Square Register for iPad offers full point-of-sale system for merchants - Page 2

How about setting up a kitchen printer for orders ? without printing the receipt ? any advice.

I am using iPad with 3G for Square Register.  I would like to be able to print to my Square Register printer via wifi (no internet connection from the wifi) without disconnecting from 3G.  How can I connect to 3G and wifi at the same time?  I've read that it can be done, but cannot get it to work on my iPad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hmurchison 

I see NFC starting to unravel. I"m glad Apple didn't jump into the fray to appear "hip". New competing flavors are coming and that new Target Walmart duopoly is significant.

The payment system that Target, Walmart, et al, are working on, is still reportedly based on NFC.

They want to control the app that does the talking over NFC, and where / how the payment comes from.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WelshDog 


Age old problem with computers that one is. While you CAN order water that way, why would you? The computer in this case (and many others) merely complicates a simple request. Not really the fault of the computer, but rather of the restaurant staff/management.

Very true. The management should have considered 'hiccups' and have a back up in place. 

That said, a computer system can in some cases work better than a paper one. Especially at restaurants. A computer system, for example,means not trying to decipher handwriting. And a big flashing alert banner on the screen can signal to the cooks where the server out in a "no onions" not due to my severe allergy. Something they might miss if it was just written on a paper slip until they had out the onions on the burger and then pulled them out when they did notice the note. Fine I suppose for someone that just doesn't like the taste but for me that's a likely trip to the hospital.

speaking of hospitals, handwriting is the reason many are testing digital solutions. Misread an order and you could overdose a patient etc. Digital systems can also, if done well, alert doctors to medication allergies, current Meds. In my younger years I ended up in the hospital because of a bad interaction between two Meds. They asked if I was taking anything and I thought they meant literally at that moment. I had no idea that my emergency inhaler which I hadn't used in a month could be an issue, but it was. Had the system been computerized they would have seen this information, even gotten a red flag when they entered my new RX, depending on how the system was set up. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum 


Actually the new register system has some good features and some limitations. Here are some of the limitations:

1. There is no central or automated way to setup several iPads -- the inventory items must be manually set up on each iPad.
2. There is no way to enter a credit, coupon or loyalty discount
3. There is no way to enter any discount amount or percentage
4. There is no way to accept a check and annotate information
5. There is no way to handle multiple "menus" -- Daily, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
6. There is no easy way to enter notes or annotations.
7. There is no ability to enter twofers or threefers...
8. There is no mix or match for twofers or threefers...
9. There is no way to handle combos
10. There is no way to handle specials
11. There is no way to gather/enter customer personal information
12. There is no ability to build a customer profile/history
13. There is no way to quickly retrieve customer info -- e.g. call in: phone number
14. There is no inventory management
15. There needs to be a back-room Mac app that does inventory, customer, pricing, setup, analytics...

Square isnt really targeting businesses big enough to need all of this. For such things you have other software.

Square's target is the small shop. The one man operation type things. Like my fav guy at the local farmers market. He used to be cash only but he knows that I'm a tech type so he asked me if I thought he should try this Square stuff. I said why not give it a go. At first he only let his handful of regulars like me use cards because he was worried about cards not going through. But now he's letting anyone. And he's excited about the advances Square is working on. In fact he told me about this setup before AI had posted about it. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ireland 



You're dead right.

I'd even take it a step further since a dock connector attaching scanner can still break. How about a bar that stretches across the whole end. The scanning part doesn't have to that far, just the attachment part. Could possibly be part of a stand even. 

For handhelds I say something like the Mophie/Intuit or LineaPro (what Apple uses) are best. No risk of having the Square break and you are a plug lodged in the headphone jack.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conrail 


Plus, according to their website, this has no merchant account, monthly fees, or set up costs. Strictly a per-use service, like paypal. This is an incredible boon to very small businesses and people who sell at shows, flea markets, and events.

Thats their target audience.

Setting up a merchant account can run you weeks of paperwork and set up fees to the tune of $5-10k. Plus monthly or annual maintenance fees. AND transaction fees. For many small businesses that's no good. Square recognized this and designed around this gap

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ireland 

Because the whole point here is for them to control Twitter. They need to be in control of it. Sooner or later Apple's going to have to have some sort of social network. 

I do disagree. Social element. Yes. Social network, no. And they don't need to buy Twitter. The only folks that would benefit from such a game would be Twitter. Because they would have finally made their money.

A lot of folks thought Ping was crap but I thought they had the right idea. They just didn't go far enough. They needed to bring back all the elements from Lala.com and then take out out of just the iTunes world. Many fołks were peeved when Homepage was killed off. How about bring it back as a kind of portal page. One stop spot for seeing Journals, shared PhotoStreams, your Ping activity. And then add in modules for your twitter posts, Facebook news feed, flicker, tumblr etc. THAT could be as social network as Apple would need to be. Without adding yet another social network for us to have to join etc.