Like they say, there’s an ap for that… including processing credit cards.

Right now there is already an ap out that allows merchants to manually enter a customer’s credit card data and charge there card. But now, a card reader called Square has been developed that can actually read the card. It’s a small cube that plugs into the headphone jack on the top of the phone. Now here’s the cool part – the customer signs the screen and for the receipt, they enter their email address and it is instantly sent to them, along with a map of where the transaction took place.

When I was at the U.S. Open of Surfing a week ago at Huntington Beach, an iPhone would have been a great way for the booths and sellers on the beach to process credit cards. This seems like it would be the perfect solution for conventions, flea markets, farmers markets, fairs, and other locations like that which need simple wireless processing.

Written August 2009