Passbook

45 'Passbook' stories June 2012 - May 2015

Apple’s ‘Proactive’ to take on Google Now with deep iOS 9 search, Augmented Reality Maps, Siri API

Mark Gurman May 27 2015 - 9:59 am PT

After several years of quiet development, Apple is readying a major new iOS initiative codenamed “Proactive,” which will leverage Siri, Contacts, Calendar, Passbook, and third-party apps to create a viable competitor to Google Now for Android devices. Like Google Now, Proactive will automatically provide timely information based on the user’s data and device usage patterns, but will respect the user’s privacy preferences, according to sources familiar with Apple’s plans.

As an evolution of iOS’s Spotlight search feature, Proactive is the fruit of a long-term initiative that involved the acquisition of small app developers, and integration of core iOS apps. It will also work with Apple’s Maps application to display personally relevant points of interest using an augmented reality interface, and integrate with a third-party Siri API codenamed “Breadcrumbs”…

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Southwest Airlines app for iOS updated with Passbook support

Mike Beasley Feb 18 2015 - 7:49 pm PT

7 Comments

Southwest Airlines has updated its mobile app with support for Apple’s Passbook, allowing users to quickly access their boarding passes from the lock screen when boarding a flight. The Passbook card also presents critical information about a passenger’s flight, including departure time and gate, and flight number.

The new version of the app also includes fixes for issues reported by users. It’s available now from the App Store for free.

Apple Maps to expand community crowdsourcing features, Siri + Passbook integration

Jordan Kahn Dec 4 2014 - 12:45 pm PT

7 Comments

Apple is looking to expand its efforts in crowdsourcing data to improve its Maps app for iOS and OS X, according to hints in a new job listing on the company’s site.
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Eddy Cue right about “a lot of work to do” as Apple Pay glitches emerge

Ben Lovejoy Oct 22 2014 - 4:16 am PT

31 Comments

While early Apple Pay experiences appear to have been mostly positive, Eddy Cue’s admission that there is still “a lot of work left to do” has been demonstrated in a number of glitches in the system – some of them resulting in multiple payments being taken for the same transaction …
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Siri changes in iOS beta provide further evidence of Apple Pay coming in version 8.1

Mike Beasley Sep 30 2014 - 4:35 pm PT

2 Comments

iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users will soon be able to use Siri to access credit cards stored in the Passbook app, if the beta version of iOS 8.1 is any indicator. We’ve already seen the Apple Pay privacy statement and other asssets pointing to this release being the one that enables the payment system next month, but now there’s even more proof.

Starting with version 8.1, if you ask Siri to show a credit card, the phone will bring up Passbook. Currently the app lacks the ability to add credit cards, but Apple has previously confirmed that this will be the application to manage Apple Pay cards. iOS 8.0 included an updated icon with a credit card glyph despite the fact that the functionality was not yet available.

Apple is currently developing iOS 8.2 and 8.3 alongside version 8.1.

Thanks for the tip, @Lakewoodr.

iOS 8.0.1 will reportedly bring fixes for phone & keyboard bugs, Safari video, & more

Jordan Kahn Sep 23 2014 - 8:52 am PT

19 Comments

Apple’s next iOS 8 update following the public release of the operating system earlier this month will reportedly bring various fixes for phone and keyboard related bugs, problems with video in Safari and more. MacRumors claims to have details on the upcoming iOS 8.0.1 release from a source. In addition to fixing bugs with the phone, keyboard, and Safari, the fix will reportedly also include a fix for AirDrop support with Passbook and a problem with installing VPN profiles.

Here’s the full list of changes according to the report:

– Phone: Addresses bugs with call forwarding and freezing when accessing visual voicemail
– Keyboard: Fixes an issue with keypad not appearing to enter iCloud Keychain verification codes
– Safari: Fixes a problem with videos occasionally not playing
– Sharing: Fixes AirDrop support for Passbook passes
– VPN: Addresses an issue with installing VPN profiles

Apple released iOS 8 to the public earlier this month on September 17th two days ahead of its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models going on sale in initial launch countries. Adoption of the new operating system is lagging behind last year’s iOS 7 release, while Apple for the first time used its own CDN to deliver the update this year. A release date for the next iOS 8 update has not yet been confirmed, but Apple has said they are working on a fix for the HealthKit bug that delayed the feature expected later this month.

This is Apple’s retail store gameplan for iPhone 6/Plus launch

Sep 16 2014 - 8:44 am PT

109 Comments

The big day is almost here. After months of speculation, a momentous keynote from Tim Cook, and record preorders, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will officially hit store shelves this Friday. Apple is going to great lengths to ensure that Friday runs smoothly for its customers and employees.

We’ve tracked down Apple’s retail gameplan so you’ll know what to expect on launch day including what percentage of iPhones Apple Stores are required to hold back, refreshment times (Starbucks usually) and Personal Setup details …

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Discover cards joining Amex, Mastercard and Visa in Apple Pay contactless payments

Ben Lovejoy Sep 10 2014 - 5:02 am PT

4 Comments

Discover has tweeted that its cards will be joining Amex, Mastercard and Visa in the Apple Pay service, allowing electronic versions of its cards to be stored in Passbook for contactless payment using the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch.

[tweet https://twitter.com/discover/status/509405306531876865]

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Apple demonstrates just how quick & easy Apple Pay is to use [Video]

Ben Lovejoy Sep 10 2014 - 3:55 am PT

32 Comments

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I9MbIrlEUw]

After launching its new mobile wallet service Apple Pay during yesterday’s keynote, the company gave demos afterwards, TechCrunch sharing a video.

The card you have registered with your Apple ID becomes your default card, but you can add others by using the camera on the iPhone 6 to identify it. The iPhone requests permission from your bank, and the card is then added to Passbook …
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Is this the first video review of the iPhone 6?

Seth Weintraub Sep 7 2014 - 1:37 am PT

219 Comments

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQopSbASO40]

The iPhone 6 leaks are coming fast and furious ahead of Tuesday’s event. This latest video is a supposed review of the iPhone 6 in Mandarin. We won’t know how legit it is for another 48 hours but it is certainly convincing.

One notable feature of these latest leaks is the Passbook (~~which they conveniently failed to open~~) icon which looks to have a Credit card on top. Update: The Weibo Account owner opened up Passbook and screenshotted (below)

A brief translation of the video from Stan1028 below (more in comments):
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Dropbox’s Mailbox for iOS updated with new languages, support for opening Passbook, printing, more

Zac Hall Aug 13 2014 - 1:20 pm PT

3 Comments

The popular Dropbox-owned email client Mailbox received a notable update today bringing a list of new supported languages as well as additional features.

In addition to English, Mailbox is now translated into the following languages: Chinese (both Simplified and Traditional), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish (both European and Latin American), Swedish, and Thai.

The update also adds support for Apple’s Passbook platform. Previously, emails containing Passbook files would prompt an “Open in…” dialog with Mail and Dropbox supported, but the new version of Mailbox allows users to open Passbook files right in the Passbook app from the email as you would expect.

The update also includes a list of other changes including support for printing emails, viewing spam folder emails, spam filtering, adding stars to emails, using military time, and more.

Mailbox for iPhone and iPad is available for free on the App Store.

New iTunes Pass credit refill service now available in United States and several other countries

Mike Beasley Jul 16 2014 - 8:49 pm PT

17 Comments

Yesterday Apple rolled out its new iTunes Pass service to Japan, allowing users to use a Passbook card to add credit to an iTunes account from an Apple Retail Store. Starting today, the offer is also available in the United States and Australia. Users in Canada, Germany, and the UK are also reporting seeing the feature, though it’s not officially listed on Apple’s website for those countries just yet.

To take advantage of this new program, you need to use the iTunes Store app on an iOS device to obtain an iTunes Pass. You can get one of these by tapping the “Redeem” button at the bottom of the home page within the app. To use the card, you can visit an Apple Retail Store and ask a specialist to help you add credit to your account. The specialist can then scan the barcode on the Passbook card to immediately add credit to your account.

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Apple debuts iTunes Pass in Japan, allows Passbook-based iTunes credit refills at Apple Stores

Mark Gurman Jul 14 2014 - 11:31 pm PT

2 Comments

Apple today has launched an interesting new service for iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore users in Japan with iPhones and iPod touches. The new service, called iTunes Pass (no, not that iTunes Pass), allows users to go to an Apple Store in Japan, purchase credit in-store for the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore, and have that money immediately applied to the Apple ID account instead of needing to receive a gift card and enter a redemption code…

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PayPal takes a page from Passbook, adds virtual loyalty cards to iOS app

Mike Beasley Jul 14 2014 - 9:55 pm PT

2 Comments

PayPal has updated its iOS app with support for loyalty cards from a long list of selected retailers. The app allows you to select one of the supported companies from the list and scan the barcode on your loyalty or discount card, then saves the data in a digital wallet. The update puts PayPal in competition with Apple’s stock Passbook application, which also allows for storage of loyalty cards and other similar information.

The update also includes bug fixes and removes the ability to scan a check using the device’s camera to deposity money in your PayPal account. You can grab the version 5.5 update for free on the App Store.

What’s New in Version 5.5
Loyalty cards, login, and more!

• Link all of your favorite loyalty cards to PayPal. Carry virtual versions on your mobile. Your wallet deserves the break.
• Vroom! Faster logins are here. We did some work behind the scenes to speed things up for you.
• No bug is safe! We’re finding and fixing them as fast as we can.
• We’re no longer offering the “scan a check” feature. Not to worry. You can still add money to PayPal directly from your bank account.

Rumor: NFC, wireless charging, improved LTE slated for iPhone 6

Zac Hall Jun 9 2014 - 8:04 am PT

38 Comments

New high-resolution photos surfaced over the weekend showing what is expected to be the much thinner iPhone 6 following a report from Venture Beat that corroborates several other claims that the next generation iPhone will feature a larger display than previous models. Included in that report are also claims that Apple will opt for implementing NFC (near field communication), wireless charging, and improved LTE in the next iPhone refresh expected later this year…

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Windows Phone 8.1 update lets users add Passbook cards to Microsoft Wallet

Jordan Kahn Apr 14 2014 - 11:42 am PT

3 Comments

WPcentral notes that the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 update introduces support for Apple’s Passbook iOS app, allowing users to load coupons, tickets, boarding passes, etc, designed for Passbook into the Microsoft Wallet app.

While the Microsoft Wallet app will be able to load the various coupons and loyalty cards usually reserved for Passbook, it’s still a little unclear exactly what’s going on behind the scenes. Microsoft appears to be allowing users to download the Passbook files and rendering its own card for Microsoft Wallet, but the report speculates Windows Phone won’t be able to tap into the push notifications Apple’s uses to update cards like on iOS.

There seems to be some confusion over whether or not Mircosoft is officially supporting Passbook in one way or another, but with a developer preview of Windows Phone 8.1 rolling out today, I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this soon.

Could Apple buy Square to accelerate its mobile payment plans?

Ben Lovejoy Apr 9 2014 - 5:55 am PT

21 Comments

Re/code is reporting that both Apple and Google have considered making acquisition offers for payments company Square, with CEO Jack Dorsey said to favor a sale to Apple.

In the last year, both Apple and Google have considered making acquisition offers for Square, according to industry sources familiar with the situation […]

[Dorsey] believes, sources said, that his company’s design aesthetic and values match up much more closely with Apple than Google …

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This is Healthbook, Apple’s major first step into health & fitness tracking

Mark Gurman Mar 17 2014 - 6:01 am PT

131 Comments

Seven years out from the original iPhone’s introduction, and four years past the iPad’s launch, Apple has found its next market ripe for reinvention: the mobile healthcare and fitness-tracking industry. Apple’s interest in healthcare and fitness tracking will be displayed in an iOS application codenamed Healthbook. I first wrote about Apple’s plans for Healthbook in January, and multiple sources working directly on the initiative’s development have since provided new details and images of Healthbook that provide a clearer view of Apple’s plans for dramatically transforming the mobile healthcare and fitness-tracking space…

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Some mockups and more about iOS 8’s upcoming Healthbook app and the ‘iWatch’

Mark Gurman Feb 11 2014 - 3:55 pm PT

9 Comments

In January, we exclusively detailed a major upcoming Apple initiative: Healthbook. Healthbook is the working codename of an app currently planned to ship with iOS 8. It is an app that stores and reads health and fitness data from wearable devices (such as the sensor-laden “iWatch” Apple is developing).

Since our initial report, some more speculation and mockups have emerged online about the app. Above are a pair of mockups posted to Behance earlier today. The mockups follow some of the details presented in our original article:

The “Healthbook” application is said to take multiple user interface cues from Apple’s own Passbook app, which is software for storing loyalty cards, coupons, and other materials normally stored in physical wallets.

The new health and fitness application’s interface is a stack of cards that can be easily swiped between. Each card represents a different fitness or health data point. The prototype logo for “Healthbook” is similar to Passbook’s icon, but it is adorned with graphics representing vital signs.

According to sources, the mockups are “vaguely” the right idea. Of course, Apple is likely testing multiple different user-interfaces for this software, and since we are several months out from an official introduction, things can and likely will change (even drastically)…

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iWatch + iOS 8: Apple sets out to redefine mobile health, fitness tracking

Mark Gurman Jan 31 2014 - 2:17 pm PT

88 Comments

Apple has its sights set on another industry ripe for reinvention: the mobile healthcare and fitness world. Apple currently plans to release a new version of the iPhone operating system this year with health and fitness tracking integration as its headline feature, according to sources briefed on the plans. Apple’s work on such an operating system likely indicates that Apple is nearing the introduction of its long-awaited, sensor-laden “iWatch,” which sources say is well into development…

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Photos+ debuts on iPhone with EXIF info support, improved grid view, more

Zac Hall Dec 18 2013 - 5:30 am PT

0 Comments

Way back in May, Justin Williams’s Second Gear teased an unannounced app via Passbook using an in-house system called Pit Pass. The Passbook pass updated to reveal the icon and name of the app released by Second Gear today: Photos+.

What the app does is really simple but useful in a big way. Photos+ displays your images from your Camera Roll and other albums found in Photos.app, but it takes a different approach to displaying thumbnails and most importantly includes EXIF info like timestamp and location hidden in the native photo browser…

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Review: Studio Credence leather & felt book-style iPad case (and iPhone sleeve)

Ben Lovejoy Nov 18 2013 - 7:20 am PT

4 Comments

While I may be known for my addiction to all things anodised aluminum, I also have a love of natural materials, wood and leather especially. My MacBook Pro and MacBook Air both travel in BookBook leather cases (reviewed here by Jordan), so when Studio Credence announced a book-style case for the iPad, I decided to take a look.

First impressions

Studio Credence is clearly going for a bit of a rustic look. The packaging is undyed cardboard, with the case itself in a muslin-type drawstring bag. Open this, and what you have inside is a very similar approach to the BookBook range …
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Apple takes Apple Store app Passbook gift card integration international

Mike Beasley Nov 5 2013 - 4:40 pm PT

3 Comments

Back in October of 2012, Apple introduced the ability to purchase gift cards via the iPhone and iPod touch Apple Store application. These gift cards could then be shared via email to family and friends for use in the Apple Store. These gift cards could also be used via the Passbook application that Apple introduced with iOS 6. Since that time, the functionality has been exclusive to the United States, but today, Apple has taken it international.

Apple has updated the Apple Store app for several countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Australia, but not many of the countries in Europe in which we checked. Users in each of those countries can now buy Passbook-enabled gift cards through the application. There is no word on when the remaining European countries will see the feature.

Update: Three days after publishing this update, Apple also released a second update to address various bugs and other issues.

Air France Mobile app updated with Passbook support for boarding passes

Jordan Kahn Jun 18 2013 - 7:59 am PT

0 Comments

Following British Airways earlier this month, Air France has just updated its iPhone app with support for storing digital boarding passes in Passbook. The feature of course requires iOS 6 and up, and will also require an update to version 4.5.1 of the Air France Mobile app.

New for Passbook and the camera app developers in iOS 7: the ability to scan barcodes.

What’s New in Version 4.5.1

Passbook is now available to store your boarding pass on your iPhone!
This feature requires iOS 6 operating system.