Door locks…check, ID…check, transit…oops. The Information got 2 out of 3 right but the transit stuff was a bust. We won’t get the whole iOS 12 and watchOS 5 story until new products are announced this fall but it looks like open developer access to Apple Pay and NFC is coming via an enhanced Core NFC, or some other method to be revealed later this week at WWDC18. A lot of developer heads would turn if Apple completely opens the doors to full 3rd party access with all 3 NFC Modes: Card Emulation, Reader/Writer and Peer to Peer.
The only thing clear so far is that contactless Student ID cards are coming to Apple Pay Wallet. There are lots of FeliCa and MIFARE based ID badge security systems out there but I could not find who provides the technology for Temple University’s OWLCard or John Hopkins J-Card, but there are clues how they will work:
- Contactless student ID cards are Stored Value (SV)
- Because they are SV cards, they can be recharged
Since they will reside in Apple Pay Wallet this probably means contactless student ID cards can be ‘recharged’ with an Apple Pay credit card instead of running to the nearest ‘refill/recharge’ station. Anytime, Anywhere Recharge.
Sound familiar? My goodness it’s just like Apple Pay Suica that you can recharge on the go and use for JR East Suica coin lockers. The only real difference is that Apple Pay Student ID cards cannot be used for transit. At least not yet. The Apple Pay Developer page says, “discover how to create contactless passes for rewards cards, gift cards, tickets, and more.” Contactless passes for reward cards eh? Sounds like that JRE POINT card in Apple Pay Wallet will be possible after all.
UPDATE: Contactless Passes are made possible with NFC Certificates and appear to the method for some 3rd party access to NFC in iOS 12 and watchOS 5.
You must be logged in to post a comment.