Passbook
We reckon most of you never leave the house without three things: your keys, your cell phone, and your wallet. That’s a habit unlikely to change anytime soon. Nor do we expect most of you to ditch the plastic credit cards in your physical wallet for digital versions. That said, the tech and financial worlds are combining efforts to turn modern smartphones such as the iPhone into a version of a digital wallet.
Apple’s own relatively early push in this area comes with the Passbook feature that arrived with iOS 6. Some people already use the iPhone to scan boarding passes at the airport or to pay for coffee in a Starbucks through a third-party app. Passbook provides a single repository for all these items, along with movie tickets, coupons, and gift cards. No more fumbling through printouts, apps, or e-mails to find the right ticket, coupon, or pass.
Moreover, Apple has made it so that Passbook is time and location based. In other words, the boarding pass appears when you get to the airport, even on the iPhone Lock screen, and you’re notified of any gate changes. Or walk into the coffee shop and the appropriate gift card pops up.
Apple says you can find Passbook-capable apps in the App Store. Since this was all just getting started as we went to press, only a few Passbook apps were in place. That may no longer be the case by the time you’re reading this.
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