Apple has begun talks with Israeli banks and credit companies in Israel, as it works to bring Apple Pay to the country. However, the commission fee could cause a problem.

Israeli financial institutions were not keen on Apple’s commission fee, which falls somewhere between 0.15% and 0.25% of each transaction. This works out to roughly one quarter to one-third of the credit card issuer’s revenue from the transaction, a hefty cut from an already relatively small fee. “It is disproportionate, and constitutes an exploitation of its status and power,” says a source familiar with the situation. While this may slow down talks, it should not be seen as definitive in any way.

Apple regularly rolls out product updates, but that doesn’t mean some products couldn’t benefit from a little TLC. Dan Moren at MacWorld suggested which products he’d like to receive some attention, including the HomePod.

What is the HomePod to Apple? In the almost two years since its release, the company still hasn’t quite landed upon an answer. It’s a wireless smart speaker, to be sure, but when it comes to what differentiates it from its competitors from Amazon, Google, and Sonos, there hasn’t been a particularly compelling argument—beyond the fact that as an Apple product, it’s simply better. (An assertion that even numerous HomePod owners, including myself, would challenge.) If Apple does want to continue down the HomePod road, then the company needs to make some decisions. Is the HomePod simply a premium product? While it started out at a pricey $350, it’s become more and more common to see it floating around the $200-$250 range. Frankly I can’t remember the last time I saw an Apple product with that kind of deep discount.

As more and more streaming services come out, we are all picking our favorite. For Christine Chan at iMore, it’s Disney+, for the combination of nostalgia and original content.

Ever since Disney+ came out, I’ve been watching my favorite childhood classics, like The Little Mermaid (though I bought the 30th anniversary Blu-ray last year), and catching up on everything else that I hadn’t seen as I was growing up, like Bambi, Lady and the Tramp, and Sleeping Beauty (yes, yes, I know, shame on me). With Disney+, I’m able to relive my happy childhood memories with those animated classics, and sometimes, that’s all you need when the rest of the world can be a bit depressing.

I’ve generally been supportive of Apple TV+. I’ve even got on board with the weekly rollout of big shows, instead of having everything there for binge-watching. That strategy comes with one caveat though – new content needs to appear (almost) every week. However, as Cult of Mac noted, for the second week in a row there is nothing new today.

By comparison, this week Netflix debuted seven new series including Next In Fashion, Ragnarok, BoJack Horseman season six, and more. Disney+, meanwhile, got new episodes of Diary of a Future President, Marvel Hero Project, exclusive short Lamp Life, and the 2019 Lion King remake. As I’ve written before, I’m a big fan of Apple TV+ as far as quality goes. The service hasn’t had a miss yet — and it’s had quite a few hits. To me, Little America, Servant, and The Morning Show are all standouts. But even shows I wasn’t immediately won over by, such as See, are solid entertainment.

Amazon is the world’s most valuable brand, according to one analysis firm. Cult of Mac reported that it beat Apple and Google in the Brand Finance list.

The somewhat unorthodox ranking system looks at the world’s 500 most valuable brands across all sectors and countries. It then assigns a “brand value” based on a royalty rate that companies could get for licensing their name in the open market. Brand Finance compiles its annual list by estimating the royalty rate that would be charged to use a company’s brand. This takes into account current and expected future revenue. It’s a fairly complex methodology that’s explained in more detail here. As the firm explains: “Brand Finance helped craft the internationally recognised standard on Brand Valuation – ISO 10668. It defines a brand as a marketing-related intangible asset including, but not limited to, names, terms, signs, symbols, logos, and designs, intended to identify goods, services or entities, creating distinctive images and associations in the minds of stakeholders, thereby generating economic benefits.”

Facebook has settled a dispute over its use of facial recognition technology, BBC News reports. It will pay $550m to users in Illinois who claimed it was against the state’s privacy laws.

The lawsuit against Facebook was given the go-ahead in 2018 when a federal judge ruled it could be heard as a class action (group) case. The appeals court disagreed with Facebook’s attempts to stop this, and in January the Supreme Court also declined to review its appeal. The social network told the BBC: “We decided to pursue a settlement as it was in the best interests of our community and our shareholders to move past this matter.” Facebook began using facial recognition in the US in 2010 when it automatically tagged people in photos using its tag suggestions tool. The tool scan a user’s face and offered suggestions about who that person is.