RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – In the latest Bulldog roundup of life science and technology news: CVS and Rite Aid disable Apple Pay; FCC postpones spectrum auction to 2016; Dark Souls 2 wins Game of the Year at UK’s Golden Joystick Awards; Google’s Nest Acquires Smart Home Hub Startup Revolv; and the Queen of England sends her first royal tweet.
CVS and Rite Aid disable Apple Pay
Apple’s bid to replace the consumer wallet with its mobile payment system ran into a roadblock after both CVS and Rite Aid disabled the technology in their drugstores. CVS and Rite Aid are among 220,000 U.S. merchants that already have technology in place to read the short-range wireless signals that enable customers of Apple Pay or similar services to make a purchase by waving their smartphones. The retailers weren’t among those specifically named as accepting Apple Pay when the iPhone maker revealed its system last month.
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FCC postpones spectrum auction
The FCC’s plan to auction off 600 MHz spectrum licenses returned by broadcasters has been deferred until at least 2016, following what the Commission describes as a recalibration of its proposed timing. A legal challenge to the FCC’s incentive auction has prompted the agency to push the spectrum swap, which has already been moved from 2014 to 2015, and now it seems mobile carriers will have to wait another year to get their hands on the coveted spectrum.
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Dark Souls 2 wins Game of the Year at Golden Joystick Awards
The Golden Joystick Awards took place this weekend in the UK and four games walked away with two awards each and the father of Metal Gear Solid took home the Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Google’s Nest Acquires Smart Home Hub Startup Revolv
Nest, best known for its “learning thermostat,” has made another step into being the center of the smart home world. On Friday, Nest acquired smart home hub startup Revolv.
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Queen sends first Twitter message
The Queen has sent her first ever tweet while opening an information technology gallery at the Science Museum. The message, which went out on Friday to 724,000 followers of the @BritishMonarchy account, read: “It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R.”
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