Apple Pay expands to Canada with support from major banks this June

Apple's SVP for Apple Pay Jennifer Bailey demos the features of Apple Pay which is coming to Canada this JuneBy Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple Pay is available to all active Interac debit cards issued by CIBC and RBC. Your debit card does not have to be an Interac Flash enabled card. In stores, Apple Pay works with iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch. You will first need to add your debit card to the Apple Wallet to make mobile transactions.

Interac can be used with Apple Pay to buy goods and services across Canada in the hundreds of thousands of Canadian stores wherever contactless payments 

Apple Pay, which securely uses iPhone and Apple Watch to enable contact less payments, has been in Canada for some time now but limited to customers of American Express credit cards. That is all changing shortly as major banks and other credit card companies have been announced as partners and are looking to offer the functionality to their iPhone and Apple Watch-toting users. 

Apple has confirmed that Apple Pay will be coming to CIBC (credit and debit), ATB (credit, debit coming later), Canadian Tire Financial Services (credit), RBC (credit and debit) and of course American Express has enjoyed the first-mover advantage since late last year. 

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New Moto X models to come in metal, offer fingerprint reader and possible modular expansion

Leaks pertaining to the 2016 revision of Lenovo's Moto X flagship have yielded some intriguing details. While it isn't yet known if these renders are anywhere close to the production versions, we can see the addition of what looks to be a fingerprint scanner at the bottom bezel of the device plus a new rear camera array, some interesting looking dots at the lower back and possibly interchangeable backplates, including what looks to be a metal or aluminium option.

The sixteen dots are said to be connectors for a series of add-on accessories that will clamp on to the Moto X. This should open up a range of accessories that might be revealed come June when Lenovo is expected to reveal what's coming to their Moto line.

Soource:HelloMotoHK

Huawei's work-study program will host 19 engineering students from 9 Canadian universities to China

Huawei announced the 19 third year engineering students selected to participate in its  ‘Seeds for the Future’ program. Students will be gathering in Ottawa for two days of preparation at Huawei’s Canada Research Centre before departing for China on Thursday, May 12, for a two-week professional and cultural trip to China. 

Now in its second year, ‘Seeds for the Future’ provides an opportunity for students in over 40 countries around the world to learn firsthand about China and its technology industry. For Canadian engineering students, the program aims to build links between Canada and China, promote a greater understanding of career opportunities in the telecommunications sector, and to encourage participation in the international ICT community. Before they embark on their trip, these students will also have the opportunity to tour Huawei’s Canada Research Centre and meet with Huawei’s global 5G research team. 

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An introduction to VR through the HTC Vive

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

I've long been a skeptic when it comes to Virtual Reality or VR. I've covered the technologies and evolution of virtual reality since the mid-90's when the idea was that the internet and VR could easily create a connected, immersive and interactive reality alongside reality itself.

But like many widely heralded buzz-worthy technologies, VR always felt like a hollow promise mired by compromise at every turn. It required expensive and enormous headsets, a ton of wires connected to a supercomputer, and the content was, for the most part, as low-rez and blocky as what one could get out of a PlayStation One console.  It is now 2016 and companies are flying high the VR flag again, what's different this time is that there are actual consumer products as well as content generated specifically for VR.

HTC invited me to try their HTC Vive VR headset in a Toronto hotel a few days ago and I brought a healthy dose of skepticism with me. Here's what I learned.

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