Adafruit is in the Square payment pilot, awesomeness will likely ensue
By Chris Ziegler 
posted February 25th 2010 1:54PM
posted February 25th 2010 1:54PM
posted February 25th 2010 1:54PM
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I think Square is gonna fail for three reasons:
1) verifone already has this product
2) this thing looks flimsy as hell
3) would you give your credit card to a random dude with an iphone instead of a proper payment terminal?
@akandyba
1: so?
2: yeah, probably will be cheap.
3: drug dealers, farmers markets... idk.
@vlad the inhaler
I'm sure drug dealers are dieing for a way to leave a massive paper trail like they would using this thing
@akandyba this is just inappropriate! these things will go mass market style and there will be lots of hacks! identity theft will be even moreon the rise! what an aweful invention!
@akandyba The particular dongle Adafruit's been provided looks rough to say the least -- these aren't the units you'll be getting off the shelf
@Astounding
I know it's a beta unit, but the whole concept is flawed. this is what it should have looked like: http://www.paywaremobile.com/
@vlad the inhaler
-1 because of your pic!
@Evan But they will leave a cocaine trail when they try to empty it out the window as they are in a police chase..
@Evan Squareup is something that should have been done years ago, finally its on the way for a skyrocketing release. The only caveats here is will its availability only be hindered by iPhone only? Hopefully that's not the case. Square-up examined: http://bit.ly/squareup-by-jack-dorsey-best-or-worst
@akandyba
this is passing through my engadget.com/exclude/apple/
@Evan Drug dealers have been taking credit for years, ain't no thang...
@akandyba
the dongle looks like crap because they want it to fit every device android phones as well. if they made it fit only one device where is the money in that. also that little crap dongle will cost them nothing to make and thus allow them to give them away to intise you to buy the mobile app, keeping the entire cost next to nothing.
the item that company has will cost over $100 and only fit the iphone who do you think will win the race? cheap and available to all phones & platforms, or expensive and only available to one platform and phone?
@akandyba
No, this is what it should have looked like. Apple employees have had these in their stores for months.
@petepete whoops
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/11/03/exclusive_look_at_apples_new_ipod_touch_based_easypay_checkout.html
@akandyba oops!
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/11/03/exclusive_look_at_apples_new_ipod_touch_based_easypay_checkout.html
@petepete i hate the comment system
Hardware looks annoying, make one that wraps round the top, looks good and keeps it secure.
@dansus
Oh, and this is just for the iphone right? Fail.
@dansus I was about to say the same thing. You have to buy an iphone or ipod touch for this to work? It would be a lot better if it supported other platforms like Symbian, Palm, Windows Mobile, and Android.. cause we all know, every retailer and seller out there has an iphone/itouch laying around, right?
For those that already have one, that's great, but the many, many more retailers who don't? It's cheaper to buy a traditional credit card reader or USB credit card reader for your POS (Point of sale) computer or laptop for much less.
@dansus I was about to say the same thing. You have to buy an iphone or ipod touch for this to work? It would be a lot better if it supported other platforms like Symbian, Palm, Windows Mobile, and Android.. cause we all know, every retailer and seller out there has an iphone/itouch laying around, right?
For those that already have one, that's great, but the many, many more retailers who don't? It's cheaper to buy a traditional credit card reader or USB credit card reader for your POS (Point of sale) computer or laptop for much less.
@dansus
this one is what you are talking about:
http://www.paywaremobile.com/
Really, there's an ATM 200 feet over there that I'd rather use.
All I see is a great way to break off your dock connector.
@One Love : ...er, audio connector.
Seems like a reasonable usage for those people selling stuff on the streets or the flea market/swap meet.
@UrAwFuL : drug dealers can take credit card payments from hipsters. :)
So, who's stopping a $randomperson to develop a 3rd party app for his iPhone that instead of communicating with Adafruit's servers copies the information on Track1 and Track2 from the card, and that also captures pin number when you're asked for it?
@Znuff +1, i'll get right on it!
Nowadays I won't put my card anywhere unless i'm asked for my pin, I don't know about the USA but in the UK everywhere is chip and pin.
@ChrisMav US card only has chip, but no pin.
"Awesomeness"?? This thing looks awful, both aesthetically and functionally. Just a poorly executed concept.
I still have this feeling my debit card wouldn't be safe using that..
That looks pretty cool but I'd prefer a more contact less payment system kind of like what's going on in Japan with cell phones and vending machines.
Wow all the haters on this one!
As a business man, this is one product I am looking at. Verifone is the other. Great for service businesses that make house calls like pizza delivery, carpet cleaners, handyman and so on. Convenience for both the client and business sounds like a win to me
@vegasBimmer
I order pizza with a credit card already. I give the dude my card info over the phone and sign a reciept when he gets to my door.
So now you need a car and an iphone to be a pizza delivery boy? Stay in school kids.
@haas599 yep my pizza guy takes card over the phone too. And when the delivery shows up, the guy has to rub my card under the paper slip to make an impression in the same fashion Indiana Jones would if he was capturing and ancient Inca wall inscription. Its a highly inefficient way to do business that should be retired to the dark ages.
In addition, the card processing companies give lower transaction fees for card swipe transaction versus card not present transactions. So, you can keep you cave man style card processing and my customers will enjoy convenience.
@haas599
Yeah I can write with a pen and paper too. Does that mean it's the best way to communicate?
I gotta say - I was pretty excited about Square until I asked for a demo of it at Macworld. The bozos showing the product told me that the only way I could see the product in action was to slide my own credit card and make a donation to the Blue Cross, or something. I've already donated to Haiti, thank you! You can't show me the product without forcing me to donate more? Lame! Hard for me to be a fan after such a lame experience with them...
@JonSF
Where do they get off, using their business to help people in need? Buncha jerks!
@CtrlBurn Forcing someone that is interested in their technology to donate their $ in order to see a demo? That's bad business.
Seriously is anybody going to hand over their card to someone with a phone a cheap plastic thing attached to it? Looks more like a card skimmer!
Guess it's never going to come to the UK anyway where Chip and Pin is required by Visa and Mastercard.
We are part of the Square beta test. Our company, bGreen (www.bgreenlifestyle.com), received the Square two weeks, and we have to say, it's really really awesome. So easy, so fast, and so convenient. Everyone we've showed it to has been blown away. You can watch our video demo right here: http://bit.ly/bgreensq. Drop us a line if you're in Boston and want to check it out.
Chip and pin in the u.k has been hacked, there calling the system broken, now they want to introduce it to the states.
All of you that hate on the iPhone=FAIL! So go crawl back in that hole you came from.
every time I read an article about this product no one questions how much this will cost per transaction....why... who cares if you can take someones money when you have to give up 20 cents on every dollar, because that is what credit cards charge like amex.
Payment via phone has been built into Japanese mobiles for about 5 years via Suica system. You just hold your phone against the card reader on the metro, tills etc. No dongle, built-in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suica#Mobile_Suica
Billing Credit Card Terminal is equally worth a good look. This solution was the first to incorporate Signature Capture and yet this square solution with its required dongle and non-release gets all the hype. There are about 20 apps that do credit card processing in the iphone or ipod touch yet engadget continues to show this non live, non released, hardware reliant solution which is not even all that original.
See for yourself: http://www.spartadata.com
direct link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/billing-credit-card-terminal/id326255801?mt=8
Do not always buy into all the buzz - good solid solutions await - just take your time and look around before you decide to buy into any particular service / app.
Lastly note that square will require you to use them as the provider merchant services and all locking you in to whatever fees and rates they will have while Billing simply requires a gateway account with Authorize.net being the most widely used gateway in the US. Merchant account transparent - cant be bad to have open merchant option for an app like this...
just my 2¢
In S. Korea, you can use your cell phone to pay for goods for the last 6 years. And there is no dongle.
This tech is way outdated.