An upgrade to Apple’s mobile iOS operating system due this fall will enable iPhones to use the technology underlying the Apple Pay wireless payment system for more tasks.
Users of newer iPhone models, for example, may be able to use their phones as mass transit passes, security badges, or to scan products for information about their manufacture.
This is thanks to new support for near field communications (NFC) technology that Apple (AAPL, +1.31%) disclosed in June. And that, in turn, should help iPhones do more of the things that phones running Google’s (GOOG, +0.47%) rival Android operating system can already do.
