I see this and I think...why hadn't PayPal done something like this already? It would make perfect sense for them have come out with something like this a long time ago, but who knows...
True, but why not revisit the concept at some point especially since a lot more people are walking around with PDAs/smartphones/etc. now than when they first started.
I don't really understand the niche it's aiming to fill. Most stores/restaurants have portable card readers these days, so is it a poor-mans one of those?
I guess I'm wondering what use-case it's aiming at.
Also I absolutely would not trust someone swiping my card through one of these. I like a closed box that is obviously provided by a bank, which cannot be tampered with. Not an iphone that could be doing anything with my details.
Why exactly do you assume that a credit card reader is a "closed box that is obviously provided by a bank"?
I've implemented point-of-sale systems before, and lemme tell you, there's nothing magical about a magstripe reader, a microcontroller, and a bit of firmware.
Think for a second about recent credit-card purchases you've made. If your habits are anything like mine, aside from gas stations (where the reader is usually integrated into the pump), most card "swipes" happen through either a peripheral device connected to a generic PC, or a compact card reader with little more than a keypad and phone jack, with no visible branding, certification, or tamper-resistant seals in sight.
Nope. Perhaps this is a country thing.
In the UK pretty much everything happens in a specific looking chip+pin reader POS device. They all look pretty much the same and are pretty secure afaik.
(Also most places in the UK will not swipe your card anymore. It's all chip+pin).
OK It seems the issue is that the US is far behind in this. Pretty much every restaurant in the UK has portable POS devices waiters carry around to take payment. Pretty much every shop has the same standard looking POS chip+pin devices.
Maybe this is a European thing, but here in London every restaurant has a number of portable card readers. (Everyone here also uses chip & pin, though, too.) As a consumer, it's awesome... much faster than the old days, and a hell of a lot easier to split the bill when you want to do that.
Yeah, I noticed that when I was in London a few months ago. They're almost non-existent in NYC as far as I can tell, and that experience has been consistent with my experience elsewhere in the US.
Perhaps the London merchants are required or otherwise incentivized to use portable ones?
