Apple magazine apple valve reinventing mobile gaming digital world iphone wallet june 01 2018

APPLE AND VALVE: A DREAM
GAMING COLLABORATION

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THE FUTURE OF THE
iPHONE DIGITAL WALLET

FROM DRONES TO PHONES,
NEW TECH IS MAKING
GARDENING EASIER

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BOX OFFICE TOP 20: ‘SOLO’ TOPS
CHARTS WITH $103 MILLION

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AMAZON: ECHO DEVICE SENT CONVERSATION TO FAMILY’S CONTACT 22
AFTER AMAZON ECHO MISFIRE, WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR OWN PRIVACY 26
HANDS-FREE DRIVING LAW TO TAKE EFFECT JUNE 1 32
KANSAS TESTING DRONES FOR DESIGNING ROADS 54
JURY SAYS SAMSUNG MUST PAY $539M FOR COPYING PARTS OF iPHONE 66
BNSF SAYS IT ON TRACK FOR SAFETY TECHNOLOGY INSTALLATION 72
NEED AN ENTRY-LEVEL JOB AT A STORE? IT CAN BE HARDER NOW 76

IN ‘SOLO’ STUMBLE, A CROSSROADS FOR DISNEY’S ‘STAR WARS’ 118
INDIANAPOLIS SCIENCE INSTITUTE GETS $33M FOR HEALTH RESEARCH 128
BOEING PLEDGES $1.5M FOR STEM TO NATIONAL WWII MUSEUM 130
TRUMP AIMS TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR COMPANIES TO GET TO SPACE 134
NOT SO EASY: TRUMP’S TRADE AGENDA HITS STUMBLING BLOCKS 136
AHEAD OF ROSS VISIT, US GROUP CALLS ON CHINA TO OPEN MARKETS 144
EXXON AIMS TO BOOST PRODUCTION EVEN WITH ANY CLIMATE RULES 150
FRANCE TO BEEF UP EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM ON SOCIAL MEDIA 166
HACKER SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS FOR MAJOR YAHOO SECURITY BREACH 170
US SAYS NORTH KOREA BEHIND MALWARE ATTACKS 176

TOP 10 APPS 88
iTUNES REVIEW 92
TOP 10 SONGS 156
TOP 10 ALBUMS 158
TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS 160
TOP 10 TV SHOWS 162
TOP 10 BOOKS 164


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Formerly known as Passbook, Wallet is Apple’s

answer to digitizing cards. With it, the credit
cards, debit cards, transport tickets and even
loyalty cards that are weighing your wallet
or purse down can all be turned into virtual
versions of themselves so that you can easily
access them anytime, anywhere. Plus, with the
addition of Apple Pay, you can easily pay for
your next cofee without having to ind the
correct change.
With this year’s WWDC drawing closer, rumors
are now beginning to circulate about what
Apple might have in store not only for iOS 12
but for the way that it allows users to interact
with their digital wallet in the very near future.

FROM PASSBOOK TO WALLET
When you’re in a hurry, it can be frustrating to
trawl through your wallet or purse to try and
ind the correct payment or loyalty card. With
that in mind and the fact that most of us tend
to walk around with our smartphones glued to
our hands, Apple devised Passbook which irst
appeared on iOS 6 in 2012.
A few years later, in 2015, Apple made a few
major announcements to the payment system.
Most notably, rebranding it to Wallet. The
single app consolidates all of a user’s cards into
one place, turning it into a payment-centric
service. As part of this, users could also beneit
from Apple Pay to make contactless payments in

participating establishments. Since then, most
major retail stores have started accepting this
type of payment.
The Wallet app works by prompting users to
download an oicially supported app (some
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examples include American Airlines and
Walgreens) so that whenever you buy a ticket
or sign up to a rewards card, the app can pass
the barcode to your Wallet app. However, to add
unoicially supported cards, the app Pass2U
Wallet allows you to bring almost anything into
Wallet – even your local library card.
Many cards that you’ve added to your Wallet will
automatically refresh things like your balance
or your light gate numbers; sometimes your
connection might be lost. Luckily, they can
quickly be refreshed to ensure you’ve always
got the most accurate information.

WALLET AND APPLE PAY:
ARE YOUR FINANCES SAFE?
As with most new technology, the release of
Apple Pay in 2014 brought up a few privacy
and security concerns. Apple Pay works thanks
to a near-ield communication (NFC) chip
very much like those used in contactless credit
and debit cards. Along with Touch ID (or Face

ID for iPhone X users), you can make secure
payments by touching your phone onto a
payment terminal.
With the release, the company stressed that no
credit or debit card numbers are ever stored
on the device, nor on Apple’s servers. Instead,
a unique “device account number” is assigned
and then encrypted and stored in the secure
element on the user’s iPhone or Apple Watch.
Every transaction made is authorized with a
one-time unique number, and instead of using
the security number at the back of your card,
Apple Pay will create a “dynamic security code”
to validate the transaction. This hugely reduces

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Pass2U Wallet
By MicroMacro Mobile Inc.
Category: Shopping
Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad,
and iPod touch.

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the risk of data breaches and credit card theft
because transactions don’t produce any data
that may be reused.

Perhaps the most signiicant diference between
Apple Pay and other payment systems is that it’s
user-centric. It has not been made with credit
card companies or retailers in mind, but rather
for ordinary consumers who are seeking a better
way to pay. The only catch is that, as it stands, it’s
not accepted everywhere…yet.

A BIG LEAP FOR WALLET IN iOS 12
iOS 12 could be opening doors with NFC
technology…literally.
Recent rumors have circulated around the idea
that iOS 12 may be giving some third-party
developers full access to the NFC chip inside
iPhones, expanding its capabilities. Reports
claim that Apple wants users to use their iPhone
for more than contactless Apple Pay payments,
and also to work as a hotel door key or even a
virtual transit card for your car.
The CoreNFC framework was added in iOS
11, allowing apps to use the NFC chip as an
arbitrary scanner of the RFID tags. However,
at present, this is very limited. To gain access
to the NFC, the users’ iPhone would need to
be unlocked with the app in the foreground
– almost defeating the point of easy access.
Nonetheless, the beneit of NFC is that
users can automatically transfer data with a
simple tap. By opening up this technology to
developers, iPhone users may soon be able to

use their device to open hotel rooms, car doors,
or to pay transit fares. Some rumors suggest
that Apple is already in talks with Cubic, a
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company that makes transit cards, in hopes to
replace these cards with iPhone NFC technology.
Those that work at Apple Park are already using
their phones to gain access to campus buildings,
proving that it is certainly secure.

WHAT ABOUT GLOBAL
CRYPTOCURRENCIES?
While it’s clear that Apple is keeping up with
the times (as always), many continue to wonder
when the company will inally fully embrace the
burgeoning trend of cryptocurrency.
Back when Apple announced that iOS 11 would
allow users to transfer cash to one another,
many saw this as a Trojan horse for something
much bigger. The money that your friend has
just sent you would be stored in a new card,
called Apple PayCash. This is a digital currency

that stores value – Apple’s own cryptocurrency?
With the rise of cryptocurrency, there’s a
huge need for more luid cash low between
countries to service internationalized
industries. Understandably, this is leading to
a drive in demand for new and secure digital
payment systems. Most cryptocurrencies
have a root in traditional payment systems,
whereby you must link Apple Pay up to your
payment cards. Apple Pay Cash has the
potential to change that, with money you
receive from others being added to your
Apple Pay Cash card in your Wallet app. You
can then use this to transfer cash to your
bank account or use it to make payments
directly using Apple Pay in stores, on the web,
or anyone else with a supported payment
system. There has also been a call for an

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update that allows users to store their
cryptocurrency in a kind of Pay Vault.
It seems almost foolish to dismiss the
importance of Apple Pay to the company’s
future provision plans. New estimates
published at the beginning of this year
suggest that the service now has 127 million
active users, up from 62 million the year

before. With these igures, it’s clear that Apple
is well on its way to creating a global platformbased payment ecosystem that could evolve
into an international currency as big as Bitcoin
or Ethereum. With the forthcoming release of
iOS 12, the ability to open your car door with
your iPhone may only be the start of what’s to
come for Wallet.

by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

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AMAZON: ECHO
DEVICE SENT
CONVERSATION
TO FAMILY’S
CONTACT

An “unlikely” string of events prompted Amazon’s
Echo personal assistant device to record a
Portland, Oregon, family’s private conversation

and then send the recording to an acquaintance
in Seattle, the company said last week.
The woman told KIRO-TV that two weeks ago an
employee of her husband contacted them to say
he thought their device had been hacked. He
told them he had received an audio ile of them
discussing hardwood loors, she said.
In a statement, Amazon conirmed the woman’s
private conversation had been inadvertently
recorded and sent. The company said the
device interpreted a word in the background
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conversation as “Alexa” — a command that
makes it wake up — and then it interpreted the
conversation as a “send message” request.
“At which point, Alexa said out loud ‘To whom?’”
the statement said. “At which point, the
background conversation was interpreted as a
name in the customers contact list.
“Alexa then asked out loud, ‘(contact name),
right?’ Alexa then interpreted background
conversation as ‘right.’”
The statement continued: “As unlikely as this
string of events is, we are evaluating options to
make this case even less likely.”
The woman, who was identiied only by her irst
name in the news report, said every room in
her family’s home was wired with the Amazon

devices to control her home’s heat, lights and
security system.
She said the family unplugged the devices
and contacted Amazon after they learned the
recording had been sent.
Ryan Calo, a law professor who co-directs the
University of Washington’s tech policy lab,
agreed that the sort of glitch Amazon described
is unlikely. But it may trouble customers
nevertheless, he said
“What makes it particularly unfortunate is the
sense that Amazon Echo users will have that
there’s any prospect that what they say in their
private home might end up outside the home,”
Calo said. “We feel less reassured about the
control we assert over it than we once did. It’s
the feeling you have to watch what you say in
front of a device that’s supposed to make your
life better.”
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Image: Charlie Schuck

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