Square

These days, more and more payment methods are going digital. But while we live in a world with Apple Pay, Paypal, and other similar apps and services, we still see some that make the move from digital to physical. The latest example is Square, the payment company founded by Twitter's Jack Dorsey. Just last month we saw a tease that Square could be moving towards physical debit cards, and now we know they are in fact rolling out.

Continue Reading

Thus far, Square has been a mostly digital payment system, but it may not be long before the company breaks into the realm of physical payment cards. There isn't a ton of solid evidence at the moment, but one key piece that may signal where Square plans to head. That single piece of evidence comes in the form of a picture Square founder Jack Dorsey shared on Twitter.

Continue Reading

Square, the mobile payment company behind the iconic little card readers that plug into smartphones and tablets, has just introduced its first NFC reader, taking a step towards contactless payment methods including Apple Pay. The small, white reader is shaped like a (wait for it) square, and the company has made it available first to 100 small businesses across the US, giving them the ability to accept payments from iPhone and Apple Watch users.

Continue Reading

As a credit card payment-related device, the Square Reader accessory for iOS has maintained a decent track record in not falling victim to malicious hacks. Unfortunately, that might be about to change. A group of security researchers have revealed how they were able to hack the Reader, which is used to turn iPads and iPhones into mobile point of sale terminals for merchants, making it capable of stealing credit card information from customers.

Continue Reading

Square has announced its partnership with Apple Pay at the WWDC15. The new Square "Contactless + Chip Reader" will be able to take payments from Apple Pay via NFC and credit cards via its EMV chip reader. Although it can scan EMV chips, the new reader is unable to read magnetic card swipes. To combat this, Square announced that it will be shipping traditional magnetic stripe reader with the new Apple Pay/EMV chip reader, ensuring that merchants can accept a variety of payment methods.

Continue Reading

In social mediums, there’s nothing more ubiquitous than hashtags. It’s our method for tracking topics, making snide jokes, and even relaying a sub-story for a post. Piggybacking on that energy, Square is introducing something they call ‘$Cashtag’, which is just like a hashtag, except with the dollar sign ahead of your tag. Square’s main goal here is to allow businesses to get paid quickly and effectively, and without the need to adopt a particular payment scheme like Google Wallet/Android Pay or Apple Pay.

Continue Reading

It's less than a year old, but Square Order's time in the market will be very short-lived indeed. The service that allowed users to preorder food and drinks from local establishments was launched middle of last year at the same time that Square Wallet was announced to be closed off. It seems like a recurring curse, but now it's Square Order's time to bite the dust as well. On the one hand, it's not surprising given how it failed to take off, but Square isn't exactly backing out of the market just yet.

Continue Reading

Square has made a name for itself as a solution for mid-size businesses who want an easy to use, effective point-of-sale system. The small dongle slips easily into an audio jack, which connects to an app for payment processing. With low transaction fees and a fairly robust set of tools for small businesses, Square is widely adopted, with their hardware often attached to an iPad. A new rumor suggests Square is hard at work on a tablet of their own, powered by Android.

Continue Reading

When Starbucks teamed up with Square for their payment processing, it was seen as a big win for the mobile payment space. If Square could compete with traditional payment processors, it stood to reason any startup could. Over time, the relationship began to fracture, and now the mobile payment angle to their partnership is done. Square is shuttering Wallet and rolling it into Order, which lets you order ahead and pay for items before you get to the store. Starbucks won’t be accepting Order, instead concentrating efforts on their competing proprietary product.

Continue Reading

The partnership between Starbucks and Square's mobile payment system that began in 2012 is coming to an end, according to comments from the two companies. While Starbucks was a key partner when Square launched its Wallet app, allowing customers one way to quickly pay for their coffee with their smartphones, the payment company is retiring Wallet and replacing it with Square Order, carrying over some of the key features from Wallet. Unfortunately, a Starbucks spokesperson has said that they have no plans to begin accepting Square Order.

Continue Reading

Square is an existing point-of-sale platform that allows customers to use their credit card at mid-tier shops everywhere. It also provides a really solid solution for mom-and-pop shops to accept credit cards, and offers some attractive processing fees. Apple Pay and the incoming EMV cards will be a shift in the credit industry, and are two modes of payments Square doesn’t support. A new startup — ShopKeep — does, and wants to eat Square’s lunch by offering their tech free to new customers.

Continue Reading

Yesterday, Starbucks announced they’d be launching a program in Portland to allow customers to order and pay in the app. Being a resident of Portland, my immediate reaction was one of disbelief (we typically don’t get opportunities like this), then curiosity. Is ordering and paying for something in-app as good as it sounds, or would there be severe hiccups that would make it an experience to forget? To test Starbucks’ new program out, I ordered coffee. From my phone.

Continue Reading