Month: September 2016
No, people, the iPhone 7 is NOT exploding!
While we don't have any concrete reports on this, there have been rumors going around that the new iPhone 7 is seeing the same fate as Samsung's Galaxy Note 7.
However, there has been a photo going through the ranks that seems to show a damaged iPhone 7 box, and a "burnt up?" iPhone 7.  While we have had reports that some of the boxes have been damaged during shipping, we have not had any reports of an iPhone suddenly combusting and catching fire.
Pissed Off Customer rampages through Apple Store in France – smashing merchandise along the way
A disgruntled customer, frustrated at Apple Support, began a rampage through a Dijon, France Apple retail store.
Wearing Apple earbuds the whole time, an unnamed customer took steel ball used in French game Petanque (similar to Bocce), and destroyed 12 iPhones, four iMac displays, and a MacBook Air on video — but the entire rampage was not caught on video.
The customer is evidently blaming Apple for not taking back a self-proclaimed defective product within a EU-mandated two-year warranty period. The specifics of his case are not clear at this time.
The man was detained by mall security after his nearly 10-minute rampage, before ultimately being arrested by local police.
Petanque balls generally weigh between 2 and 2.5 pounds, and the man in question clearly came prepared for the attack, wearing a protective glove on his hand.
No specific damage has been declared by Apple, but French publication Le Journal estimates "tens of thousands" of euro in damage.
Rumor: Apple Pay in testing for Russia and in talks for Taiwan and Kenya
According to a publication called Vedomosti, a source has told them that Apple Pay has been in testing for several weeks around various locations in Russia.  An official launch could happen as early as the first or second week in October.
According to Digitimes.com, Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission is meanwhile taking applications from banks wanting to offer Apple Pay, DigiTimes said on Friday. The platform may not arrive in the country until the end of 2016 at the earliest however, and the Commission indicated that only credit cards will be supported at first.
CTBC Bank, Cathay United Commercial Bank, E.SUN Commercial Bank, and Taishin International Bank are expected to be initial launch partners.
Kenya's biggest bank, KCB Group, is talking with several companies about digital payments through its new fintech group, CEO Joshua Oigara told Bloomberg. Apart from Apple, Facebook, Alibaba, Tencent, Google, Samsung, and PayPal are among potential partners.
If Apple does forge an agreement, it would mark Apple Pay's first entry into Africa. Mobile payments are a firmly established technology in Kenya — Safaricom's M-Pesa platform has been around since 2007. In 2014, M-Pesa transactions for the first 11 months of the year were valued at nearly half the country's GDP.