I have as well in the US.

It's almost disingenuous for apple to make it sound like this is such new technology...

But I'm not going to complain, now that apple has nfc payments retailer adoption is going to go up so that's a good thing for everyone.

When a technology is implemented in a way that adheres to a certain standard of quality that leads to widespread adoption, to consumers it might as well be new technology.

Yeah, because Verifone's extant NFC readers definitely aren't standardized at all and haven't worked for years, with wide enough adoption that Whole Foods, Circle K, and fast food chains have them already. Everyone's just waiting for Apple to come along with the "standard of quality".

You snark, but this has happened time and time again. It's a perception thing.

ApplePay seems to be doing things that others have basically done before, but doing it right in some important ways (credential on phone is for phone only, Apple doesn't get info on what you're buying), and I hope others follow suit.

    Apple doesn't get info on what you're buying...
    and I hope others follow suit.

As cynical marketing, I definitely see the value; in reality, not so much. Amazon, Visa, Petco, PayPal, BrianTree, etc. will still have a record of my purchases and we're on an inexorable march towards wider distribution of that data. How does Apple not having this data materially affect me?

Apple not having the data isn't dramatically more important than others not having the data, but having the data in fewer places is better for privacy (and the security thereof) and if "others follow suit" then they will start to not have that data. That said, Apple not having the data is more important than some players not having the data - there's more power in the consolidation of more kinds of data, and in a more complete picture of each kind of data, than in any individual datum in isolation - Apple touches large swathes of the lives of Apple users.

That's very disingenuous. Amazon, PayPal and Google rely on selling your data and selling you products based on your data to make money. Visa, Mastercard and Amex mostly rely on transaction processing fees, and make extra money on the data processing in a very limited way.

What Apple are doing is removing the middleman, purely making this about transactions, not data. This means they're avoiding selling private information as a revenue stream.

This affects you, it causes a filter bubble http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble and means you're effectively less free to make a truly informed decision.

So not sharing your private information by default, is fundamental to your freedom. That's why we should all care, and why this is a great decision by Apple.

It's not that I don't care about this; it's that Apple is doing this cynically and for short term gain, not for substantial benefit. If they care about this as more than a marketing ploy, they would have set up an organization to set policies and to verify adherence. That would have been awesome.

"blah blah blah, and we don't store your financial information or transaction history. That's easy to say, but the pendulum has swung too far away from protecting our rights as consumers, so today we're doing more than that; we're announcing the Financial Information Security Organization and we're inviting companies to join us in making sure that all of our financial information is secure."

While I share your intentions, as a practical measure, I doubt Apple could have dictated those terms to their financial partners. Have you ever tried dictating terms to a bank?

De-facto useless organizations like your FISO example with not enough players on board to start with are just lip service. Essentially you're arguing that Apple should be doing the governments job...

    I doubt Apple could have dictated those terms to their financial partners.
    Have you ever tried dictating terms to a bank?

Why are we talking about banks? They have loads of partners besides banks/financial-partners...

    De-facto useless organizations like your FISO example

Having been involved with or setting up [non-financial] organizations, I would hope not to make useless suggestions...

I'm suggesting something along the lines of BrainTree's data portability organization (http://www.portabilitystandard.org/). Apple should be able to get a raft of players on board for something along those lines. If not, my original point stands: Apple was making a useless gesture.

Exactly. I do it in the US with Google Wallet + NFC chip in my phone.

It's very surreal to see all the fanboys lose their shit in the audience as if this is a brand new technology.

Edit: Would have been nice if you could pay with the Watch instead of pulling out the phone

> It's very surreal to see all the fanboys lose their shit in the audience as if this is a brand new technology.

That's pretty disingenuous. Everyone knows NFC exists, they're probably just happy it's finally coming to their platform of choice.

> Edit: Would have been nice if you could pay with the Watch instead of pulling out the phone

You can!

> Would have been nice if you could pay with the Watch instead of pulling out the phone

You can.

Sure, and there were MP3 players for years before iPod

The big win here will be increased adoption of NFC: Apple is going to drive the hell out of it, and it's going to benefit everyone.

There's nothing left to "drive." NFC is here and has been here quite a while.

My camera supports NFC, my WiFi router supports NFC (useless though), my laptop has NFC, tons of payment providers do NFC, my LG washing machine has NFC (seriously), and on and on.

Apple is stupid late to the NFC party. NFC is here, and it is already super-popular. They cannot drive anything, they can just follow along.

Roughly 2% of the payments in the US are completed with NFC.

I wouldn't say it's "super-popular".

Will the new Apple devices support general access to NFC, or will it be locked up for payments only?

In Android, NFC is generally available to developers, but Apple may not want that, given their tradition of hiding complexity and choices from users.

If apple really wanted to do something "revolutionary" you think they'd add cryptocurrency support to ApplePay.

They're no longer blocking Bitcoin wallets, and with the forthcoming APIs regarding payments and touch IDs, this could be a "third party opportunity": you pay with crypto, and the merchant receives dollars, with some arbitrary payment processor in between.

lol, is that a joke?

Doesn't seem like it