Calling them the biggest advancements in the history of the phone, Apple introduced the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which are slimmer, and faster now work with a digital payment system called Apple Pay.
With Apple Pay you get one-touch checkout at a register with no card number entry and no card is shared with the merchant. Instead of relying on the 50-year old technology of the magnetic stripe on credit cards or insecure passwords, Apple will use NFC (Near-Field Communications) built into the phone, it announced Tuesday.
Users press the main Touch ID button on the phone to activate it and it adds a new credit card (Mastercard, Visa or American Express) to your iTunes account, which is managed through Apple’s Passport app. So you essentially use your credit card without the card itself but through the fingerprint ID on your phone and an NFC instant tap at a register.
Apple Pay will be accepted at 220,000 merchant locations including Macy’s Walgreens, Subway, and McDonald’s.
It may also be used for ecommerce. It works with Uber so you don’t have to open a separate account with Uber. It will also work with Groupon, Starbucks and others. It launches next month as a free update to iOS8.
Back to the phones; they go on pre-order starting this Friday, September 12, and availability begins Friday the 19th.
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus screens measure 4.7-inches and 5.5 inches, respectively, as rumored. They have a next generation Retina Display with a pixel arrangement that gives you a wider viewing angle. Apple claims the phones have “the best display in the industry” and that they are “the thinnest phones ever made.”
In thickness, the phones measure 6.9mm and 7.1mm respectively. There’s a new landscape mode for the 6 Plus to take advantage of its larger size.
The phones use a next gen A8 chip with 25 percent faster CPU performance and up to 50 percent faster graphics. They are also more energy efficient for sustained gaming.
“The iPhone 6 Plus will play games in higher resolution that next generation consoles,” claimed Apple, adding, “Think about that for a minute.” Many game developers have committed to delivering iPhone 6 Plus games by the end of the year
The phones use faster 4G LTE and a new WiFi calling feature for making calls when cell conditions are poor. They also get faster WiFi speeds than the 5s.
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus use a new 8MP iSight camera with faster and better focus capability. It also works better in low light and has improved tone mapping.
It comes with 1080p video at 30fps or 60fps and it is now capture slow motion video at 120fps or 240 fps
The 6 Plus starts at $299 and the 6 starts at $199.
View the new Apple Watch here.
Source: Apple, Engadget
Photo via Engadget
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