A Short Rundown of MCX

Mike Issac from the New York Times on MCX.

First announced in 2012, CurrentC is an effort by merchants to build their ideal mobile wallet. CurrentC is designed to link directly to a customer’s bank account instead of a credit card. This is a strategic move, analysts say; in bypassing the credit card companies, merchants can avoid the high fees that they are required to pay on each credit transaction they process.

Apparently the big consortium of retailers forget that US citizens love their credit cards and their in-store branded credit cards more than using their check cards / bank account thus allowing for instant gratification. Using your bank account is like using the cash that more don't have and, in my opinion, will definitely limit what people buy in store or at least make you think twice until your next pay period.

CurrentC would also give retailers the ability to track shopping habits across the dozens of stores that belong to MCX, a data set that has traditionally been held by credit card companies, not merchants. If retailers had access to this data, it could be used to deliver relevant deals and loyalty points to consumers, which could increase these companies’ bottom lines.

The tracking in the app is ridiculous.

Critics of CurrentC say it appears much more difficult to use than Apple Pay. Instead of contactless payment technology, CurrentC will rely on QR codes, a type of bar code that merchants scan to complete the transaction. It will also be an app that users must find and download from Apple’s App store.

Wait what are QR codes? Seriously???

iMore has an even more "In Depth Look" as well as a cluster of articles about the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX). Some quick highlights include:

On launch, the app immediately does a few things. First, it starts sending pings to https://my.currentc.com/mobile/pinggateway every two seconds or so. No interesting data is sent in the requests and blocking them seems to have no impact on the app. Next, a deviceState request goes out. In the request are your device type (iPhone or iPad) and a unique device identifier. This identifier is stored in the device keychain so even if you delete the app and re-install, it persists, allowing CurrentC to track users across app installs. The third and last request seen on launch is a call to Localytics. Localytics is a mobile analytics company and is used in countless other apps. As with the many other apps using Localytics, this call seems to include a variety of analytics information: not surprising for many apps, and not surprising for CurrentC (though it probably should be for an app seeking to handle payments and personal data).

Exclusivity or be fined for using a competitor's method e.g. Apple Pay, but there are no fees for leaving except the huge $500,000 investment in their tech.

Before you get too excited, think about these other questions that iMore has posed.

Why do they want to retrieve your device's MAC address? (Don't worry, as of iOS 7, the OS returns a fake MAC address of 02:00:00:00:00:00 which is what CurrentC seems to be sending to their servers)

Why do they want to log your device name, WiFi network name, and number of running processes?

Why do they use a unique device ID that persists across multiple installs?

Why do they send pings every 2 seconds?

Just in case you forgot the highlights of how Apple Pay works, it's quite amazing:

• Touch ID authentication ensures that only users authorized at the device level can make payments.
• NFC keeps the transmission distances down to a few inches versus showing a visible QR code.
• Token-generated single-use card numbers ensure that in the event of a retailer breach, the hackers get a card number that's already worthless instead of your real card number
• Accessing your credit card gives users additional spending power versus drawing from a cash account, lets users earn points, miles, or whatever perks are on their favorite cards, and adds a layer of intermediation between a security failure and your money.

Wal-Mart, who by the way is the head honcho of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), commented via Business Insider as to why they shut off NFC and use of other technologies. Awful, illogical and archaic. Another reason I don't shop there, although I might have to start avoiding places like Best Buy, CVS, Rite-Aid and whomever else is being bullied by this consortium.

There are certainly a lot of compelling technologies being developed, which is great for the mobile-commerce industry as a whole. Ultimately, what matters is that consumers have a payment option that is widely accepted, secure, and developed with their best interests in mind. MCX member merchants already collectively serve a majority of Americans every day. MCX’s members believe merchants are in the best position to provide a mobile solution because of their deep insights into their customers’ shopping and buying experiences.

I'm done.

update: just shortly after posting this, CurrentC was hacked and users emails were exposed. You have to realize that there were the merchants that lost your credit card information to the hackers last year. Same company. Same technology.

Verizon is Tracking You

This can't end well for the largest carrier in the United States but apparently AT&T might be guilty too. Hopefully, T-Mobile isn't doing the same.

Verizon Wireless has been subtly altering the web traffic of its wireless customers for the past two years, inserting a string of about 50 letters, numbers, and characters into data flowing between these customers and the websites they visit.

via Wired

A Beautiful and Thorough Review of Yosemite

Just like clock work, every year Apple releases major updates to their operating system.  And accompanied by every release is John Siracusa's comprehensive review posted on Ars Technica. You can always read it for free on the website or do it like me and buy the complete ebook.

I've come to love his thoroughness and learn quite a bit when reading it on my Kindle or iPad.  Available now for only $4.99, sit back and enjoy the tour of Apple's latest Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite. Make sure to grab a Field Notebook and your favorite pen to jot some notes.

While you're at it, be sure to also check out Austin Mann's review of what Yosemite and iOS 8.1 offers photographers in his "Need To Know".

What's on your breakfast table?

I'm merely highlighting a paragraph that clearly says it all. One of my goals when Norah could start eating more foods was to introduce her to new cheeses every week / month together and explore that world. I can't wait to expand her palette even more.  If you continue and read through the NY Times article, it's quite amazing the variety that other cultures present as compared to us here in the United States.

I love the part of Toyo / Bangus Tocho.

It is only through repeated exposure and mimicry that toddlers adjust to new tastes — breakfast instead of, say, dinner. That we don’t put pickle relish on waffles or eat Honey Bunches of Oats for supper are rules of culture, not of nature. As children grow, their palates continue to be shaped by the food environment they were born into (as well as by the savvy marketers of sugar cereals who advertise directly to the 10-and-under set and their tired parents). This early enculturation means a child in the Philippines might happily consume garlic fried rice topped with dried and salted fish called tuyo at 6 in the morning, while many American kids would balk at such a meal (even at dinnertime). We learn to be disgusted, just as we learn to want a second helping.

- via www.nytimes.com

It's 60 minutes past Midnight and Apple.com is still Offline

Looks like I'm going to sleep without the pre-order. I've been seeing on twitter that ship times for the iPhone 6 Plus are getting pushed back to Mid October and the Apple Store App that some people have been able to get through on is show ZERO inventory for every model.  Hope everyone had fun.  I'm going to sleep and not going to worry about it. Chalk this one up for two strikes on this week's Apple vs. the web.

https://twitter.com/DanFrakes/status/510336419181518848

Texting In-flight via T-Mobile & Gogo Air

Want to keep in touch while you fly—for free? You got it. Starting September 17, T-Mobile partners with Gogo® Air, making T-Mobile the only wireless company whose customers can text, picture message, even check T-Mobile Visual Voicemail at 30,000 feet. The sky is now unlimited.

- via www.t-mobile.com

Part of John Legere's Uncarrier 7 announcement today unveiled this awesome benefit for all his loyal fans and subscribers. You can bet that when November 15th comes, I'm taking my business over. I'm done with throttling.

Also as part of the announcement, coupled with Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch, T-Mobile will be offering everyone free Wi-Fi calling. They'll even give you a T-Mobile Personal CellSpot free of charge!

https://twitter.com/JohnLegere/status/509808691185340416

Apple's Failed Live Event Stream was Their Own Fault

The bottom line with this event is that the encoding, translation, JavaScript code, the video player, the call to S3 single storage location and the millisecond refreshes all didn’t work properly together and was the root cause of Apple’s failed attempt to make the live stream work without any problems. - via Dan Rayburn - StreamingMediaBlog.com

Waiting for Apple's Live Stream was just in and of itself exciting. Watching it was a whole other story. From the Chinese overlay and the delays in video, Dan Rayburn explains the shortcomings of yesterday's failed video stream. In essence, Apple should have left the live blogging to the the professionals like The Verge. 

'More Filipino Women are Employed Than Any Other Community'

Just some highlights from the latest data that the United States Department of Labor recently published on how different Asian - American groups are fairing economically. Here are some good bullet points from the recent NPR's Codeswitch:

"Overall, 53.4 percent of Asians over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher — the highest percentage by far among the major race groups."

"More Filipino women are employed (57.1 percent) than any other community; Indians had the smallest share of employed women (36.8 percent.)"

That's not surprising being that many of the women I know who came from the Philippines in the 70s are nurses who still work to this day; my mother and mother-in-law included. A lot of the men who came over enlisted in the Navy or another military branch, continued their service till retirement then continued to work. Don't get me wrong, my heritage stems from the Philippines so this is only one nation in the many Asians and Pacific Islanders that immigrated here.

One bullet point that I have a little contention with is:

"The AAPI community has the second highest share of unemployed workers who are long-term unemployed (41.7 percent) ... Asian Americans who are unemployed, are without work for longer than whites and Hispanics."

They don't mention that it's because of how our network at home really is: from my personal observation within my network, we tend to take care of grand children more often thus electing to stay home. We also are a hot headed people who won't necessarily volunteer for a lesser paying job than the one that we might have gotten laid of from. Pride, especially in the Filipino community runs a little high sometimes leading to longer droughts without a job. Just my thoughts.

Fragmentation and Instagram's Hyperlapse

There's a reason for the sanity developers posses in releasing an app on iOS first. Take Instagram's latest.

Hyperlapse from Instagram features built-in stabilization technology that lets you create moving, handheld time lapses that result in a cinematic look, quality and feel—a feat that has previously only been possible with expensive equipment.

If a developer were to design an app for iOS, they have a choice of supporting only a few select devices. In this case, Hyperlapse was created to be compatible with a 2-year old device (iPhone 5) and up running iOS 7. Simple as that. You can bet that with the adoption rate that 90%, that users with at least an iPhone 5 will be downloading or have the ability to try out this fantastic app. Wired has even compared the app to a "$15,000 video setup in your hand."

From a developer standpoint, that's a huge audience! Think about it!

Now comes in Android. There isn't an app yet and here's why... in bold: FRAGMENTATION.

The article from Open Signal clearly highlights the flaws and the obstacles that developers have when creating apps for Android. From different flavors of Android, to various hardware and sensor kits, screen sizes and adoption rates / operating system update delays from manufacturers, it's not the ideal launch vehicle. Hell, it even took Instagram a two years before they released their Android app and only after more than 30 million people join via iOS.

If you've been following me, I've been an Android 4.4 user since my Samsung Galaxy S5 trial and am still not satisfied with the experience. I've even lost precious moments due to the camera locking up or phone not responding. It's just a mess especially with all of Samsung's included bloatware on top of AT&T's mesh of products. I can't wait until November 15 for when I can go back to iOS. Of course, when September 9, comes around, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'm pre-ordering the iPhone 6 on T-Mobile.

For now, enjoy the sample video of Instagram's Hyperlapse or better yet, go out there and make your own! You can also follow me on Instagram: elijahnicolas

How much would you pay for a day pass to swim at Piscine Molitor?

I don't think I can justify the price. Wait, hold. I can't justify the price especially when hot-spring day spas are cheaper for single day access. They have to have more to offer than just swimming, right? Maybe I'm thinking of this the wrong way. Why don't we build one right here in San Diego? Any investors? Looks like this one was refurbished for a mere $118 million.

But some politicians have raised concerns over the pool's pricey entrance fees, which they fear will create a more stilted, exclusive atmosphere. Molitor was never free to the public, and its renovation was financed entirely with private funds, but entry fees were never as high as they are now. Just one day of swimming there now costs up to €180 (about $245), with annual membership fees of €3,300 ($4,500).

Okay fine, I might go for a two for one special or something. When in Paris right?

via The Verge

A CerviScope for the Masses

An amazing doctor named David Walmer, set out to help a local OB-GYN in Haiti in detecting cervical cancer and came up with a clever and cheaper device for observing a female's cervix. This is what I believe every doctor should strive for and the doctor I envisioned becoming before my detour in aviation.

Thanks to early detection (and helped by the vaccine for HPV, or human papillomavirus), the mortality rate for cervical cancer in the U.S. is relatively low. Not so in developing countries, where it kills almost 250,000 women every year. Haiti has one of the highest rates of cervical cancer in the world. Walmer knew that a national screening program would save countless lives, but deploying colposcopes across the impoverished nation was not feasible. They’re expensive, they require reliable electricity and they’re too big to be easily carted around to the ramshackle clinics throughout the country. A battery-powered, portable and affordable alternative was needed.

“I was having more fun helping the Haitians than I was at my real job,” he recalls. “You could operate and save a woman’s life, and every time you came back to Haiti, she would come to the clinic and hug you and introduce you to her family members.”

Finally, at the beginning of September 2009, 13 years after Walmer put together his first makeshift gadget, 10 field-test models were ready. They weren’t much more than black metal tubes and lights and wiring, but Walmer says he didn’t stop smiling for a week. One scope was shipped to Malawi, another to Argentina and a third was earmarked for Kenya once doctors there were trained in colposcopy; it would go to a clinic for women in Masai villages, where polygamy increases the risk of cervical cancer. Others landed in Pakistan and, hand-delivered by Walmer, in Haiti.

via NYTimes

A 6-month Android Journey: The Beginning

On Thursday May 15th, I embarked on a journey that many have written about. This is my foray into the six month ownership of an Android powered Samsung Galaxy S5 Mobile Smartphone. [hashtag: #elijahsgalaxyxp] All this, in search of a full understanding on why my few remaining Android friends are still ranting and raving. Granted, I also have a small group of friends (read: 3) that have also switched to Android. I've owned and used a 2012 Google Nexus 7 tablet since it's debut but more and more I've found myself frustrated with the lag and short comings from what I can deduce was aging hardware. I can't recall being happy with it at any point in time except for the initial excitement and unboxing. To prepare for my journey, I pre-ordered a Spigen TTough Armor Case and a 64GB micro SD card.

Note: Upon accepting the device, I found myself with 24 hours on Wifi only before I was able to insert my Nano SIM Card due to adapters not being readily available. I called Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T and even Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics, Radio Shack and a few iPhone repair shops and none, absolutely no one had an adapter that would take my Nano Sim and size it for Micro Sim Card slot in the Galaxy S5. I found a few on amazon, and paid $3.99 for one day delivery ending up with the Nano Sim Card Adapter.

Still, day one was not a wash as I was able to do almost everything via Wifi. Here is my early breakdown.

Hour 1: I needed to find my must have apps. I needed 1Password, Simpletnote, various social networks apps such at Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, Instapaper and Clash of Clans. Come to find out, 1Password's Android app is just a reader app, Simplenote is pretty much the same, Tweetbot was nowhere to be found so I chose to go with the official app, Instagram is so large on the phone but pretty, Facebook is pretty much the same but the workflow very different and Clash of Clans was beautiful in syncing my iOS progress.

Hour 2-8: Still adjusting to the sheer size of the device, I ended up configuring the Samsung Fingerprint Scanner and let me tell you, that is one crazy nuisance. After my second attempt of programming it, I could never get the phone to unlock at a consistent scan. Infuriatingly, I scanned the same fingerprint again designating slot #2 and even #3 to the same finger, but it still refused to recognize it. After a few attempts, the phone alerts you that you have tried too many times and defaults to a backup password that you create during the initial setup but just click back twice on the phone and it allows you try again… and again and again. The phone never once locked me out nor prevented me to stop trying. I thought that to be bizarre. Needless to say, I turned it off after a few hours.

I continued to download quite a few apps that my friend Jeremiah mentioned such as Muzei enabling live wallpaper updates, Google Camera, and HD Widgets. I also downloaded HBO Go, Tivo, 8tracks, Amazon Kindle, Dropbox, Metam, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Waze, VSCO Cam, and Snapseed. Amazingly, I did all this while connected to the Karl Strauss Wifi and the speed was awesome.

I didn't play with it that much further but I was already beginning to miss a few iMessages from my iPhone friends. So far, so good, but still difficult.

Comixology Kills the Impulse Buy

Just barely one month after Amazon acquired Comixology, Jeff Bezos and team managed to screw the pooch. From Co-founder and CEO David Steinberger on the initial sale to Amazon:

ComiXology will retain its identity as an Amazon subsidiary and we’re not anywhere near done “taking comics further.” We are confident that – with Amazon by our side, who shares our desire for innovation and a relentless focus on customers – we’ve only just begun.

Flat out, he lied or didn't know what was coming. Taken from past buy outs, this isn't something new to Jeff Bezos and company.

Comicbook author and creator Gerry Conway posted a great article on comicbook.com on his views of the latest development.

You don’t make quick entertainment hard to access. You may it simple and easy — an impulse buy.

Comixology’s in-App storefront did that. It provided quick and easy access to comics from the majors to the indies, one-stop shopping at the point of sale, at the moment where the customer is most vulnerable to the casual pitch: while he or she is actually reading a comic, and is in the comic-reading frame of mind, and is mildly (or intensely) interested in another nibble of brain-candy.

I wholeheartedly agree that this change voids my impulse buys. This app was the medium that lead me to discover great comics and various new indies. Browsing a store front without the hassle of leaving the app, going onto the web, buying, then going back to the app, clicking on a "Cloud" tab then downloading it, was the way to go.

Impulse is still the best way to find the latest and greatest or even those that might pique your interest. Now, I'm heading back out to my local comic shop. It's not that I'm going to boycott Comixology, but who am I kidding… delete.