Tag Archives for apple.
What it might really change is air travel, or at least how we enjoy air travel. No more tiny screens. No more need for screens at all, that the passenger in the row in front of you might crush when they recline their seat.
Chicago-based photographer named Alex Garcia was traveling back from Havana and overnighted in Miami on Thursday. After waiting for hours to clear passport control he headed to the baggage carousel for his luggage, but he couldn’t find his bag.
He’d placed an AirTag in it, and he knew that it left the airport. Police there were uninterested. So he decided to chase it down himself.
A class action settlement over iPhone device performance is expected to pay out $25 per person who registers.
Major tech companies are moving into financial services because they think their ubiquity gives them the ability to succeed in an adjacent space, because they have strong brands, and because their tech focus allows them to appeal to a younger ‘new affluent’ demographic.
For the tech companies and issuers the biggest play is financial data.
Developing the Apple Card turned out to be a huge drain on Goldman‘s IT resources: Goldman Sachs spent $300 million “to build it” and “[w]hen early testing of the software this spring revealed a security vulnerability, Goldman reassigned thousands of engineers from around the firm to patch it, people familiar with the matter said.”
Yet somehow Apple’s line on the product is “Designed by Apple, not a bank.”
When the new Apple Card becomes available this summer, dedicated Apple fans may rush to it. It’s worth knowing that the card isn’t as good as competitor products in the market and actually moves away from Steve Jobs’ original vision which was points for Apple products, not cash back.
A year ago we learned that Apple was dropping its co-brand relationship with Barclays and launching a new Mastercard with Goldman Sachs. That didn’t matter much since their existing card wasn’t particularly strong. There was hope the new card would be much better!
It isn’t.
Barclays currently issues the Apple credit card. It’s fairly weak — no signup bonus, 3 points per dollar at Apple and 2 points at restaurants, with points you can redeem for Apple and iTunes gift cards.
There are no ‘benefits’ for being an Apple cardmember which I’ve never understood, other than a built-in financing offer for Apple products. Early access to products, special activations at Apple stores, some form of better treatment for cardmembers seems like a no brainer.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
