Apple's iOS 8 Delivers Credit-Card Scanning, Better Mobile Privacy

Apple's iOS 8 Delivers Credit-Card Scanning, Better Mobile Privacy

Apple's reveal of iOS 8 at WWDC last week delivered a number of surprises, but users are still discovering more features, including a new credit-card-scanning option in Safari.

The feature enables you to use the iPhone's camera to scan your credit-card number when prompted by a website during ecommerce transactions.

When presented with a credit-card field in the iOS 8 version of Safari, you'll see a "Scan Credit Card" prompt, a new part of the Passwords and AutoFill option already available in iOS 7, which allows you to store credit-card details for future online purchases. The new feature uses character recognition to translate the image of your credit card into distinct numbers on your iOS device, according to 9to5Mac.

Another less-publicized feature of iOS 8 is that it generates random MAC (media access control) addresses when scanning for Wi-Fi networks, a dynamic that will make it slightly more difficult for marketing companies to track you via your MAC address.

A programmer in Switzerland noticed the new feature, and posted a tweet, along with a screenshot of the update on Sunday.

Given the many changes in iOS 8, a few more surprises will likely crop up in the coming weeks. But if you aren't a developer or enrolled in Apple's public-beta program, you'll have to wait until the fall to take advantage of all the goodies in the next iteration of iOS.

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