Kudos to Samsung for limiting the features they spinelessly steal to those found in the iPhone?
Just limiting the software features, for once, and leaving out micro SD, removable battery, et al. I should have been more precise.
Their S6 design looks like it lifted design themes from not just various iPhones, but also from the proverbial kitchen sink (that edge). If I'm not mistaken, they even threw in a "diamond cut chamfer". But it is a high watermark for them.
My bank just notified me that my new mag stripe credit card will no longer be valid after April (I just received it in January.). They are sending a replacement chip card. So at least for my bank the old magnetic stripe cards will no longer work. So I imagine that will be true for most other banks in the US also probably by years end.
Surely, that does not mean that the magnetic stripe itself will be unusable with chip cards?
Chick - I think that perhaps you may have misunderstood your bank's letter. What I think they're saying (based upon a somewhat similar one I received a while back) that that they're issuing you with a new chip card. I expect that this card will also have a mag stripe on the back. That's for two reasons: (1) many merchants don't yet have chip-card readers and many that do have them haven't enabled them yet (Home Depot - I'm looking at you), and (2)gas-pump readers aren't required to be converted until 2017.
So if they send you a card with no mag stripe it will be almost impossible to use until this Fall. I don't think that's what they're doing.
anantksundaram: you raise an interesting point. As I mentioned above, I believe that Chick's new card will have both a chip and a mag stripe. The subtlety is that the new chip-enabled readers can tell if a card that's swiped actually contains a chip (I guess there some info encoded in the mag strip that says what the card has). So if you swipe a card that has both chip and strip, the reader will ask you to insert it and read the chip. That is, it won't accept a swipe from a chip-enabled card. If you swipe the card at an old-style reader (not chip-enabled) then the swipe will work.
2) How will the magnetic strip be useless in a few months? I thought he chip and PIN support had to be in card readers, but that doesn't mean that magnetic swipe has to be removed from card readers.
It's actually chip+signature in most cases (very few banks doing chip+PIN AFAIK). But you are right - mag swipe ability will still be there.
But this raises a very interesting possibility. As I mentioned in an earlier post, new cards will have both chip and mag-strip. And the new readers know the difference. I speculated that it could be because of something encoded in the mag-strip but there's another possibility - the bank knows if it sent you a chip card and so won't accept a swipe from a chip-enabled reader (the reader identifies itself to the bank as part of the authorization process, so the bank knows which kind it is).
If this is the case (i.e. the bank knows which, and rejects swipes at new readers) then the magnetic-connection LoopPay swipe emulation will fail if the card you added has a chip ! I don't know if this speculation is correct (and I expect that banks aren't going to tell me but it is intriguing.
1) The only thing Samsung currently has is LoopPay and Google Pay. I think it is renaming both as Samsung Pay.
2) Everyone in the United States is mandated to have RFID Chipped Credit Cards by the end of 2015. And Merchants are mandated to have RFID Card Readers with optional NFC reading. Magnetic strip readers will then be switched off.
Any Merchant who takes a magnetic strip reader charge from a customer is 100% LIABLE for fraud that the customer commits. The banks will no longer take the loss. With that in place, I seriously doubt any Merchant will take magnetic stripped cards. They are dead in the water.
A couple of clarifications:
1. there is no "mandate" for "the end of 2015". There is a liability shift beginning in October 2015 and that's very similar to a mandate though
2. banks are on the hook for fraud after that if they haven't issued you a chip card. Again, that's not exactly a "mandate" but is close
3. merchants are liable for fraud if they don't have chip-enabled readers (and you have a chip card)
4. RFID and NFC are recommended but NOT required, as far as I have seen. Please post a link if you have a source that specifies otherwise. I read the stuff on EMV website and couldn't see it. That said, most new readers are coming with NFC (of which RFIC is a subset) but I do not believe that it is required by EMV as part of the liability shift
5. from what I have seen, the new readers won't let you swipe a chip card, but will ask you to insert it so it can read the chip. It's unclear whether the reader or the bank rejects such an attempt.
Can't wait to visit YouTube once those phones come out.
Don't hold your breath. Apple is not going to distribute GS6 or pay people to buy them and then smash the GS6 to stain their competitor. It is not Apple's style of Marketing.
Just limiting the software features, for once, and leaving out micro SD, removable battery, et al. I should have been more precise.
Their S6 design looks like it lifted design themes from not just various iPhones, but also from the proverbial kitchen sink (that edge). If I'm not mistaken, they even threw in a "diamond cut chamfer". But it is a high watermark for them.
Kudos to Sammy to copying Apple more closely than before?
So where are all the complaints about the top and bottom bezel? And the camera bulge in the back. I seem to remember when the iPhone 6 came out a lot of fandroids mocked the bezels and camera bump. My iPhone 6 barely rocks at all on a flat surface. The GS 6 does not lay flat. Oh and how about all those who mocked iPhone because it didn't have micro SD, removeable battery and wasn't waterproof. They're all completely silent now.
They are all over on CNET trying to justify their superiority with some other BS now.
My concern for Samsung would be, a lot of their users want great value, great specs, and a lot of versatility. If Samsung takes away stuff like waterproofing, SD card slot, and replaceable battery, are they going to alienate their core higher end buyers? This new Galaxy S6 seems like it's really NOT aimed at the current Galaxy high end users, no?
I disagree. Samsung Pay will be totally secure. Because nobody will use it, and it will be DOA.
Seriously what reason would there be to have a me-too service like that? Samsung will probably pay off a few companies to trial it, then they'll realize still nobody is using it, and then nobody will talk about it anymore. Like 99% - or is it 100% - of all the "S" features.
If Google bakes some sort of payment system into Android, it'll probably take off. Didn't follow it but I guess they're working on that already. I don't know why Google Wallet failed but I think it's a safe bet they'll change it and make it like Apple Pay, then sell it as the alternative. That makes sense. A Samsung-specific one just as the companies prospects fade - not so much.
They wont make it like Apple Pay because they want the customer data and so they won't ever do TOTAL network TOKENIZATION like Apple has done. It will NEVER be as secure as Apple's solution. Yes more secure than before, but not as secure as Apple pay
If Samsung takes away stuff like waterproofing, SD card slot, and replaceable battery, are they going to alienate their core higher end buyers? This new Galaxy S6 seems like it's really NOT aimed at the current Galaxy high end users, no?
Sammy has no loyal customers. Plus I bet the number that care about removable batteries or sd card is relatively small.
Kudos to Sammy to copying Apple more closely than before?
Sure, but I see this as a total capitulation of Samsung in the marketplace. From now on, they are not going to try to compete with Apple in the market, they are protecting themselves as second place in the market by being "the other Apple". Next thing you know, Android will be all walled garden, and thanks to Lenovo, "crapware" is done in the marketplace. Samsung can see the writing on the wall, but they are still stuck with Android.
Being a copy of Apple, which is what Samsung and Xiaomi are competing on, is a death spiral.
Samsung also trimmed back the software features, claiming that there are 40 percent fewer features in the Galaxy S6 than the S5.
You seriously can't make this shit up. "40% fewer features" is now a feature.
The same drooling Samsung sycophants who always trumpeted the no. of touchwiz "features" over iOS will now also trumpet this "feature". The fact that Samsung would announce, with no shame, that they've scrapped 1/2 of their previous software features goes to show that they know, and have always known, the features were trash. It's unfortunate their users and cheerleaders were too stupid to even realize that. Serious, honest people have been proclaiming these features as garbage all along, at lest Samsung has come out an publically admitted as much. I guess we can look forward to all remaining "features" to be trimmed with the S7.
You seriously can't make this shit up. "40% fewer features" is now a feature.
The same drooling Samsung sycophants who always trumpeted the no. of touchwiz "features" over iOS will now also trumpet this "feature". The fact that Samsung would announce, with no shame, that they've scrapped 1/2 of their previous software features goes to show that they know, and have always known, the features were trash. It's unfortunate their users and cheerleaders were too stupid to even realize that.
Am I the only one that sees Samsung scaling back on features and moving toward a better design with more useful features as a good thing for consumers? I've been saying this is one thing others can emulate from Apple and something that Apple can't go after them for "stealing."
Comments
SPay is just LoopPay reincarnated. Their claim to fame is that they can fake out a magnetic swipe, which will be useless in a few months.
If it's just LoopPay, that's true. But the article said that it will use NFC also.
If they do that, and also use EMV's tokenization (an open standard, not exclusive to Apple) then it'll be very close to Apple Pay.
This will be interesting to watch
Kudos to Samsung for limiting the features they spinelessly steal to those found in the iPhone?
Just limiting the software features, for once, and leaving out micro SD, removable battery, et al. I should have been more precise.
Their S6 design looks like it lifted design themes from not just various iPhones, but also from the proverbial kitchen sink (that edge). If I'm not mistaken, they even threw in a "diamond cut chamfer". But it is a high watermark for them.
My bank just notified me that my new mag stripe credit card will no longer be valid after April (I just received it in January.). They are sending a replacement chip card. So at least for my bank the old magnetic stripe cards will no longer work. So I imagine that will be true for most other banks in the US also probably by years end.
Surely, that does not mean that the magnetic stripe itself will be unusable with chip cards?
Chick - I think that perhaps you may have misunderstood your bank's letter. What I think they're saying (based upon a somewhat similar one I received a while back) that that they're issuing you with a new chip card. I expect that this card will also have a mag stripe on the back. That's for two reasons: (1) many merchants don't yet have chip-card readers and many that do have them haven't enabled them yet (Home Depot - I'm looking at you), and (2)gas-pump readers aren't required to be converted until 2017.
So if they send you a card with no mag stripe it will be almost impossible to use until this Fall. I don't think that's what they're doing.
anantksundaram: you raise an interesting point. As I mentioned above, I believe that Chick's new card will have both a chip and a mag stripe. The subtlety is that the new chip-enabled readers can tell if a card that's swiped actually contains a chip (I guess there some info encoded in the mag strip that says what the card has). So if you swipe a card that has both chip and strip, the reader will ask you to insert it and read the chip. That is, it won't accept a swipe from a chip-enabled card. If you swipe the card at an old-style reader (not chip-enabled) then the swipe will work.
It's actually chip+signature in most cases (very few banks doing chip+PIN AFAIK). But you are right - mag swipe ability will still be there.
But this raises a very interesting possibility. As I mentioned in an earlier post, new cards will have both chip and mag-strip. And the new readers know the difference. I speculated that it could be because of something encoded in the mag-strip but there's another possibility - the bank knows if it sent you a chip card and so won't accept a swipe from a chip-enabled reader (the reader identifies itself to the bank as part of the authorization process, so the bank knows which kind it is).
If this is the case (i.e. the bank knows which, and rejects swipes at new readers) then the magnetic-connection LoopPay swipe emulation will fail if the card you added has a chip ! I don't know if this speculation is correct (and I expect that banks aren't going to tell me
but it is intriguing.
1) The only thing Samsung currently has is LoopPay and Google Pay. I think it is renaming both as Samsung Pay.
2) Everyone in the United States is mandated to have RFID Chipped Credit Cards by the end of 2015. And Merchants are mandated to have RFID Card Readers with optional NFC reading. Magnetic strip readers will then be switched off.
Any Merchant who takes a magnetic strip reader charge from a customer is 100% LIABLE for fraud that the customer commits. The banks will no longer take the loss. With that in place, I seriously doubt any Merchant will take magnetic stripped cards. They are dead in the water.
A couple of clarifications:
1. there is no "mandate" for "the end of 2015". There is a liability shift beginning in October 2015 and that's very similar to a mandate though
2. banks are on the hook for fraud after that if they haven't issued you a chip card. Again, that's not exactly a "mandate" but is close
3. merchants are liable for fraud if they don't have chip-enabled readers (and you have a chip card)
4. RFID and NFC are recommended but NOT required, as far as I have seen. Please post a link if you have a source that specifies otherwise. I read the stuff on EMV website and couldn't see it. That said, most new readers are coming with NFC (of which RFIC is a subset) but I do not believe that it is required by EMV as part of the liability shift
5. from what I have seen, the new readers won't let you swipe a chip card, but will ask you to insert it so it can read the chip. It's unclear whether the reader or the bank rejects such an attempt.
Can't wait to visit YouTube once those phones come out.
Don't hold your breath. Apple is not going to distribute GS6 or pay people to buy them and then smash the GS6 to stain their competitor. It is not Apple's style of Marketing.
Kudos to Sammy to copying Apple more closely than before?
So where are all the complaints about the top and bottom bezel? And the camera bulge in the back. I seem to remember when the iPhone 6 came out a lot of fandroids mocked the bezels and camera bump. My iPhone 6 barely rocks at all on a flat surface. The GS 6 does not lay flat. Oh and how about all those who mocked iPhone because it didn't have micro SD, removeable battery and wasn't waterproof. They're all completely silent now.
They are all over on CNET trying to justify their superiority with some other BS now.
My concern for Samsung would be, a lot of their users want great value, great specs, and a lot of versatility. If Samsung takes away stuff like waterproofing, SD card slot, and replaceable battery, are they going to alienate their core higher end buyers? This new Galaxy S6 seems like it's really NOT aimed at the current Galaxy high end users, no?
I disagree. Samsung Pay will be totally secure. Because nobody will use it, and it will be DOA.
Seriously what reason would there be to have a me-too service like that? Samsung will probably pay off a few companies to trial it, then they'll realize still nobody is using it, and then nobody will talk about it anymore. Like 99% - or is it 100% - of all the "S" features.
If Google bakes some sort of payment system into Android, it'll probably take off. Didn't follow it but I guess they're working on that already. I don't know why Google Wallet failed but I think it's a safe bet they'll change it and make it like Apple Pay, then sell it as the alternative. That makes sense. A Samsung-specific one just as the companies prospects fade - not so much.
They wont make it like Apple Pay because they want the customer data and so they won't ever do TOTAL network TOKENIZATION like Apple has done. It will NEVER be as secure as Apple's solution. Yes more secure than before, but not as secure as Apple pay
Haha!
Sammy has no loyal customers. Plus I bet the number that care about removable batteries or sd card is relatively small.
I don't think Samsung has the mindshare, despite being #2, for enough people to care that they said their Galaxy S6 series phones WILL NOT BEND.
And nobody will pay them to destroy their new phones.
Kudos to Sammy to copying Apple more closely than before?
Sure, but I see this as a total capitulation of Samsung in the marketplace. From now on, they are not going to try to compete with Apple in the market, they are protecting themselves as second place in the market by being "the other Apple". Next thing you know, Android will be all walled garden, and thanks to Lenovo, "crapware" is done in the marketplace. Samsung can see the writing on the wall, but they are still stuck with Android.
Being a copy of Apple, which is what Samsung and Xiaomi are competing on, is a death spiral.
A Company with a reputation of being deceitful, sneaky and fraudulant !
"Samsung Pay", "S6"
Now that's just so special.
You seriously can't make this shit up. "40% fewer features" is now a feature.
The same drooling Samsung sycophants who always trumpeted the no. of touchwiz "features" over iOS will now also trumpet this "feature". The fact that Samsung would announce, with no shame, that they've scrapped 1/2 of their previous software features goes to show that they know, and have always known, the features were trash. It's unfortunate their users and cheerleaders were too stupid to even realize that. Serious, honest people have been proclaiming these features as garbage all along, at lest Samsung has come out an publically admitted as much. I guess we can look forward to all remaining "features" to be trimmed with the S7.
Am I the only one that sees Samsung scaling back on features and moving toward a better design with more useful features as a good thing for consumers? I've been saying this is one thing others can emulate from Apple and something that Apple can't go after them for "stealing."