Wearable Computing and Apple Pay

                This past Tuesday, Apple held an event where they unveiled several of their upcoming products, including the latest iPhone 6 series and a somewhat less predictable new device called the Apple Watch. The Watch is a small, square device, in a sense reminiscent of the newer iPod Nano, which can be fastened to your wrist (like a watch) with a variety of interchangeable straps that ensure fashion is not neglected. The device will allow wearers to check information from their calendar, email, or social networks, at a “Glance” (as Apple calls the Watch’s many miniature apps). The Watch also has a sensor that allows it to track its wearer’s activity and health throughout the day and later present the results to them. If the wearer is perhaps feeling intimate, the Watch even can send a recording of their heartbeat to a friend or loved one, played back to them as a series of vibrations, as an alternative to a standard text message or short voice message. The Watch is, however, intended to be a companion device to the iPhone and in fact many of its features simply will not work without reliance on the wearer’s iPhone.

                Apple is not, of course, the only company that has developed modern wearable computers. Google has also released a line of “smart watches” of their own called Android Wear. This device boasts many of the same features as the Apple Watch, with a significant difference being that each device is standalone. It is becoming increasingly apparent that “smart watches” are gaining attention from the technology market. It will be interesting to see what kinds of more sophisticated “wearables” will follow from these first few iterations and what changes will be seen in society as rudimentary tasks and online interactivity becomes increasingly effortless.

                Apple also unveiled their new Apple Pay service, a convenient way to make secure payments with credit cards stored on iTunes. Both the new iPhones and Apple Watch include a built-in NFC component that allows the device to work with Apple Pay. Users can simply hold their iPhone to a Apple Pay compatible receiver, while holding the home button on the device, to make payments at stores, restaurants, etc. The home button on the Apple Pay enabled iPhones are equipped with a fingerprint sensor that verifies you are, in fact, the owner of your card. Apple claims that no information about your card or transactions made with the service will be saved; the emphasis made on these claims are clearly in response to the recent security mishaps with Apple’s iCloud.

                Recently, a collection of private photos and information was retrieved from various celebrity iCloud accounts by 4chan hackers. The incident, since been dubbed “The Fappening” by 4chan users, has absolutely proven how insecure Apple’s iCloud system truly was and many Apple users are now concerned about their own data. It will be understandably difficult for some users to have faith in Apple’s security measures going forward, despite all of the reassuring information Apple provided about Apple Pay at the event. Additionally, many Android users (being some of Apple’s most obvious and harsh critics) claim that the functionality presented with Apple Pay is nothing beyond Google’s preexisting Google Wallet system, but only time will tell if Apple’s take on payments will exceed everyone’s expectations.