Apple ships iOS 12.4 with Apple Card support

Apple has shipped iOS 12.4, introducing a range of improvements including support for Apple Card, which should launch very soon – and HomePod is now supported in Taiwan and Japan…

Here comes the Apple Card

Apple has been testing Apple Card for months, and it is expected to make the card available to U.S. users once it has released iOS 12.4, which is now available to download.

To deliver the card, Apple is working with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard. The credit card has APRs from 13.24% to 24.24% based on your credit rating, and also offers up to 3% cashback on purchases, paid daily.

We don’t know yet when the card will launch, but given the software support for it is now inside standard iOS and tomorrow is Apple Tuesday, we imagine launch to be imminent.

We also hear Apple is putting together plans to launch its service in Europe, Canada and Japan. Apple began discussing an expansion into Europe with financial regulators, a person familiar with the talks told Bloomberg in June.

Additional enhancements

There are some other cool highlights to iOS 12.4 (and the watch, TV, iPad and Mac systems Apple also updated today). One improvements lets you more easily wirelessly transfer data between an old and a new iPhone during set-up, while another is the return of Apple Watch Walkie Talkie feature Apple pulled subsequent to revelation of a security problem.

Apple News+ content is also slightly tweaked.

[Also read: Apple Card: U.S. launch imminent, UK/European launch in progress – reports]

Apple’s release notes read:

iOS 12.4 introduces iPhone migration to directly transfer data from an old iPhone to a new iPhone, includes enhancements to Apple News+ and improves the security of your iPhone or iPad.

This update:

iPhone migration

Introduces the ability to wirelessly transfer data and migrate directly from an old iPhone to a new iPhone during setup

Apple News

Makes downloaded issues accessible in the My Magazines section, both offline and online

Adds all publications in Apple News+, including newspapers, to the catalog at the top of the News+ feed

Adds the ability to clear downloaded magazine issues by selecting History > Clear > Clear All

Other improvements and fixes

Includes a security fix for the Walkie-Talkie app on Apple Watch and re-enables Walkie-Talkie functionality

This release also includes support for HomePod in Japan and Taiwan.

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