Square launches iphone app for consumers, payment auth by GPS

squareup.com

16 pointsrabidsnail2 comments

This is great. I wonder what other applications will come of this. I have two concerns:

1) How does it know who you are? presumably through some type of check in service, but what happens if there's two people with the same name in the same spot. Not a high-likelihood problem, but still an interesting one.

2) Does this hurt the idea of tips? How can I tip my Starbucks barista?

Overall though, I think this is a great innovation and, if it catches on, will definitely change the way we think about purchasing things in general (and the way stores sell things). Checkout lines? What?

Check out the photo on https://squareup.com/#!cardcase ; There's an identifying photo associated with each payer, and tipping built into the receipt screen.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com