Apple Pay

On Tuesday Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) reported that dozens of companies have signed up for Apple Pay over the past several weeks. The list of companies accepting Apple's e-wallet, which started with financial giants Visa, Mastercard and American Express among others, has grown continuously since the project began in early 2013. When it went live in October, over a million credit cards were registered within the first three days, which rocketed its status to the largest mobile payment system in existence.

According to The New York Times, recent sign-ups including Barclaycard, SunTrust, USAA and ten banks, including TD Bank, all support the payment system as of today. Other new additions include Staples, which now accepts Apple Pay at 1,400 of its locations, grocers Winn-Dixie and Albertsons, and the AmWay center, home of the Orlando Magic. A list of financial institutions that already support Apple Pay can be found here.

Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) highly anticipated wearable may face an uphill battle in Europe where, according to a survey, the populace doesn't appear to be interested in the Apple Watch, at least not nearly as much as Chinese and American consumers. The indifference likely stems from the fact that some of the most highly touted features of the device are old news in the Old World.

German market research group, GfK, conducted the survey, asking 1,000 smartphone owners from each market (Germany, UK, China, US, South Korea) about their interest in various smartwatch functions, assuming the device was completely secure.

Apple fans have waited a long time for NFC and now they will have to wait even longer to know what else it can do besides drive mobile payments. An Apple spokeswoman told Cult of Mac that the "NFC chip on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is only for use with Apple Pay."

Apple doesn't plan to advertise NFC as a major feature for its new devices and will keep it locked off from third-party developers for at least a year. This means even though the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have NFC, Apple fans will still be left out of all the NFC fun teased in Samsung commercials.