Tech

It's perfectly tuned for low-budget shoppers with phones that aren't always cutting edge

Wal-Mart is among the biggest retailers not accepting Apple Pay, Apple’s new mobile payment system that got underway last week to rousing early success. The big box behemoth is instead going with a different, decidedly lower-tech solution called CurrentC, a mobile wallet developed by a group of merchants, Wal-Mart included, called MCX.

Despite not launching publicly yet, CurrentC is being lambasted in the tech press this week. Why? Over the weekend, several retailers involved with MCX stopped accepting Apple Pay after initially allowing it, which read to many as unfriendly to consumers. And on Wednesday, MCX revealed its email vendor was hacked, exposing CurrentC users’ email addresses and giving the company yet another PR headache.

CurrentC is also seen by many as having been designed more to benefit merchants than consumers. It’s certainly less user-friendly and probably less secure than Apple Pay, but it will help merchants sidestep the much-hated fees they have to pay every time a customer swipes a credit card. CurrentC is also just less cool than Apple Pay—from a tech obsessive’s perspective, it looks like a budget sedan to Apple Pay’s Tesla Model S.

But here’s the thing: None of the tech journalists I know shop at Wal-Mart. For Wal-Mart’s lower-income shoppers, CurrentC could actually have some advantages over Apple Pay. To wit:

1. CurrentC is QR-code based, like Starbucks’ payment app. That makes it backwards compatible with older, cheaper phones (and Android phones) whereas Apple Pay only works with Apple’s top-of-the-line, brand-new phones. Eventually, those iPhones will get older and trickle down into lower-budget shoppers’ pockets, but that’ll take years. The trade-off here is that Apple’s NFC-based system is inherently more secure, as it doesn’t give retailers vital data about your payment method.

2. CurrentC supports consumer loyalty programs (read: coupons), whereas Apply Pay does not. Many shoppers deride loyalty programs as annoying, but I can speak from my experience as a broke college student when I say that coupons can be a vital lifeline for lower-income shoppers. Of course, that support comes at a privacy price: Loyalty programs are really just a thinly-veiled way for retailers to collect data about their consumers.

You’ll notice both of those points contain significant tradeoffs in terms of privacy, a point that Apple CEO Tim Cook emphasized when he introduced the company’s service. Still, there are plenty of reasons for low-end shoppers to adopt CurrentC over Apple Pay, if they embrace the mobile wallet at all. Many won’t—but let the best mobile wallet win.

"This is not a breach"

Apple Pay competitor CurrentC defended the security of its mobile payment system in a Wednesday conference call, just hours after its parent company MCX reported that hackers had obtained some users’ e-mail addresses.

MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson said the attack, which targeted the company’s email vendor, was “not a breach” of the CurrentC app itself. He also emphasized that the incident affected mostly dummy e-mails used in the yet-unreleased service’s ongoing testing phase. Davidson also revealed that some dummy zip codes were stolen and that CurrentC’s systems had withstood several repeated attacks during the past week.

Davidson added the hack hasn’t made the company hesitant to store customer information in the cloud, a plan that’s been criticized given that CurrentC’s main competitor, Apple Pay, doesn’t collect any traceable information at all.

“In terms of consumers’ information and any payment credentials, they’re not stored on a device. They’re not actually present in the physical world,” Davidson said. “And that we think is a design or implementation that makes it far more secure than the world we live in today, and far more secure than many of the alternatives that have been advanced over the last few years.”

While MCX is a joint venture by retailers in order to create a retailer-owned payment system, Davidson said that the service is “first and foremost” about customer engagement. Part of that customer engagement will include a consumer privacy dashboard so that users can elect what information, if any, they would like to share with merchants.

MCX has been under scrutiny after reports suggested that MCX members CVS and Rite Aid disabled Apple Pay because of a contractual agreement for exclusivity. However, Davidson said that the company welcomes competition, and that it is the merchants’ choice whether or not to accept other forms of mobile payment. He added that MCX member retailers are not subject to fines if they choose to adopt Apple Pay, which registered 1 million credit cards in its first three days.

Davidson added that although some MCX merchants have blocked Apple Pay, MCX is open to member retailers using both Apple Pay and CurrentC simultaneously once the latter service goes public early next year.

“We have a great deal of respect for Apple, of course, and Apple Pay,” Davidson said. “We believe and our merchants believe we require two to three strong players in the space to build the ecosystem.”

Russian hackers may have jumped the White House's digital fence

It's like Evite, but 10 years later.

Retailers joined forces to create the digital wallet, which has received cold reviews

Google—and some rivals—want to tame your inbox, calendar and more

Email was supposed to make our lives easier. Instead it’s become a dumping ground for travel itineraries, receipts, social-­media updates, work documents and ­invitations—to say nothing of actual spam. (According to a recent study, most professionals spend almost a third of their workweek just wading through email.) Tech companies have made a sport of vying to tackle data ­deluge—not just in email but in everything from your calendar to your to-do lists—as consumers increasingly complain about information overload.

The latest entrant: Google, which set the standard for streamlined email with Gmail a decade ago. On Oct. 22, the search giant unveiled Inbox, a free smartphone app that acts as a kind of intelligent filter for the unending tide of emails. The app automatically separates receipts, social updates and promotions into distinct categories that can be tackled separately (or ignored completely). Users can “snooze” emails to complete them at a set time or when the user arrives at a designated location—home, for ­instance—as indicated by the phone’s GPS.

(For TIME’s full review, click here.)

“People were trying to run their lives from this email inbox, but that was really a lot of work,” explains Alex Gawley, product director for both Inbox and Gmail. The resulting software is a lot like a cross between the old Gmail and Google Now, the company’s digital personal assistant.

Google’s new app is hardly the only option, though. Here’s a quick look at several others trying to become your digital assistant:

To tame email…

Inbox; iOS, Android
Google tries to streamline email—again. The app highlights information like flight-departure times and friends’ changes of phone numbers. It’s free but currently available by invite only.

CloudMagic; iOS, Android
Searching for emails on a phone can be a grindingly slow process. CloudMagic replaces built-in email apps to provide speedier search.

Boxer; iOS, Android
Boxer applies the interface of popular dating apps like Tinder to email, allowing users to run through messages using gesture-based controls. Swipe to delete messages or send automated responses.

To subdue your calendar…

Sunrise Calendar; iOS, Android
This app has an easy-to-use interface and allows users to add thousands of unique calendars, like sports teams’ schedules. It uses a three-day view rather than the typical weeklong span to cut down on clutter.

Tempo; iOS
Tempo is aimed at people who have to attend a lot of business meetings. It automatically culls details from email threads and the Internet to provide briefings for upcoming rendezvous.

UpTo; iOS, Android
Switching among various digital calendars can be a hassle. UpTo allows users to easily choose the most pertinent events from the calendars of friends and brands (TV schedules, for instance) to add to their own schedules.

And for everything else…

30/30; iOS
This simple task manager lets users divide their days into small increments of focused work (30 minutes by default) punctuated by regular breaks.

Any.Do; iOS, Android
Simple task lists can be accessed across devices with this service. The app encourages users to plan their day and set time or location-based reminders each morning.

Asana; iOS, Android
A task manager built with collaboration in mind, this app allows up to 15 members to collaborate on projects, assigning specific tasks and due dates.

MacBook owners, fed up with a persistent defect, have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple

Lawyers representing frustrated Apple MacBook owners filed a class action complaint Tuesday, alleging the company failed to address a glaring defect in some 2011-era MacBooks that causes screens to blur, show nothing at all or, in worst case scenarios, short circuit the entire system.

More than 23,000 unhappy customers have signed a petition to have their MacBooks repaired or replaced, banding together on Facebook and Twitter to share descriptions and screenshots of the defect. Apple has attempted fixes in many cases, but some MacBook owners say they haven’t held up. One unhappy customer even created a brilliantly cheeky riff on an Apple commercial touting a MacBook that clearly was on the fritz.

The complaints may raise a few questions for the wider MacBook-owning community, such as…

What exactly went haywire here?

The lawsuit traces the defect to an AMD high-performance graphic card that was soldered into place using a lead-free substance. The solder may be environmentally-friendly, but it also risks cracking and fraying at high temperatures and eventually sprouting “tin hairs” that, according to the legal complaint, could lead to deteriorating graphics and short circuit the system.

Is my MacBook at risk?

Maybe. 23,000 petitioners may sound like a large number, but keep it in perspective: The issue only affects owners of some 2011-era MacBook Pro units. Apple sold more than 16.7 million laptops in 2011, according to MacWorld. May the odds ever be in your favor.

Still, how do I spot the defect?

The graphical distortions range from mild…

to wild…

In general, the lawsuit paints the same broad course of deterioration: “Graphics become distorted, followed by software shutdowns, system freezes and, eventually, total system failure.” The timing varies from user to user. Some experienced system failure within days of their purchase, others noticed a steady deterioration over the course of months.

Is there a fix?

Here lies the heart of the lawsuit. Apple has offered to resolve the defect through software patches or replacements to the logic board, but customers allege that the repairs failed to solve the problems and only piled on added expenses for customers who weren’t covered by a warranty.

Can I join the lawsuit?

The Washington, D.C.-based law firm behind the complaint, Whitfield Bryson & Mason, has created an online questionnaire for anyone who suspects their MacBook is subject to the defect. The lawsuit presses for reimbursement for affected customers as as well as damages.

It doesn't yet work with Google for Work

WhatsApp barely even generates revenue, but Zuckerberg doesn't care

Facebook’s pricey purchase of WhatsApp, which closed at a whopping $21.8 billion, turned heads earlier this year because few thought the startup was making much money. Turns out, WhatsApp has actually been losing money. A lot of it.

The mobile messaging platform, which had 450 million users when the acquisition was announced, posted a loss of $232 million in the first six months of 2014, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The company’s primary revenue source is a $0.99-per-year subscription fee that only kicks in after the first year of use — the app doesn’t show users any ads. Apparently that fee doesn’t amount to much—WhatsApp generated $15 million in revenue in the first half of 2014, according to the SEC filing.

Most of the company’s massive loss came from stock sales and issuing stock options to employees, but even when just accounting for day-to-day operational activities, the company doesn’t make money. WhatsApp had a net loss of $139 million on revenue of about $10 million last year.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, of course, knew all of this before busting out his checkbook. Still, Zuckerberg’s not at all apologetic about spending such a large sum on such a tiny business. “This may sound a little ridiculous to say, but for us, products don’t really get that interesting to turn into businesses until they have about 1 billion people using them,” he said Tuesday during a quarterly earnings call with Facebook investors. “Once we get to that scale, then we think that they will start to become meaningful businesses in their own right.”

In addition to WhatsApp, Zuckerberg noted Instagram and Facebook’s search function as platforms that have the potential to reach one billion users and become huge money faucets. And he emphasized that Facebook is planning to make more big-ticket bets in the future. The company shocked investors when it said on that Tuesday call that its expenses will increase by as much as 70% year-over-year in 2015 because of a ramp-up in staff and, most likely, acquisitions. Facebook’s shares slipped more than 6 percent on the news.

In some ways, Zuckerberg’s willingness to spend huge sums barging into new sectors echoes Jeff Bezos’s plan to expand Amazon’s reach into an increasingly broad set of categories, like movie streaming and smartphones. The difference is Facebook has built a robust and still-growing advertising business that constantly defies Wall Street’s expectations, so it has room to roam. The social network’s ambitions will only grow from here.

Read next: This Is the Single Craziest Number in Facebook’s Earnings Report