This week Myke Hurley joins us to talk about podcasting, juggling multiple jobs, and why he decided to go full time.

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This week MacSparky is sponsored by inShort (website) (Mac App Store) (iOS App Store). inShort is is an iPhone/iPad/Mac application that lets you plan projects and processes graphically. This brings a new paradigm to process and project planning and is absolutely worth checking out. One of the more clever features is the way it allows you to embed processes and drill down to the level of detail you need at the moment. 

inShort was updated for iOS 8, adding, among other things, a widget to the Today view and adapted graphics for the new iPhone 6 screens. Want to learn more, read the developer’s PDF. 

This week, I’ve got some inShort licenses to give away for both the Mac and iOS versions. To enter, send me an email with “inShort Contest” in the subject line. I’ll send out licenses to the winners Friday.

I’ve recently received my shiny new Retina iMac and chose the event to clean up my home desk. I know it is kind of a thing for people to take these “posed” pictures of their workspace. Nevertheless, here is my desk-porn. In my defense, most days my desk is this clean. I wrote a book on how to live paperless, remember?

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For a long time merchants have been paying a lot of fees to credit card companies and they don’t like it. So they started their own payment initiative, called CurrentC, that gives them the ability to cut credit cards out of the loop and provide them more data about their customers. Then Apple unleashed Apple Pay on the world, creating something much more secure and easier than anything CurrentC could do but which still leaves merchants paying credit card companies. Rich Mogull does a good job of explaining the details at TidBITS. 

The stage is set. Hijinks shall ensue. I bet the CurrentC backers had no idea how much nerd-attention they were going to get when all of this started.

To me, the most interesting element of this looming dispute between mega-corporations is how clear the battle lines are. Apple Pay uses existing credit cards but adds a lot of security (with one-time transaction numbers) and a bit of convenience. CurrentC is more clunky (QR codes!) and cuts out the credit card companies and, to a lesser extent, Apple. CurrentC collects helps build a customer profile which is great for merchants and creepy for consumers. In terms of security, CurrentC doesn’t use one-time number but instead stores your existing ATM card number or relies upon you charging up your account with merchants. So the three biggest pieces affecting consumer experience are security, data collection, and convenience. Apple Pay wins all three. (However I could see Apple incorporating loyalty program numbers and customer tracking numbers into Apple Pay at some point.)

CurrentC feels like something that solves the merchants’ problems at the expense of their customers’ convenience and security. I understand CurrentC’s point that if merchants could stop paying credit card fees, they could lower prices but that is not enough for me to have to deal with QR codes and continued security problems. I also have to wonder if they actually would lower prices or then explain that they need the money they used to pay credit card companies to now maintain CurrentC.

Wearing my consumer hat, I can tell you the deciding factor for me is security. Merchants like Target and Home Depot have proven they are not capable of protecting my credit card information. I have one credit card. I’m now on my fourth number for that account this year. Apple Pay solves that entire problem. When choosing where to shop, merchants that will accept my secure Apple Pay one-time number will go to the top of the line.

Tim Cook wrote an excellent essay for Business Week about being gay and the impact it has had on his life.

Being gay has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and provided a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day. It’s made me more empathetic, which has led to a richer life. It’s been tough and uncomfortable at times, but it has given me the confidence to be myself, to follow my own path, and to rise above adversity and bigotry. It’s also given me the skin of a rhinoceros, which comes in handy when you’re the CEO of Apple.

I really like the tone of this essay. Tim goes out of the way to explain how he is not trying to be heroic but instead do his part. Over the past few years, a close friend of my family is a young gay man that I’ve watched face down prejudice and rejection with a dignity and honor that you wouldn’t expect of someone his age. People like Tim Cook writing things like this are making a difference.

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