The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission won’t let banks team up to bargain with Cupertino over Apple Pay fees.
Three of the country’s four major banks applied to negotiate with Apple together, and potentially boycott the wireless payments service if no deal was reached. Now that the banks’ request has been denied by the ACCC, they’ll be forced to work out individual agreements over Apple Pay.
Apple is reportedly planning to open a new flagship Australian retail store in Federation Square, Melbourne.
According to a new report, Apple is currently negotiating to replace an existing “deconstructivist” metal building in the square with a $50 million glass structure, which sounds reminiscent of Apple’s iconic Fifth Avenue store.
Australia’s four biggest banks are seeking permission from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to launch an official Apple boycott.
Apple is less than happy about Australian banks’ unwillingness to say “G’day” to Apple Pay. In fact, it’s accusing them of acting like a “cartel,” and arguing their demands pose a security risk to Apple and its customers.
Using Apple Pay to buy stuff feels like magic every time. Apple’s official ads don’t really portray how awestruck people are when I bust out my iPhone or Apple Watch to buy a Red Bull, but a bank in Australia has captured the moment perfectly.
ANZ’s funny Apple Pay ad is super and simple and just shows a regular guy buying a carton of milk from an Australian version of Seth Rogen. Not much happens, but the wave of utter amazement and disbelief that hits everyone in the store when the guy taps the counter with his iPhone is something you’ve got to see.
Check it out:
Australian banks including Westpac, ANZ and Macquarie have announced that they will soon accept contactless payments made via Android Pay — although would-be Apple Pay customers are still being left out in the cold.
The reason? Banks still aren’t happy with Apple’s terms for its mobile payments solution, and showing that they are willing to accept Android Pay is a way of forcing a better deal with Apple.
Australia may recently have said “G’day” to Apple Pay, but when it comes to the country’s overall embrace of Apple’s NFC payment platform, well, let’s just say that a few more shrimps could be tossed on the proverbial barbie.
That’s because, despite now being available to Amex customers Down Under, Australia’s Reserve Bank is being pushed to examine anti-competitive behavior due to Australia’s major banks allegedly freezing out Apple Pay — and thereby denying choice to customers in terms of digital payments.
Apple Pay launches in Canada today — making the country of Tim Hortons, hockey and maple syrup the third place in the world to receive Apple’s mobile payments technology, following the U.S. and United Kingdom.
Apple has also announced that the service is set to launch in Australia later this week, although a specific day has not been confirmed.
Apple is ramping up the prices for its entire Mac lineup in seven countries around the world — but don’t blame Cupertino!
People are already camping out for the iPhone 6s, but one smart would-be customer from Australia has decided to dodge the queues — by sending a robot on her behalf.
Lucy Kelly dispatched the robot — a remote-controlled tablet attached to a Segway — to wait in line at the flagship Apple Store in Sydney, where the iPhone 6s will go on sale ahead of the rest of the world. It gives her the ability to join in the fun of waiting alongside eager Apple fans, without the negative part of standing around for hours in the cold.
Now why didn’t we think of that?
In addition to offering Siri in an ever-increasing range of accents, it seems that Apple is making a few more nods to localization with iOS 9.
Spotted by a user in Australia, Apple has renamed the Trash folder the “Rubbish” folder in its latest local version of the mobile operating system.
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus haven’t even been announced yet, but already an Australian man is camping out in front of Sydney’s Apple Store with the aim of being the first person in the world to buy Apple’s next-gen handset.
And, weirdly enough, he doesn’t claim to be a particularly big Apple fan.
Apple Pay might be a while arriving in Australia according to a new report, which claims that the country’s four largest banks are stalling negotiations with Apple so as to hold on to $2 billion per year they earn from merchants for interchange fees.
The announcement of Apple Music last week was certain to stir up a bit of controversy, and sure enough some corners of the music industry are starting to speak out against the (arguably harsh) terms Apple’s dictated.
Among them is the Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR), which represents independent labels in Oz. Their beef with Apple? Dissatisfaction at the company’s three-month trial period for users, during which Apple will pay out no royalties to artists since it won’t be making any money itself.
“Having now had over a week to reflect on the launch of Apple Music, AIR is not satisfied that the deal being offered under this new initiative is fair or equitable to independent music companies,” a statement from the organization reads.
Apple was among 12 tech companies — also including Google and Microsoft — which appeared in front of an Australian parliamentary hearing on Wednesday to defend their corporate tax structures in the country.
Apple has previously stood accused of shifting close to $8.1 billion in untaxed profits from its Australian operations to its business operations in Ireland over the course of the past decade.
In some bad news for Apple, Australia’s Federal Court has rejected an appeal by the company to trademark the term “App Store.”
In a ruling made Wednesday, judge Justice Yates dismissed Apple’s case and ordered it to pay the court costs of Registrar of Trade Marks.
Apple has been locked in a long-standing tug of war with Oz’s Registrar of Trade Marks over whether it should have ownership over the term it popularized on Mac and iOS. The company first took the registrar to court in March 2013, after the “App Store” trademark was revoked following its initial accepted. Since then, Apple has lost a total of three appeals: firstly by the trademark examiner, then by the Australian Trade Marks Office, and now today’s ruling.
Steve Wozniak changed the world when he co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs to create the first personal computer. Now, after revolutionizing the tech world, he’s ready to impart his wisdom upon the top tech minds in Australia.
University of Technology, Sydney announced that it’s hired Woz on as an adjunct professor for the school, where he’ll start teaching in December.
Earlier this week it was announced that Apple was replacing certain iPhone 5 models, sold between September 2012 and January 2013, due to a problem related to the devices’ battery life.
According to certain customers, however, things are not quite as straightforward as they may seem.
Some users, who fulfilled the criteria in terms of their iPhone 5 serial number, were still denied the free device replacement after Apple added additional tests. One iPhone user in Queensland, Australia said that she was told by an Apple Store employee that while the battery was “borderline” defective (it allegedly ran for only a couple of hours after charging) it was “not close enough” to warrant a free replacement. The customer was then asked for $99 in order for the Apple staffer to install a new battery.
Apple is set to open its third brick-and-mortar retail store in Western Australia, at the Lakeside Joondalup shopping mall in Joondalup, Perth.
The 5,000 square-foot location will be part of a major revamp of the shopping center, that will see it become the largest in Western Australia.
The location doesn’t come as a total surprise: almost two years ago Apple real estates scouts were seen walking in the hallmarks of the mall, although it’s only with the mall’s current renovation and expansion that Apple has found a location suitable to lease.
After reports of iPads, iPhones and Macs being hacked and held ransom in the U.K. and Australia, we put together this video to show you how to avoid the problem — and what to do if it’s already happened.
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A number of Mac and iOS users from across Australia have had their Macs, iPhones and iPads remotely locked by hackers — and money demanded if they want to be able to continue using the devices.
Affected users have taken to Apple’s support forum, along with social media, to discuss the issue.
Apple has been accused of shifting close to $8.1 billion in untaxed profits from its Australian operations to Ireland over the past ten years.
An investigation by the Australian Financial Review got hold of a decade’s worth of financial accounts for the Irish-based “Apple Sales International” — which supposedly show how Apple shifted untaxed profits from Australia to Ireland, where the company pays just 0.7% tax on its turnover.
While all attention is currently being placed on the new fourth iOS 7.1 beta, a feature that seems to have skipped most people’s attention is that beta version 3 includes a female counterpart to the British male variant of Siri, which users can choose between.
As Crocodile Dundee would no doubt say, “That’s not a warranty, this is a warranty.”
Consumer rights watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), has accused Apple of misleading Australian consumers about their rights to refunds, replacements, and repairs.
Did Apple invent the “app”?
In terms of coining the word — or coming up with the idea of software — the obvious answer is that of course they didn’t.
But did Apple’s approach to apps — seen most readily through the type of applications sold through its App Store — forever change what the typical user thinks of when they hear the word?
