When we ran through the most exciting new features in iOS 8 that Apple ran through at WWDC ’14, there were some pretty cool features. It would seem that some of the most nifty features are the ones that Apple neglected to mention.
As is often the way with new software, a multitude of features have been left to discover in beta testing. In playing around with an early build of the software, the observant chaps over at 9to5Mac have noticed that iOS 8 offers a new feature by the name of ‘Scan Credit Card’.
Now, when making a payment on your iPhone or iPad you don’t have to sit there going through the laborious process of typing in your card details like some sort of neanderthal: you can simply train your device’s camera on the card in question and iOS 8 will fill out the relevant input spaces with the corresponding details.
Whilst we can’t say for sure, it’s fairly safe to assume that this process is also entirely secure, with no details actually being sent anywhere other than from your camera’s lens to your device’s screen.
In fact if you’re a user of Uber, the dial-a-ride service app, you’ll probably have already used a feature similar to this. It would seem that iOS has had the capability to perform something like this for a while now, with Apple choosing not to integrate it.
This is a pretty big step for Apple, who up until this point have been incredibly tentative in expanding into the mobile payment market. iOS device’s still don’t contain NFC chips for contactless payment, and Passbook is still incredibly limited in its supported services (unless you’re an awfully frequent flier). PayPal does have its own app though, which will be allowed access to the TouchID finger/thumbprint scanner when iOS 8 rolls around.
Unfortunately, as far as we can tell so far, this card scanning feature will only be available to use in Safari.
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