Graham Spencer

1006 posts on MacStories since January 2011

Former MacStories contributor.
graham@macstories.net

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Square Announces New Square Reader for Apple Pay, Contactless & Chip Cards

Square yesterday announced a new Square Reader, designed to work with contactless payment services such as Apple Pay, as well as “chip and PIN” EMV cards. The new contactless Square Reader can be reserved from today for $49.

The new contactless Square Reader is a pocket sized square puck (naturally), which can be used wirelessly with the Square app on an iOS or Android device. For customers with an EMV card, there’s also a slot on one of the sides of the the new Square Reader to insert the card’s chip into the device.

For now at least, Square’s mobile payment processing for small businesses is limited to the United States, Canada and Japan. The launch of this new contactless Square Reader may help boost Square’s international expansion efforts, particularly in countries such as the UK and Australia, where EMV cards are more widely adopted.

Q&A

Question: What is the story behind the founding of MacStories? How did Federico and Graham meet and start this business? (Pulin Kothari, @pinkoos)

Federico

I started MacStories because I got fired from my previous job and didn’t know what to do. After graduating from high school I’m 2007, I thought that I wanted to study...

Apple Debuts Five Short Apple TV Ads Featuring Apps and Games

Apple on Tuesday uploaded the first collection of adverts for the Apple TV since the device was released late last month. Each of the five adverts are short 15 second videos which give a quick introduction to some of the most high profile apps and games that launched with the Apple TV.

The five featured apps are Crossy Road, Asphalt 8, Disney Infinity, Netflix and HBO Now. You can view them all below the break or on Apple’s YouTube account.

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Instagram Updates Its Platform Policy, Prohibits Third Party Instagram Feed Apps

As reported by TechCrunch, Instagram yesterday announced several changes to its ‘Platform Policy’, the document that developers must agree to abide by if they want to use Instagram’s APIs. The changes will impact a number of developers, but one of the most significant consequences is that third-party apps which would present a user’s Instagram feed will not be permitted under the new rules.

That means the many third-party apps which sprung up to offer the Instagram feed on platforms which Instagram has never supported, whether it be Flow for the iPad, Photoflow for the Mac, or Tangram for the Apple TV, will no longer be permitted.

On its Developer Blog, Instagram notes that the changes are aimed at improving “people’s control over their content and set up a more sustainable environment built around authentic experiences on the platform”. Instagram wants developers using its API to work on apps that do things such as:

Help individuals share their own content with 3rd party apps, such as apps that let you print your photos and import an Instagram photo as a profile picture.

Help brands and advertisers understand and manage their audience, develop their content strategy, and get digital rights to media. Established apps in this space may apply for our newly announced Instagram Partner Program.

Help broadcasters and publishers discover content, get digital rights to media, and share media using web embeds.

Instagram is adopting a phased approach to implementing the new policy - new apps will be reviewed under the new policy, and Instagram will begin granting full API access starting December 3, 2015. Existing apps will need to be re-approved under the new policy, but they will have until June 1, 2016, to do so. Instagram is also introducing a new Sandbox Mode which will give developers access to the Instagram API so that they can privately build and test their apps whilst their app is being reviewed by Instagram.

PDF Expert for Mac: A Better Preview for PDFs

PDF Expert has been an indispensable app for my iPad for almost as long as I can remember (I’m fairly certain it was one of the first apps I bought when I got my iPad). It’s a fantastic app on iOS because it enables me to not only read, annotate, and add comments to PDFs, but it also gives me a cloud-based ‘Finder’ of sorts – enabling me to browse my Dropbox and OneDrive files and sync them to my iPad.

Given my longstanding appreciation for Readdle’s PDF Expert on iOS, I was pretty keen to try out the Mac version of PDF Expert, which launched late last week. But it must be said, I was sceptical of the value it would bring to the table, because unlike iOS, OS X has the Finder, and cloud services like Dropbox and OneDrive already sync files locally. But most significantly, Preview on the Mac is a fantastic Swiss Army knife for viewing documents and already does a pretty great job at viewing PDF documents, annotating them, adding comments, and even performing some basic page re-organization functions.

But despite my scepticism I was pleased to discover that for those of you who deal with PDFs regularly (myself included), you’ll find value in what Readdle has developed in PDF Expert. Rather than a traditional, wide-ranging, review, I’ve decided to focus on three key features which make PDF Expert worth the money – features that ultimately convinced me to turn my free trial into a purchase.

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Apple Pay Now Available In Canada For American Express Customers, UK Banks Tesco and TSB Also Add Support

As reported by iPhone in Canada and 9to5Mac, Apple Pay is now available in Canada. Unlike the US and UK, Apple Pay support in Canada is limited and only available for American Express customers, as announced by Apple in its Q4 2015 earnings call.

Meanwhile in the UK, Engadget is today reporting that TSB and Tesco Bank now support Apple Pay and customers can add their cards to the Wallet app today. Barclays remains the last of the big four UK banks yet to add support for Apple Pay, but Barclays CEO has said previously it will add support for Apple Pay “very early in the New Year”.

Apple Pay is also expected to launch in Australia later this week on Thursday, November 19th. As with Canada, Apple Pay will be limited to certain American Express cardholders only. You can see if your American Express card is eligible with Apple Pay here.

https://twitter.com/smithjw/status/664571821249855488

Useful & Quirky Apple TV Apps, Vol. 1

GIFtv Powered Giphy, GIFtv will play an endless reel of trendingor random, GIFs, in full screen on your TV. But that’s not all:it will also pair each GIF with a song from the iTunes top charts. I presume that this is being done randomly, but the result is amazing and absolutely hilarious. It’s certainly...

Aerial

{ .icon } [[graham]] Free- Download Mac Screensaver Easily one of my favorite aspects of the new Apple TV is the collection of stunning slow-motion videos which act as the Apple TV’sscreensaver. Featuring cityscapes and landscapes from across the world including San Francisco, New York, Hawaii, London and China, they’re simply mesmerizing. Well, thanks to...

Tips

For months I’ve been typing emoji on my Mac by going to the Messages app and using the custom emoji button to find the relevant emoji, and then copying and pasting it into Tweetbot. Well, I should have known there was an easier way. Thankfully,Gabe Weatherhead (@macdrifter) pointed out on Twitter last week that...