Kevin Rose demos Square payment system for iPhone

Ditto on Ned's comment about headphone jack stress. You can see how Kevin is bracing it for the swipe. Do that 20 times, not bracing it, and you're going to see wear and tear, I would guess.

The other problem is that this whole process looks incredibly slow. Entering notes and an email address isn't hard with the iPhone but I wouldn't want to do it while someone is watching and waiting. And you have to hand your phone over to a stranger, who will undoubtedly drop it.

Am I the only one who was just trying to figure out what Kevin's wrist tattoo said?

I wouldn't go anywhere near this with my credit card unless

- it gain official security cetrification
- it uses chip and pin, not mag stripe

It a clear loser.

You can see right next to the price that he enters what appears to be a -3% and then a "total" of ~$14... possibly the service fee?

http://img.skitch.com/20100120-8mfprp9unyuqip9gmdj17ybr8j.jpg

From their page, it looks like a great idea. No monthly fees is the major attractive thing for me. If my business can use Square without having to pay monthly, that'll take a HUGE strain off of us. While we can type the payments in on paypal, it's easier, and more professional to be able to swipe a card and have them sign. The loyalty rewards are also a great thing. I hope that they're ready to launch soon, because they might already have a customer! :D

" this could be a gamechanger -- accepting payments anywhere, any time, with an online record and receipt for each one, no cash involved."

Except you can already do this with existing apps from the AppStore. You just have to type the number in, so it's a matter of convenance (which is awesome, don't get me wrong) but the ability to charge a credit card on the go on an iphone is already an available tool.

What I want to know is the stress put on the headphone jack. Even if they made a little bit of a plastic sleeve that would brace it against the back of the iphone.. that to me would seem better than just having it pivot directly from the jack. I know there are some dock versions coming out from other companies as well that won't have this issue. Perhaps the "Square" will make up for it in price?

if the app was "jailbroken" it might actually work better and the security issues would disappear.

If someone told me to swipe my card in that, I think I would pass. A little too soon for me.

I wonder if the 3GS's magnetometer is sensitive enough/close enough to the surface of the device to read credit cards without a dongle. In any case, the little reader attachment doesn't look like it would cost more than a few bucks to make in large quantities.

Totally useless outside the USA. Almost everywhere else has adopted smartcard credit and debit cards.