Technology I Can Use

I received my Square card reader in the mail last week. It’s a small (1” X 1” X ½”) white plastic credit card reader that connects to my smart phone via an earphone jack. There’s an app for the various smart phone types. You set up an account with the company including your banking information and then just enter the amount and swipe the card. The cash is in your account tomorrow with a small processing fee taken out. Other companies like Intuit and PayPal either have a similar device and app or have one on the way.

Many of the smart phone apps available on the market today are games or have really limited usefulness. They’re scaled down versions of the real website functionality without the usefulness than made the site interesting in the first place. I guess that’s natural in most situations due to the size of the screen and limitations of the small keyboard.

This app isn’t like most out there. It was designed for the phone in the first place. It’s exceptionally easy to use. You have the ability to charge your customer for products and services in a paperless environment, on the go. You don’t need “cash registers” anymore. Whether those are in the form of a personal computer or an actual dedicated POS device, this application can make that clunky box a thing of the past.

If you have sophisticated inventory management and hundreds of items being checked out, like at a grocery store, this might not be a good app for you. But I typically am receiving payment for a book or a few books or consulting services, and this works great for me. The phone has the ability to read bar codes, so it can’t be far in the future before a simple smart phone will replace the cash register completely.


Connect with Chris on  Google+  LinkedIn  Twitter