Passbook
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Daily Update for September 7, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Airline support of iOS 6 Passbook reportedly ready for takeoff
During the WWDC 2012 presentations of iOS 6 features, one demonstration stood out -- that of Passbook, a new capability to store digital boarding passes, movie tickets and membership cards. With the new iPhone and iOS 6 both about to launch, it appears that some airlines are already beginning to use Passbook as intended, reports Australian Business Traveler. A reader of that business travel blog, Shaun Lorrain, checked in on a Virgin Australia flight using his iPhone. That device was running a developer preview of iOS 6, and when he pulled up the boarding pass, the OS offered to save it into Passbook (screenshot at right). Passbook boarding passes provide updates and notifications to flyers, letting them know when a flight is delayed or a boarding gate has changed. The world's largest airline, United, is committed to using Passbook with mobile boarding passes in the near future, so expect other airlines to join the party soon as well.
PassK.it offers a tool to make iOS 6 Passbook content
One major feature of iOS 6 is Passbook, an app that stores rewards cards, airline tickets, coupons and more. Right now, the app is bare as most companies don't offer passes that are compatible with the app. Individuals and businesses that want to get a jump on the competition by creating their own passes should check out PassK.it, a start-up Passbook pass creation service. PassK.it will soon offer an online tool that'll let you design and distribute your own Passbook passes. You can save the passes in your online Pass Portfolio and access them from any web browser. The service will also include an analytics feature to track common metrics like how many times a pass is opened or deleted. The company hopes to have the service up and running by the end of September. PassK.it isn't the first company to start offering custom-made Passbook passes. PassSource also recently launched a website that will step you through the process of creating and managing a Passbook-compatible pass.
The dawning of the age of Pass Kit: virtual ID on the iPhone
As iOS 6 gets ready for its Autumn debut, many users look forward to Passbook, Apple's "new way to organize boarding passes, tickets, gift cards, and loyalty cards." It promises to help empty your wallet of a multitude of small items, replacing them with a single iPhone interface. Just flash your phone at your favorite retailers, and you're ready to go. Or are you? A bunch of us were chatting this morning in the TUAW back channel about electronic ID and how it works in the real world-- or, more typically, doesn't work. Among us, we use a variety of loyalty and payment solutions including CardStar, Key Ring, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, etc. One theme holds true: we inevitably end up spending more time rather than less at the check out, as employees laboriously type in our numbers manually into the register. "They need a special barcode scanner to accept the iPhone payment -- and none of them in my neighborhood have it. They always get annoyed when I show up with my iPhone," one blogger explained. "I keep asking, 'When are you guys getting the scanner?' and they reply 'Sometime next year.' Great." This blogger's experience isn't true of everyone, of course. Those in big cities often find more retailers that are already equipped to accept electronic payments. "More", here, does not mean "all"; I write from the major metropolitan area of Denver with its inconsistent scattering of scanners. Those in rural areas are often left wanting, especially in name-brand retailers like the afore-mentioned Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. My loyalty e-cards have caused no end of annoyance at King Soopers (Colorado grocery store chain), at Qdoba, at Panera, and so forth. I pull out my phone, and the cashier inevitably responds, "Why don't you just tell me your telephone number instead?" You'd think it'd be easy to add a scanner, but it apparently represents a major infrastructure change, one that's coming later rather than sooner. And that's just taking the major retailers into account. "But they promised that everyone at the Farmer's Market will have a reader!" a wiseacre TUAW editor pointed out. "But Square readers don't fit on stoneware jugs with 'XXX' across the front," replied another. All of us here deeply want Passbook to work. We're already invested in the idea of e-dentity. But somehow we can't help but feel that we're waiting for a feature that will offer a whole host of electronic identity and payment options we might not actually be able to use in the real world.
Apple lands patent for NFC-ready shopping app, could make impulse spending an iPhone tap away
Apple has been filing more than its fair share of NFC-related patents, but it was just granted what could be one of its more important wins at the USPTO. The design for an "on-the-go shopping list" app would help buyers find and pull the trigger on deals through every tool an iPhone has at its disposal, whether it's taking a snapshot of goods with the camera, punching in the UPC code by hand or tapping an item for an NFC-based "touch scan." We'll admit that we're a bit disappointed at how NFC is used, however. As with an earlier filing, the very short range wireless is kept largely to price comparisons and adding products to a list for a purchase from a store clerk later on, rather than closing the deal outright as we've seen with Google Wallet. The original 2008 filing date will also have seen a lot of water flowing under the bridge; there's no guarantee that any enthusiasm for NFC from the iPhone 3G era will have transferred to the present day. Accordingly, we would be careful about drawing any connections between iOS 6's Passbook and Apple's ideas from four years ago -- even if Apple has regularly been a never-say-never sort of company.
Apple nabs patent for NFC-based travel check-in, doesn't quell NFC iPhone rumors just yet
Apple has been chasing NFC patents for years, but it's just now been granted a US patent for its own approach to a transportation check-in -- one of the most common uses of the technology in the real world. The filing describes a theoretical iTravel app that would store reservation and ticket information for just about any vehicle and stop along the way: planes, trains and (rented) automobiles would just have the traveler tap an NFC-equipped device to hop onboard, and the hotel at the end of the line would also take credentials through a gentle bump. Besides the obvious paper-saving measures, iTravel could help skip key parts of the airport security line by providing passport information, a fingerprint or anything else screeners might want to see while we'd otherwise be juggling our suitcases. It all sounds ideal, but before you start booking that trip to the South Pacific with ambitions of testing an NFC-equipped 2012 iPhone, remember this: the patent was originally filed in 2008. We clearly haven't seen iTravel manifest itself as-is, and recent murmurs from the Wall Street Journal have suggested that Apple isn't enthusiastic about the whole NFC-in-commerce idea even today. Still, with Passbook waiting in the wings, the patent can't help but fuel speculation that Apple is getting more serious about an iPhone with near-field wireless in the future.
Get a head start on creating iOS 6 Passbook apps
Some early adopters of the iOS 6 beta have complained that the vaunted Passbook app leaves a bit to be desired right now. Like any application that requires content, Passbook is nothing but a splash screen without passes that have been created by companies. Never fear -- some developers have now come up with a way of creating your own test passes so you can give Passbook a try. The guys over at iPhone Hacks have published a post talking about the PassSource website, a location where you can roll your own test passes. If you are running the current beta of iOS 6, point your browser to passsource.com where you'll be greeted by a list of faux passes (my favorite is the boarding pass for Oceanic Airlines) that you can customize and then open in Passbook. PassSource was created in order to get businesses to start thinking about how they'll use the technology, without waiting for Apple's Pass Kit APIs to ship. With iOS 6 expected in the Fall, we're hoping that businesses jump on the bus and get their passes ready to replace the plethora of cards and tickets we now use. [via ZDNet]
Switched On: Going thermonuclear
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. More Info PSA: Which iOS 6 features can my device run? WWDC 2012 Apple vs. Google gets personal: 'Steve Jobs simply hates Eric Schmidt' (video) At the debut of the T-Mobile G1, Switched On identified the central conflict that would quickly tear apart the goodwill between Apple and Google. In fact, in Steve Jobs' authorized biography, Walter Isaacson quotes the late Apple CEO on Android, noting that the he was prepared to "go thermonuclear war" on the iOS competitor. Indeed, the first WWDC since Jobs' death was filled with enough anti-Google swipes to smudge every iPhone screen in Moscone West. But the verbal lashings were nothing compared to the beating back that Google and Android took in relation to iOS 6 feature announcements.
Passbook creates unified location for pass-storing
Apple is creating an app in iOS 6 that's the digital equivalent of stringing frequent-shopper cards on a keychain. Passbook allows you to store these sorts of cards, airline passes, movie tickets and more. The passes will appear on the lock screen. Swipe the notification, and a QR code will appear. Other businesses glimpsed include Starbucks, Amtrak, the Apple Store -- even a Giants baseball ticket! As far as airlines go, it looks like just United Airlines is onboard for now. Multiple boarding passes are grouped together. It's integrated with the notifications center -- being near a favorite Starbucks will alert you. You also can get gate changes and more information with the airline tickets. This sort of usability will be fantastic, and I would love to see more businesses and libraries get on board with this. It will definitely reduce the amount of time spent hunting in your wallet for a particular card.
Apple demos Passbook, a one-stop shop for tickets and boarding passes
From airline and train boarding passes to concert tickets, we've seen a variety of tix make their way into the digital realm at venues around the world. With today's announcement of Passbook, the hard copy credential may soon be a thing of the past. Speaking on stage at Apple's WWDC keynote, VP of iOS Software Scott Forstall demonstrated the feature with United boarding passes, Fandango movie tickets and a Starbucks gift card. While none of these examples are making their premiere debut, Passbook will certainly make the QR-code-based stubs more user-friendly, while also increasing awareness among folks who continue to opt for paper while doubting the usability and authenticity of a digital counterpart. Passbook is also location aware, bringing up a Starbucks card as you approach a shop, for example. You can also get updates related to your stored credentials, such as a gate change announcement with a pending United boarding pass. The feature will come bundled with iOS 6, set to launch this fall. Check out our full coverage of WWDC 2012 at our event hub!%Gallery-157917%
