Apple introduced a brand new app as part of iOS 6 today at the WWDC 2012 keynote called Passbook. It stores all of your “cards” that you tend to carry around with you for different places. Whether it’s a movie ticket, boarding pass, coupon, or gift card you can keep it secure in Passbook.
It’d be pretty boring if it just acted as a simple storage app — so it doesn’t. You can scan your iPhone to check in for a flight, redeem a coupon, get into a movie and the like. It also integrates with push notifications and time or location-based reminders so it can prompt you to use a card depending on where you are. If your iPhone detects that you’re at an airport, for instance,, a notification on the lock screen will pop up so you can quickly swipe to get your boarding pass.
I’ll save you from a 140-character rant on Twitter — yes, it is somewhat similar to Google Wallet. Apple is playing a bit of catch-up here with some competitors, but I have to say, it always does a damn fine job at it. Plus, Google Wallet may have some catching up of its own soon since the first release was a total bust.
Passbook is sure to be one of the most-talked about features of iOS 6 when it lands this fall. Developers can start using the beta release today.