016.
In June, it was reported that Apple was gearing up to launch the service in Korea next, although the company still has some strict copyright law hurdles to overcome in the country.
Apple's streaming music service is an evolution of the Beats Music service it acquired in 2014, and has steadily gained listeners over the past 12 months, reaching over 15 million paying subscribers as of WWDC 2016 in June.
Currently it is available in over 100 territories including Africa, the Middle East, India, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, the United States, and Canada.
With iOS 10, Apple is revamping the design and UX of the Apple Music app, aiming to give its content and features a more logical organization, introducing a new section for downloaded music, and making the Connect aspect of the service less prominent.
For the past year, I've exclusively used Bluetooth earbuds while out and about. For me, the convenience of not being tethered to my phone outweighs any downside in sound quality, but all the pairs I've owned before haven't been truly wireless; they're always connected with some sort of cable.
These are the VerveOnes from Motorola, and they're the first pair of truly wireless earbuds I've used. In the package you get the two earbuds and a carrying case for charging. It's a simple setup that affords you portability and battery life.
The VerveOnes connect over Bluetooth to each other and to your phone. For the most part, while using them, the connection was strong, but there were instances where some interference was noticeable.
The sound quality is mediocre. There's a decent amount of bass, but the sound is generally muddy with no real depth and the highs have a tendency to clip at higher volumes. These are a pair of earbuds for convenience, not stellar sound.
After a few weeks of testing, it's hard to recommend the VerveOnes. They can be purchased from the VerveLife website for $199, but for that price, the connectivity issues and sound quality make the earbuds a hard sell.
Apple today released new international versions of the Smart Keyboard designed for the iPad Pro, which could previously only be purchased with a United States English layout.
As 9to5Mac points out, the Smart Keyboard can be purchased in British English, Norwegian, Czech, Slovak, Swiss, Dutch, Korean, Spanish, Italian, German, Danish, Swedish, French, Arabic and other language layouts when ordering a Smart Keyboard alone or as part of an iPad Pro purchase in different countries.
The new language-specific Smart Keyboards are available starting today through Apple's online store and are priced the same as the U.S. English Smart Keyboard. Retail Apple Stores will also likely start carrying the new Smart Keyboards in the near future.
At an event in New York today, Samsung unveiled several new products, including its latest smartphone, the Galaxy Note7. When showing off the phone's features, Samsung execs made it a point to mock Apple and the upcoming iPhone 7, which rumors suggest will not include a headphone jack.
While on stage describing the new Galaxy Note7, Samsung marketing VP Justin Denison made sure to point out that its new device comes with a headphone jack as can be seen in the video below, shared by iPhoneAddict.fr. "Want to know what else it comes with?" He asked. "An audio jack. I'm just saying," he added with a smirk as the audience laughed.
Denison didn't mention Apple on stage, but it's clear his headphone jack comments were directed at the Cupertino-based company and its plans to eliminate the 3.5mm headphone jack in future iPhones. Denison also played up the 3,500 mAh battery in the device and its expandable storage, two features that best Apple's current iPhones.
In addition to a headphone jack, a large battery, and expandable storage, the Samsung Galaxy Note7 also features a 2,560 x 1,440 Super AMOLED dual curved display, 4GB RAM, a 12-megapixel rear camera, wireless charging, IP-68 waterproofing, a USB-C connector, and an iris scanner.
Samsung has released its Galaxy Note7 a little over a month before Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus. Neither device is expected to include a headphone jack, a feature removal that's been widely rumored for months.
It's not yet entirely clear why Apple has decided to remove the headphone jack, but its elimination may result in extra space that can be used for other components and it may also contribute to improved waterproofing. Apple's upcoming iPhones are rumored to be more water resistant than the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, also perhaps including a flush "3D Touch" home button with haptic feedback capabilities.
Aside from these features, the iPhone 7 is said to feature only minor design changes, continuing to look similar to the existing iPhone. Other rumored specifications include improved processors, faster LTE, and camera improvements in the form of a larger sensor for the iPhone 7 and a dual camera setup in the iPhone 7 Plus.
Samsung today hosted a media event in New York City, where it introduced the all-new Galaxy Note7 with an updated S Pen, a new Gear VR headset powered by Oculus, and the Gear 360 camera. All three products will be available in the United States on August 19, with pre-orders starting tomorrow.
The 5.7-inch Galaxy Note7 adopts several design and hardware features of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, including a 2,560×1,440 Super AMOLED dual curved display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core 64-bit 14nm processor, 4GB of RAM, 12-megapixel Dual Pixel rear-facing camera, wireless charging, and IP68-rated waterproofing.
Additionally, the Galaxy Note7 features a built-in iris scanner for unlocking the smartphone with your eyes, 64GB of internal storage expandable up to 256GB with a microSD card, a larger 3,500mAh battery, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC for contactless payments, and a USB-C connector. The device will run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box, eventually followed by Android 7.0 Nougat.
Samsung complemented the new smartphone with an updated version of its S Pen. The stylus features new Air Command functions, including Magnify and Translate, that enable users to zoom in on the screen or convert languages with a simple hover gesture, along with double the pressure sensitivity and a smaller 0.7mm tip geared towards providing a more ballpoint pen-like experience.
The Galaxy Note7 in Blue Coral, Silver Titanium, and Black Onyx launches at AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular on August 19. Pricing will be similar to previous Note devices, amounting to around $750 to $800. The smartphone will also be available at Amazon, Best Buy, Car Toys, Sam's Club, Target, and select Walmart stores. An unlocked version will be released at a later date.
Bloomberg today announced that its Bloomberg Radio service is now available on Apple Music in over 100 countries around the world, including the United States, Germany, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Bloomberg Radio features global business and financial news coverage from top Bloomberg journalists 24 hours a day. Regularly scheduled shows include "The Bloomberg Advantage," "Taking Stock," "Bloomberg Law," and more.
For more than 20 years Bloomberg Radio has been known for its breaking business coverage, global news, market updates and interviews with economists and world leaders. As Apple continues to innovate with new apps and products, we are excited to be able to offer their customers new ways to engage with Bloomberg Radio and other Bloomberg content.
Bloomberg Radio, accessible via the Radio tab in Apple Music, is one of the few Apple Music radio stations that offers news rather than music. Listed in the "Sports & News" category, Bloomberg Radio is free for all listeners like other news stations. An Apple ID is all that is required to log in and listen.
At the beginning of this year, Apple stopped offering free iTunes Radio streaming and began requiring an Apple Music subscription to listen to radio channels. An Apple Music subscription is required for music-based radio stations, but it is not required for news-based radio stations.
Bloomberg Radio is available to all Apple users with an Apple ID as of this morning.
Apple today released the third public beta of macOS Sierra, the newest operating system designed for the Mac. Today's beta 3 update comes two weeks after the release of the second macOS Sierra public beta and just a day after the launch of the fourth developer beta. The third public beta and the fourth developer beta offer the same features, including more diverse emoji and a redesigned look for many existing emoji.
Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the macOS Sierra beta through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.
Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and OS X betas.
macOS Sierra is a major update that brings Siri to the Mac, allowing users to conduct voice searches to find files, look up information, and more. New Continuity features include an "Auto Unlock" option for unlocking a Mac with an Apple Watch, and a Universal Clipboard for copy paste that works across multiple devices.
Deeper iCloud integration makes files stored on the desktop or the Documents folder of a Mac available on all of a user's devices, and Photos features new deep learning algorithms for facial, object, and scene recognition. The Messages app includes rich links, bigger emoji, and "Tapback" response options, and the macOS Sierra update will also bring Apple Pay to the web.
Apple today released the third public beta of iOS 10 to public beta testers, two weeks after releasing the second iOS 10 public beta and just a day after seeding the fourth developer beta of iOS 10. The third public beta and the fourth developer beta are identical, offering features like new emoji, revamped keyboard sounds, and more.
Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the third iOS 10 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on their iOS device.
Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and OS X betas. The video below will walk you through the necessary steps for installing the iOS 10 beta to give the new features a try. Betas are not always stable and include many bugs, so they should be installed on a secondary device.
iOS 10 includes a huge number of new features and design tweaks, like a reimagined Lock screen experience, a revamped Messages app with background animations, bubble effects, Digital Touch, a full App Store and more, and a Photos app with impressive facial, scene, and object recognition capabilities.
There's a new Home app, apps like Maps and Apple Music have been redesigned, and there are hundreds of smaller tweaks and changes in the operating system, which we cover extensively in our iOS 10 roundup.
iOS 10 is available to developers and public beta testers at the current time, with a public release planned for the fall alongside new iOS devices.
The Kudelski Group today announced that it has "entered into a comprehensive patent license agreement" with Apple, stating that both parties agree to finally dismiss all current and pending patent litigation. The case stems from an original lawsuit back in 2014 that saw software maker OpenTV -- a wholly owned subsidiary of The Kudelski Group -- sue Apple in a German court due to its alleged violation of three streaming video patent violations.
OpenTV kept going after Apple throughout the years, with a lawsuit filed in the United States in 2015 that focused on five new patent violations enacted by the Cupertino company, including the claim that iTunes infringes upon one of its patents. Earlier this year, the same German court from the original 2014 case ruled that Apple violated OpenTV's digital streaming patents and was subsequently ordered to cease selling products that included software potentially infringing on OpenTV's patents, namely the iPhone and iPad.
OpenTV was founded in 1994 and sees its primary business focused on the creation of operating systems and software for set-top-boxes. The company is currently focused on its broadcast and digital television platform -- also called OpenTV -- that's available as an on-demand video service for users around the world. Although the turmoil between Apple and OpenTV appears to be dying down, the specific financial terms reached between the two companies weren't disclosed in today's announcement.
Instagram today announced the launch of a new feature called "Instagram Stories," which lets its users post customized images and videos onto their profile, abiding by the ephemeral rule of rival service Snapchat: every post disappears completely within 24 hours. The company said that this lets users not have to "worry about overposting" and clogging up their profile in the process.
Stories will appear in a bar at the top of each user's normal Instagram feed, updating with new posts of all the same friends, family members, and popular accounts they follow. Each time someone posts a new picture or video within their Story, a colorful ring circles their profile picture. Jumping into Stories is as easy as tapping on one of those profile photos, and swiping to move back and forward through each user slideshow.
Today, we’re introducing Instagram Stories, a new feature that lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your story.
With Instagram Stories, you don’t have to worry about overposting. Instead, you can share as much as you want throughout the day — with as much creativity as you want. You can bring your story to life in new ways with text and drawing tools. The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile grid or in feed.
Comments are allowed on Stories, but are only able to be sent through Instagram's direct message feature, because "unlike regular posts, there are no likes or public comments." Keeping in the vein of Snapchat, you can swipe up on your own story to see every Instagram member who has viewed the post so far. To add a bit of flair to a profile, users can also post specific Stories to their page if they decide they want to keep the photo or video longer than 24 hours.
Some users are reporting that the Instagram Stories update has already been added to their device via an update that describes only "Bug fixes and performance improvements," but the company itself mentioned that the update should begin rolling out to iOS and Android devices "over the next few weeks." You can download the Instagram app for free on the App Store. [Direct Link]
Twitter today revealed a change in how its "Moments" feature will work during the weeks of the Summer Olympic Games being held in Rio de Janeiro beginning August 5. A new tab for the Rio Olympics will be added to Moments -- and every platform the Twitter feature is available for -- but now users will be able to pipe news from the tab and into their own timeline for the entirety of the Olympic Games, which run until August 21.
Previously, Moments would only fill up a user's timeline with news from any particular channel for a couple of hours, sometimes as long as a few days, but the Rio Olympics mark the first time the feature has been extended to nearly a month (via TechCrunch). Like with traditional Moments, when the event is over, the tweets and news disappear from your timeline completely.
Twitter hopes that this will allow those interested in the Olympics to follow along with news and updates coming out of the ceremony with minimal hassle, since they won't need to go in and specifically follow individual news personalities, media companies, and olympians -- whom they might just end up unfollowing when it's all over anyway.
You’ll see the option to follow country specific Moments, which will last throughout the Games, so the best of what’s happening with your team will appear in your timeline for the entirety of the Olympics. You can also just opt to follow your favorite sports and events to see these Tweets in your timeline, or catch up on what you missed every day with recap Moments that will highlight results, medal counts and more. Of course, when a Moment that you follow ends, so do the Tweets, leaving your timeline the way it was before.
The following mechanic in Moments isn't restricted to blanketed "Olympics" coverage either, since users will be able to temporarily subscribe to "their favorite sports and events," like coverage of a specific country's results or news out of the Gymnastics finals. In addition, when users visit Moments during the Olympic Games, each day it will be updated to include recaps of event results, medal wins, "and other notable newsworthy items."
The Moments tab is currently available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom and the United States. These countries, in addition to Germany, France, and Japan, will also get "country specific Moments" during the Rio Olympics this year. The bolstered Olympics tab in Moments will begin rolling out "in the coming days," but users can already prepare for the Olympics by reading its dedicated tab in Twitter's lightning bolt Moments menu right now.
In order to take advantage of the massive influx of tweets and users during the Olympics, and battle some recent negative growth statistics, Twitter is also preparing 207 team emojis for the social network, activated when users tweet with the appropriate hashtag of their favorite country. Of course, the company's own Periscope and Vine apps will have featured Rio-related channels and content to keep fans engaged throughout the month of August.
Twitter can be downloaded from the iOS App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Tangerine, a direct banking subsidiary of Scotiabank, is the seventh-largest bank in Canada with approximately 2 million customers as of last month.
Tangerine credit cards -- no debit yet -- can be added to Apple Pay by tapping the "Add Credit or Debit Card" option in the Wallet app on iPhone 5 and later running iOS 8.1 or newer. Verification can be completed with the updated Tangerine Mobile Banking app, available now on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
Apple Pay can be used virtually anywhere contactless payments are already accepted in Canada, including at Aldo, Apple Stores, Canadian Tire, Chapters, Coles, Giant Tiger, Indigo, London Drugs, Mark's, McDonald's, On The Go, Petro-Canada, Pizza Hut, Rona, Staples, Tim Hortons, and hundreds of other merchants nationwide.