AppleInsider Staff
Falling just a few days short of making good on its promise to bring Passbook support by the end of September, Starbucks on Wednesday rolled out an update to its iOS app which allows Starbucks Card holders to store their information in the iPhone and iPod touch digital asset repository.
The ubiquitous coffee company was one of the few companies included in a demonstration of Passbook during the application's unveiling at Apple's worldwide developers conference in June.
It was expected that Starbucks would offer Passbook support when iOS 6 launched, but the app wasn't on the list of compatible programs initially advertised in the App Store. The company later promised to offer integration before the end of September.
With the new update, users can easily access their Starbucks Cards from Passbook, allowing easy access to the barcode-based rechargeable payment system.
The utility of the newly integrated system is questionable, however, as access to the barcode in Starbucks' own app only takes one extra step while offering the ability to refill the card's balance. Passbook does trump the coffee company's app as far as iPhone 5 compatibility is concerned, as Starbucks' app has yet to be redesigned to take advantage of the new handset's 4-inch display.
Those Starbucks card holders who haven't yet downloaded the app can do so here.
Charles Martin
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86 Comments
The update in Canada doesn't include Passbook support. Lame.
Off Topic: Starbucks sends you your free rewards and free birthday drink as a postcard in the mail. It's not a very fast or secure method as anyone can use your postcard. Today I received in the post my latest free drink card but the text was different: [indent]This may be your last postcard. Starting 10/16/12* your rewards will load digitally right onto your Card, ad we'll notify you by email when you've earned one. Verify your email so you don't miss a drink. Starbuck.com/rewards[/indent] This plus Passbook should make this a big hit. * I don't mind the Imperial Units of measurements that the US still uses but I don't get why we use the backwards date of putting the smallest duration between the second largest and largest duration, respectively.
No Passbook for Canada
I still don't get "Passbook" at all. It seems we are expected to download apps from others to get their coupons in Passbook? Why would I want to junk up my phone with numerous apps from third parties (most of which are ugly and stupid), just to get the coupons to show up in Passbook? For me (and I think many thousands of others), this is just a non-starter. If on the other hand, when I went into a Starbucks there was some way of them automatically putting something into my passbook that might be okay, but to have to pre-figure out which places might have "offers,"... then download the app... link to passbook ... wait ... reward? It's just stupid and far, far too much trouble for what is essentially a crappy coupon that you can find in any newspaper. Not going to happen. I'm very particular about which apps I download and put on my phone. I'm not going to install some shitty ugly app just because with a lot of extra work I *might* be able to link it to passbook and then I *might* get 10% off of a cup of coffee or whatever.
Canada gets shafted every time! We have the longest land border in the world with the USA and still can't get anything. I can get Canadian cell reception in Buffalo. We should get everything the US gets. It's not like we are behind in technology or anything. Our movie theaters (Cineplex) are already using passbook. Come on Apple.