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Bank of America issues refunds after double-charging Apple Pay users
Went on a spending spree with your Bank of America debit card the moment Apple Pay hit your iPhone? You might be in for a (brief) shock. The bank is now issuing refunds after it charged at least some Apple Pay users twice when they made purchases at retail shops. While it hasn't said what triggered the glitch, the issue doesn't appear to involve Apple's software -- there haven't been widespread reports of problems with other cards, and Apple itself doesn't process transactions. Whatever was the cause, it's not surprising that a major mobile payment service would run into some hiccups just after launch. Let's just hope that things go more smoothly from here on out.
Apple Pay launches Monday with support from Starbucks, Macy's and others
Apple has just kicked off the iPad extravaganza with a big piece of news about its Apple Pay initiative. It'll launch this Monday, and now has the support of 500 US banks along with major retailers like Starbucks, Macy's, McDonald's, Disney, Walgreens and Target. To remind you, Pay will make it possible to use your iPhone 6 and 6 Plus at the till (or online) instead of pulling out a credit card, since they're the first Apple handsets with contactless NFC. It'll work in conjunction with the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, and let you use any credit cards you've stored in Passbook. Meanwhile, the new iPhones' Secure Element chip encryption is fenced off from iOS and iCloud, so that even Apple itself can't see confidential purchase information. If you're good with all that, you can give it a crack starting October 20th -- a partial list of retailers is available here.
World's first government-backed digital currency to launch in December
It doesn't yet have a name, but Ecuador's new government-backed virtual currency is coming. That's the thrust of a new report from the Associated Press, anyway -- the country's Central Bank is said to be gearing up for a launch sometime in December, though the juicy technical details and the mechanics of how citizens can get their metaphorical hands on these things are still shrouded in mystery. What does seem clear at this point is that Ecuador's current cash (in the form of US dollars) isn't going anywhere, and that people will be able to conduct transactions with each other from their mobile phones without big fees eating into them. If everything goes according to plan, this'd be the first time a national government has launched its own official digital currency, though that's not to say some cryptocurrency nuts haven't aimed to affect change on a national scale. Enthusiasts in the Czech Republic launched the CzechCrownCoin a few days ago in a bid to bolster online business in the country, and the Auroracoin folks made the virtual equivalent of $380 available to all the fine folks of Iceland... only to see its value tank over time.
JPMorgan and other US banks reportedly hit by cyberattack
A Bloomberg report claims that JPMorgan Chase and "at least" four more banks in the US have been victims of a virtual attack from hackers. The data gathered from the breach could reportedly "be used to drain accounts," according to two Bloomberg sources who have been briefed on the situation by the US government. At the moment, it is unknown which other banks were affected by this, but the FBI has already opened an investigation and is currently working to find out more details. "[We are] working with the United States Secret Service to determine the scope of recently reported cyberattacks against several American financial institutions," said the FBI in a statement. Meanwhile, a different report from CNN Money notes that seven of the "top" 15 banks were on the wrong end of these attacks, per people familiar with the matter -- though such information has not been corroborated by US officials.
What you need to know about card skimming
"Skimming" is a blanket term used when referencing a crime where you take small amounts of money. It literally means to take cash off the top, as if money were the sweet cream floating atop a cauldron of lesser riches. Fifty years ago, skimming might have meant stealing a handful of dollars from your employer, or even millions in elaborate scams we've seen in countless Hollywood films. Today's skimming, however, employs tricks and hardware that are absurdly complex and yet sneaky enough to elude detection. Unless you know what to look for, of course. Today's world of skimming is high-tech, and it wants your credit card and banking info. Though we can't help you catch every conceivable method that crooks are using to try to rip you off, being armed with a bit of knowledge on the topic could save you major hassle down the road. No matter what you take away form this read, at a minimum you'll never look at an ATM or POS terminal the same way again.
Paym platform for sending and receiving money by mobile number goes live
Paym, a new mobile payment platform that lets you send money to a mate for your share of Friday's curry with only their phone number to hand, is now live in the UK. To use Paym, you'll first need to associate your mobile number with your UK bank account either online or through your bank's mobile app. Once that's done, you can send or receive money (up to £250) from anyone that's also signed up to Paym using nothing but mobile numbers. The process may sound familiar, as Barclay's Pingit app has been capable of the same thing, regardless of which bank you're allied with, since it launched in 2012. The only real difference with Paym is that it's integrated into the systems and apps of other banks, making it a bit more visible, and convenient. Most well-known banks and building societies support Paym at launch, with the only notable exceptions being the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest, which are expected to join up sometime this year, and Nationwide, which'll wait until early 2015 to adopt Paym. Until then, though, anyone with unsupported accounts can still use Pingit, so no excuses as to why you can't contribute towards the cab fare.
Your bank will pay Microsoft to keep running its ATMs
Believe it or not, roughly 95 percent of ATMs in the world are still running Windows XP -- and that's about to become an expensive problem. Machine designer NCR says that only a third of banks will upgrade their ATMs to a newer OS before official XP support ends on April 8th, leaving many institutions little choice but to pay Microsoft for an extended contract if they still want support. At least some banks plan to update, but they're facing both technician backlogs and steep transition costs; estimates suggest the big UK firms might pay up to £60 million ($100 million) each to make the leap. Whether or not your bank joins the modern era, you shouldn't be surprised if you end up footing some of the bill. [Image credit: Martin Maciaszek, Flickr]
The Daily Grind: How organized is your inventory?
Actually looking through my inventory in most games is a bit like opening up a hoarder den. I don't know why I thought a level 37 blue chestpiece was worth saving in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but for some reason it's there, and it's brought a dozen friends. My inventory in Final Fantasy XIV could be mistaken for a random test dump of inventory items, not to mention that one of my retainers has so much raw meat sitting in his inventory that he may be legally classified as a slaughterhouse. I don't think we're as good as we should be about keeping our inventories nice and organized. But maybe I'm just a horrible example. So I ask you, dear readers -- how organized is your inventory? Is it a marvel of cleanliness and efficiency, or do you have an entire wing of bank storage dedicated to a purpose you no longer remember, one that involved seemingly random items? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Banks brace for cyberwarfare drill Quantum Dawn 2
Come June 28th, Wall Street outfits including the likes of Citigroup and Bank of America will be under siege -- from fake hackers, that is. Representatives from a total of 40 companies along with the Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission, US departments of Treasury and Homeland Security will take part in Quantum Dawn 2: a simulated cyberattack on faux trading and information systems. Led by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the drill will test the ability of participants to cooperate via email and phone to suss out what's going on and hatch a plan. The exercise will momentarily pause so that those involved can decide on a course of action, and then it'll speed up and model the effects of the decision over a longer period of time. With the recent flurry of hacking incidents and international finger pointing, something tells us this won't be the last we hear of drills like Quantum Dawn. [Image credit: MoneyBlogNewz, Flickr]
Dark Age of Camelot launches an update and answers player questions
If you've been playing Dark Age of Camelot for a while, odds are good that you've acquired a lot of things. You've got a set of Epic Armor, you've got tons of items clogging your bank, and you've got a pair of fuzzy bunny slippers that you don't remember buying but you now refuse to remove. The game's latest patch does not improve your slipper situation, but it does improve Epic Armor, add new Epic Weapons and Accessories, allow for remote bank access, and increase the stack limits on many items. So everything else gets better. Does that satisfy you? No? You want to know more about the future of the game? Well, then, you can feast your eyes on a new set of community answers from the development team addressing the future update plans for the game as well as which areas will not be seeing much improvement (throwing weapons, for instance, are pretty much up the creek). So there's plenty for DAoC fans to enjoy. However, no one enjoys those bunny slippers. Seriously. Wear armor like everyone else. [Thanks to Etaew for the tip!]
Visa's V.me digital wallet service graduates from beta with 53 banks, 23 retailers on board
After roughly a year since its unveiling, Visa's digital payment platform V.me has emerged from beta with support from a total of 53 banks, including PNC and U.S. Bank, and 23 retailers. If V.me has escaped your memory thanks to the proliferation of electronic payment options, you'd be forgiven. For those in need of a refresher, the service lets users check out at participating online stores using a one-click solution that remembers credit card details from multiple providers (American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa) in addition to billing and mailing addresses. Visa's Global Head of eCommerce, Jennifer Schulz, told TechCrunch that the firm is planning on making mobile apps and bringing the service to checkout terminals next year. How does the company plan on standing out from the sea of options? Visa's banking on its brand-name and ability to spread the service far and wide. If V.me has piqued your interest, leap past the break to catch the full list of supported banks and retailers. [Image credit: Philip Taylor, Flickr]
Editorial: Square gets the attention, but credit cards rule
Lower Manhattan, Pearl Street, the Financial District. A Starbucks with broad windows, great for people watching. Sipping my $5 flavored coffee, I watched a homeless man sit on the sidewalk. I liked him immediately: his sharp gaze and thoughtful expression. When I left, I squatted down next to him and put five bucks in his jar, contributing the cost of my first-world coffee to the man's case for survival. We talked. He knew his tech, this man of no possessions, describing his favorite productivity gadgets of the past decade, scorning Apple for form over function. He had been living on the street day and night for two years. My five dollars was "huge," he said. I knew that was true only microcosmically. He liked cigars. That's where the cash would go. Meanwhile, Starbucks had recently cut a deal with Square, one of the hottest startup stories of the season, so that people with five dollars to spend on coffee needn't pull out a wallet and ponder their privilege.
Rogers and CIBC make joint deal for NFC mobile payments in Canada, let you check out with your BlackBerry
Canadians sometimes can't catch a break: while NFC payments have been relatively common for Americans, Europeans and certainly the Japanese, Canucks have had to largely make do paying with ye olde credit carde. Rogers and national bank CIBC want to put an end to these antediluvian ways: starting later this year, CIBC card holders will just need to swipe an NFC-equipped BlackBerry like the Bold 9900 (Bold 9930 for CDMA-loving Americans) at a matching terminal to pay at a given store. The only special requirement is a secure SIM card that gives customers the freedom to change phones, even if it does create problems switching banks or carriers down the line. We're just hoping that Android and other platforms get the same treatment and let more of our Canadian friends pay for poutine that much faster.
Valve employee spills the hardware beans: wearable computers, ahoy
When Michael Abrash started working for Valve, he expected the higher-ups to hand him a pile of work and tell him to hop to it. They didn't. Instead, he was told to figure out the most valuable thing he could do for the company, and then do it. So, Abrash wound up kicking off an in-house R&D project for wearable computers, and according to a recent blog post, is looking to expand his research team. More than me-too mice and gamepads, indeed. Abrash is quick to put a lid on rumors of "Steam glasses," however, and warns readers not to expect any big reveals at E3 -- this is just an "initial investigation into a very interesting and promising space," he says, and is more "research than development." Rearing to give Google's Project Glass a run for its money? Or maybe you're just itching for a detailed narrative of employee and employer? Either way, you'll find what you're looking at the source link below.
Proview calls for sales ban of new iPad in China
On the same day Apple announced its new iPad, Chinese company Proview released an open letter claiming it owns the trademark for the iPad in China, says a Macworld report. In the letter, Proview reportedly warned suppliers and vendors that they will face legal action if they don't stop the sale, storing and shipment of Apple's latest iPad. Proview isn't the only entity laying claim to the iPad name. A group of eight Chinese banks say they own the trademark after they seized Proview's assets in March 2009. Instead of negotiating with Proview, the banks assert Apple should have purchased the trademark from them. Huang Yiding, vice president of Hejun Vanguard Group said in an interview that "Apple was fully aware of this" and added that the banks can petition China's Trademark Office to stop the loss of the iPad name.
The Guild Counsel: Guild life in SWTOR
If you thought the future looked cloudy for guilds in MMOs, Star Wars: The Old Republic's launch stomped out any doubts. The pre-launch list of guilds was so enormous that it rivaled the total player populations of other MMOs. But there are some interesting aspects to guild life in SWTOR, and this week in The Guild Counsel, we'll take a closer look at them. If you're interested in some first impressions from a guild perspective, or if you're wondering how to make a guild now that the game has launched, read on for a look at guild life in SWTOR.
The Daily Grind: Do you banksit?
In every MMO with a bank, players banksit. OK, so people preferred to cantina-sit in Star Wars Galaxies, and entire guilds banksat in Ultima Online as a show of strength, but they just prove the rule: Gamers love to be seen, and they flock to the most active spots in the game to make sure that happens, even if it means standing around all day pretending to shuffle Very Important Items in their storage vaults while feeling superior to any newbie who enviously inspects their gear. In many cases, players are deliberately banksitting instead of sitting in their player cities, homes, guild halls, or other game-issued gathering spot, like taverns or inns, never mind the fact that said players could be out actually adventuring, and because of that, "banksitting" is almost a dirty word in some MMOs. So do you banksit? Do you do it while waiting for something more interesting to happen, like a queue popping or your buddy hopping online? Do you do it to people-watch, to see and be seen? Do you banksit to truly feel how massive and busy your chosen game is, to meet new people and enjoy the thrum of activity? Or do you think the whole concept of hanging out at a bank is just as silly in a game as it is in the real world? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
German court grants injunction against Apple for infringement of Motorola patents (update: Apple responds)
Motorola just confirmed that earlier today, the Mannheim District Court in Germany granted a default judgment in its case against Apple that bars the sale of Apple products in Deutschland. In addition to the confirmation, Motorola also issued the following, rather unrevealing statement: "As media and mobility continue to converge, Motorola Mobility's patented technologies are increasingly important for innovation within the wireless and communications industries, for which Motorola Mobility has developed an industry leading intellectual property portfolio. We will continue to assert ourselves in the protection of these assets, while also ensuring that our technologies are widely available to end-users. We hope that we are able to resolve this matter, so we can focus on creating great innovations that benefit the industry."The ruling comes as a role reversal of sorts for Apple, which most recently received a pair of injunctions in Germany, banning the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in that country, along with the rather embarrassing removal of the Tab 7.7 from the show floor at IFA. According to FOSS Patents this is a default judgment, meaning Apple did not respond to Moto's filing and as a result got hit with the injunction, which could result in its products being pulled or the company being required to pay damages. And so the saga continues... Dust off the pocket translator and hit up the source link for the full ruling in German.Update: We just got the following statement from Apple regarding the ruling: "This is a procedural issue, and has nothing to do with the merits of the case. It does not affect our ability to sell products or do business in Germany at this time."So, it appears our iDevice-loving German friends have nothing to worry about, at least for now.Update (11/7): FOSSPatents has posted a second update accessing the procedural rules, how they (might) affect this case and whether or not Apple has anything to worry about. If you can't get enough FRAND and Zivilprozessordnung news you can read through it -- we'll just hang on until the courts make another decision or someone's products actually get pulled from shelves.
Motorola's Atrix Certificate Updater remedies its mobile banking blunder
If you're an Atrix 4G user who has been reeling since your banking apps failed, go ahead and cancel that next therapist appointment -- thankfully for you, a permanent fix is now available in the Android Market. Motorola's Atrix Certificate Updater swaps the troublesome security signatures from v4.1.83 with versions that should play nicely alongside your mobile banking apps. If you're a sucker for punishment and want to restore the v4.1.83 certificates, the change can be reverted by relaunching Motorola's updater. With this misstep out of the way, you can enjoy the Memorial Day holiday and keep your financial life in order -- even while your bank's doors remain tightly locked.
Motorola's Atrix 4G update 4.1.83 breaks the bank (literally)
Fans of mobile banking are discovering harsh surprises after updating their Atrix 4G to v4.1.83. Amongst the numerous improvements in this release (including the widely touted HSUPA fix), Motorola added new SSL certificates to the mix. While such a change would normally be inconsequential, many banking apps have stopped functioning with the new certificates in place -- a rude shock for anyone needing to deposit a paycheck. So far, Moto confirms that American Express, Bank of America, Chase and Discover are affected -- while Wells Fargo and Citibank's apps run just fine. Motorola plans to issue a workaround for affected users, but currently suggests that everyone access their financial institution through Android's web browser. Maybe it's just us, but this sounds like a fine opportunity to take the new Firefox 4 for a spin. [Thanks, David]
