WHAT MAKES ANDROID PAY TICK?

Between the mainstream press and the countless blogs, pulling off any sort of surprise — like, say, an early drop of a major product — is nearly impossible. But Google, with its freshly minted Android Pay, actually managed to do it twice in the space of a week.

The first early drop was yesterday’s official announcement that Google’s mobile payment system will be available to Android device owners whose phones run operating systems KitKat and forward. Google’s Director of Product Management Pali Bhat told MPD CEO Karen Webster that with such extensive backwards compatibility (KitKat was released in 2013) seven in every 10 Android-device owners in the U.S. will soon be able to pay the Android Pay way.

“It is a huge number of devices,” Bhat told Webster in an extensive debrief prior to the launch of Android Pay. “We wanted it to work on as many devices as possible. The best experience is going to come via Android M as you would expect, but openness is a core value of what Android Pay is about.”

Something that appears to be more than just a Google/Android Pay talking point.

Bhat and team were remarkably undisturbed by the fact that yesterday’s official launch was upstaged about a week ago by the intrepid (and impatient) in its user base. They cleverly figured out that, though the app wasn’t yet visible in the Google Play store, the infrastructure was available through the latest update and therefore accessible with some minor tinkering.

So – voila – Android Pay launched for those very early adopters last week.

“[It was available yesterday] unless you are a developer and hacked into the solution,” Bhat joked with Webster. “We are quite glad they were able to do it, it shows interest and excitement in the marketplace.”

More importantly and perhaps more subtly, Bhat’s reaction also underscores a core principle that he and the Android Pay team say sets them apart from the other “Pay” players in the ever-expanding mobile payments ecosystem.

IT MAY BE CALLED ANDROID PAY BUT IT’S REALLY NOT ABOUT PAYMENTS

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After listening to Bhat describe the vision, and even hint a little at the roadmap for its future, Android Pay is intended to be something much bigger than “just payments,” and to some extent, something that even the team can’t yet fully imagine or even articulate. A key tenet of Android Pay is, in fact, a hallmark of Google itself – an expertise in creating and nurturing ecosystems that inspire and drive innovation throughout them.

And that’s how Bhat and the team describe Android Pay – the foundation for creating a host of commerce experiences through which payments can be embedded, limited in scope only to the imaginations of those in the ecosystem who wish to play along.

Thinking of Android Pay as a payments application first would have, they say, driven them down the same path that they feel impeded their ability to be successful in their prior attempts at mobile payments. Of course payments is what Android Pay enables, but isn’t what drove its design, its operating principles or even how it plans to make money. In fact, Android Pay isn’t about making money yet. That part is still TBD. But when they do decide, they say one thing is totally off the table – monetizing transaction data.

iPad Pro

As expected, Apple is making a bigger, faster iPad. The iPad Pro is 12.9 inches. It's the same height as the iPad Air, so you can run iPad Air apps side by side. The screen has 5.6 million pixels -- more than a 15-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display.

The iPad Pro starts at $799.

Inside it's much faster. The iPad Pro has a new A9X 64-bit chip. It's 1.8 times faster than the previous iPad's CPU ("desktop class" according to Apple executive Phil Schiller). It is powerful enough to edit three streams of 4K video at a time. It has a 10-hour battery life, is super thin and weighs just over 1.5 pounds.

"Why make an iPad with a bigger display?" asked Schiller. Good question!

Games and movies look better on a bigger screen, he said. It's big enough to have a full-size keyboard on the screen. If you don't want to type on the screen, Apple has made a new smart keyboard that doubles as a cover, Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) Surface-style. The keyboard is coated with a thin fabric.

The company is also making its own stylus, but with the usual over-the-top design and marketing. Yes, it's the Apple Pencil, a low latency stylus that feels like a real pencil. It even got its own Jony Ive narrated videos. It "feels like a true writing or drawing instrument," said Ive.

As the name implies, the iPad Pro's real target audience is business users. To show that it's serious, Apple brought out a very unexpected partner to demo the iPad Pro: Microsoft's Kirk Konenigsbauer. He demonstrated Microsoft Office for iPad Pro using the Apple Pencil.

Adobe (ADBE) also demoed its iPad Pro apps including a new product called Photoshop Fix, a retouching tool. Using the iPad Pro and new stylus, Adobe's Eric Snowden did some realtime edits including the odd choice of changing a photo of a model to make her smile more. (It was the first woman on stage during the presentation.)

For the final demo, Irene Walsh from 3D4Medical showed off her startup's 3D medical app that shows 3D interactive anatomy images for medical students and patients.

The company also announced a new iPad Mini 4.

Apple TV: Hands on with Apple's new television box

In one of the worst-kept secrets of recent times, Apple has finally revealedthe much-anticipated new and improved fourth-generation Apple TV, three long years since the last iteration.

The new box has a new focus on gaming and runs on new operating system tvOS, a souped-up version of the iPhone and iPad system iOS. Read on for my initial thoughts after spending a few minutes with it.

Design and remote

Physically, Apple TV has been through some changes. The box itself is a little bit taller than the third gen model, but otherwise looks more or less the same.

It’s the remote which has been given an entire makeover, morphing into a slimline wand with a glass touchpad at the top and volume rocker, menu, home and Siri buttons. It’s incredibly light and is Bluetooth 4.0 enabled, needing charging every three months or so through the lightning port on its bottom, though there is the option to use a Bluetooth-enabled keyboard should you feel the need.

Thankfully you don’t have to hold the remote to your mouth, as is sometimes the case with Amazon’s equivalent, to need to be heard.

Software

The user interface looks cleaner and is more pleasing to navigate than its predecessor, which I have found quite cluttered and a bit frustrating to wade through in the past.

One of the most welcome upgrades is the integration of digital assistant Siri to act as a deep voice-triggered search function, finally doing away with the frankly painful process of keying in the programme or film you’re looking for. It’s outdated, time-consuming and unnecessary.

Simply speaking your command aloud, such as “Find me comedies starring Andy Samberg” or “Show me the episode of New Girl with Prince in” is a far more intuitive method of search, and from what I saw the voice recognition seems to work pretty well, with no obvious failures to comprehend a command.

During the presentation, both Tim Cook and Eddy Cue placed much value on how Apple TV has the potential to be a revolutionary gaming device.

I watched an assistant zip through Asphalt 8 using the specialised gaming controller and the altogether gentler Rayman Adventures using the TV remote control itself, both of which seemed responsive and looked particularly impressive on the big screen.

The Apple TV app store is your new portal to a whole new world of possibilities you didn’t know you necessarily wanted on your TV screen.

Slightly leftfield uses were showcased through shopping app Gilt and property portal Zillow, which allow you to scroll through insanely expensive American homes and ludicrously-priced dresses. This is clever insofar as these are theoretically activities people want to share with others, hence the benefits of a the larger TV screen over, say, a phone, but it was a slightly odd aside during the presentation.

Apple launches the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus

New generation of iPhones include '3D Touch' technology, an improved camera and a new rose gold colour

The advanced "3D Touch" technology within the new iPhones will provide the user with tactile feedback, and will be used to create shortcuts between menus, such as opening web links from within text messages without the need to exit and open the internet browser.

The Apple Watch, introduced early this year, was the first product to feature Force Touch technology, which triggers new menus depending on the pressure the wearer applies to the screen. The company is also rolling the feature out across its MacBook and MacBook Pro lines.

The new iPhone models, which will go on sale on September 25, sport an improved iSight rear-facing camera capable of shooting 4K video, up to 12MP from the predecessors' 8MP and front-facing 5MP lens. A new feature named "Live Photos" creates a brief animation by extending the captured moment, stitching several frames together.

The new models will ship in three versions: 16GB, 64GB and 128GB. The iPhone 6s in the UK will start at £539, going up to £619 and £699 respectively, while the iPhone 6s Plus will start from £619, £699 and £789. Both phones keep the sizing conventions of predecessor models the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, at 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches diagonally.

The animated backgrounds first debuted on the Apple Watch will also be a new feature, with example videos shown in the presentation including Chinese koi carp. Both smartphones sport A9 64-bit chips.

The event also saw the introduction of a new rose gold model, which has been interpreted as a play for eastern markets following Cook's admission that Apple is influenced by the colour preferences of desirable markets. The new colour joins the gold, silver and space grey shade roster, and will be manufactured from a new stronger aluminum alloy.

The new models, which Cook called most advanced smartphones in the world, will ship with latest operating system iOS 9, announced at this summer’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC).

iOS 9 contains numerous updates including a more powerful version of digital assistant Siri, and improved battery life by up to one hour. It will be available to download from September 16.

iPhone sales represent a huge part of Apple's business, selling 47.5 million units in the three months to June. In the UK, Apple is expected to account for a 32.2 per cent share of smartphone users this year, compared to 30.8 per cent last year, according to eMarketer.

The pair will be available to pre-order from September 12, and will be available to buy from September 25.

Apple Pay is coming to a food truck near you

                                

You can pay with a credit card at some unusual places these days: taco trucks, flea markets, baby sitters. Soon, smartphone and watch payments like Apple Pay and Google Wallet will also work outside of traditional retailers too.

Starting in September, PayAnywhere will become the first mobile payments gadget in the U.S. to take Apple Pay. The $39.95 device will plug into iPhones and iPads so food stalls, contractors, galleries and other atypical businesses can accept payments via Apple Pay.

PayAnywhere, made by North American Bancard, is aligning itself closely with Apple (AAPL, Tech30). The dongle will only be available in the Apple Store and only work with iOS devices for now. In addition to Apple Pay, it will continue to accept credit card payments.

To demonstrate the new device, Apple's Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay, picked up the tab for some reporters' lunches on Wednesday. Bailey waved her Apple Watch and an iPhone 6 in front of a PayAnywhere-equipped iPad at Lil Burma, a food truck in San Francisco.

PayAnywhere is chunkier than the first generation of mobile card readers we're used to seeing. It's two inches by two inches and plugs into the audio jack on a smartphone or tablet.

New payment technology necessitates the larger size. The devices need to be wide enough to fit a sideways credit card, and the NFC antenna requires the bigger shell. New credit cards are starting to use chips, which need to slip into a reader and hang out there for a few seconds until the transaction is complete.

Competing products aren't far behind. Square has been the biggest player in the area, with it ubiquitous little white card reader that plugs into smartphones and tablets. It is coming out with its own NFC and card reader. Like the PayAnywhere device, it will be larger. However, Square says its new reader won't need to plug into a mobile device to work.

Apple Shares Pare Loss as Cook Says China Growth Is Strong

Apple Inc.’s shares pared their loss amid a global market retreat after Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook told CNBC’s Jim Cramer the iPhone maker has seen “strong growth” in China this summer.

Cramer said he received an e-mail from Cook saying iPhone activations have accelerated in China in recent weeks and the country “represents an unprecedented opportunity over the long term.” An Apple representative confirmed the e-mail.

Shares of the Cupertino, California-based company fell as much as 13 percent early Monday -- their biggest intraday drop in five years -- before climbing after CNBC’s report. The stock had been up midday as the broader market recovered much of its loss and closed 2.5 percent lower at $103.12 in New York.

Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR & Co., maintained his outperform rating on Apple stock, citing the coming iPhone 6S and a “$100 billion market opportunity” over the next three years in China.

“Apple is a uniquely compelling name to buy in this hurricane-like market downdraft this morning,” Ives wrote in a note to investors.

Alibaba CEO Urges Workers to Ignore Share Plunge, Stay Focused

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s chief executive officer exhorted employees Tuesday to ignore plunging stock markets after the e-commerce giant’s shares fell below their initial public offering price for the first time.

Daniel Zhang, who took the helm of Asia’s largest Internet company three months ago, penned a memo urging his 35,000 workers to brush aside the market turmoil. Alibaba has lost about $128 billion in market value since its November peak amid a slowing Chinese economy.

“This is not the first time that the global stock market has plunged,” Zhang wrote in the e-mail. “It is not the last time, either. I hope everyone can shift the focus from the stock market to customers.”

Alibaba fell 3.5 percent Monday to close at $65.80 in New York, dropping below its September IPO price of $68 as a global market rout revived investors’ concerns about the company’s sales growth. U.S. stocks plunged Monday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index sinking into a correction, after Chinese shares tumbled the most since 2007.

“Let’s forget about the stock prices,” Zhang wrote. “We should not be distracted by short-term obstacles, but plan for the future and stick to it.”

The Hangzhou-based company’s shares peaked at $119.15 in November, with investors eager to reach Alibaba’s more than 300 million customers. Their subsequent decline has been fueled by concerns about the decelerating Chinese economy, increased competition from JD.com Inc. and government reports that Alibaba wasn’t doing enough to weed out counterfeit goods on its site.

“Sometimes it is a lonely journey, sticking to your principles,” Zhang wrote. “But we have to go through lots of ups and downs during this journey. We are not in a single fight, but a fight that lasts for 102 years.”

Billionaire co-founder and Chairman Jack Ma referred to Alibaba’s 102-year journey in an investor letter appended to its original IPO prospectus.

Zhang, one of the key architects of Alibaba’s successful “Singles Day” shopping gala, replaced Jonathan Lu as CEO in May