Apple Pay now available in Canada's Big Five banks, In-app purchases

Apple Pay is now available in Canada to customers of BMO (MasterCard, Interac), TD (Visa, Interac), Scotiabank (Visa, Amex, Interac) which are joining CIBC, Canadian Tire and RBC Credit which launched the service last month. 

Apple Pay also extends to purchasing physical goods within apps or purchasing items from the Apple Store, while American Express is currently live and that won't change, support for all of the rest of the banks above will is also going live.

Launching payments within apps (all credit-card only; Interac support for in-app coming at a later date across these issuing banks) 

• ATB
• Canadian Tire
• CIBC
• RBC
• BMO
• TD
• Scotiabank
• American Express (already live).

Various Canadian apps have updated to be able to integrate Apple Pay for in-app purchases. For Apple Pay to work, users need an iPhone 6/6S, iPhone SE or an Apple Watch since these are the models that feature a secure enclave to enable the safe and secure transactions.

Source: Apple

Mophie’s new cases let you charge wirelessly

Mophie’s new line of cases will move you away from using a cable to charge. The Juice Pack cases will let you recharge your smartphone while magnetically holding it in place, meaning you can charge it at home, work, or even in the car. Of course, you’ll need the mounts but we’ll talk about that in a bit. Mophie is offering cases for the iPhone 6/6s and 6 Plus/6s Plus with an extra 1,560mAh and 2,420mAh, respectively. They also have versions of the Juice Pack for the Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 edge with a 2,950mAh and 3,300mAh boost, respectively. Its charging base, which is part of Mophie’s new Charge Force line, has a desk stand and vent mount options.

If you want to buy the Juice Pack with the charging base, it retails for US$99.95 (approx. CA$130) for the 1,560mAh version of the iPhone 6/6s, while it costs US$129.95 (approx. CA$170) for the 2,420mAh model for the iPhone 6 Plus/6s Plus. The Juice Pack for the Galaxy S7 phones go for US$99.95 but that doesn’t come with the wireless charging base yet, which you can get for US$39.95 (approx. CA$52). If you want the desk and vent mounts, those retail for US$59.95 (approx. CA$78) each. It’s going to be quite an investment to start using these cases. You can check them out on Mophie’s site if you’re interested.

Source: The Verge

Airbnb now allows your neighbors to complain against unpleasant guests

As Airbnb gives its customers a glimpse at local life, that also means they’re immersed into the life of living in the neighborhood, even for a short period of time. And not all guests meet certain standards of a certain area. That’s why Airbnb is giving the people that live around your Airbnb place a chance to complain with the new Neighbors feature. The complaints can be anything from excessive noise, inappropriate activities, to misuse of common areas.

Once reported, Airbnb will study the case and match the address description with a possible listing on their service. If it matches, they will then inform the host without naming the neighbor about the complaint. If they want to meet up with the host, that can also be arranged by the service by giving their contact information to the host. We’re not sure how mediation will work though. That might be an entirely different issue altogether. 

Source: Airbnb

Periscope doesn’t want you to feed the trolls

While Twitter, Periscope’s parent company, is still having issues with trolls and abusive comments. Periscope has found a reasonable way to deal with them. The livestreaming app introduces community moderation for comments. This works during a livestream where it allows viewers to report unwanted comments. And then a select number of viewers will vote if the comments made qualify as abusive or spam. If the majority agrees that it is, then the commenter will have his chat disabled temporarily. If he or she commits further offenses, said commenter won’t be able to share his or her thoughts for the rest of the broadcast. This helps police negative and abusive content on the service, which is a hard thing to do given the real-time nature of Periscope. The feature should be live for both iOS and Android this week.

Source: Periscope 1 + 2