Apple Pay comes to the UK

Apple Pay has come to the UK and is available to a number of banks and services. Included financial institutions are NatWest, Nationwide, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank and Santander. HSBC, which was expected to be part of the initial launch said it was planning to launch the service by the end of July. An HSBC spokesperson told the BBC: "We are working hard to bring this to our customers by the end of July."

Apple Pay uses secure touchless payments via NFC and can be enabled by the iPhone 6 an the iPhone 6 Plus as well as the Apple Watch paired to an iPhone 5, iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c. In the UK, Apple Pay will be limited to users that are 13 years old or older, and tap-and-go card transactions with retailers are limited to £20 - rising to £30 in September.

Amazon.ca's first ever Prime Day hints great online shopping deals

Starting July 15, Amazon Prime member on Amazon.ca (also on Amazon.com) will have the chance to shop for great deals as well as take advantage of free shipping. Prime Day is a one-day shopping event on July 15, 2015, which Amazon.ca promises will have more deals than Black Friday.

Prime members can shop exclusive deals from electronics, toys, video games, movies, clothing, patio, lawn and garden, sports and outdoor items and more. Non Prime users are invited by Amazon to Try Prime and get immediate access to deals on July 15.

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Facebook reportedly getting into the personal voice assistant game

Apple's Siri, Google Now, Microsoft's Cortana, BlackBerry's Assistant and now.... Facebook's MoneyPenny. Derived from the famous James Bond Character, Monnypenny is expected to be Facebook's take on the personal voice assistant. 

Facebook is researching the feature but not as an all-ecompassing AI but more for helping users complete tasks like buying products and services online. The new assistant is being tested in house and while no specific features haven't been revealed it is intriguing to see where Facebook can take this technology on mobile devices and on the web.

Pixelmator for iOS gets updated, now features Dynamic Touch editing

The Pixelmator Team today releases Pixelmator for iOS 2.0.2, an update to its full-featured, powerful, and easy-to-use image-editing app for iPad and iPhone devices. Pixelmator for iOS 2.0.2 adds Dynamic Touch to all Retouch tools, redefines the performance of its desktop-class Repair tool, enhances the Photo Editing extension, and more. The Pixelmator Team also introduces a free User Guide book and five new, inspiring Pixelmator-for-iPhone video tutorials.

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