Following a preview at WWDC 2018, Apple today announced that students at three universities in the United States can now add their student ID cards to Apple Wallet to get around campus using just an iPhone or Apple Watch.
Namely, starting today, students at Duke University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Oklahoma can now add their ID card to the Wallet app on iOS 12 and watchOS 5 and use it to pay quickly and easily for laundry, coffee or lunch, and even get into their dorms, the gym, or the school library.
Apple says Johns Hopkins University, Santa Clara University, and Temple University will roll out the capability by the end of this school year.
Students simply hold their iPhone or Apple Watch near the reader anywhere physical student ID cards are accepted — on and off campus. An optional Express Mode bypasses the need to authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode, allowing for the quickest entry possible to buildings around campus.
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2.
iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
Apple has unveiled nine new products this month, but the wait continues for the next-generation Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini models.
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said new versions of the Apple TV and HomePod mini have been "ready" since last year, but he reiterated that Apple has held off on releasing them until the more personalized version of Siri and other...
iOS 26.4 was released today, and it includes a couple of new features for CarPlay: an Ambient Music widget and support for voice-based chatbot apps.
To update your iPhone 11 or newer to iOS 26.4, open the Settings app and tap on General → Software Update. CarPlay will automatically offer the new features so long as the iPhone connected to your vehicle is running iOS 26.4 or later....
Fumbling with a $750-1500 device repeatedly to get into buildings or buy things is nowhere as convenient as slaping a plastic card against a reader. You use this a lot more than Apple pay (which also is annoying since they required that double press a button to activate).
You have to remember that in most cases the current student generation is on their phone at all times so it is already in their hand or readily available.
Fumbling with a $750-1500 device repeatedly to get into buildings or buy things is nowhere as convenient as slaping a plastic card against a reader. You use this a lot more than Apple pay (which also is annoying since they required that double press a button to activate).
Hmm, I think it's far more likely some would fumble around for a plastic card that has 1 purpose than a phone they probably already have in their hand or a watch that's on their wrist.
My university already has these readers installed on every door. My iPhone and Apple watch make it beep... so why exactly is this roll out so slow? I feel like this is nothing more than adding a student ID to ApplePay.
The article would be a lot more useful (for me) if it provided details on what a campus IT team needed to activate this. You know, so I could bug them about it.
Fumbling with a $750-1500 device repeatedly to get into buildings or buy things is nowhere as convenient as slaping a plastic card against a reader. You use this a lot more than Apple pay (which also is annoying since they required that double press a button to activate).
And don't forget it works with Apple Watch.. which presumably is on their wrist, whats more convenient than waving your hand over a reader? No slapping. No fumbling for a plastic card. Just wave your hand, which in most cases is right there. Seems convenient to me.
I find it incredibly amusing that Tim Cook is an Auburn alumn, but Alabama is one of the first schools to roll this out. You think he’d have pushed his alma mater to support it at launch.
