Square iPhone payment system gets itself a website, showcased in public
By Ross Miller 
posted December 1st 2009 4:10PM
posted December 1st 2009 4:10PM
posted December 1st 2009 4:10PM
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That's AWESOME!
@Bowsa
Yea, after 10 swipes your iPonh eocneector will be loose like a sprong loose that has been in the oven at 350 for 120 mins.
iPhone is a delicate POS...
If you want durability buy a Nokia
@NAME everyones got an opinion
@werty1432k Yet mine's the only one that matters. =P
@werty
...and his is wrong.
@NAME You're obviously uneducated on the subject. I doubt you even watched the video. The connector goes in the phone jack. The iPhone's dock connection has no part in this...
Next time you try and insult someone's hard work, your accusation should have some backbone to them.
@(Unverified) I can see why he might be confused. The site shows the dongle being plugged into the headphone jack, but the video has the device on the bottom of an iPhone. At least the 3G unit I have has the headphone jack on the top of the phone, not the bottom. So I assumed it was connected to the dock port as well when I saw it.
I am the founder of a small theater company (www.un-scripted.com) and this would be a godsend for us. We can't afford a credit card swiper and we are often renting different theaters downtown San Francisco that don't have credit card options either. But enough of our staff has smart phones and this would be perfect to help us better serve our customers.
Awesome!
"The connector goes in the phone jack"
The phone jack? WTF are you talking about?
@Bowsa
It's nice to see Mr.Dorsey innovating something new again.. Surprisingly it's far more different than his "twitter" inspired work.
The only caveats here is will its availability only be hindered by iPhone only? Hopefully that's not the case.
See the detailed square-up review: http://bit.ly/squareup-by-jack-dorsey-best-or-worst
As much as I love the device being a mobile computer technician, doesn't this make card skimming a scary reality. Seriously, think about someone taking your card for payment, slides it through their iPhone. Wham, they have everything to rip you dry. It's a wonderful, but dangerous idea.
@surfernerd6987 Ye I thought about the same thing, like with jail breaking, and hackers. Who knows what they could do with this.
@surfernerd6987
Come on, its the same thing as taking a pictures of someone's card and later using it in an on-line payment system, just reads the info from the magnetic stripe and does that on-line payment immediately, I don't see it as a skimming tool. But i don't see much point in this either. It's nothing more than an iPhone based credit card terminal, at best.
No it's not. The magnetic stripe on the card also stores your billing address and other data on it. You can't get that person's address by taking a picture of his card...
@surfernerd6987 But don't you risk this almost anywhere that your credit card is swiped? Let's say a restaurant.
@(Unverified) I don't think so. The mag strip doesn't have any data that isn't on the card itself. One track just has the card number and expiration, another has that plus your name. I think this is easier than snapping pics or memorizing it, but it doesn't expose more information.
@(Unverified) Yes, but would-be identity thieves used to have to go get a CC scimmer from nefarious sources, and it was a piece of equipment that not many people had.
Now they will be able to get it easily and it can be connected to anything with a mini stereo jack.
@surfernerd6987
Apple approves and QA tests the app and you can bet they pay special attention to any apps using hardware dongles that scan magnetic strips. There are a variety of magnetic strip scanners/software for Windows Mobile for many years and we haven't seen any great apocalypse of fraud. Either way you're probably safer having someone scan the car din front of you instead of taking it out of your sight. For day-to-day use you should have a credit card with a low max and good fraud protection. If you need something for big purchases get a second account and use the card sparsely.
@surfernerd6987. My theory isn't about legal usage. Or Apple's process to approve apps. Its about hackers and jailbreakers getting the device, writing their own code and pushing it themselves. For every legitimate software there's a hacker to reverse engineer it. The only way it would work for this case is to encrypt the data transfer between the device and software to ensure it can't be skimmed. But then anyone could just make their own reader. Its not about anything but an easier method to skim.
@ERock You're forgetting about the 3rd track.
(also, how the f* do I get verified?)
@surfernerd6987 I think you run just as much risk giving your credit card to the 16 year old working for $2.85 an hour plus tips at Applebees. Except there, the kid goes into the back room and can get all the info, including the 3 digit number on the back. Oh, and assume you have a drink and they ID you, they have your address, too.
It pays to be careful, but you can't go through life being worried all the time! Remember when everyone was afraid to give their credit card over the internet? New things scare people, and in a couple years, this will be commonplace.
I think that the natural progress is to have a thing similar Apple iTunes 1 click payment process. Which is: We save all our credit cards on one encrypted square account and then you just have to access Square gateway App and YOU select the vendor by their username and inserting the amount requested. Confirm it by password and that's it. It shows on the merchant account by your username. More simple and not needing to have a credit card with us. Just some smartphone.
Wow, now it makes it even easier for that Waitress to steal my credit card information and charge the crap out of it.
I'll paste my comment about skimming in main, not just as a reply, so more ppl would read...
Come on, its the same thing as taking a picture of someone's card and later using it in an on-line payment system, just reads the info from the magnetic stripe and does that on-line payment immediately. I don't see it as a skimming tool. But i don't see much point in this either. It's nothing more than an iPhone based credit card terminal, at best.
@TAZ
glad im not the only cynical one here
@TAZ She`s gotta get that tip somehow.
Call girls and male companions rejoice!
I only see problems with this as others mentioned above.
@kjb434
Hookers charging with credit cards. Just when you thought you'd seen it all.
@Eternity
Many male and female hookers already do online. It's a big business in the gay world. They are just labeled as "male companions" so it gets around prostitution laws. It's not illegal to pay someone to hang out with you. The sexual stuff is technically consenting after that.
@kjb434
Isn't that what Ex Governor Spitzer thought?
@Eternity
It's much easier to assume in the legal world that a random man paying for a woman's companionship is only oriented towards sex. The assumption doesn't go the same way in the gay world. It's a double standard, but has allowed a businessmen, fathers, politicians, etc. to enjoy it in secrecy. Also, in the gay world there is rarely ever a pimp or service company involved. So there isn't a massive database of customers in a central location.
The card skimmers will love this!
Everyone tripping about "skimming" and scammers are ridiculous. This little tool doesn't make it any easier for anyone who really wants to steal your CC info. About $50 on eBay, or maybe $20 in parts if you can solder, nets you a card reader to get the same information.
Sure, this might make it easier for people who were incapable before, but chances are if they were that incapable they're gonna get caught anyways.
Uh, is it me or does it look like it connects to the speaker jack.
@air on It's actually also a speaker that shouts out your credit card number for everyone to hear after it's been swiped.
@air on
If you mean the headphone jack that is on the top of the iPhone. I too wondered where they were sticking that little thing.
@thefingerofgod
if you go to the website you can see it (the square thing)
and it does go into the headphone jack
this is apparently for future multi device expansion
@thefingerofgod
I think it's an iPod; the headphone jack is on the lower right on them.
@thefingerofgod
Straight from their site:
Swipe it.
Read payment cards from any device with an audio input jack, including your mobile phone. Accepting payments has never been faster or more convenient.
@air on Yes, that's what makes it compatible with any mobile phone (with a 3.5mm jack, which is hardly all, but is quite a few.)
Yeah do they think the majority of Americans are 18-25 year old's that live in coffee shops? Sorry but I don't see this catching on
@nelagster It's a demo. The application of the device was shown at a coffee house. There's really no limit to how or where you can use it. I would definitely love this for when I make PC house calls.
@nelagster The person paying just uses their normal credit card, it's the employee that has to have an iPhone or other compatible device.
WTF, who the fack uses magnetic cards anymore?
I have a chip on my card and have to enter the PIN...
Lets see those gas stations min wage losers wkim the fake magnetic card that I wiped clean
AHAHAHAHH!!!
@NAME I do and so does everyone I know chip boy.
@NAME
The United States has not adopted the EMV system (that uses smart cards with a chip and usually a PIN for authentication).
As such, this product would be well suited to that market, but not many others.
So now skimmers are going mainstream.
I can see it already...
"Sorry, we can't run your card now, AT&T's network is too congested at the moment"
@jhow
Seriously? You think they wouldn't be using wifi for a local purchase?
This is exactly how mobile payment ISN'T supposed to work..
Mobile payment should work by only using your mobile phone, either by software, through the internet or a built in chip..
This is just a card machine, that doesn't do anything new, and is only getting press, because it connects to an iphone.
@pelapp
Agreed...why not allow people to pay from their mobiles without the use of a card...set up a web server and create an account system that allows people to save their credit card info but maybe require a PIN or the CVV2 \ last 4 digits along with a password, whatever - something to make it secure. That's a hell of a lot more innovative than some piece of plastic that sucks an iphones battery for no reason.