Target yesterday announced that all of its stores will begin accepting Apple Pay in the coming weeks, but it still won't be possible to add its store-branded REDcard debit or credit cards to the Apple Wallet app. REDcard is Target's loyalty program, offering an automatic five percent off most purchases everyday.
"REDcards cannot be added to Apple Pay as part of this rollout," a Target spokesperson confirmed with MacRumors today.
This means paying with a REDcard will still require inserting the physical card into the payment terminal or adding it to Target's mobile app and having the cashier scan a barcode at the checkout. The latter method requires opening the Target app and tapping on the Wallet tab to access the barcode.
Both options are less convenient than Apple Pay, which requires a quick double-click of the side button and authentication with Face ID on the iPhone X and newer, or briefly resting your finger on Touch ID on older iPhones.
Target already suggested that REDcards would not support Apple Pay on Twitter, but its "at this time" phrasing wasn't entirely clear.
Of course, Target could decide to allow REDcards to be added to the Apple Wallet app in the future. The retailer had avoided accepting Apple Pay entirely for several years until reversing course with this week's announcement, so it might be only a matter of time before it changes its mind again.
Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app.
Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website.
Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50.
We have outlined some examples below:
Device
New Value
Old Value
iPhone 15 Pro Max
Up to $630
U ...
Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action.
Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features.
Notification Summary Changes
Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines.
For...
Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr.
The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models:
iPhone 16
iPhone 16 Plus
iPhone 16 Pro
iPhone 16 Pro Max
iPhone 15
iPhone 15 Plus
iPhone 15 Pro
iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 14
iPhon...
Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by Juli Clover
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...
Sunday January 19, 2025 6:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple plans to expand the iPhone's redesigned Mail app to the Mac starting with macOS 15.4, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
The first macOS 15.4 beta should be made available in the coming weeks, and Apple has previously suggested that the iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4 series of software updates will be released to the public in April.
The revamped Mail app debuted on all...
Sunday January 19, 2025 8:25 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In September, Apple said that it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and it appears the wireless earbuds are coming very soon.
Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the Powerbeats Pro 2 in regulatory databases last month, Gurman said Apple is...
Translation: red card is about collecting user purchasing data?
Exactly. People get seduced by the 5% discount. But Target profits significantly from being able to track and commoditize absolutely every purchase, not only for themselves but presumably that they can also sell to data brokers. Conversely, Apple Pay is designed with the user's privacy in mind. As I understand it, for each transaction a unique payment number is generated and your personal information and credit card number is not shared with the merchant. Great for privacy and especially for security. I don't know if Apple has negotiated with merchants who have store cards to allow them to pass along data in these scenarios. I'm inclined to say they have not, especially in light of Target's stance in this situation.
Can't they do something like Walgreens with their loyalty card? It is linked to a log in with user data and is pretty seamless with apple pay. Just tap and it goes first then a second tap to pay. They get loyalty info I get a reward.
Bummer. I was really hoping for this. I don’t think this is about tracking purchases as they could still do that with Apple Pay. I think it has more to do with fees.
