Apple to enable new payment system at 220K retail stores

Oct 20, 2014 07:31 GMT  ·  By

Later today, Apple plans to deploy the first major update to iOS 8, adding all-new features including SMS relay, Apple Pay, and Instant Hotspot, as well as returning features from iOS 7, like the Camera Roll.

iOS 8.1 will be distributed as any firmware update before it, free of charge and over-the-air (or traditionally, trough iTunes).

Pay with Apple starting today

On October 16, right after launching the new iPads and Retina 5K iMac, Apple confirmed in a press release that “customers can start making payments with the touch of a finger on Monday, October 20, when Apple Pay becomes available in the US.”

Available on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in stores and within apps, and on iPads with Touch ID within apps only, “the service will be enabled by a free software update to iOS 8,” the company said. That update turned out to be iOS 8.1, which Apple scheduled to roll out later today.

“Our team has worked incredibly hard to make Apple Pay private and secure, with the simplicity of a single touch of your finger,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The reaction to Apple Pay has been amazing. We continue to add more Apple Pay ready banks, credit card companies and merchants, and think our users will love paying with Apple Pay.”

SMS Relay (Continuity)

Starting today, Mac & iPhone owners can use their desktop computers to send and receive not just iMessages over Wi-Fi, but also SMS messages thanks to the Continuity features in Yosemite. Apple requires the iOS 8.1 update to enable this feature on the user’s iDevice.

Once iOS 8.1 is applied to all of the user’s iDevices (including maybe an iPad or an iPod touch), SMS relay becomes available on all their Apple devices, so long as they are logged into all of them with the same Apple ID.

Instant Hotspot

Another cool feature that iOS 8.1 enables is the ability to connect your Mac to the Internet through your iPhone without tethering it. The feature automatically detects a nearby iPhone and places it in the list of available wireless connections. When Wi-Fi is no longer available, it steals the cellular internet from the phone without any problems.

Camera Roll, iCloud Photo Library

The Camera Roll is making a return in iOS 8.1. It’s a dubbing more than anything, but one that users have grown accustomed to. Also on the photography front, iCloud Photo Library lets you store photos directly on iCloud without storing them on the phone’s physical memory as well.

The feature is still in beta and chances are it will remain that way for a while, so be careful with it and don’t take any naked selfies just yet. Unless you’re a celebrity, in which case we beg you to.