iOS 13 b4 Apple Pay Suica: the wheel that refreshes

The Apple Pay Suica iOS 12.2 UI had one head scratching feature: the pull down refresh in the Suica details window. It didn’t update the balance or transaction information, or appear to do anything at all except twirl. It was a useless mystery wheel that iOS 13 b4 finally solves: it’s for updating the new Shinkansen and Green Car ticket information sections added in the latest beta from Mobile Suica.

These previously existed but only appeared when a user purchased Shinkansen or Green Car eTickets in Suica App. Purchased eTickets are downloaded to the Wallet Suica card for use on JR East Shinkansen lines or Green Car seats for regular trains on JR East and JR Central. It makes sense to add a permanent Tickets section so that users will know where to find and download them before going through the Shinkansen transit gate. I hope we’ll get better notifications too. I think this is also JR East and Apple getting things ready for the new Shinkansen eTicket system and refreshed Suica App due to arrive on April 2020.

There are no other Suica changes in iOS 13 b4. Suica Notification 3D/Haptic Touch shortcuts are still missing and that big useless Suica in-transit notification is still there, useless as ever. Maybe we’ll find the answer to that mystery in the next beta