passbook - page 3

Apple Plans To Invade The Mobile Payment Industry One Step At A Time [Report]

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One day your iPhone and wallet will be one.
One day your iPhone and wallet will be one.

We’ve all been waiting with bated breath for Apple to take the mobile payment industry by storm and bring it to the mass consumer market. For years, there have been whispers that Apple is working on its own approach to reinventing mobile payments, including the possibility of a NFC-equipped iPhone. When Apple unveiled Passbook in iOS 6 last month, the company announced its first real foray into mobile payments by partnering with select companies for handling virtual goods like coupons and airline tickets.

According to a new report on The Wall Street Journal, Apple’s Passbook is only a shadow of things to come. The company is “deliberately” working on its own mobile payment system, and while the rest of its competitors scramble to test the waters, Apple is sitting back and developing the right strategy.

Why Low-Tech Mobile Payment Options Are Kicking NFC’s Butt

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The mobile payment options becoming mainstream are the simplest and low-tech ones
The mobile payment options becoming mainstream are the simplest and low-tech ones.

Read enough articles about NFC and its potential for mobile payments and you’ll find yourself thinking the technology is the inevitable mobile payment platform. Every major mobile platform except iOS already includes or will include support for NFC-enabled devices. There are lots of partnerships being announced between key players like device manufacturers, carriers, and banking or credit card companies. It also just seems to make sense that this is the future.

Until you look up from all the stories about what NFC and look at what’s really happening in the  world. You don’t see much evidence of NFC payment systems in everyday life. NFC isn’t yet emerging into mainstream commerce, but there is ample evidence that mobile payments are taking off without it. Those options becoming mainstream are decidedly low tech by comparison, but that’s precisely why they’re succeeding.

How To Activate Passbook In iOS 6 Beta

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Could your iPhone 5 be capable of reading your fingerprint?
Itching to try out Passbook already? Here's how to activate it.

Apple released its second iOS 6 beta to registered developers yesterday, and it included a number of new changes. The Cupertino company’s new Passbook app remains inactive, however… unless you know about the workaround.

Although nothing you can do within the Passbook app itself will get it working, there is a little trick you can perform in mobile Safari. Here’s what you need to do.

Apple Places Easter Egg For LOST Fans In iOS 6 Passbook Developer Video

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On the left, a ticket in iOS 6's new app, Passport. On the right, the horrific plane crash from Lost. Both are the same flight.
On the left, a ticket in iOS 6's new app, Passport. On the right, the horrific plane crash from Lost. Both are the same flight.

Watching the new WWDC 2012 developer video “Introducing Passbook, Part 1,” we couldn’t help but notice that about three minutes in, one of the example passes Apple uses to show off Passbook’s functionality is for a ticket on Oceanic Flight 815 from Sydney to Los Angeles.

If that fictional airline sounds familiar, it should: that’s the same airline and flight as the one which kicks off the events in the hit ABC television series, Lost.

Using that ticket in real life would see you stranded on a mysterious, time-shifting tropical island in the middle of nowhere, where you would have to wrestle with rampaging polar bears, sexy ladies, malevolent insect swarms and an enragingly stupid sixth season that basically boils all of the mysteries down to “a wizard did it.”

Source: developer.apple.com (Developer account required)
Thanks: Alex M!

iOS 6 Will Be Great For Local Businesses, Here’s Why [Opinion]

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iOS 6 offers huge potential for local businesses to attract and retain customers
iOS 6 offers huge potential for local businesses to attract and retain customers

 

If I had to pick on adjective for Apple’s upcoming iOS 6, it’d be “local” – Apple is integrating an immense range of local features and giving businesses amazing tools for attracting new customers. Regardless of whether you’re talking about a large chain like Starbucks or a family owned local business, Apple is offering virtually any customer-facing company an immense range of tools to attract and retain new customers.