No other startup has ever been so primed for an Apple acquisition. Everything from execution, design sensibility, culture and even CEO is heavily Apple inspired but in a different but still complementary industry.
Square Register
21–30 of 125 posts
Re: Square Register
#22One piece is missing: a much more robust card reader that doesn't swivel or threaten to snap in two after a day of swiping.
A few weeks ago I was at a little tea shop run by a technology savvy Indian lady. When she said she didn't take cards, I asked her if she'd heard of Square.
Of course she'd heard of Square. She said she didn't use it because it was too flimsy to handle the load.
Re: Square Register
#23I don't like how, as the customer, I have no way of seeing what exactly is being charged to my card. For all I know, anything could be running on that ipad (foreground or background) and i could be charged any amount without knowing. Sure, I can ask for a receipt, but even the legacy till they replace in the video has a customer facing display, not a shiny piece of aluminum with some fruit. It's interesting that vide…
How is this any different than a traditional POS? The only exceptions would be cash registers with pole displays, which are limited to big box retailers that can afford them.
Re: Square Register
#24I would love to see a slight modification to the design of their reader hardware. Keep the audio interface, obviously. But design a small plastic frame that the reader can fit into that fits flush against the edge of the top of the iPad/iPhone. Make it a bit longer with slightly sloped internal edges so that its easier to guide a credit card to the scanner. This will also have the benefit keeping the reader from swiv…
Mount the reader separately, and connect it to the iPad with an audio cable.
Re: Square Register
#25One piece is missing: a much more robust card reader that doesn't swivel or threaten to snap in two after a day of swiping.
Came here to say this. The software itself is really awesome, and they have done some great UI/UX work here, but the hardware experience is still very frustrating. I'm really surprised they haven't iterated on the hardware. It's been what, two years since they started sending out the first set of scanners?
While a case solution on the iPhone would work well, I can see why they might not do this for the iPad (designing an entire case, just for card swiping, for such a large device seems silly and wasteful), but something along the lines of this would be a huge improvement over the current card reader design (basically, it fits around the corner of the device, giving it much more stability): http://olloclip.com
Re: Square Register
#26I don't like how, as the customer, I have no way of seeing what exactly is being charged to my card. For all I know, anything could be running on that ipad (foreground or background) and i could be charged any amount without knowing. Sure, I can ask for a receipt, but even the legacy till they replace in the video has a customer facing display, not a shiny piece of aluminum with some fruit. It's interesting that vide…
When you would normally sign a printed receipt, you sign with your finger on the iPad with the Square app (most implementations I've seen have iPads on a swivel stand that turns around to face the customer). In the example video they show a customer being charged via Card Case which is the more integrated form of transaction but not the common case.
Re: Square Register
#27I don't like how, as the customer, I have no way of seeing what exactly is being charged to my card. For all I know, anything could be running on that ipad (foreground or background) and i could be charged any amount without knowing. Sure, I can ask for a receipt, but even the legacy till they replace in the video has a customer facing display, not a shiny piece of aluminum with some fruit. It's interesting that vide…
Every time I've had someone swipe my card via Square in a coffee shop, the barista has turned the iPad towards me to view my order/sign, which is more than what happens with a standard POS setup.
I'm not sure what else you would expect here?
Re: Square Register
#28One piece is missing: a much more robust card reader that doesn't swivel or threaten to snap in two after a day of swiping.
It seems trivial to connect the reader via a TRRS [1] extension cable
Any cable that maintains mic capability with stock Apple headphones should be fine.
[1]: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=...
Re: Square Register
#29I don't like how, as the customer, I have no way of seeing what exactly is being charged to my card. For all I know, anything could be running on that ipad (foreground or background) and i could be charged any amount without knowing. Sure, I can ask for a receipt, but even the legacy till they replace in the video has a customer facing display, not a shiny piece of aluminum with some fruit. It's interesting that vide…
How is this any different than a traditional POS? The only exceptions would be cash registers with pole displays, which are limited to big box retailers that can afford them.
Not sure about where you're at, but it's a rarity to come across a register that doesn't have a customer facing display, with at the very least, the total you are being charged for your goods and/or services.
Re: Square Register
#30I just stopped in at a coffee shop in the middle of Philly the other day using Register. Guess they got access to the beta testing.