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How Square Made Its Own iPad Replacement

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Re: How Square Made Its Own iPad Replacement

#31

Post by optimuspaul »

bena wrote: post #7
rpowers wrote: post #3

TLDR - Square made a PoS machine. It is an Android tablet(s).

I often notice that most things now are basically "Android tablets". Those little machines popping up in restaurants where you can order/pay? Android tablets. Have a relatively recent car? Got CarPlay? Your stereo is probably an Android tablet. So this isn't too surprising. Instead of spending whatever amount of time trying to design and build an embedded system, along with basic OS, library, etc, you can just find a…

That doesn't surprise me. The stereo(with CarPlay) in my Subaru is so sad, it crashes often and is definitely single-threaded. Honestly I'd rather just tape an iPad up in it's place. It would probably perform better.

Re: How Square Made Its Own iPad Replacement

#33

Post by eloisant »

Kluny wrote: post #26
mintplant wrote: post #2

> OK, not really; streaming Netflix on something designed to be a point-of-sale-system is a terrible idea, worse than watching movies on a Linux-based in-flight entertainment system. Is there a term equivalent to "suspension of disbelief", but for non-fictional writing? This broke mine. I don't know what Linux has to do with anything here.

Yeah, like aren't in-flight entertainment systems.... literally linux based these days? They're android tablets!

As far as I know, they've been based on Linux since the individual screen on the seat in front of you exist.

Before that, it was just a big shared screen and everyone had to watch the same movie at the same time.

Re: How Square Made Its Own iPad Replacement

#36

Post by JohnTHaller »

ggg9990 wrote: post #12

If this was so carefully designed why isn’t there an LED ring around the card slot? The first time I used one, the clerk had to explain several times that there was a nearly invisible card slot in front of me.

I've never seen any LED lights around a card slot on any self-service terminal before. They all have a card slot at the bottom section of whatever screen/keypad device is part of the UI and customers never seem to have an issue finding it.

Re: How Square Made Its Own iPad Replacement

#37

Post by dmitrygr » 

  > Square has designed its own secure enclave,
  > a co-processor for processing encrypted
  > payment information. About a dozen
  > employees at Square work on the silicon
  > team.
I do not believe this. $50 says it is just an STM32 with square-written firmware

Re: How Square Made Its Own iPad Replacement

#39

Post by frandroid »

tootie wrote: post #25
bena wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often notice that most things now are basically "Android tablets". Those little machines popping up in restaurants where you can order/pay? Android tablets. Have a relatively recent car? Got CarPlay? Your stereo is probably an Android tablet. So this isn't too surprising. Instead of spending whatever amount of time trying to design and build an embedded system, along with basic OS, library, etc, you can just find a…

It drives me up a fucking wall when clients want iPads for their retail spaces. You are locked into their limited form factors and premium pricing for a device that will likely be locked down to extremely limited functionality. Android tablets come in any size and shape for half the price and are easier to manage from MDM software. You can also just buy large touchscreens with USB ports that can plug into whatever. T…

What you need is a rack which fits an android tablet inside an iPad case. Branding and low cost, all in one.
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