Apple Daily Report: eBay to add Apple Pay support, more news

Since Steve and I can’t cover everything, at the end of each week day, we’ll offer this wrap-up of news items you should check out.

As it continues the move away from a Paypal-only service, Ebay will begin allowing sellers to accept Apple Pay as a payment option before the end of the year.

Smartphone consumers continued their push in California federal court to block Qualcomm’s attempt to force Apple to only import iPhones with Qualcomm’s chipsets, pointing out in a recent multidistrict antitrust litigation filing that the chipmaker’s own experts have conceded that such a move would hurt competition and innovation. 

Apple supplier Foxconn is reportedly offering extra bonuses in its bid to hire more workers for its plants in Zhengzhou, China, to manufacture the next-generation iPhones.

Chinese iPhone users say they’ve been bombarded in recent days by an unusual barrage of iMessage spam, many of them claiming to be from actual casinos in Macau. Most carry links to WeChat accounts or dubious betting websites offering online games and gambling on live stream. Apple is pointing affected users to this support page that outlines the the process of blocking a phone number or email address.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was reportedly assured that the iPhone wouldn’t been among the items to be hit with an import tariff as part of the United States’ burgeoning trade war with China. However, according to a new report, it may wind up being hit with two sets of charges: one on iPhones imported from China, and another tax levied in China itself.

In a new analyst note this week that was obtained by AppleInsider, Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley estimates that Apple will announce 39.8 million iPhone units sold in its third quarter, with its services sector growing by 32 percent.