Mophie iPhone credit card reader coming to a CES near you
By Vlad Savov 
posted December 31st 2009 4:19AM
posted December 31st 2009 4:19AM
posted December 31st 2009 4:19AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
@hexideciml sure because, according to you, no mobile credit card reader has existed before this. Specially on that easy to hack 15-year old legacy platform called WinMo. Apparently 'tards like yourself have never seen one of these in your life:
http://www.barcodesinc.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/mobile-credit-card-reader.jpg
or
http://ifoapplestore.com/photos/symbol_portable2.jpg
What are you going to do next? accuse Apple fans of claiming Apple invented card readers?
@HighestRanked
ughh u fail to see the point. how many teenagers 15 yrs ago had WinMo phones or clel phones in general? Todays market is msot definetly different than lets say 10 and 15 yrs ago.
what I'm saying is that with the overwhelming saturation of mobile phones in the US being iphone( and im assuming this will work with an ipod touch?) there is much more a likely hood of some dumb/curious/asshole teenager will use their phone for skimming.
winmo phones and C&C devices liek you mentioned didnt and dont really cater to annoying teenagers.
yes mobile credit card readers existed and they are very easy to obtain but this is much more concealable given it is an attachment for something many people own. the ability to obtain the info easily has increased
get over ur own ego kid
know it alls arent cool
Will it be PCI compliant? Isn't it a little bit of a dead end? When everyones walking around with a next gen phone, we'll be able to directly transfer money from our bank accounts.
Room in a hotel: $400
10 year monthly installments for a super sexy escort: $99
having the hottest fuck of your life time: Priceless
there are some things (like love) that money cant buy....... for "everything else", there's Master Card
(accepted anywhere your travels may take you).
For those of you who comment on magnetic strip vs. chip and pin.
Most of US credit card processors are still running old mainframes to process credit card transactions. Good luck asking them to change their specs to support chip and pin, instead of staying with the magnetic strip.
ISO-8583 is an industry standard that describe credit card transactions, you would not want to know how many US processors actually follow this standard. Each of them implements them differently and many still maintain their own specifications because their platform is running on this spec and it would cost them and the merchants too much money to move to different spec.
Unless they are being regulated to move to chip and pin, I don't see it happening anytime soon.
@Blackfield How does the US situation differ to Europe? Surely the same applies?
@PaulMdx
Chip and PIN was initiated and backed by UK government (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_and_PIN).
This type of move can only happen if the industry (willing to swallow the cost) and the government(regulator body) can come to an agreement.
I am sure someone has tried to lobby to push this in US, but is there enough incentives? We are talking, potentially, millions of dollars in cost for both the processors and the merchants to implement/modify to the new specification.
I don't know the number as far as fraud on magnetic strip vs. chip and pin, but chip and pin is not bullet proof either.
Add a rubber grip and allow the iPhone to connect to a Bluetooth barcode scanner/printer, and this is a great mobile point of sale. However, I would think that the upcoming iTablet/Slate/Pad would make a better option for mobile POS.
As for credit card number skimming, it's already very easy to do. Mobile card scanners have been out for years, but how many people do you see walking around with Treos and card readers? Just because iPhones are more prevalent and more stylish doesn't mean you'll see more kiddie hackers with credit card readers.
@uzerzero
Mophie = fail in rubber grip. my side "grips" on my mophie Juice Pack melted off from the heat the pack creates when charging. They were cheap strips of rubber just glued on. Fail.
I would NEVER give my credit card at any store or individual that wants to scan it in their phone. This thing is going to fail hard.
@fatslug. so you never bought anything with a credit card at the Apple Store. cause those old handhelds of theirs were just as great a potential for stealing your card number. as I mentioned earlier, just using your card sets you up for potential fraud. even if it is scanned in the machine. just takes brains by the person doing the scanning. add some social engineering and a trusting target and bingo your card number is theirs
@fatslug
You never hand it over to a waiter or waitress? If you do, I assume you follow them to their terminal to make sure they do *exactly* what they're supposed to do with your card??
Yeah, right.
@fatslug apparently, slugs are quite paranoid and alarmist.
these point-of-sale on the go solutions ROCK, but trust is an issue. if a guy whips out a iphone with one of these and asks me to swipe, how do i know he didn't hack it so in stead of/in addition to billing me for the item i paid for, it doesn't store my cc info.
the better solution is if a client has an iphone, squaretrade uses a web app so you pop the reader onto their iphone, point em to a website, log in with your credentials, and do it from a web app.
this requires HTML5, i know
@artshark : How do you know that any other credit card terminal hasn't been hacked in the same way? This is not a differential risk.
As if the recession hasn't encouraged enough people to turn to prostitution, now they can even accept plastic! Gotta love it.
I run regional comic book conventions, and this thing seems brilliant. Most wireless cc readers run over $500 and that is on contract with $50+ a month service. this thing could save a vendor tons of money...especially if it is month to month. Sadly it doesn't do me much good...since I am physically typing this message on my DROID. Rad!
may be it works like this:
you swipe YOUR OWN credit card in YOUR OWN phone...... and YOUR PHONE sends a push message to the phone number of the person you wanna pay. He gets the money without you even looking at your card.
Flippin' sweet!! this will work great for my boondoggle key chain business.
People had been using the Newton and Palm devices for POS and reading in badges at trade shows for a long time. Its really not surprising to see an iphone application.
Not surprising to see all the stupid replies on this site assuming its for stealing data either. Its not like your credit card information is top secret either. Just because a card swipe machine is nailed down doesn't mean nobody can take your info from it.
@(Unverified)
yes this si true that at any store or restaurant or any place you ahnd ur credit card over to somebody ti could be swipped w/o ur permission and info taken. however this puts one of those machines in the literally in the hands of anyone who can get a cell phone.
much easier to carry a cellphone in ur pocket and also less noticeable then a standard credit card machine
@hexideciml just like anyone can get any other hundreds of other card readers available for WinMo and Palm as well. What's your point?
@hexideciml
They still have to have as service to accept and process the transactions and make the payouts. They can swipe all the cards they want if there is no Credit Card service provider, there is no way to get money.
For all the people calling "zOMG skiiemrz!!1!", can any of you provide a citation for a case of a device that was obivously, openlym and solely used for skimming?
This is not a differential risk.
I don't really think this will be used by as many retailers and etailers and contractors simply because of the margin costs for the remote processing of cards. Usually, terminal costs are VERY expensive, that's why debit has been so popular because the charge is minimal to nothing to deduct directly from the bank. Just be careful who you do business with, that's all.
Mophie means Homosexual in South Africa. I can't see it going too well there except perhaps the gay community