March 27th, 2013

Fosbury Goes Beyond Apple Passbook Pass Creation, Making It Easy To Manage, Distribute & Track Campaigns, Too

fosbury

Fosbury, a new startup helping companies design iOS Passbook campaigns, is launching its online DIY design and distribution platform today, which is being made available on a pay-as-you go basis. Although quite a few services in this niche have sprung up since the announcement of Apple Passbook’s mobile ticketing and couponing app last June, Fosbury’s angle is that it offers not just Passbook… → Read More

January 29th, 2013

WalletKit Hustles Its Way Into 500 Startups With Its Mobile Pass Builder For Apple’s Passbook

WalletKit-iphone

WalletKit, a 500 Startups-backed platform allowing businesses to create passes for mobile wallets like Apple Passbook, is today making its public debut just ahead of 500 Startups’ Demo Day. Although pass-building toolkits are now a fairly crowded space, WalletKit offers a couple of differentiated features – anyone can update the passes created on its platform with new promotions, offers and other… → Read More

January 4th, 2013

Urban Airship Now Offering Access To PassTools API For Enterprise-Level Development Of Apple Passbook Passes

passbook-passes

Urban Airship is moving fast to roll out the Apple Passbook tools it acquired last month from Tello, a TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 startup which offered developers a visual pass builder for Passbook. Starting today, businesses are able to sign up for access to the PassTools API, through Urban Airship’s Passbook Early Access Program. → Read More

December 7th, 2012

Discover Follows In AmEx’s Footsteps With New Apple Passbook Integration

discover

Major credit cards companies are slowly starting to adopt Apple Passbook technology, as the product becomes something that’s more like a real mobile wallet than merely a ticket holder. Following AmEx’s support for Passbook earlier in the year, Discover Card this week also added Passbook integration to its mobile app in order to connect users with their card rewards. → Read More

December 5th, 2012

Google Now Updated With Passbook-Style Boarding Passes, Improved Local Discovery And Song Identification

Google Now - Travel Cards Update3

Google today pushed an update for its Google Search app for Android that packs a powerful new punch for Google Now. The digital assistant baked into Android 4.1 or higher now watches your inbox for boarding passes, and can delivery them to your phone as QR codes for digital check-in when it detects your proximity to an airport. That’s taking a page out of Apple’s Passbook, but with an additional… → Read More

December 5th, 2012

Now With 50 Major Retailers On Board, Coupons.com’s New iOS App Adds Passbook-Enabled Coupons

coupons-passbook

A little over a month after the digital couponing giant Coupons.com began supporting Passbook-enabled coupons from its mobile website, the company is now adding support for the feature in its native iOS application. At the time of the original launch, 20 major retailers were offering discounts through these Passbook coupons, including  Macy’s, Old Navy, PETCO, Barnes & Noble, Jo-Anne… → Read More

December 4th, 2012

Urban Airship Acquires Tello, Maker Of PassTools For Apple’s Passbook, Because Not All Brands Need Fully Featured Apps

passtools

A little over a year after Urban Airship’s acquisition of location startup SimpleGeo, the company has moved to once again expand its feature set by acquiring venture-backed Tello in an all-stock deal. The startup, which debuted at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2010, had initially been focused on building real time feedback tools for business customers, but had more recently refocused its efforts on → Read More

October 23rd, 2012

20 Major Retailers Launch Passbook-Enabled Coupons Via Digital Offers Giant Coupons.com

oldnavy-passbook

Apple’s Passbook will become even more useful today, thanks to the availability of new Passbook-integrated coupons from several major retailers, including Macy’s, Old Navy, PETCO, Barnes & Noble, Jo-Anne Fabric, ULTA Beauty, Yankee Candle, Michaels, Sears, Sweet Tomatoes, PetSmart, and more. The coupons are being made available from digital couponing giant, Coupons.com, which is now offering… → Read More

October 17th, 2012

Klout Updates iPhone App With Passbook Integration, Wants You To “Show Off” With Klout Card

klout-udpate

Online social influence is something that can really rub people the wrong way. Klout obviously believes in it wholeheartedly; others, not so much. Now, in a move that’s sure to generate its fair share of criticism, Klout has updated its iPhone app with Passbook support, allowing users to create their own “Klout Card,” which lives in Passbook and can help users “show off [their] influence.” → Read More

October 2nd, 2012

Why Apple Being Sued Over Passbook Brings Back Unpleasant Memories Of Lodsys

iOS-6-Passbook

Apple has been sued over Passbook, newly discovered court documents show. The suit was filed by Ameranth, a San Diego company that wears its patents proudly on its sleeve (or the front page of its website, in a literal sense). The suit claims that Apple infringed four patents that revolve around wireless synchronization tech to do with mobile payments, point-of-sale systems and other issues… → Read More

October 1st, 2012

Kiip Is The Perfect Company To Show Off The Potential Of Apple Passbook. Take A Look.

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The most interesting new feature in iOS 6 to me was Passbook. The idea that I can now have quick access to movie, plane and other tickets, as well as relevant information for where I am at any given time, is an absolute time-saver. After I heard about Passbook, I immediately reached out to Brian Wong, CEO of Kiip to find out what the company had planned.

Kiip is the reward platform that works… → Read More

September 28th, 2012

Apple Adds A Clarifying Description To Its “Apps For Passbook” Page In The App Store

passbook-app-store

Apple has made a small but significant tweak to its App Store for iOS 6 users, changing the Apps for Passbook section of the store. Before, when you clicked through in Passbook the link that brings you to a list of apps, that’s all you saw: a simple listing of compatible apps. Now, there’s a new paragraph describing what Passbook is, and what Passbook-enabled apps are capable of. → Read More

September 28th, 2012

Socialize’s New Ad Platform Turns Passbook Passes Into Mobile Ads

passes-small

Let our Passbook obsession continue! Since the debut of Apple’s pseudo-mobile wallet in iOS 6 earlier this month, the extended developer community has rushed to deliver value-add solutions built on top of the platform. There have been Passbook loyalty card and coupon creation apps, tools to send Passbook mobile coupons via SMS, and now this – a solution that turns a Passbook pass into a 320×50… → Read More

September 27th, 2012

Social Marketing Platform Woobox Lets Businesses Send Apple Passbook Coupons Via SMS

passbook-coupon-example

Woobox, a two-year old social marketing platform, recently added support for Apple’s Passbook in its coupons app. The integration lets businesses create Passbook coupons using its system, and can even require customers to perform some sort of social action before gaining access to the coupon. For example, they may have to “like” the brand on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. But the company has… → Read More

September 24th, 2012

Gyft Brings Gift Cards From Over 200 Retailers To Apple’s Passbook

gyft-passbook

Gyft, the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2012 finalist, which lets you buy, save, redeem and share gift cards using your iPhone, has just launched Passbook integration. Because Gyft supports storing your plastic gift cards thanks to its relationships with retailers and data partners, this integration means you can now dump out all those plastic cards cluttering up your physical wallet and just use your… → Read More

September 21st, 2012

How Popular Is Passbook? Sephora Sees 17,000 Passbook Users On Day One, 20K After 24 Hours

sephora-passbook

How popular is Apple’s Passbook, the new iOS 6 application that lets you store tickets, cards, and coupons in a mobile wallet-like interface? According to some early data from Branding Brand, the company that built the app for cosmetics and skin care brand Sephora, Passbook adoption is booming. In the first day following iOS 6′s availability, Sephora’s “Beauty Insider” card was added to 17,000… → Read More

September 20th, 2012

The Beginnings Of A Usable Mobile Wallet: Target Brings Mobile Coupons To Apple’s Passbook

target-passbook

Not that it should come as a big surprise, given that Target was one of the brands showcased in the Passbook demo at Apple’s WWDC in June, but today it’s official: Target’s app is now Passbook-enabled, the retailer has announced. (Although it actually looks like the update was pushed on Wednesday.) The app joins what is now a fast-growing lineup of apps supporting the new mobile wallet-like… → Read More

September 19th, 2012

iOS 6 Passbook Real-World Test: Let’s All Go To A Movie… Or Not

Cineplex-passbook

Already, apps are hitting the App Store with Passbook support, providing tickets, loyalty cards and coupons you can actually use. So I tried to do just that, using the newly updated Cineplex (Canadian theatre chain) app and my iPhone 4S, freshly updated to iOS 6. The experience wasn’t exactly as smooth as it might’ve been, and while I ultimately was able to get my ticket to Disney’s 3D Finding→ Read More

September 19th, 2012

PassRocket Lets Any Business Create Loyalty Cards For Apple’s New Passbook App For Free

passrocket-iphone

When it rains, it pours. Today, Apple is rolling out the new version of its iOS 6 mobile operating system, and already we’ve come across several companies building apps poised to take advantage of one of the OS’s most notable new features: Passbook. Another new app, called PassRocket, is designed for retailers and other small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) who want to be able to quickly and… → Read More

September 19th, 2012

Tello Launches PassTools To Help Businesses Build Their Apple Passbook Passes

passtools_examples

One of the highlights of Apple’s iOS 6 launch today is Passbook, the company’s new tool for managing your loyalty cards, coupons, boarding passes, movie tickets and similar cards that you may currently be carrying around in your wallet. For businesses, this is a great opportunity to bring their loyalty programs and coupons into the twenty-first century, but how to get started with Passbook isn’t… → Read More

September 2nd, 2012

Social Gaming, Dating Account For The Biggest Growth In Carrier Billing

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Over the last year, we have seen some notable advances in mobile carrier billing — which lets people pay for services and content on their phones by charging it to their carrier bills: Google expanded its carrier billing services to music and more; Facebook joined the ranks of those offering it, and Amazon has a deal with a company that could help it potentially roll out such services, too. → Read More

June 27th, 2012

More Mobile Wallets Incoming: Placecast Launches White Label ShopAlerts Wallet

Screen shot 2012-06-27 at 14.55.35

We’ve seen some notable developments around mobile payments that turn handsets effectively into credit cards, credit card processors, reward point aggregators, and more. A new product out today could see the ranks of these services swell even larger: mobile marketing company Placecast is launching ShopAlerts Wallet, an HTML5-based, white-label service combining local offers and payments, which it… → Read More

June 13th, 2012

Apple’s Passbook Could Be A Platform, Not Just Another Mobile Payments Rival

passbook-wallet

At this week’s WWDC, Apple introduced a new application called “Passbook,” meant to function as an organizer for all your passes. It supports store cards, gift cards and coupons out of the gate, replacing their plastic counterparts, and providing an Apple-approved way to get consumers paying at checkout with their mobile phones. At first glance, it seems that Passbook’s launch is bad news for… → Read More