Ride the Lightning

New Apple Watch and iPhones with ApplePay: How Secure Will It Be?

September 10, 2014

Everyone expected a bigger iPhone and Apple's announcement yesterday delivered on that expectation.

Everyone also expected an Apple watch and they got that too – a watch which will be able to unlock doors at Starwood hotels next year. According to the Washington Post article, you'll be able to check into airlines, tweet, reply to messages and make phone calls.

Pricing for the watch begins at $349 and the watch is expected to be available early next year. For the fashionistas, you can swap out the band. There are two different sizes and several different finishes. There is a significant catch – you need an iPhone to make the watch fully functional.

Much of the buzz centered around the new mobile payment system called ApplePay. This allows a user to store credit card info on the iPhone and swipe the phone at payment machines that are expected to crop up everywhere. Apple says that 220,000 stores will accept the new form of payment, including McDonald's, Whole Foods, Disney parks and – surprise – Apple stores.

Apple promised that it won't monitor anyone's shopping history and said that, if the phone is lost, users can easily cancel all transactions remotely. American Express, Visa and MasterCard are participating in the program along with a dozen of the country's largest banks.

Technology efforts by others to provide similar payment systems have failed thus far – it remains to be seen whether the ApplePay system performs as advertised and is truly secure. Given Apple's history with security, I wouldn't bet the mortgage money.

The two new phones announced were an iPhone 6 with a 4.7 inch screen (starting at $199 with a two-year contract) and super-sized iPhone 6 Plus with a 5.7 inch screen (starting at $299).

The funniest line to me was the statement by an Apple spokesman that the new phones' battery life is the same or better than previous versions of the iPhone – doesn't seem like any major improvement in the thing iPhone users complain about most. Looks like we'll still see iPhone users huddled together around charging stations in the airport.

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