COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATIONS

Apple

Swatch decries battery life of Apple Watch Nick Hayek, CEO of Swatch, recently called the Apple Watch

an 'interesting toy' but not a revolution and expressed concern over the privacy of health and fitness data collected by modern smartwatches as his company gears up to launch its own wearable later this year.

According to Hayek, Apple watches consume lot of power and last no longer than 24 hours without needing to be plugged in.

Swatch’s forthcoming smartwatch will contain a programmable NFC chip that can be used for access control, among other things. Swatch is not considering any form of health tracking

iOS 9 content blockers will work at system level The next version of iOS comes with a major new feature

called ‘content blockers’ which will allow users to install apps that block trackers, advertisements and other unwanted content for the first time.

It’s the first time blocking mobile advertisements en masse will be possible and publishers may face an existential threat to their revenue streams.

Content blockers on iOS are a new type of app that’s able to block incoming content before it’s loaded by the system — it provides a list of sites and scripts to the operating system for blocking. Instead of requiring the browser to process what to block as the page loads, it’s performed on a system level before the page loads which increases speed significantly.

Google

Leaked memo says Android Pay to launch Aug 26th According to an internal notice of McDonald’s Android Pay

could launch on August 26th.

For its part, Google has only said that Android Pay will arrive at the same time as Android 6 "Marshmallow," but has yet to reveal the date.

McDonald’s is set to be a major partner for Android Pay thanks to over 14,000 restaurants in the US which will all accept Android Pay from launch.

Google tests auto adding food photos to maps Google is currently testing a new feature that will allow keen food photographers to automatically add their images to Google Maps as soon as they are taken. The new feature will send users an alert if an image has been taken in food-related places and offer to automatically upload the image to the location on Maps. It’s a neat feature that will make reviewing and searching for restaurants easier for the user.

Android Marshmallow will ask user for permissions In Android Marshmallow Google’s default apps will neatly ask user for permission if user tells the app to do something that it doesn’t currently have permission to do. For instance, user can head to the Settings app to disable individual app permissions. If user has disabled access to the microphone, tapping the microphone icon will make it ask user for permission.

Visa Checkout

Co-marketing helps Visa Checkout to grow rapidly In recent months, no less than thirty-three new merchants,

ranging from Best Buy and Under Armour to Barnes & Noble and Taco Bell, have signed on to offer Visa Checkout. More issuers too are offering Visa Checkout to their customers especially in China and UAE

A series of successful co-marketing campaigns such as with The Ellen DeGeneres Show, have contributed to the growth

The number of merchants offering Visa Checkout is now at nearly a quarter million globally, while financial institution partners have grown to over 330

Average monthly enrollment growth rate was over 30 percent in June and July 2015

The service has seen six million registered users, and has seen registered user sign ups increase by more than 92 percent since the beginning of 2015

Others

Interest in FX grows as more US firms globalize AFEX, one of the world’s largest non-bank providers of global payment and risk management solutions announced that almost half of their clients (48%) are expecting to increase their level of international trade in 2015, compared to just 38% planning to do so in 2014. One in five (19%) of clients also plan to increase hedging activity to mitigate currency risk.

Alibaba trade assurance now covers card purchases Alibaba recently launched the Trade Assurance program, a

venture that sees Alibaba vet international suppliers to strengthen business buyers’ confidence in their online purchases from China. Alibaba will now extend coverage of the Trade Assurance program, once applicable only to transactions made via bank transfer, to purchases made with a credit card

If the supplier is at fault, the buyer gets their money back, and will be covered by Alibaba.

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