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Square Debuts its Latest Hardware, a $299 Card Swiper for iPad Registers
- potatolicious 13y agoThis is great. Their hardware has always been one of the weak points in the experience - people hate swiping on the wobbly headphone-jack doohickeys. Having something much more solid would help.
- fudged71 13y agoAre there any wires needed to hook into receipt printers, cash boxes, etc?
- dangrossman 13y agoThe receipt printer is a network printer; it needs an ethernet cable. The iPad connects to the printer over wifi. The receipt printer is connected to the cash drawer by, essentially, a telephone cable. The printer tells the drawer to open through that line; the iPad does not directly communicate with the cash drawer. Unfortunately I paid $499 for this stuff from Square just last month, and I'm not going to spend $299 more to upgrade to a fancier stand.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoWhy not see if they'll swap the gear, refund you, etc?
- puls 13y agoThe Square Stand actually includes a USB hub to plug the printer, cash drawer, and barcode scanner in via USB. It's much simpler than setting up everything to talk on the network.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- dangrossman 13y agoIt's all plug-and-play, there are no drivers, software installs or any other setup. You literally just plug the printer into your switch/router, the cash drawer into the printer, and pair the bluetooth barcode scanner with the iPad. Then they just work. I'm not sure how USB devices would even work with an iPad, or why anyone would want cables running across the checkout counter of their store.
- ricardobeat 13y agoDo printers/drawers/scanners come with an USB interface?
- royalpineapple 13y agoAbsolutely, Here is a list of USB hardware compatible with the Square Stand. https://squareup.com/help/en-us/article/5125-square-stand-supported-hardware https://squareup.com/help/en-us/article/5125-square-stand-su...
- austenallred 13y agoHonestly I'm a little surprised it took this long. Seems like a no-brainer for the company.
- meerita 13y agoHere in Barcelona we're using wireless for paying. Each card has a chip you just get your card close to the read and bam, you payed the bill. It's nice and confortable.
- mattermill 13y agoThat sounds sketchy as hell.
- dangrossman 13y agoWhy? If you had those cards, or a smartphone with NFC and Google Wallet installed, you could do the same thing in the US. Just look for the MasterCard PayPass logo on the top of the terminal you are swiping your card in today. I've seen it at CVS, RiteAid, McDonalds, Wawa, ShopRite, Home Depot...
- andrus 13y agoWe have vending machines with these at my university. I often start swiping my card only to realize I've accidentally "tapped to pay" (according to the reader).
- astrodust 13y agoHere it's known as "Paywave" (http://www.visa.ca/en/personal/visa-paywave/index.jsp http://www.visa.ca/en/personal/visa-paywave/index.jsp) On a credit card you have the safety of being able to appeal transactions. I wouldn't want this on a debit card.
- bhitov 13y agoAt least on the cards I have looked into in the US, there is a purchase price limit and the card info is transmitted with ECC.
- meerita 13y agoThe system is cool, imho. For buying something low price, then you don't need to insert password, and I assume with limited operations during certain time. But for expensive ones, you just put your 4 digit pin. The difference is just the card isn't raped on the device. Each time you pass the card on a place like that it destroy itself, specially if the clerk doesn't have a good day, they just smash the cards until they can't be read. I replaced 3 cards in a year before the tap system.
- deweller 13y agoIs there any chance that Square (or any of its competitors) will open up their service to custom app developers? I want to build a custom application that uses their hardware and payment processing back end. But I can't.
- avelis 13y agoI see no evidence that Square would make one although they could. Until they achieve a huge market percentage they are still in growth mode. That requires brand trust first.
- joezydeco 13y agoSo what happens with signatures? I recently visited a cafe where they were using an iPad as a checkout, and the cashier had to constantly swivel the thing around to let customers sign for their purchase. I know it's not that big an inconvenience, but it just seemed like an awkward conclusion to a transaction that's supposed to be simplified by these devices.
- madsushi 13y agoI believe if you're a verified business account and the total is under $20 or so, no signature is needed. If it's over a certain amount, then you have to get a signature, which means you're going to be swiveling or handing someone an iPad regularly.
- jonknee 13y agoIf you have a printer attached they just sign the old fashioned way.
- dangrossman 13y agoSquare asks for the signature on the iPad whether you buy a printer or not as far as I can tell.
- MrDOS 13y agoIn Canada, virtually all credit card transactions now take place via chip insertion, not swiping, and chip transactions require PIN entry, not signing. Unless they get an external numpad to handle such things, this is going to be a security nightmare.
- jguimont 13y agoIn Canada, most in store transaction are using Interac and not credit cards. I wonder when Square will accept both. I guess europeen countries have something similar to Interac as well (french's blue card?).
- 13y ago
- nighthawk24 13y agoBut does it accept Bitcoin?
- mbetter 13y ago> Accepted payment methods: Bitcoin, pogs, that Billy Ripken baseball card with an expletive on the bat, good intentions.
- unethical_ban 13y agoAnd firearms/firearm accessories stores around the world shrugged.