Square

Going forward, Starbucks will use mobile payment app Square for all credit and debit card transactions. [AllThingsD]

Will You ‘Pay With Square?’

With the big push behind Pay With Square (including the recent addition of deals), the announcement of Apple’s Passbook, and the looming mobile payment war, digital wallets are about to rise up in a big way. But without NFC, I just don’t see myself using any of them. Do any of you use ‘Pay With…

The Cash Register of the Future Wraps the iPad in Beautiful Bamboo

You can add the cash register to the list of endangered technologies that tablets and smartphones are killing off. But the iPad and Square-powered Cashbox promises to give them one last hurrah before they completely fade away. The lovely wooden enclosure includes an iPad connected to a Square reader, which makes swiping credit cards a…

What the Hell Happened to Google Wallet’s Cash-Free Future?

Almost a year ago, Google held a press conference to announce Google Wallet, an ambitious, multi-faceted plan for a cash-free future in which cell phones would replace hard currency. https://gizmodo.com/google-wallet-how-googles-going-to-eat-your-real-walle-5805879 A few months later, it arrived, but only on a single phone. Since then, we haven’t heard much about Google Wallet. And it isn’t like…

PayPal Here Trumps Square’s Tech By Taking Paper Checks

PayPal Here is new app and mobile credit card reader for smartphones from the makers of PayPal, the online payment system. Square just got some pretty stiff competition. Like Square, the PayPal Here is a mobile transaction system allows just about anyone with a smartphone to accept credit card payments. But PayPal Here has a…

Obama Is Using Square to Take Your Donations Now

President Obama wants to get re-elected! No surprise there. He also needs your money! Big whoop. He’s going to use Square to get those donations! Hey now, that’s pretty convenient. According to Politico, campaign personnel for Obama are being issued Square credit card readers The Obama campaign is going to be tech-forward with taking donations…

Can Square Donations Save the Salvation Army?

It’s about to get a lot harder to dodge the charity you’ve been so studiously avoiding. The NYTimes reports that the Salvation Army is testing a new way of collecting digital donations this year: Santas with Sqaure. That ringing bell isn’t your conscience, it’s the future of your curbside charitable donation. Maybe. The Salvation Army…

Square’s Card Case App Lets You Pay for Stuff Invisibly (No Phones, No Wallets)

NFC is cool and all but isn’t pulling out your phone to pay for stuff just as annoying as pulling out your wallet? Square, the revolutionizer of credit card payments, has a better solution. With their Square Card Case app, you don’t have to pull out anything, you pay invisibly. It’s like being a ‘regular’…

Is Digital Money the New Way to Buy Drugs?

I’m not gonna name names, but someone just mentioned paying for weed with a Square account. It’d be equally easy to use Paypal, Venmo, Bitcoin (RIP) or any of the myriad mobile payment systems that allow you to send money from your phone. I mean, think about it: As long as you don’t put some…

Card.io Takes Credit Card Payments on Your Android Phone

Like Square, Card.io is a credit card machine for your phone. But unlike Square, which requires a dongle, Card.io just takes a picture of the credit card to grab all those digits for payment. It’s supposed to be secure and Card.io never saves your info, but it’s still a little worrying. In any case, it’s…

7 Ways to Replace Your Wallet with Your Phone

You don’t have a Nexus S 4G, or Sprint or the Citi Mastercard required for Google Wallet. But that doesn’t you mean you don’t wanna live in the future, using your phone to pay for stuff. Here’s how to do that right now, no matter what phone you’ve got. https://gizmodo.com/google-wallet-the-future-of-money-is-here-sorta-5841865 PayPal Mobile Availability: iOS, Android,…

Why Some People Prefer The Round Toggle Buttons of iOS 5

One thing I like about iOS 5 is the rounded toggle button that appears within the settings. I cringe when I look at the rectangular buttons of iOS 4. This seems crazy, but there’s a scientific reason for this preference. Rounded corners are easy on the eyes and easy for the brain to process. That’s…

Foursquare and Netflix Apps Are Storing Your Passwords Unencrypted

Storing passwords in plaintext is a bad idea. You’d think that the smarties at Netflix and Foursquare would know better. But the Wall Street Journal reports their Android versions—and other apps—do no such thing. Not good. According to security firm viaForensics, the the Netflix, Foursquare, and LinkedIn apps for Android are storing your passwords without…

Death Map Brings Video Game Kills To Life

Jim Blackhurst has one of those cool, nerdy jobs. He works for video games publisher Square Enix and is responsible for analyzing anonymous game data. One of Blackhurst’s tasks has focused on creating maps using kill data from the game Just Cause 2. He took 22.3 million data points and plotted them into the detailed…

Google Wallet: How Google’s Going to Eat Your Real Wallet

“Your phone will be your wallet.” That’s what Google’s promising with Google Wallet and Google Offers, which’ll combine payments and deals in one neat package. And it’s a pretty compelling little vision of the future of paying for stuff. Google Wallet isn’t really one thing, so much as a bundle things tied together in one…

Google Enters Wireless Mobile Payments Fray

On the heels of Square’s mobile payments launch, Google is also planning a scheme to let you make payments using your phone. https://gizmodo.com/square-iphone-based-mobile-payment-system-kills-cash-re-5804589 According to Bloomberg, Google is getting ready to unveil a mobile payment system on May 26 that will let Android users of some Sprint/Nextel phones make payments using Near Field Communications (NFC).…

Square iPhone-Based Mobile Payment System Kills Cash Registers and Wallets

Interesting announcement today from Square’s office in the the San Francisco Chronicle building, (where news usually goes to die) Square introduced a new mobile payment system that lets you make credit card purchases with an iPhone app. The system, called the Square Card Case, lets you see everything the merchant has on offer, and works…

Square’s Going to Have a More Secure Card Reader For iPhone Payments This Summer

I don’t think news that Square is releasing a safer card reader this summer should put off users of their existing reader, but it’s worth keeping an eye out for if you want to ensure all your credit card data is encrypted. This comes after Visa invested in the start-up, so it makes sense also…

The Overblown Square Credit Card Reader Security Disaster

Square’s credit card reader for iOS/Android devices is pretty awesome—it lets anybody quickly and easily start taking credit payments. But according to Douglass Bergeron, the CEO of competing company Verifone, the device itself isn’t hardware-encrypted, meaning anyone could write an app that strips unprotected info from your card. Verifone’s smear campaign is impressive, to say…

Square is Processing Over $1 Million in iPhone and Android Payments Every. Single. Day.

That’s not bad for a startup that’s been around what, a year? And is only available for iPhones, iPads and Androids in the US. Mind you, it’s free to sign up—and you get one of those neat dongles for free, too. They also recently dropped the transaction fee of 15 cents, too. [@Jack via TechCrunch]