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Square's name, design influenced by a meeting at Apple
For a while now it's been known that the popular iPhone credit card payment system known as Square was originally known by a different name and had a very different look. The familiar white plastic square-shaped plug-in dongle was originally made of wood and shaped like an acorn (no joke) and its name was "Squirrel." However, the current name and shape of the credit card reader we all know and love came about after Square CEO Jack Dorsey had a lunch at Apple's Caffé Macs. On Wednesday night, according to TNW, Dorsey told the attendees of San Francisco's Commonwealth Club, where he was accepting the 21st Century Visionary award, that he was set on the "Squirrel" name until he was having lunch with Apple's senior vice president of iPhone Software Scott Forstall. Dorsey noticed that the point-of-sale system used in Caffé Macs was from Squirrel Systems so he had to change the name of his device. While Dorsey didn't say Forstall had anything to do with the change of the dongle's shape, it's easy to assume that the Apple's SVP took one look at the wooden acorn and said "I have a better idea." Square first launched in 2010 and just a few days ago announced that it has shipped 500,000 Square card readers and processed 1 million transactions in May to the tune of about US$3 million worth of mobile payments a day.
Square Register and Card Case hands-on
It looks like Square's little headphone jack-connected credit card reader has some company. The mobile payment startup introduced two new additions to its unique stable of payment options in San Francisco this morning that do away with credit cards, paper receipts, and even the bantam reader itself (to some degree). First up is the Square Register, an app that allows merchants to accept payments by way of the card reader or through a card-less (no, it's not NFC) tab -- like, "put it on my tab" -- system, and uses Google-style analytics to keep track of payments, receipts, and trends. The second announcement, the Square Card Case, is a virtual wallet that holds a series of "cards," each relating to a participating outlet, that let you put your purchases on the aforementioned tab. Each shop has its own virtual credit card, and enables shoppers to make and track purchases with a single click of a button. We got a chance to give the setup a try, and it's just about as simple as Square would have you believe. To get started, you make a regular, Square-enabled purchase at a participating store, at which point a text-message receipt is sent to your phone that prompts you to install Card Case -- we skipped this step, as this was just a demo. Once set up, we were introduced to the Card Case, holding cards for the participating stores -- only 50 spots in five cities, for now -- and an "Explore Places" button that offers access to a directory of participating outlets. We selected a nearby cupcake stand, clicked "open tab" and picked our poison: a miniature red velvet cupcake, in this case. The merchant picked our name from a list of open tabs, charged the tiny treat to our card, and a receipt was promptly pushed our way. After the transaction was complete, we went back to the cupcake card in the Card Case, and there was the receipt. All in all it was a painless process, but, then, so is whipping out a real wallet to make a purchase. The new Square setup is available now at 50 different establishments in New York, LA, Saint Louis, San Francisco, and DC, and the company says it will curate the list of participating stores, much like Apple does apps.
Square and Apple have plans for Monday
If you follow @jack, otherwise known as Twitter co-founder and current Square CEO Jack Dorsey, then you'll know that at about 2 PM EDT today, he tweeted the cryptic Instagram (a company he's invested in) message and photo shown at right. A square with apples in it -- that's pretty obvious there, Jack. Square card readers are currently selling in Apple retail stores, but it appears that there's more to the story. The company has a press conference scheduled for 10 AM PDT at its headquarters in San Francisco, and Dorsey's hint looks like a not-so-subtle message that the two companies are going to announce something big. I speculated yesterday that Apple could be planning to use Square card readers with the Apple Retail iPads that are being rolled out, or perhaps Square and Apple have other plans up their respective sleeves. Fortunately, the announcement is just two days away and not life-changing, so we can all rest easy over this beautiful spring (or fall in the Southern Hemisphere) weekend.
Square to add encryption to mobile card reader, skimmers put on notice
It's only been a couple days since we first heard about Visa's involvement with Square, but the credit card giant is already making its mark on the mobile payment startup. At the Visa Global Security Summit on Wednesday, Square Security Lead Sam Quigley revealed that the company will distribute an encrypted card reader this summer, which will work exclusively with its mobile payment app. The current reader theoretically scans credit card data to any app, but the encrypted version will only work with Square, which should alleviate VeriFone's concern that the company was essentially distributing "card skimmers" to anyone with a social security number. Luckily, the new encrypted reader will remain free, giving Square a colossal advantage over VeriFone's Payware Mobile product, which carries a $49 activation fee, in addition to standard merchant fees. Not to mention, it isn't available in white.
Square gets financial backing from Visa, asks to see some ID
Everything's coming up Jack Dorsey these days. Last week Apple started stocking Square's iPhone credit card readers in its 235 US retail locations, and now, according to Reuters, Visa has put its plastic where its mouth is. The credit card giant has invested in the personal payments startup, scoring itself a spot on Square's advisory board in the process. No word on how much Visa is actually dropping on the company, but one thing stands to reason: it probably didn't make the deposit via Verifone. If you would like to invest in a Square reader, it'll cost you a lot less -- the company is still offering smartphone plug-ins for free on its site.
Square's Jack Dorsey calls VeriFone's vulnerability claims 'not fair or accurate'
We had a feeling that Square wouldn't let VeriFone call it out without issuing some sort of statement, and CEO Jack Dorsey has responded to the claims of a gaping security hole in the form of an open letter on the company's website. Dorsey calls its competitor's accusations "not fair or accurate" and says that many of the necessary security measures are already built-in to your credit card itself. He also points out that this sort of credit card number thievery is possible every time you hand your plastic over to a waiter or salesperson, and that its partner bank, JPMorgan Chase, stands behinds all aspects of the service. To us, it seems like Verifone is more than a little scared at the prospect of Square undercutting its fees and potentially upending the POS business -- but we're just theorizing. One thing is for sure though, we'll be hearing a lot more about this as the mobile payment war heats up in the future.
Square delays reader distribution, says it's examining transaction limits
Two weeks back at WWDC, Square told us that the company was "catching up with demand" of its little plastic credit card reader for the iPhone, and that it would "be there really soon." But it looks like things won't quite "be there" as soon as they thought. They've decided to delay the mass roll-out of the devices, with Jack Dorsey telling users that the company "released parts of Square before they were fully baked." That coincides with what our readers were saying in the comments on the original interview -- that the reader devices were taking a long time to be shipped out to users. Dorsey also agreed with the other issue our commenters brought up (that the service's transaction limits, which Square originally put in place to counteract fraud, are too low), and said that those limits would be addressed soon. Dorsey doesn't say how "soon" that may be -- there's still no ETA on when the readers will go out, and Square is still working on how exactly it will change or update those transaction limits. Basically, there is no fix in sight for those frustrated by the company so far. So it looks like Square isn't quite where it wants to be yet. But then again, think about the problems it's having: it can't keep up with demand for free readers, and people want to transfer even more money through the service. Those are pretty good problems to have. Square is definitely taking its time while working out the kinks, but the fact that it just can't keep up with demand is far from a condemnation of their business model.
iPhone credit card reader to be demoed at CES
Coming this CES (which is actually next week): a complete credit card transaction accessory and service for your iPhone. If this thing works as expected, you might actually see it in more than a few places (think: street vendors that will take credit card payments). A company called Mophie is planning to show off an add-on that works with an app to deliver credit card payments through Square, a payment service recently started up by Jack Dorsey, a Twitter alumni. This is one of a couple such systems that will be vying to fulfill the function (and probably take a few cents from each transaction for their troubles), but so far all we've really got is demos, no actual releases planned. But maybe we'll hear more at CES. There's all kinds of applications here -- a solid, working implementation of a service like this could end up being extremely popular for anybody that regularly needs to conduct transactions out in the field.
Square iPhone payment system gets itself a website, showcased in public
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and the quiet startup formerly known as Squirrel are finally opening up a bit. The company now called Square, as we noted back in October, has launched a website for its iPhone payment dongle, although it's still in somewhat private beta testing. TechCrunch managed to catch up with Dorsey, who gave a brief overview of the product and then showed it off by charging $4 for a cup of coffee -- so it goes in San Francisco. See Square in action after the break.
What do you do after you start Twitter? Invent a credit card reader.
If you were Jack Dorsey, one of the co-founders and current chairman of Twitter, you'd want to think about something else big to follow up on your huge success. While it doesn't sound like anything groundbreaking, Dorsey's new company Square is developing a tiny white cube (see photo above) that plugs into the headphone jack on either an iPhone or iPod touch. The cube is a credit card reader, something missing from all of those credit card apps currently in the iTunes App Store. The Square iPhone Payment System consists of the reader and an app. After a card swipe, the customer uses a finger to sign the iPod touch or iPhone, one of the participants in the transaction enters the customer's email address, and a receipt with the location of the transaction, the signature, and other standard information is emailed to the customer. While most online journalists are anticipating that this device and software are going to be used in retail (can you say Apple Store?), I think Dorsey has bigger ideas - let's face it, the guy doesn't think small. So why not make it possible for anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch to be able to accept credit cards for payments? Word has it that the card reader's manufacturing price will be as low as US$0.40, which means that Square could give away the readers and still make money on the transaction fees. [via Engadget]
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's Squirrel project revealed... as the Square iPhone Payment System
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/17/twitter-founder-jack-dorseys-squirrel-project-revealed-as-th/'; tweetmeme_source = 'engadget'; Remember the Square iPhone Payment System we told you about back in August? If you'll recall, the device -- which involves an iPhone app and associated dongle -- enables an iPhone or iPod touch to become a kind of mini credit card reader, allowing payments to be taken on the spot, no matter where you are or how big (or small) the transaction may be. When we'd first reported the device, word on the street was that it was only being alpha tested around New York City, and there wasn't much else to say. Now, we may have a little more insight on just where this device is headed, and who's behind the project. Jack Dorsey, the man who all but built Twitter in a matter of two weeks, has been working on a half-secret start-up project since around May. His new venture -- dubbed, funnily enough, Squirrel -- is based around the concept of using the iPhone as... yep, a portable, personal cash register; essentially the exact device which Square has created. And that's no accident. In the images we ran of the Square system, you can see a domain name on a receipt: squareup.com. Squareup.com is the domain of the Square System (obviously), and a casual investigation into the site's WHOIS profile reveals registrant info that points to an office in San Francisco, and a contact email address which reads... billing@paybysquirrel.com. Square, squirrel, square... are you getting it? So the cat, er, squirrel appears to be out of the bag. Now the question is whether or not Dorsey and co. can turn this fairly obscure piece of tech into the kind of firestorm which Twitter has become -- and who knows, maybe there'll even be a business model this time. [Thanks, Little Birdie]
