Your iPhone could become an RFID-enabled holiday organiser if Apple follows through on a newly revealed patent. The iTravel app would do for the airport check-in desk what the iTicket app which emerged earlier this week could do for concert tickets but also allow you to book and manage trips all from your iPhone. Is Apple really going to use iTravel to take on travel?
The iPhone iTravel patent shows the app allowing you to search for and book flights and other forms of travel directly from your iPhone. It would then let you share that information with your iPhone contacts – perhaps pointing again to the idea of an iGroups social network– and received travel updates via SMS or push messages.
We’ve seen clues that Apple is planning to make an iPhone with RFID built-in plenty of times in recent months and the iTravel app would again make use of that tech. The iPhone iTravel patent paints a picture of a future trip where your flight info and boarding passes would be stored on the phone and scannable using QR codes on the screen or via the RFID chip.
Apple’s iPhone iTravel patent even goes as far as seeing the iPhone in use for swiping in at automated check-in and baggage drops. It’s a pretty exciting idea but we don’t see it turning up in iPhone 4.0, though RFID might well make its debut this time.
Due TBC | £TBC | Apple (via Patently Apple)
