World News: Talking Tech: Ready to replace your car keys and physical ID with just a phone?

Thursday, March 24

Happy Friday eve, Talking Tech readers! It's Brett Molina taking a break from enjoying the spring weather to deliver your headlines in tech.

Let's start with a question: Are you ready to ditch your wallet, purse or backpack for your iPhone? I'm talking your keys, your credit cards, your driver's licenses – all on your smartphone.

On Wednesday, Apple announced Arizona is the first state to launch a feature for the iPhone's Wallet app allowing owners to keep their driver's license or state ID right on their phone.

For now, the purpose of this feature is aimed at travelers who want a quick way to move through TSA checkpoints, simply tapping their device on a special reader to verify their ID. However, don't be surprised to see this feature become optional in other scenarios where an ID verification might be required.

And this is only the beginning. Apple is planning multiple features for Wallet, such as the ability to add your house key, your car key and other critical items to your iPhone. Android boasts similar features, too, such as digital car keys.

So does this mean we eventually live in a world where our physical essentials like car keys and IDs stay home, and we only bring our phones? It certainly feels that way. May we never lose our phones.

What else happened in Tech?

UKRAINE'S VOLUNTEER ONLINE ARMY. How do you fight trolls? Elves. Meet the people fighting Russian misinformation on Facebook.

MICROSOFT, SAMSUNG, OKTA 'HACKED'. Are these the Russian cyberattacks we were warned about?

GOOGLE FACES LAWSUIT. A former employee claims the tech giant engages in a "pattern and practice" of unfair treatment of its Black workers.

APPLE SERVICES GO DOWN. Several services including iMessage, the App Store and iCloud got knocked out by an outage.

Thursday's tech tip

Now that spring is here and restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic are being lifted, you might be very eager to leave your house and go on a big trip. If you do, make sure you bring these handy travel apps with you.