Square has updated its iOS app to take advantage of a new feature in iOS 5 that lets you open your mobile wallet as soon as you enter a store.
Square v 1.1 taps into "geo-fencing," a virtual boundary for location-tracking devices. When enabled, Square will open a virtual tab as soon as your iPhone is within a Square participant's "fence," speeding up the purchase process. If you're a regular, you can set up Square to automatically open a tab when you're within range of a store, letting you buy without ever touching your phone or wallet. See the video below for more.
The update also adds to the directory of merchants, backs up your cards on a remote server, lets you delete credit cards, and fixes a few other bugs.
Launched in February by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Square represents something of a revolution in the realm of real-world payment systems for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. The service, now available at Wal-Mart and Apple Stores, allows anyone to accept payments via iPhone, iPad, or Android devices by simply adding the company's tiny plastic swipe module, which plugs into the headphone jack of your device, and firing up the Square app.
Much like PayPal, Square greatly simplifies the task of payment processing for anyone who has something to buy or sell. But Dorsey's creation handles real-world, face-to-face transactions, where the majority of daily commerce still occurs. Once payments are made, the funds are automatically sent via direct deposit to a merchant's bank account the next day.
Before you start adding real credit card information to your Square wallet, you should know the reader was hacked at this year's Black Hat Conference.
For more, see PCMag's review of Square. Also check out How to Get Apple's iOS 5 as well as PCMag's full review of iOS 5 and the slideshow above, which highlights its best features.
Card Case from Square on Vimeo.