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Comment by tricolon | Hacker News Reader

One piece is missing: a much more robust card reader that doesn't swivel or threaten to snap in two after a day of swiping.

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I saw a poor barista trying dozens of times to make the reader accept a card the other day (Square + iPad, not sure if they were using this exact set up). It got quite violent. The scanner does really seem to be far too flimsy to be the primary payment mechanism in a busy business.

This will hopefully become less of an issue once NFC payments take off

True. I used Square's NFC-like Card Case app at the same coffee shop and the experience was much better. It was a little disconcerting to complete a transaction without an physically action like a swipe or button press though.

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

Smart think to do would be to make it two pieces. Take the existing card reader but have an additional attachment that does exactly what you said, add stability by holding onto the corners. If a customer wants something small, they have that. Or they can get something for the load. Best part is that it would make manufacturing a breeze still all you would be creating would be a few versions of an injection mold.

Agreed. More flexibility for the shop and easier to replace/upgrade the "working" part ... How long until a kick starter project opens up offering this?

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=...

Its probably about time for them to lose the "headphone jack" idea for commercial systems. Its a cute hack to give Apple the finger for rent seeking the damn serial port when you're a fresh young startup, but they're big boys now. Time for serial or bluetooth.

Bluetooth audio dongle and a robust dock maybe?

With Bluetooth on, I don't see how a store will make it through an entire day without going through at least one iPhone battery charge. It would defeat the purpose.

Bigger stores can probably use an iPad instead, but I don't think we'll see a Bluetooth solution for the above reason.

I'd add on top of that, that a bluetooth stream of data could be vulnerable to a nearby hack. If something else than the square device were to be created it would probably make use of cell network.

Actual wireless card device processor cost around $800. That let place for square to come up w/ something.

source: http://www.acceptcreditcard.ca/articles/using_a_wireless_car...

I noticed a local business (Blue Moon Burgers) using iPads as registers, using similarly flimsy (though not Square) card readers. They gave up after a few months and switched to a traditional POS setup. I don't know whether it was the card readers that were to blame, but I'm guessing they were part of it.

External card reader would be much more expensive because it has to (IIRC banks enforce it (probably thanks to insurance companies)) encrypt all communication with the "register" (in this case iPad). So it can't be just some dummy device.

You can make a dummy device that works exactly the same way but has a large physical footprint can't you? Yes, it has a higher cost, but POS systems are very costly too.

AFAIK only PIN pad units require encryption but my knowledge could be out of date.

I noticed that my local Joe The Art of Coffee did the same after several months. I should go ask if the Square reader was the issue...

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.

Intuit's competitor actually has a really elegant design-- there is an air-filled rubber chamber at the bottom that grips on to the top of the device to prevent movement. http://gopayment.com/how_it_works/

That being said, Intuit's UI is hideous, Square's is gorgeous.

Sounds like that is an opportunity to develop a card reader that can be tethered via a secure bluetooth connection. Any thoughts?

I cringe when I see the picture. There's no reason that it could be a more elongated piece of plastic with a notch cut out that cradles the edge of the iPad in that spot. Sure, it means a different model for different iPads... but fortunately there are a limited number of variations of devices to accommodate.

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