Linked List: September 12, 2014

Friday, 12 September 2014

My thanks to Pixate for once again sponsoring the DF RSS feed. With Pixate, mobile designers can craft sophisticated animations and interactions for any form factor. You can already start designing for new displays like those on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and they’re already working on support for the Apple Watch. And here’s the thing: Pixate generates 100 percent native iOS (and Android) prototypes. Native code, not web views.

They have a special deal just for DF readers: Sign up now to get on the waiting list and you’ll get a free month when Pixate launches.

Why Apple Pay Could Be the Mobile-Payment System You’ll Actually Use ★

Rich Mogull, writing for Macworld:

But aside from the technical differences, Apple is in a unique position due to its business model. It doesn’t want or need to track transactions. It doesn’t want or need to be the payment processor. It isn’t restricted by carrier agreements, since it fully controls the hardware. Google, although first to the market by a matter of years, is still hamstrung by device manufacturers and carriers. Softcard is hamstrung by the usual greed and idiocy of mobile phone providers. PayPal has no footprint on devices.

This is a long-term investment by Apple, and possibly one of the most important since it first built the iTunes Store. Apple is putting its muscle behind improving the user experience of making payments, and using that to sell more devices. It won’t make much directly from Apple Pay now. But as more people use supported devices and push more merchants to support the user experience, odds are that those small per-transaction fees will grow into a significant source of revenue.

Letter of Recommendation ★

Chris Breen sings the praises of his former colleagues at Macworld. An awful lot of talented writers just hit the market.

Larger iPhone 6 Plus Sells Out, ‘Record Number’ of iPhone Pre-Orders ★

I spent over an hour trying to order from the online Apple Store (4.7-inch, space gray, 128 GB) to no avail. The closest I got was a properly configured phone but a disabled “Add to Cart” button.

Gave up, went to the Verizon website, and successfully ordered there. I think. Verizon’s website is almost spectacularly convoluted and ugly as sin.

You’d think after eight years Apple would be able to deal with this. No surprise demand is high — the iPhones 6 are amazing, and bigger displays have been long-awaited — but the online store crapping itself so utterly is just embarrassing.

PC Guys Aren’t Going to Just Walk In… ★

CNBC:

Apple faces a mountain of challenges as it seeks to break into mobile payments with Apple Pay, a PayPal executive told CNBC on Thursday.

“Payments is a tough ecosystem and you know, other players, other major consumer Internet companies have tried to enter in the space and have found, you know, limited success,” said Bill Ready, CEO of Braintree, the parent company of mobile payment services providers PayPal and Venmo. “And a big part of that is it is a very difficult space.”

You can smell the claim chowder brewing.