iOS 8.1 Will Bring Apple Pay to the Market Monday
Apple Pay will launch on Monday, October 20, alongside iOS 8.1, which will enable the service, according to an announcement from Apple during Thursday's introduction of the next line of iPads. Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said: "Our team has worked incredibly hard to make Apple Pay private and secure, with the simplicity of a single touch of your finger. The reaction to Apple Pay has been amazing. We continue to add more Apple Pay ready banks, credit card companies and merchants, and think our users will love paying with Apple Pay."
Apple Pay is Apple's new mobile payment and digital wallet service that allows payments for goods and services bought at retail and online checkouts using iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, the Apple Watch-compatible iPhone 5s, and the newly released iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3. Apple Pay supports credit and debit cards from the three major payment networks - American Express, MasterCard and Visa. In addition to the 262 Apple retail stores in the US, payments with Apple Pay will be available immediately at launch from such leading retailers as Aéropostale, American Eagle Outfitters, Babies"R"Us, BJ's Wholesale Club, Bloomingdale's, Champs Sports, Chevron and Texaco retail stores including ExtraMile, Disney Store, Duane Reade, Footaction, Foot Locker, House of Hoops by Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Macy's, McDonald's, Nike, Office Depot, Panera Bread, Petco, RadioShack, RUN by Foot Locker, SIX:02, Sports Authority, SUBWAY, Toys"R"Us, Unleashed by Petco, Walgreens, Wegmans and Whole Foods Market. For online shopping, apps with the ability to use Apple Pay at launch include: Apple Store app, Chairish, Fancy, Groupon, HotelTonight, Houzz, Instacart, Lyft, OpenTable, Panera Bread, Spring, Staples, Target and Uber.
Apple Pay will be enabled by iOS 8.1, the next upgrade to the iOS mobile operating system, which will also be released to the public on Monday. Along with iOS 8.1 will also come "Continuity" compatibility when it comes to SMS and Instant Hotspot for Mac and mobile devices as well as bring back the "Camera Roll," plus beta iCloud Photo Library access.
