I’ve hearing about Kevin Rose’s latest project called Square for quite some time now but only got the chance to really find out what’s it all about just now. Square is a small gadget/tool that works with iPhone and a corresponding app which will in turn allow you to accept credit card payments. Very much the same way that establishments used those credit card transaction machines.
It’s a pretty clever idea actually. Who would have thought that you can use your iPhone to accept credit card payments. You can just imagine how useful this would be if you’re in remote places where credit card machines don’t exist. With an iPhone running on 3G or Wi-Fi perhaps, small businesses can elect to use the iPhone instead of the usual credit card machine.
So, how does the Square gadget really works? It’s quite simple actually. You just plug in the device onto your iPhone using the headphone port. Then you need to launch the Square app on your iPhone, swipe your credit card on the Square device, wait for the app to process and then you can start entering the necessary transaction details.
What’s cool about this device is that you can actually sign the transaction by writing your signature on the iPhone screen and voila! Your credit card transaction will be proccessed.
Cool right? But wait, there’s more.  You can also email transaction receipts to your clients after processing the credit card payment. The Square tool will be coming out in a few months.
Originally posted on January 19, 2010 @ 7:56 pm