cjaer

Man, as a frustrated parent deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem, I hate to point out that this is just one of the many problems with screen time. 

Right now my kids (teens with phones that are stripped down iPhones) can turn on personal hotspot to create their own internet portal that is totally free of any of my device restrictions as well as any of my control at our household router. I have T Mobile in the USA. Despite the existence of a toggle that would suggest restricting a user from changing cellular data settings, the toggle doesn't keep personal hotspot locked down. 

In my conversations with Apple and Tmobile each punted. T-Mobile claims that as it is part of my plans core services, I cannot temporarily disable. Apple claimed to me that the personal hotspot feature was set by carrier and could not be locked down at the OS level. 

While I find Apple's stance hard to believe, the end result is that millions of kids are walking around with the ability to access anything. This is so much worse because Apple markets the products as having capabilities that they simply do not deliver on.

Hard to imagine why this doesn't have more attention on it.

coolfactor said:

Here in Canada, we have broad support for Apple Pay, but I've only used it once in the past year. Maybe pulling out the wallet that's always with me is a hard habit to break?

Now if only we could load our driver's license onto our phones and have that be valid ID, then we're talking! That's pretty much what keeps my wallet with me at all times. Payment cards are secondary.

I have one of those cases that allows you to hold about three cards. My ID and a couple credit cards are always with my phone, and I always fold a $20 tucked between the case and the phone, which comes in handy more often than I would have guessed. Totally agree on wishing you could have valid ID on your phone though. 

I also use an app called stocard (I think that's it) that allows me to put in my library, loyalty, health insurance and other cards in electronically. That plus what I described above keeps my wallet at home most of the time.

The one thing about Apple Pay, in addition to the convenience, is the security. I really, really like having merchants not have access to my credit card number.

I've gotten free credits at Starbucks that required me to load into the app, which prompted me to install and register it.
Not a huge starbucks fan, but my yearly spend there is probably ~$20.

I use Apple Pay quite a bit. Even would say that those grocery stores that don't accept it now get much less of my business and I'm anxiously awaiting gas station adoption.
My yearly spend right now is ~ $5,000 and increasing.

Obviously this is statistically irrelevant, however I think it's illustrative that when numbers like those in the article are posted they certainly don't tell the whole story. I count as one registered user for each platform, but not all users are created equal.