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I don't think it's "Passbook support." It seems to me that it simply takes Passbook data and copies it into Microsoft Wallet. I don't think they'll be syncing with each other (although this isn't known right now).

Correct. They aren't really supporting passbook, they just created a version of their wallet app that can convert them on the fly so companies don't have to create two versions
 
Now Passbook passes, something that's been utterly useless where I live, is available on a Windows Phone, when I'd rather play blind-mans bluff on the freeway rather than use a WinPhone.

It's like they know me.:D

I use Passbook for Starbucks and Walgreens. If I still did air travel, I'd like that, and I know lots of people who rely on United or the other Airline apps.

They need to get a phone/tablet with the 5S style thumbprint going.
 
Hopefully with wider spread use more places will embrace passbook and replace giftcards/tickets for christmas/birthdays into passbook equivalencies. saving me from constantly forgetting about the gift cards I left at home!

There are at-least a few if not several apps in the App Store to store your GC,etc info along with bar code.
So lack of passbook support is not an excuse for constantly forgetting gift cards.

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I'm one of those rubber-band-around-the-stack-of-credit-cards wallet people. I like to keep it thin with a debit card, drivers license, insurance card, one credit card and whatever discount cards I deem worthy of making the stack thicker. I find it annoying when retailers assume that I have nothing better to do than lug their card around everyday, but obviously you save too much at grocery stores not to have those cards.

All that said, when Passbook came out I was super excited to put it into action. I have yet to find a single use for it.

BTW, I even tried making my own homemade version by recreating one of my grocery card barcodes and pasting it into my screensaver on my iPhone. It didn't work unfortunately. Odd because you can do an e-ticket with Amtrak and they can scan that.
Check CardStar app in App Store.
 
It seems that Passbook is more popular in the US. I haven't seen anywhere in NZ advertising it, and when I open the Passbook app and go to "Apps for Passbook", it only shows a single entry (HungryHero). Is there always a listing in there when there's support, or is it possible for companies to support Passbook without providing an entry in the "Apps for Passbook" list?
 
It puts all of your passes (i.e., “scannable” vouchers and whatnot) into a single, unified view, and also adds services for time and location.

Here’s my experience from a year or so ago:

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=15914069&passbook#post15914069

:cool:

Thanks, that's a nice review! Apple said it supports airplane tickets too, do you know how that works? I fly a lot but every airline I've used says you MUST print the ticket and present it at the gate. Now how would that paper ticket get into Passbook, unless you take a photo of it or save the PDF to iBooks? Or does the airline have to specifically support passbook?
 
Thanks, that's a nice review! Apple said it supports airplane tickets too, do you know how that works? I fly a lot but every airline I've used says you MUST print the ticket and present it at the gate. Now how would that paper ticket get into Passbook, unless you take a photo of it or save the PDF to iBooks? Or does the airline have to specifically support passbook?

I use it flying out of DC (DCA), US Scareways ... I do everything online, get a notification for the email based QR code, and in that email, there’s a link to “Add to Passbook”.

Pretty much any QR/2D barcode can be used, and it’s just a simple content type that Passbook is designed to handle. Once it’s added to passbook, the additional meta-data (time, place, item specific data like Gate, Airline) that’s pushed with it creates the time alert and it’s available right from the lock screen if the alert (time or location) is triggered so it makes it super convenient.

I also have my Starbucks card in my passbook, and it syncs to the app/account so it displays a correct, current balance.

The idea is you’ve got all these apps with a code/scanner interface, that are all over the place on your phone, and this creates a consistent UI for each, puts them in the same app, allows them to be accessed on the lock screen, and wraps up some additional services like geo-awareness and date/time alerting.

The more cards/vouchers/passes you have, the more it makes sense, so another whole (albeit much smaller) platform supports it, good for everyone.
 
I use Passbook at least twice week with Starbucks. I also use it with the airlines when I fly 3x a year. I've used it with Target a few times. There were a few others that were one-off's. The experience has been great thus far!

I wish more companies would use Passbook - even if its places like Pricechopper or Hy-Vee where you get savings at the register, or Staples for their ink rewards, etc.

It'd also be nice if Passbook had credit card integration. I have a Home Depot card, a Best Buy card, etc - these store cards would be nice to use. I don't necessarily want to link my debit card or american express, but store/retail cards I wouldn't mind as they aren't used frequently.
 
Awesome. So Passbook has access to 2 or may even 300 new customers.
Well, If you were able to look slightly beyond your own countrys border, you may realize that this is actualy a pretty big (and growing) chunk of global users, especialy in Europe.

000markt_reference.png

http://www.windows-phone-user.de/News/Smartphonemarkt-Windows-Phone-legt-in-Europa-zu
 
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There is no MS "version" of passbook. The MS Wallet App just allows you to import data from all over.

Also new to the MS Wallet is NFC payments, but that requires a new SIM.
 
Passbook becoming the standard for mobile wallet content

This is a great move forward for everyone. Apple has yet again defined the standard for digital versions of things that are otherwise stored in your leather wallet.

We've seen relatively slow adoption of cool technologies like Passbook, but with the addition of iBeacons in iOS7 (and Passbook-app integration) and now this Windows news, we will start to see a far greater adoption by business, agencies and developers.
 
Just curious, what's weak about iCloud?

How weak you think it is depends on how you look at it and what you need it for. I think of iCloud as a cloud based storage backend for Apple platforms and apps. For that, it works fine. It doesn't do much, but what it does do, it does well.

But if you're expecting it to have the power, flexibility, and multiplatform support of Dropbox or Google Drive, you'll only end up disappointing yourself.
 
There are at-least a few if not several apps in the App Store to store your GC,etc info along with bar code.
So lack of passbook support is not an excuse for constantly forgetting gift cards.

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Check CardStar app in App Store.

I forgot to specify I do not like having a lot of apps, I only have the first page of apps (with only 1 folder thingy). I like how passbook I have GC and plane tickets. All in one place is what really does it for me.
 
I use it flying out of DC (DCA), US Scareways ... I do everything online, get a notification for the email based QR code, and in that email, there’s a link to “Add to Passbook”.

Pretty much any QR/2D barcode can be used, and it’s just a simple content type that Passbook is designed to handle. Once it’s added to passbook, the additional meta-data (time, place, item specific data like Gate, Airline) that’s pushed with it creates the time alert and it’s available right from the lock screen if the alert (time or location) is triggered so it makes it super convenient.

I also have my Starbucks card in my passbook, and it syncs to the app/account so it displays a correct, current balance.

The idea is you’ve got all these apps with a code/scanner interface, that are all over the place on your phone, and this creates a consistent UI for each, puts them in the same app, allows them to be accessed on the lock screen, and wraps up some additional services like geo-awareness and date/time alerting.

The more cards/vouchers/passes you have, the more it makes sense, so another whole (albeit much smaller) platform supports it, good for everyone.

Just tried it with my airplane boarding pass and it says "you can only scan passes with PassBook" but what does that mean? A boarding pass is indeed a pass isn't it?
 
Just tried it with my airplane boarding pass and it says "you can only scan passes with PassBook" but what does that mean? A boarding pass is indeed a pass isn't it?

Are you saying you are trying to scan a paper boarding pass's bar or QR code with the PassBook "Scan Code" function? That will not work.

The "Scan Code" function is looking for a URL encoded into a QR, Aztec or PDF-417 code that will take it to a downloadable pass. For example, the following QR code will give you the sample, PassKit.com demo pass I posted yesterday. Scan this with the Passbook "Scan Code" function:
barcode.php


(When you're done, click the (i) icon on the lower right of the pass and then the "Delete" button on the top left)

FYI, OT but if you use a generic Bar Code scanning app like Manatee Works, "Barcode Scanners" and point it at your boarding pass, you'll see the TSA mandated itinerary data is all in it. My latest one has stuff like this:
Code:
M1SMALLING/ERIC   ABCDEF  DFWPHXAA 1083
...

You can see my name, record locator (I changed it ABCDEF), city pair, carrier, flight number, and it goes on and on plus has some codes (probably a digital signature or something). When PassBook saw something like that it knew wasn't a URL to a Pass so it immediately gave up.
 
Are you saying you are trying to scan a paper boarding pass's bar or QR code with the PassBook "Scan Code" function? That will not work.

The "Scan Code" function is looking for a URL encoded into a QR, Aztec or PDF-417 code that will take it to a downloadable pass. For example, the following QR code will give you the sample, PassKit.com demo pass I posted yesterday. Scan this with the Passbook "Scan Code" function:
Image

(When you're done, click the (i) icon on the lower right of the pass and then the "Delete" button on the top left)

FYI, OT but if you use a generic Bar Code scanning app like Manatee Works, "Barcode Scanners" and point it at your boarding pass, you'll see the TSA mandated itinerary data is all in it. My latest one has stuff like this:
Code:
M1SMALLING/ERIC   ABCDEF  DFWPHXAA 1083
...

You can see my name, record locator (I changed it ABCDEF), city pair, carrier, flight number, and it goes on and on plus has some codes (probably a digital signature or something). When PassBook saw something like that it knew wasn't a URL to a Pass so it immediately gave up.

Cool, thanks! Yes the code on my boarding pass wasn't a square so I guess it's probably not even a QR code but some other kind of code. I guess my airline doesn't support this! Plus they insist on printed tickets anyway as they keep a copy for themselves, so that kind of defeats the whole idea.
 
Cool, thanks! Yes the code on my boarding pass wasn't a square so I guess it's probably not even a QR code but some other kind of code. I guess my airline doesn't support this! Plus they insist on printed tickets anyway as they keep a copy for themselves, so that kind of defeats the whole idea.

The printed boarding passes usually aren't QR, the ones I've seen look like a PDF-417 formatted one. (rectangular, bars on the ends, with 2D bitmap between them) The PassBook pass could use that as well, might just be a matter of supporting the lower resolution displays on iPhone 3's or something. (QR's are more forgiving to scan than PDF-417's in my experience)

As for your airline supporting them, that's just a business decision they have made. I know Delta and American were some of the first to do so, Southwest just rolled theirs out last year. Others will come around as customers start expecting them.
 
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