Don't get Apple's Passbook? iOS 6.1 will explain it to you

Apple's new explanation of what Passbook does to newbies.

(Credit: 9to5Mac)

iPhone users scratching their heads over how to use Apple's Passbook app will get a little more help as part of an upcoming software update.

iOS 6.1 adds an updated explanatory note to the digital-wallet app, which comes pre-installed on new iPhones and iPod Touch devices. Apple delivered a second beta testing version of the OS version to developers this morning.

Instead of kicking users out to the App Store to go find applications that offer Passbook integration, Apple now puts information about the feature inside a card that sticks around even after you've started using the software, 9to5mac noted this morning.

By comparison, the previous explanatory page would outright disappear the first time you added a pass, and suggest that passes could only be added through App Store apps.

Passbook is an application from Apple designed to store membership cards, tickets, coupons, and boarding passes -- a bit like a digital wallet. As an added feature, Passbook does a few things paper and plastic can't, like alert you to changes in connected account information, and pop up through the homescreen to be readily accessed based... [Read more]