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Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Wednesday, August 21st. I'm Zoe Thomas for the Wall Street Journal.

Apple is opening up its tab to pay technology to competitors.

But will banks and payment apps be able to convince consumers to switch to their digital wallets?

And then Butch and Sunny are in limbo.

We'll tell you about the two US astronauts spending more time on the International Space Station

than they expected.

And with the delay in their return means for NASA and Boeing. But first, Apple announced last week that app developers in the US and six other countries

will soon be able to make use of its devices near-field communications or NFC technology and certain

security features.

These changes will allow developers of payment apps to handle in-store tap-to-pay transactions.

But I heard on the street writer Tealous Demos says that doesn't mean the iPhone maker won't still

be central to the digital in-store payment ecosystem.

Tellus joins us now.

So why is Apple opening up its tap-to-pay technology?

Apple has been under pressure from lots of its competitors

over the last several years to share some of the technology that allows it to power the seamless experience that Apple Pay has enjoyed where you go to the store, you simply hold your phone out, you tap it, it sees your face, all those things.

It enables very easy payments.

Rival, other people who make digital wallets, would like to be able to do that with iPhones.

iPhones are, you know, a huge part of the market, especially in the United States,

...