Later this month, you'll probably start hearing a lot about a new kind of credit card from Apple.

It's called the Apple Card, and it's supposed to eliminate some common credit card annoyances such as indecipherable billing statements, obtuse rewards programs, sneaky fees, and shoddy security. It may also introduce some new frustrations, because it doesn't work quite like a typical credit card.

In preparation for the inevitable Apple marketing push, here's what you really need to know about the Apple Card:

It mainly exists on your iPhone: The entire Apple Card sign-up process occurs through the Wallet app on an iPhone (running iOS 12.4 or later). Apple then stores the account information in the iPhone's secure element and transmits payment information only when you buy something online or in stores using Apple Pay. Think of it like the existing Apple Pay features on your phone, but without having to link to an outside credit card.

The physical card is number-free: Apple does issue a physical card to use at stores that don't take Apple Pay, but it's unusual in that it has no card number, expiration date, or security card printed on the front. It's just a slab of titanium with an Apple logo, your name, and a chip on the front, plus a magnetic strip on the back. The number-free approach prevents unscrupulous merchants from swiping your card number, and if you lose the physical card, you can just deactivate it through your phone and get a new one for free.

The actual card number is virtual: For online stores that don't take Apple Pay, Apple provides a credit card number that you can look up through your iPhone. But because the number isn't tied to your physical card, you can easily generate a new number in case of fraud. Of course, you'd still have to update your information for any accounts that used the old number, but at least you don't have to wait for a new card (or replace your iPhone, for that matter).

Rewards revolve around Apple Pay: Even though the Apple Card does provide a card number and physical card, Apple really wants you to use Apple Pay instead, both for online purchases and by tapping your phone (or Apple Watch) at supported payment terminals in stores. To that end, the Apple Card provides 2% cash back for all Apple Pay purchases and 3% back on purchases from Apple itself. For everything else, you'll get just 1% back.

The financial benefits of Apple Card are therefore largely dependent on how many of your everyday purchases accept Apple Pay. Strictly from a rewards perspective, Amazon Prime subscribers are better off using an Amazon Rewards Visa Signature card, which provides 5% back at both Amazon and Whole Foods. And if your local grocery store of choice is owned by Kroger (the nation's largest grocery chain), you won't be able to use Apple Pay there.

The real benefits are privacy and security: Even if the rewards aren't optimal, using the Apple Card provide some extra peace of mind. When you use Apple Pay--either online or by tapping your phone at stores that support it--the merchant never sees your card number, so you don't have to worry about it getting stolen in a security breach. While this is true of any card you use with Apple Pay, only the Apple Card will reward you with more cash back for using it.

Also, Apple says it has no knowledge of what you're buying with the Apple Card, and its banking partner, Goldman Sachs, has promised not to share users' data for advertising or marketing purposes. That's not a given with other cards.

It has some other nice perks:

• You'll pay interest on outstanding balances (rates can range from 13% to 24%), but there are no annual fees, no international fees, and no extra fees or higher interest rates for late payments.
• Balance payments are due on the last day of each calendar month, but you can schedule recurring payments on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis.
• The Wallet app provides a detailed purchase descriptions (including the locations of each) and a breakdown of your spending habits. While other apps such as PocketGuard and Wally can also monitor your expenses automatically, Apple Card doesn't require any extra setup.
• Rewards pay out on a daily basis if you use Apple Cash, which is Apple's PayPal-style service for transferring money to other people or your bank. That means you don't have to wait a month to get money back from big purchases.

There's no website for account management: Because Apple's Wallet app is exclusive to iOS, there's no way to manage your account without an iPhone or iPad. That's a mild inconvenience if you just want to check on your finances from a computer, but it becomes a bigger hassle if your phone goes missing and you still need to make payments. At that point, the only options are to use a spare iOS device or call Apple Support.

Bad credit might not be a problem: According to a recent CNBC report, Apple's been offering the Apple Card to borrowers who might otherwise not qualify for comparable cards. While the report--or at least its headline--implies that this is sleazy or predatory, the flip side is that it might help folks recover from bad credit scores and earn rewards without braving the more extreme interest rates of "subprime" cards.

It's another slick form of lock-in: Perhaps this goes without saying, but if you rely on a credit card that's exclusively tied to the iPhone, switching to a different kind of phone becomes a lot trickier. This is a moot point if you're already hooked on iMessage, AirPods, and the Apple Watch.

You might have to wait a little longer to get it: At the moment, the Apple Card is in a "preview" and is gradually rolling out to users who've signed up for email alerts about the program. However, it should be more broadly available by the end of this month, so you can spend the next couple weeks deliberating whether the extra security and privacy is worth some big changes in how you pay for stuff.
 

One thing I never realized about phones with fingerprint sensors is that you don't strictly have to use them with your fingertips. You can also add the base of your palm as a "fingerprint," which could come in handy when your fingers are dirty from cooking or cleaning. (Most phones will let you register multiple prints, so this doesn't have to be the only way that you unlock your phone.) To add more fingerprints on an iPhone 8 or older, head to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode and select "Add a Fingerprint..."

I came across this tip while browsing the web forum Reddit, which has an interesting life tips section called You Should Know. While it's not strictly tech-related, skimming through for posts with a “technology” tag attached will often turn up some gems. To wit:

• If you connect to public Wi-Fi and aren’t immediately taken to the requisite sign-in or “accept terms” page, just enter 8.8.8.8 in your browser.
• Got a kid (or grandkid) that wants to play a game or watch videos on your phone? You can keep them from using other apps by setting up Guided Access on iOS or Screen Pinning on Android.

New Galaxy Notes: Samsung is no longer content to release just one new version of its flagship Galaxy Note phone. Now it has three of them: The Galaxy Note 10 ($949) has a 6.3-inch screen, the Galaxy Note 10+ ($1,049) has a 6.8-inch screen, and the Galaxy Note 5G ($1,299) has a 6.7-inch screen.

Overall, the new Notes aren’t a major leap forward for smartphones. They have triple-lens rear cameras, but so does the Galaxy S10 from earlier this year, and we haven't seen Samsung swing for the feature fences like other Android vendors have with pop-up selfies cams and 10x optical zoom cameras. All three Notes still include a stylus, but new gesture controls seem more gimmicky than useful. Even the 5G model will be a tough sell with only sparse coverage in a handful of cities.

The main thing that stands out to me with these Notes, as usual, is size. Thanks to ever-shrinking bezels around the display--and, perhaps, the removal of headphone jacks--the Note 10 Plus is about the same size as last year's Note9 with a screen that's 0.4 inches longer on the diagonal, while the regular Note 10 is much smaller than its predecessor despite a screen that's just 0.1 inches shorter. It wasn't too long ago that Samsung was selling tablets with similarly-sized screens; now we're fitting those screen sizes in our pockets.

CNet has a good early review of the Note 10, but even if you're intrigued, you might consider waiting for prices to come down, as they often do after a few months. Case in point: An Amazon-renewed Galaxy S10 Plus costs just $600 in like-new condition, which is $400 off the retail price.

iPhone replacement battery warnings: Apple has added a subtle form of discouragement for anyone who replaces an iPhone battery through an unauthorized repair shop (or does the job on their own). If you dig into Settings > Battery and select "Battery Health," you'll see a message saying that Apple can't verify the battery or provide information about battery health. The message then suggests bringing the iPhone to an authorized service provider.

To be clear, Apple isn't stopping people from using third-party batteries or from getting official replacement batteries installed at unauthorized shops. But unless the repairer goes through the labor-intensive process of removing a microcontroller chip from the original battery and soldering it onto the replacement, Apple won't measure how well the battery is performing compared to its original state. Third-party iPhone apps can't access this information either, though some Mac apps such as CoconutBattery can while the iPhone is plugged in.

Apple says it added the warning for safety reasons--it doesn't want users installing shoddy aftermarket batteries that could catch fire or explode--but hiding battery health information seems like a sneaky way to get that point across. Either lock down iPhones from unauthorized repair and accept all the criticism that goes with it, or let users repair their phones without taking away functionality as a penalty.

One less way to buy Office: Last week, Microsoft stopped offering discounts on the standalone version of Office for folks who already use the software at work. The “Home Use” program previously sold Office for as little as $15. Now, the only option for Home Use is to get a discount on Office 365 subscriptions, at $49 per year for Personal plans and $70 per year for Home plans.

As Lifehacker’s David Murphy notes, it’s tempting to read this move as the beginning of the end for standalone Office software. Microsoft is much more interested in subscription businesses now, and eliminating Home Use purchases could be a test of broader changes to how the company sells Office's consumer versions. I’ve been an Office 365 subscriber for years, mainly because the included 1 TB of OneDrive space is one of the best deals in cloud storage, but I'd hate being forced into it if my needs strictly revolved around documents and spreadsheets.

Incognito cat-and-mouse: A couple issues ago, I wrote about how the latest version of Chrome stops websites from detecting when you're using Incognito mode. Some news sites, including the New York Times, have used Incognito detection to prevent readers from circumventing their paywalls, and Chrome 76 is supposed to stop that from happening.

Now, it seems like the Times has found a workaround, because it's still stopping visitors from reading articles in Incognito mode without signing in. Apparently Chrome stores data in a slightly different way in Incognito mode, and some publishers are using these differences to infer which mode users are running. Still, Google has said that the spirit of private browsing is violated when websites can detect it, so don't be surprised if the search giant and web publishers continue playing cat-and-mouse.

Speed controls for Alexa: If you've ever wanted to adjust the speed of Alexa's voice responses, now you can just say "Alexa, talk faster" or "Alexa, talk slower" to switch between seven speed levels. (The default is level three, which you can always get back to by saying "Alexa, speak at your default rate.") Another one for the Siri and Google Assistant ought to copy this pile.
 

Let's keep the Apple theme going with a few notable deals:

Apple's 12.9-inch iPad Pro with 64 GB of storage is down to $850 from Amazon, which is $150 off the regular price. The 512 GB version is also $150 off, but I'd hold out for a better deal on the latter configuration, which has often gone on sale for less.

If you need to connect USB accessories to said iPad Pro (or any other device with a USB-C port), this USB-A to USB-C adapter from Nonda should do the trick. It's on sale for $7, which is a few bucks off the regular price. Cheaper adapters also exist--here's a two-pack for just $3--but the Nonda adapter has an LED to indicate a proper connection.

Finally, the Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular connectivity is on sale for $229 in silver with a white band, which is $150 off the original price. (You'll still have to pay your carrier $10 per month for cellular data, though.)
 

Did you know that both Chrome and Firefox let you select multiple browser tabs at once to move or manage them? Just hold Ctrl (in Windows) or the Apple key (on a Mac) while clicking each tab, or hold Shift while clicking to select a range of tabs. After highlighting a bunch, you can either reorder them within the current window or drag them into a new window, where you can close them all with one click. (In Firefox, you can also just click X on any window to close all other highlighted ones.)