Father Of Twitter Transforms iPhones Into Credit Card Machines

Photo lifted from Square's website

The iPhone can already be used to buy coffee; now it can sell it too. Square, a new venture from Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey, lets retailers swipe credit cards using a tiny reader that plugs in to the audio jack on an iPhone.

Using an iPhone to collect money is nothing new, and apps like Credit Card Terminal and iSwipe Pro have been around for awhile. But Square marks the first time a card can be physically swiped — and, says a post in Wired’s Epicenter, that also means the ability to accept gift cards.

Square’s website says that card swiping can begin immediately after account setup, with “no contracts, monthly fees or hidden costs.” Square also says it will do cool little things like email customer receipts and keep track of how many lattes to go till that free tenth one.

If it works as advertised, the system might spread quickly among retailers and consumer alike simply because of its elegance and ease-of-use. And as you may have noticed with Dorsey’s previous project, sometimes that’s all it takes to change the game.

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[via Wired]

11 comments »

About the author

When he was eight, Eli Milchman came home from frolicking in the Veld one day and was given an Atari 400. Since then, his fascination with technology has made him an intrepid early adopter of whatever charming new contraption crosses his path — which explains why he's Cult of Mac's technology editor. He calls San Francisco home, where he works as a journalist and photographer. Eli has contributed to the pages of Wired.com and BIKE Magazine, among others. Hang with him on Twitter.

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Posted in iPhone, News |

Todd
Interesting, but not entirely accurate. There are already devices in play at a certain retail chain that have outfitted their handheld checkouts with a barcode reader and card swiper…
bjorntech@squee.org
Sounds promising. Tho I would like to hear more about any built-in security measures….
Sgeo
I’d trust this about as much as I’d trust someone who takes the credit card out of my sight. Suppose, on the Android, someone sets up an app that listens in on the reader itself while the transaction’s taking place. The receipt still will appear, and now the merchant has your credit card number. And on the iPhone, where multitasking is (as far as I know) impossible, it may still be possible to make an adapter between the reader and the iPhone that can listen in on the reader, for later playback, letting the merchant retrieve the credit card info at a later date.
Fuzzypig
Hmmm, security aside, the only issue I would have is how us cack-handed, clumsy people stop ourselves from busting our iPhones with something dangling out of the phono socket!
Frederic
That reader would concern the US, but not Europe, where the information on the credit card is read on a chip and validated by a 4-digit code, not just read on a magnetic stripe …
But aside from the technique, such a use of the iPhone seems promising !
Eli Milchman
Todd: true, but those devices aren’t iPhones.
Sven Svenson
LONG LIVE APPLE!!!
accolon
@Frederic:
My German Visa card doesn’t have a chip. When I use it, they swipe it through a reader and let me sign for the payment. The PIN code is only used for ATMs.
Todd
@Eli: Only strategic difference I see between the two is the possibility of using the Phone over cellular as opposed to strictly wi-fi. That said, I am not sure a business would want to rely on cellular to process card transactions anyway.
@security concerns: I don’t want to discount security as a legit concern, but come on. There are dozens or hundreds of measures that can be implemented. Receipts, for example, only show last 4 of card number. And not the security code necessary to process the transaction anyway.
@adapter itself: this thing looks like garbage to me anyway. Apple’s existing version is the way to go. Oh, and by the way, there is another site, similar to this one ;) , that posted a story about this today.
Eli Milchman
Todd, one big difference is that signing up for Square and buying the litttle reader attachment/software solution is, I’m assuming, much less expensive than opting for something like Apple’s point-of-sale system; probably an advantage especially attractive to small businesses, which often only need one or two POS units.
Todd
Well, that judgment must wait until Apple finalizes a price (presuming they decide to make it available for sale) for both the POS and Case.