Category: Tech101

Technology 101

Apple Card Review

Last week I received my Apple Card and I have been using it for the past week. What I love about my Apple Card are the security features, reporting, ease of use and the rewards program.

What is Apple Card?

  • Apple’s vision of credit card services.
  • An Apple branded MasterCard (partnered with Goldman Sachs).
  • The Apple Pay version of the MasterCard is paired with your iPhone device.
  • The physical Titanium version of the Apple Card has your name printed on the front, but no CC data is visible (you access this from your Apple Wallet).
  • The Apple Cash rewards program is calculated daily (1% for all Apple Card transactions, 2% for all Apple Pay transactions & 3% for all Apple purchases).
  • All CC management is performed from Apple Wallet.

Why should I care about Apple Card?

  • If you are a fan of Apple products and you want to simplify your credit card use, then Apple Card is for you.
  • Provides a single place to manage your credit card services from your iPhone (Apple Wallet) – including spending analysis, transaction details, card payment, CC data, card lock/unlock, etc.
  • In the US, the culture for paying your bill in a restaurant has the server taking your CC away from your table to process the payment (outside of the US, the EFT terminal is brought to you) – by using your Titanium Apple Card, this removes the risk of your CC data being compromised.
  • Very simple rewards program with a daily calculation of Apple Cash.
  • Zero fees.

How do I use Apple Card?

  • Use the Titanium Apple Card or Apple Pay to purchase goods and services.
  • Get your Apple Cash rewards daily.
  • All credit card management functions are delivered via Apple Wallet on your iPhone.

How do I get Apple Card?

  • Prerequisite – Have an iPhone running iOS 12.4 with a valid Apple ID.
  • Open Apple Wallet and Apply for the Apple Card.
  • Confirm your name, address, SSN and provide a photo of your Government ID.
  • Press Apply and instantly receive your result. Depending upon your credit score, the amount of credit offered will vary.
  • Once you accept the terms and conditions, Apple Pay is ready for use.
  • Within 1-week, your Titanium Apple Card will be delivered to you.
  • Use Apple Wallet to activate the card (in proximity to the plastic folder your card was delivered in).

Tech101 – Google Cloud Platform

If you are comfortable with consuming services from AWS and Azure, then learning about the Google Cloud Platform is easy. This post is the 40,000ft view of the Google Cloud Platform.

I was impressed that the GCP UI also presents the equivalent REST and gcloud command line code for each request. This is great if you are planning on using the Google API/CLI for automation and orchestration.

Continue reading Tech101 – Google Cloud Platform

Tech101 – Microsoft Azure

If you are comfortable with consuming services from AWS, then learning about Microsoft Azure will be easy. This post is the 40,000ft view of Microsoft Azure.

My employer uses Office 365 (I registered my O365 account for Azure), and it was cool to see the corporate ADFS objects within Azure (as a standard user). I was also surprised to learn that Azure has 30 active sites around the world and how rich their PaaS offering is.

Continue reading Tech101 – Microsoft Azure

Tech101 – Amazon Web Services

As part of my NPX preparation (AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional is one of the recommended qualifications) and my RapidMatter GitHub project (will run from AWS), I have been delving into the world of Amazon Web Services.  One statement: “Wow!”  I can see why they are the world leader in Public Cloud services.

Here is the cool thing, as an Enterprise/Cloud Architect you have a MASSIVE library of services (40+ at time of writing) that you can use to develop Cloud-based solutions for your customers.  As you read through the list below, you will see the fundamental building blocks for every solution.  By having this service matrix, you do not have to reinvent the wheel; it already exists and is ready to go.  Thus, you can focus on making sure your customer requirements are being met with elegant and innovative designs.

Continue reading Tech101 – Amazon Web Services

Tech101 – Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform

This post provides a Tech101 breakdown of the Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform.  If you have heard the buzz-words “Nutanix”, “Web-Scale” and “Hyper-Convergence” and want to learn more about it, this post is for you.

The Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform (VCP) is a Hyper-Converged Infrastructure solution.  Termed the “iPhone” of infrastructure, what is the big deal?

Short answer: Ease of use, fast deployment, linear scaling of performance with capacity and richness of product features.

Continue reading Tech101 – Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform