If it has all those biometric sensors, perhaps the watch when set-up becomes linked to your unique biological profile. Authentication becomes unnecessary and theft renders the iWatch useless.
Maybe the iWatch will use a different biometric for your ID. For example, IR readings to work out the positions of your veins in your arm (which is pretty unique). The watch would only be authorise payments for the correct wearer then.
John Gruber had already hinted this several days ago, as an update on his post talking about a "joke" which several sites linked to as a hint that NFC was coming.
His "follow-up joke":
[quote]It would be cool, and would make a lot of sense, if the new wearable thing had the same magic payment apparatus.[/quote]
How would the purchase be authorized or the user authenticated?
Well, two things:
1) For purchases under $25, and sometimes even $50, many merchants will not require an ID with a conventional credit card. So to assume that any form of identification must necessarily be required for purchases using a touch to pay system, at least for purchases in these same price ranges, is I think a mistaken assumption.
2) This technology will very likely encapsulate a form of chip and pin (EMV) technology. The credit card industry is rushing to complete a roll-out of EMV in the United States by the end of 2015. Chip and pin transactions involve the use of a private pin and a chip in the case of a conventional card... that act together to provide added layers of security which make it difficult or impossible to clone cards, or to enact fraudulent transactions. Every major payment network in the United States (Amex, Discover, Visa, MasterCard) are implementing liability shifts in October 0f 2015 which will make the card issuers and merchants liable for fraudulent transactions not carried out using chip and pin. That means there is strong motivation for issuers and merchants to update their infrastructure by that date. That includes issuing new cards with chips (I've already gotten a few), and it means replacing POS terminals with chip and pin capable units.
What this means, in a nutshell, is that by the end of 2015, almost every merchant in the United States will support chip and pin transactions. And that in turn means any device capable of interacting with a chip and pin terminal via NFC, and implementing the EMV standard... will be able to securely make transaction on these networks.
How much implementation of NFC is currently out there in retail? I assume that hardware at cash registers (grocery stores, restaurants, gas pumps, movie theaters, etc) will need to be installed. I've never seen any so far. Are there other phones that have NFC now? I can imagine there would have to be a portable unit that a waitperson can bring to your table for payment. Hopefully Apple will produce the numbers and demand for the tech to become ubiquitous.
Maybe the iWatch will use a different biometric for your ID. For example, IR readings to work out the positions of your veins in your arm (which is pretty unique). The watch would only be authorise payments for the correct wearer then.
That seems a great deal less reliable than Touch ID though at being accurate enough to detect who you are. That sounds cool but I think it'll be unlikely. Something more along the lines of authenticating to the device initially with Touch ID and that authentication remaining until the watch is removed is more likely. However, that seems like it would become an annoyance having to in essence resync every time you put on the iWatch. We will hopefully know soon enough.
Simply tapping your wrist to pay, and not even bothering with pulling the phone out of your pocket, would be fucking amazing. This is an application where the wearable form factor makes sense and has a distinct advantage.
My thought exactly.
Amazing that all those companies that have been using NFC for years are now making smartwatches without NFC ! Once again, Apple will show them the way for something they should have thought about themselves.
I think it's exactly where apple want to position themselves. You put the watch on and it takes your biometrics & "Just works". No more touch ID, etc. It really depends on exactly how much data the watch is going to draw from the user but from Apple's recent hires and HealthKit and the rumours of them working with health institutions this seems to be the route they are going down.
Collecting health data and bioinformatics will be a MUCH greater market than simply showing text messages or calls on your wrist. No-one is going to pay $400 for a wrist mounted texting device. A watch that tells you your blood sugar if you're diabetic, or blood pressure if you're hypertensive? That would be a huge market.
Can anyone remember the rumours about Apple hiring a THX working to monitor the turbulent sound of blood in your vessels prior to a heart attack? How much would you pay for a watch that could warn you you're about to have a heart attack. This is why the competition has dropped the ball. It isn't about a mini phone on your wrist, It's about having a mini doctor on your wrist!
Fingerprint or PIN tapped onto the surface of the watch presumably. Although the former seems to invite a new type of strongarm robbery.
Hmmm, Robbers wandering the streets with active and mobile NFC station grabbing peoples' arms and forcing them to touch their watches? Yeah, that looks like a feasible robbery method.
How would the purchase be authorized or the user authenticated?
Touch ID on your iPhone authenticates your iWatch which can then be used for payments. If you remove the iWatch the device knows this and then prevents it from being used as such until it's authenticated to the iPhone again via Touch ID.
Also, I am assuming that it will triangulate from biometric data (from Healthkit)? How cool would that be!
Amazing that all those companies that have been using NFC for years are now making smartwatches without NFC ! Once again, Apple will show them the way for something they should have thought about themselves.
It definitely is the right user experience. I move my hand to the pay station (within range) , and then authorize it with a touch of a finger.
I think the hard thing would be payment selection... Unless there is a Geo based or iBeacon defined default for a location. (when in Starbucks use your gift card, when in Albertsons, use your debit card, when in Home Depot or Target... PAY CASH!!!!) ;-)
Otherwise, I would have thought the phone popping up a notification to use your passbook to select payment method, and then TouchID to authorize. Just like pulling your wallet. But at that point, I guess it's not saving much, other than tokenizing the purchase.
John Gruber had already hinted this several days ago, as an update on his post talking about a "joke" which several sites linked to as a hint that NFC was coming.
His "follow-up joke":
[quote]It would be cool, and would make a lot of sense, if the new wearable thing had the same magic payment apparatus.[/quote]
I could see it happening: 1) in anticipation of future NFC devices in the US and 2) to cover those in other countries that do use it and 3) it might be cheap enough to just have it in there as part of an integrated chip, so why leave it out if it's being used at least a lot in other countries.
Recent reports have pegged the anticipated device for an early 2015 launch.
Good. Plenty of time to get the inevitable Xcode 6 update, play around in the "iWatch" simulator, and learn all about Extensions in iOS 8. Always best to give developers some lead time before releasing brand-new hardware. (And yes, Apple has been talking-up Autolayout for nearly 2 years now, so apps should be ready to handle new pixel geometries for iPhone "6" etc.)
Then again, should Apple open up "iWatch" to any and all random developers?
Or should Apple cherry-pick just a few apps and/or brands as they do with Apple TV?
Now that I think about it, the cherry-pick approach seems better.
Yes, you authenticate the watch with TouchID on your iPhone when you put on the watch. It will stay authenticated until you take off the watch.
This could also be used to unlock or make purchases on your iPhone when in proximity to your iWatch.
Eventually you will just pull your iPhone out of your pocket, it will sense the iWatch and unlock itself.
Or simply use iBeacon to determine if it's in proximity to your phone. As soon as it's not, it would require reauthentication, or not be used for purchases.
Then again, should Apple open up "iWatch" to any and all random developers?
Or should Apple cherry-pick just a few apps and/or brands as they do with Apple TV?
Now that I think about it, the cherry-pick approach seems better.
I think that's the approach. It can't be open season to all developers. The apps have to have real implications. There are so many apps in the App Store that are worthless. It needs to be finely curated. Or at the very least there need to be extreme guardrails for developers.
Comments
Yes, you authenticate the watch with TouchID on your iPhone when you put on the watch. It will stay authenticated until you take off the watch.
This could also be used to unlock or make purchases on your iPhone when in proximity to your iWatch.
Eventually you will just pull your iPhone out of your pocket, it will sense the iWatch and unlock itself.
How would the purchase be authorized or the user authenticated?
Couldn't the user be authenticated with the use of the heart rate monitor?
If it has all those biometric sensors, perhaps the watch when set-up becomes linked to your unique biological profile. Authentication becomes unnecessary and theft renders the iWatch useless.
Ah, ooh, no. I mean there’d be a TouchID receiver there. You authenticate every single time. It’s not safe otherwise.
John Gruber had already hinted this several days ago, as an update on his post talking about a "joke" which several sites linked to as a hint that NFC was coming.
His "follow-up joke":
[quote]It would be cool, and would make a lot of sense, if the new wearable thing had the same magic payment apparatus.[/quote]
How would the purchase be authorized or the user authenticated?
Well, two things:
1) For purchases under $25, and sometimes even $50, many merchants will not require an ID with a conventional credit card. So to assume that any form of identification must necessarily be required for purchases using a touch to pay system, at least for purchases in these same price ranges, is I think a mistaken assumption.
2) This technology will very likely encapsulate a form of chip and pin (EMV) technology. The credit card industry is rushing to complete a roll-out of EMV in the United States by the end of 2015. Chip and pin transactions involve the use of a private pin and a chip in the case of a conventional card... that act together to provide added layers of security which make it difficult or impossible to clone cards, or to enact fraudulent transactions. Every major payment network in the United States (Amex, Discover, Visa, MasterCard) are implementing liability shifts in October 0f 2015 which will make the card issuers and merchants liable for fraudulent transactions not carried out using chip and pin. That means there is strong motivation for issuers and merchants to update their infrastructure by that date. That includes issuing new cards with chips (I've already gotten a few), and it means replacing POS terminals with chip and pin capable units.
What this means, in a nutshell, is that by the end of 2015, almost every merchant in the United States will support chip and pin transactions. And that in turn means any device capable of interacting with a chip and pin terminal via NFC, and implementing the EMV standard... will be able to securely make transaction on these networks.
How much implementation of NFC is currently out there in retail? I assume that hardware at cash registers (grocery stores, restaurants, gas pumps, movie theaters, etc) will need to be installed. I've never seen any so far. Are there other phones that have NFC now? I can imagine there would have to be a portable unit that a waitperson can bring to your table for payment. Hopefully Apple will produce the numbers and demand for the tech to become ubiquitous.
This is all going to happen by the end of 2015.
Simply tapping your wrist to pay, and not even bothering with pulling the phone out of your pocket, would be fucking amazing. This is an application where the wearable form factor makes sense and has a distinct advantage.
My thought exactly.
Amazing that all those companies that have been using NFC for years are now making smartwatches without NFC ! Once again, Apple will show them the way for something they should have thought about themselves.
How would the purchase be authorized or the user authenticated?
Biometrics.
A different owner will have different stats.
I think it's exactly where apple want to position themselves. You put the watch on and it takes your biometrics & "Just works". No more touch ID, etc. It really depends on exactly how much data the watch is going to draw from the user but from Apple's recent hires and HealthKit and the rumours of them working with health institutions this seems to be the route they are going down.
Collecting health data and bioinformatics will be a MUCH greater market than simply showing text messages or calls on your wrist. No-one is going to pay $400 for a wrist mounted texting device. A watch that tells you your blood sugar if you're diabetic, or blood pressure if you're hypertensive? That would be a huge market.
Can anyone remember the rumours about Apple hiring a THX working to monitor the turbulent sound of blood in your vessels prior to a heart attack? How much would you pay for a watch that could warn you you're about to have a heart attack. This is why the competition has dropped the ball. It isn't about a mini phone on your wrist, It's about having a mini doctor on your wrist!
Fingerprint or PIN tapped onto the surface of the watch presumably. Although the former seems to invite a new type of strongarm robbery.
Hmmm, Robbers wandering the streets with active and mobile NFC station grabbing peoples' arms and forcing them to touch their watches? Yeah, that looks like a feasible robbery method.
not.
How would the purchase be authorized or the user authenticated?
Touch ID on your iPhone authenticates your iWatch which can then be used for payments. If you remove the iWatch the device knows this and then prevents it from being used as such until it's authenticated to the iPhone again via Touch ID.
Also, I am assuming that it will triangulate from biometric data (from Healthkit)? How cool would that be!
(Pipped by ClemyNX and current interest).My thought exactly.
Amazing that all those companies that have been using NFC for years are now making smartwatches without NFC ! Once again, Apple will show them the way for something they should have thought about themselves.
It definitely is the right user experience. I move my hand to the pay station (within range) , and then authorize it with a touch of a finger.
I think the hard thing would be payment selection... Unless there is a Geo based or iBeacon defined default for a location. (when in Starbucks use your gift card, when in Albertsons, use your debit card, when in Home Depot or Target... PAY CASH!!!!) ;-)
Otherwise, I would have thought the phone popping up a notification to use your passbook to select payment method, and then TouchID to authorize. Just like pulling your wallet. But at that point, I guess it's not saving much, other than tokenizing the purchase.
John Gruber had already hinted this several days ago, as an update on his post talking about a "joke" which several sites linked to as a hint that NFC was coming.
His "follow-up joke":
[quote]It would be cool, and would make a lot of sense, if the new wearable thing had the same magic payment apparatus.[/quote]
I could see it happening: 1) in anticipation of future NFC devices in the US and 2) to cover those in other countries that do use it and 3) it might be cheap enough to just have it in there as part of an integrated chip, so why leave it out if it's being used at least a lot in other countries.
Recent reports have pegged the anticipated device for an early 2015 launch.
Good. Plenty of time to get the inevitable Xcode 6 update, play around in the "iWatch" simulator, and learn all about Extensions in iOS 8. Always best to give developers some lead time before releasing brand-new hardware. (And yes, Apple has been talking-up Autolayout for nearly 2 years now, so apps should be ready to handle new pixel geometries for iPhone "6" etc.)
Then again, should Apple open up "iWatch" to any and all random developers?
Or should Apple cherry-pick just a few apps and/or brands as they do with Apple TV?
Now that I think about it, the cherry-pick approach seems better.
Yes, you authenticate the watch with TouchID on your iPhone when you put on the watch. It will stay authenticated until you take off the watch.
This could also be used to unlock or make purchases on your iPhone when in proximity to your iWatch.
Eventually you will just pull your iPhone out of your pocket, it will sense the iWatch and unlock itself.
Or simply use iBeacon to determine if it's in proximity to your phone. As soon as it's not, it would require reauthentication, or not be used for purchases.
And if someone steals both your watch and phone they will be able to make purchases? I don't think Apple will want the liability of this happening.
Is it not easier to steal a wallet compared to two devices, one of which is clasped to your wrist?