Square Inc’s aptly named device, the Square allows anybody to take credit card payments. And I mean anybody. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey as come up with a solution great for everyplace from a individually owned boutique to the farmer’s market.
Vendors will pay processessing fees like any other credit card transaction but there’s no subscription involved and the device is free!
Physically, the Square is a small, plastic cube about the size of two Chiclets. From its bottom side an audio connector plugs into the headphone port on your phone. A slot in the cube lets you pass a credit card through. When you do, a reader converts the data from the magnetic strip into an audio signal and passes it on to software on the phone.
Mathew Honan of wired.com covers it in detail
