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Square's new reader arrives to accept mobile payments and chip cards
We've known about Square's new NFC-friendly reader for a while, and now the point-of-sale gadget is available for use. Starting today, 100 merchants in "select cities" (quite a few, actually) will begin accepting NFC-driven payments like Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay and those newfangled chip credit/debit cards. The reader is a square pad (of course) separate from the company's usual POS setups and sliding readers, allowing you to hover your phone or insert a card to complete purchase. The unit is wireless and pairs with either a countertop system or Square's free mobile app to handle the transactions. However, the new reader itself will set businesses back $49 in order to get started. For the initial rollout, look for the device at businesses in the following cities: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Seattle, St. Louis Tampa, and Washington, D.C.
Hacks turn Square's reader into a card-stealing machine (updated)
As helpful as a Square Reader may be for purchases at trendy stores, you'll want to watch out -- in the right circumstances, they can also be used to steal your credit card info. Security researchers have discovered that you can physically disable the encryption the device uses to protect your financial info, turning the Reader into a tiny, portable card skimmer. There's also a way to record the signal created by your card when you swipe its magnetic stripe on an unmodified Reader, which theoretically lets evildoers charge your card without approval.
Apple Pay adds Square Reader to make you a compulsive shopper
Apple really wants its users to be shopaholics. The tech giant first introduced Apple Pay and made life easier for iPhone 6 and Apple Watch users in the US last fall. Despite the initial skepticism from retailers, the contactless payment service has been gaining momentum. Jennifer Bailey, VP of Apple Pay, announced at WWDC today that the service would soon be available at 1 million locations across the country. In its quest to become ubiquitous in the retail world, the company also announced a Square Reader that will be Apple Pay-compatible. Square's wireless reader will make it possible for any business with a tablet or smartphone to accept Apple Pay. So when the reader goes live later this year, the service will become accessible virtually everywhere -- think local bakeries and farmers markets.
Amazon undercuts Square and PayPal with its own mobile card reader
Square's grand plan to democratize credit card payments has inspired a clutch of imitators, the latest of which is Amazon. The company has just announced Amazon Local Register, a credit card reader and app combination that'll enable small businesses to take payments they wouldn't otherwise get, as long as they have a smartphone or tablet lying around. The retailer is savagely undercutting both Square and PayPal Here, offering a flat charge of 1.75 percent per payment until the start of 2016, a full percent lower than the 2.75 and 2.7 percent asked by the other two. On January 2nd, however, the fee rises to 2.5 percent, a smaller yet still significant cut compared to Amazon's rivals in the space. The gear's available for Android, iOS and the company's own Fire devices, priced at $10, and there's even a business bundle for $380 that'll include a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 -- which we figure is a whole lot cheaper than trying to install a cash register in your taco truck.
Square's new chip card reader will make your payments more secure
There's a good reason you don't usually see Square readers outside of the US: they're built to read payment cards with magnetic stripes, not the more secure chip-and-PIN cards that are common everywhere else. All that's set to change, however. Square has revealed plans for a reader that accepts the chip-based EMV format alongside stripes, letting shops handle credit and debit cards from around the world (and the US, once it catches up). The company will only start taking pre-orders for the payment device later this year, but it could be worthwhile for stores and customers alike. Besides the greater availability, it's much harder to clone a chip card -- you shouldn't have to worry about an unscrupulous clerk (or a clever hacker) stealing your credit card and going on a shopping spree.
Square Market brings ecommerce to neighborhood businesses
Online payment processing system Square has launched a new expansion called Square Market, a webstore that allows users to set up their own digital shops. Each store makes its own page that includes the business's important information, from hours of operation to location, along with a cleanly designed storefront to display and sell items online. The page becomes a mini-webpage of sorts with links to social media like Twitter and contact information. Stores are free to create, with the company taking a percentage of each sale, similar to the model its epayment system has. Its cut ends up being 2.75 percent from every sale, lower than many private credit card process payments and lower than the flat fee some other online stores charge per item. The clean and photo-friendly design of the stores will appeal to Pinterest fans, and the low percentage rate is sure to sway a few business owners who don't want to splurge on a full online store. It will be interesting to see if the company's built-in network of stores that already use its credit card readers to process payments will give it a head start against the established competition.
WWDC 2010: Square's first steps
Square has already made a big splash with its launch -- the company, founded by Jim McKelvey, Jack Dorsey (formerly of Twitter), and Tristan O'Tierney, has created a system for accepting credit card payments through the iPhone. After a lot of secrecy and hype, the app launched on the iPad a while back. While the Square Reader (a little doohickey you can plug in the headphone port of an iOS device to swipe credit cards in) is still hard to find, we got one directly from O'Tierney himself at WWDC last week. It wasn't free -- he charged us a buck for it (and for the privilege of seeing a demo), taken by swiping my card through the reader, having me sign on the touchscreen, and emailing me a receipt in a process that was quick and painless. Well, mostly painless -- you have to hand it to a company whose demo is dependent on you giving them a buck. But I guess O'Tierney paid me back with his time -- you'll find an interview after the link below in which he tells me the weirdest use of the reader he's seen, what their biggest fraud issue has been so far, and what the company plans to do next.
