by Few know how exactly it will work, but iOS device owners and businesses will soon get the chance to jump on board with Passbook. The new feature debuts this week, when Apple releases its iOS 6 update on Wednesday.
First introduced as part of Apple’s iOS 6 preview during June’s Worldwide Developers conference, Passbook stores boarding passes, movie tickets, coupons, and gift cards on your smartphone and acts as a digital wallet of sorts. Apple touts Passbook as being location-aware—that gift card will appear on your iPhone’s lock screen when you walk into a store, for example—and as a one-stop storage space for the kind of digital data you’d normally stuff into a wallet.
What Apple hasn’t done is provide much in the way of specifics about how Passbook will work. Last week’s press event to introduce the iPhone 5 merely recapped what the company had already said about Passbook back in June and on its website.
Still, app developers, airlines and entertainment executives are leading the charge to Passbook adoption. Last week, for example, ticketing website Accesso announced integration with Passbook for theme parks and attractions that use the platform. Ticket-buyers will be able to import passes to some of the company’s clients, which include 11 Cedar Fair Entertainment theme parks across the country and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, into Passbook.
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