back to article Apple Passbook card-'n'-ticket app paves way for iOS e-wallet

Apple's Passbook, announced at yesterday's developer conference as part of iOS 6, is clearly a step towards NFC payments, but even in its present form it has people pretty excited, so it's a shame that it won't work with the UK's biggest e-ticket deployment. Passbook is like an address book for storing tokens and tickets, with …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh so great Apple, still no NFC!!

    So stop banging on like they're your god, eh?

    1. Steve I
      Facepalm

      Were you expecting...

      ...NFC to come in a software update?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Were you expecting...

        Hardly!

        But oh so great Apple are still behind the times.

        Hardly innovative, as iPreachers like to proclaim.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Were you expecting...

          Ah right because NFC is such a popular way of paying for stuff.

          Not even the biggest buzzword-loving geeks I know use it.

          1. AdamWill

            Re: Were you expecting...

            The problem is that buzzword-loving geeks are often also privacy enthusiasts and so wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. Bit of subculture contention there.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Were you expecting...

          Apple doesn't implement half-arsed, non-optimal solutions with a small amount of take up.

          NFC isn't fast enough for the London Underground, so it needs to be optimised. So it's likely NFC will be revised in response to such criticisms.

          1. Danny 14

            Re: Were you expecting...

            my galaxy s2 doesnt have NFC. I'd hardly call that a backwards phone. I have an NFC barclaycard and have used it precisely zero times in NFC mode.

            In fact the only time ive ever used an NFC card (for purchases in a shop) was when I used my HK octopus card to buy some water (had no change).

            1. jai

              Re: Were you expecting...

              I've used an NFC barclays card once to buy lunch in Pret. It wasn't mine, it was a colleague's who owed me lunch, so instead of getting it for me he gave me his card and paid with that.

              And the ease with which i was able to spend someone else's money convinced me not to ever use mine. I'm sticking to my other current account who's card doesn't have any NFC malarkey. Happy to use a phone that doesn't have it either!

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Were you expecting...

            "Apple doesn't implement half-arsed, non-optimal solutions with a small amount of take up."

            Ummm... Siri????

            1. jai

              Re: Were you expecting...

              Bad example, Siri isn't actually that bad.

              The one you trolling for is Ping.

              1. CmdrX3

                Re: Were you expecting...

                "Siri isn't actually that bad"

                It isn't actually that good either, which places it firmly in the half-arsed department.

            2. AdamChew

              Re: Were you expecting...

              Siri is beta. Check on the word beta in case you don't know what it means.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "That location tracking is a real innovation," WT? Where have you been for the last 5 years? This has been talked about for ages.

    "and probably the only part of Passbook which hasn't been seen elsewhere." Eh?

    "But it's not Apple's job to do things which haven't been done before; Apple's skill lies in doing things better" Utter tosh! Give an example. Apple's skill lies in trying to better someone one elses work. Hardly real innovation.

    Oi, Reg! Get this author on a written warning for publishing their own opinion and not the facts.

    1. Daemon Byte

      3 instaposts?

      Did apple touch you in a delicate place as a child? I'm by no means an apple support and have never purchased their products but your hatred of them is as bad as any fanboi's devotion. And that said on a reg comment!

  3. Buzzword

    Animated vs changing gate numbers

    If a gate number can be changed dynamically, it may not be a far stretch to change the colours too, in order to match Masabi's requirements. I'm trying to access the Apple dev site to confirm this, but the site seems rather slow today.

  4. TRT Silver badge

    Hmm... I wonder when they'll start charging a fee for in-App display of tickets or some such mechanism?

  5. Simon Barnes

    do train e-tickts really exist ?

    when I search for "train e ticket" I only get hits for tickets that can be printed at home, not just shown on a phone :(

    1. ratfox
      Happy

      Re: do train e-tickts really exist ?

      Here in Switzerland, they do, and have existed for three years already.

      Ironically, the very first commentard on the linked article exclaims that his Nokia could already do that two years earlier...

      1. Silverburn
        Thumb Up

        Re: do train e-tickts really exist ?

        Oooh, beat me to it.

        Should be noted that the scanners often have problems detecting the image; many conductors are complaining about it.

  6. g e
    Gimp

    Minority Report

    The Starbucks loyalty card even pops up on the lock screen whenever one is walking past a Starbucks.

    Nice. Of course you can turn location tracking off in preferences, right? I mean you know when you're in a Starbucks, you don't need your phone to tell you, do you?

    Mind you these are apple users we're talking about I suppose, they don't seem to believe anything unless Cupertino tells them it's so. Like location tracking being a 'real innovation' .. right.. no-one ever heard of a fucking TomTom? Oh maybe not, didn't apple just 'invent' TomTom maps, too, this week?

    Gimp icon. Cos, well.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Minority Report

      Well the future will be everyone looking at screens constantly, so popups from some type of sensory apps will be needed.

      A Satnav for pedestrians app will pop to tell you when you're crossing a road, the starbucks app will pop when you're near a starbucks, etc ,etc. Then you can just play angry birds without having to worry about looking at other things.

  7. MrWibble

    Why does a ticket need to be animated? The paper ones aren't.

    1. Andy 115
      WTF?

      Could be me being thick too...

      Can someone explain this animated requirement that the UK ToC's are relying on? (I have never seen a e-ticket for trains either)

  8. Tom 35

    That location tracking is a real innovation

    Please tell me your being sarcastic.

  9. g7rp0
    Stop

    So I'm assuming hat

    People would be happy with apple or others not only being able to track our movements to a certain degree as they can now but down to what trains we get on and what shops we pass or enter

    Fuck that! they don't even have a cc attached to my iTunes account I had to create for my wife's iPhone, don't trust them period

  10. Chicken Marengo
    Facepalm

    Animated Train Tickets?

    Perhaps the UK train companies should have spent some more time and money making the trains move faster, rather than the tickets.

  11. Algingautr

    NFC

    NFC has been the hot new tech for years and years. Maybe Apple will just skip NFC because it doesn't like bags of hurt. NFC is a bag of hurt, locked down by obscure bureaucracies.

    Maybe Bluetooth Low Energy, already in most new Apple devices, will do what NFC was supposed to do.

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