
Square (phone based payment system) - jacquesm
http://www.squareup.com/
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thaumaturgy
Unfortunately, Square is a bit late to this game (though not out of it yet);
while at an Apple store a couple of months ago, I noticed that they were
selling credit card readers for the iPhone already, in nice Apple-like
packaging. It was probably Verifone's device [1].

I had a client that was interested in this for the various trade events she
had, but Square never followed up and seemed to be turning into vaporware.
When I saw these other devices on the shelf, I recommended them to her.

Square certainly doesn't have a lot of room for not getting it right the first
time at this point, unfortunately; I really dislike Verifone and would like to
see someone eat their lunch, but they've had a several-months head-start.

[1]:
[http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/09/smallbusiness/iphone_credit_...](http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/09/smallbusiness/iphone_credit_card_swipe_wars/index.htm)

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jasonjei
To me, why not just use IPC Linea Pro? <http://www.ipclineapro.com/>

It works with iOS, provides a ruggedized housing and extra battery, comes with
a barcode scanner, and encrypts your credit card number, and has a toolkit
already for use with Xcode. You can sign up with Braintree or TrustCommerce
and use their RESTful APIs. No extra charge.

This device looks like it's easy to lose. I don't know. If I were a customer,
I'd be sketched out by that thing. The ones at the Apple Retail stores (Linea
Pro) look legit.

EDIT: Opportunity for someone to make a product with IPC Linea Pro. Verifone's
the only player. Why not add some stress with the Linea Pro device?

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aroon
This is super old news. Why isn't this modded off the front page?

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jsiarto
Agreed--these guys have been around for quite some time. I do think they are
really just starting to take off though. I just got my reader about 3 weeks
ago (It had been on order for almost 3 months).

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Cushman
For those of us who don't need to do POS payment processing, the hardware can
also be used to turn your iPhone into a reel-to-reel tape player.

(Reels not included.)

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PStamatiou
They need to fix the card reader.. seriously takes at least 5 swipes to work
properly, even with the recommended and annoying pinching of the reader.

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Oompa
Weird. I just got mine today and I have no issues with it. New batch, less
problems?

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PStamatiou
sounds like it. the few early ones I played with were undeniably horrible.

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funthree
looks like a neat tool for drug dealers?

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funthree
Downvote all you want but I honestly don't see too many other use cases for
this besides "peddlers" of things. Would you really ask a client to swipe
their card into your phone like this instead of writing a check?

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rationalbeaver
No downvote from me, but I doubt drug dealers will like this much. This thing
creates email receipts, tracks date, time, and location of transactions, and
holds your money in an online account that is connected to your bank account.
I'm pretty sure that people doing illegal stuff will stick with cash.

