I have seen a bank which does print a photo of the card holder on it for extra security. I think it was a friend with a student HSBC account in the UK, but I can't remember exactly.
All debit cards (which are much much much more common than credit cards here) over here have a picture of owner on it.
Barclays are pushing contactless debit cards in the UK, no pin required, I don't know whether there's a value of transation above which it prompts for a pin.
I believe it's £10. That's what my Halifax contactless card terms say.
While the working end tip does look a little chomped on , it looks like that is the actual texture of the 'soft tip' material, as the manufacturer calls it.
I have one. It's some kind of weird stiff foam that feels really cheap. And yeah, chewed on pretty much describes it.
I was a long time Palm user and got one when I made the jump to an iPod touch, thinking I'd need it to navigate and enter text more easily. I guess that's like a Windows user thinking they need Windows (via Boot Camp or virtualization) to survive when upgrading to Mac OS X.
Anyway, I rarely use it, since there's kind of a strange micro-lag between hitting the iPod touch screen and something happening. It's nice for drawing, though. Too bad it's not pointy (I dislike the blunt tip) and pressure-sensitive.
A total solution for Business, tie the terminals to Mac Mini servers for the back end with the iPod touch terminals and more mac mini's out the front.
It could work out as a fairly lucrative business setting them up as a cost effective total solution for retailers.
The big display iPhones we have in our phone stores have a Mac Mini in the base playing a continuous loop in Quicktime, the display is a 42" LCD panel mounted sideways and the Mac mini's output is rotated 90º.
They seem to be working alright despite the fairly common practice of shutting them down by yanking the power cord (It's too much hassle to unscrew the base to access the mouse when people want to go home).
I remember when the Touch being used in the Apple stores was first written about here in AI. And I said this is another 'game changer' from Apple. Someone immediately discounted my remark by saying, there has already been a 'Window's Solution' for years. (no it wasn't Techstud!)
It's just proof that an 'Apple Solution' whether it is first, second or last is immediately becomes the 'Industry standard!'
That's why I want them to make a TV. (which doesn't look likely!)
It's a shame the external hardware doesn't support chip and pin. It rather limits its use in Europe.
There is a previous answer in this thread where it was discovered that you use a standard terminal for entering your pin number. This may be because there is no way to make the such a device as secure, at least to the minds of people do the security auditing, or maybe it's just in future plans. Signing a signature on an untrusted terminal is no worse than signing on a piece of paper.
I have to agree with what seems the general consensus here in that this seems to be a huge potential market for Apple. Furthermore, this would seem to be a great vehicle for Apple to make substantial penetration into the corporate markets. If Apple seriously pursued this, most likely with a 3rd party partner whose primary business is POS systems, it would seem quite reasonable for Apple to have similar or better success with retailers as it has with the public and the iPhone.
This seems like it would be a very scalable and highly customizable system that as someone else pointed out could be quite lucrative for companies coming in and setting up businesses on. Retailers of all sizes from mom and pop shops to big box stores could benefit from this kind of system and the implementation cost would obviously scale to the size of the organization and amount of functionality offered on the system. Restaurants for example could allow wait staff to both place orders with screens in the kitchen and bar, and then checkout all on the same device. Personally, as a customer, this would be a great benefit as it's always so annoying to give a waiter your card and then have to sit there for typically several more minutes while he checks you out. Handing a waiter my debit card and being checked out right there in under a minute would definitely make me a happy diner, assuming of course the food was up to par.
Someone else suggested tying or bundling the devices together with a Mac Mini Server. This seems a rather brilliant idea to me. Using the restaurant example again, a single Mac Mini Server should definitely have the horsepower to run all of the ordering and checkout for even a busy restaurant. Using a couple of bottom end iMacs at the bar and kitchen would allow for display of food and drink orders where needed. This would actually allow the waiters to spend more time on the floor servicing tables more efficiently and effectively. The kitchen/bar could even use the system to inform the waiter that their order is ready. This could obviously be taken a step further by allowing a manager to track inventory usage and potentially even automating product ordering from their vendors.
Anyway, I definitely agree that Apple appears to have a huge market available here.
I have seen over a dozen different vendors - below is the app I use for my design studio where I sometimes visit customers and charge them on location right from my iphone.
The app is called "Billing Credit Card Terminal". This app has an amazing interface and also captures the customers signature on the screen using his/her finger in place of a pen. This is one of the apps I think would fall under the no extra hardware needed since all its features and functions are built into the software.
All of the comments in here seem to focus on this device as a POS device when the truth is many businesses use these devices for completely different purposes.
Target for example has many many Symbol scanners running Windows CE 5. Almost every employee gets one to use on their shift.
-Backroom gets them for getting their batch lists of product that needs to be scanned out of locations in the backroom and brought out to the sales floor.
-Food Ave. uses them to reorder food shipments.
-Front end managers use them to see which registers have requested change or get alerts from registers that need their approval code, etc.
-Guest Service uses them for sorting merchandise as well as processing defective merchandise.
-Managers use them to track the current sales for the day as well as any urgent tasks or recalls that are sent out by corporate.
-Inventory team uses them to scan all out of stock items in the whole store every day (all within 4 hours)
-Inventory team uses them to set up rain check pads and print substitution signs.
-salesfloor members use them to locate items, check back room stock, check prices, print signs and labels, check stock at other stores, set planograms, process mispicks, process defectives, check shelf capacity, create batches of items that need to be brought of from the backroom as well as many many other functions.
An iPod touch would be much welcomed. The Symbol devices are large, bulky, have horrible touch screens, are difficult to use without a stylus and need to be frequently rebooted.
The only problem I can see with Apples solution is the battery life and how impact resistant they are. The battery needs to be able to last 8+ hours. If it does, then great! However the Symbol devices are made to withstand impacts from 6 feet up in the air and it's a good thing. People drop them from ladders, drop them just walking around, accidentally leave them in the cardboard bailer and they get crushed. The iPod systems need to be ruggedized and need to be able to withstand the abuse the Symbol devices go through every day.
By the way, the Symbol device in the bailer was fully functional after being crushed.
Long post short, these devices are used for much more than POS transactions and Apple could tap a very lucrative market if they develop a more rugged version of their scanner cradle.
I have a huge global market covered that is in need of a hardware attachment for the ipod touch or iphone. If anybody is interested in making a couple of million holler at me. I have half a million users on Windows right now, but I'm looking to convert everyone over. We have the capital, we just need the developers.
Comments
I have seen a bank which does print a photo of the card holder on it for extra security. I think it was a friend with a student HSBC account in the UK, but I can't remember exactly.
All debit cards (which are much much much more common than credit cards here) over here have a picture of owner on it.
I'm in Norway btw.
For credit card purchases, customers will write their signature on the iPod touch using a stylus.
Oh, do people still sign for credit card purchases then?
I thought everyone started using their pin number instead years ago.
Barclays are pushing contactless debit cards in the UK, no pin required, I don't know whether there's a value of transation above which it prompts for a pin.
I believe it's £10. That's what my Halifax contactless card terms say.
Not that I've ever seen a contactless checkout.
While the working end tip does look a little chomped on
Click on the 'Features' tab to see a close-up:
http://tenonedesign.com/sketch.php
I have one. It's some kind of weird stiff foam that feels really cheap. And yeah, chewed on pretty much describes it.
I was a long time Palm user and got one when I made the jump to an iPod touch, thinking I'd need it to navigate and enter text more easily. I guess that's like a Windows user thinking they need Windows (via Boot Camp or virtualization) to survive when upgrading to Mac OS X.
Anyway, I rarely use it, since there's kind of a strange micro-lag between hitting the iPod touch screen and something happening. It's nice for drawing, though. Too bad it's not pointy (I dislike the blunt tip) and pressure-sensitive.
It could work out as a fairly lucrative business setting them up as a cost effective total solution for retailers.
The big display iPhones we have in our phone stores have a Mac Mini in the base playing a continuous loop in Quicktime, the display is a 42" LCD panel mounted sideways and the Mac mini's output is rotated 90º.
They seem to be working alright despite the fairly common practice of shutting them down by yanking the power cord (It's too much hassle to unscrew the base to access the mouse when people want to go home).
It's just proof that an 'Apple Solution' whether it is first, second or last is immediately becomes the 'Industry standard!'
That's why I want them to make a TV. (which doesn't look likely!)
It's a shame the external hardware doesn't support chip and pin. It rather limits its use in Europe.
There is a previous answer in this thread where it was discovered that you use a standard terminal for entering your pin number. This may be because there is no way to make the such a device as secure, at least to the minds of people do the security auditing, or maybe it's just in future plans. Signing a signature on an untrusted terminal is no worse than signing on a piece of paper.
Gary Allen of ifoAppleStore claiming a deluge?
It's all speculative.
That's why I want them to make a TV. (which doesn't look likely!)
They've made its prototype- the new iMac.
This seems like it would be a very scalable and highly customizable system that as someone else pointed out could be quite lucrative for companies coming in and setting up businesses on. Retailers of all sizes from mom and pop shops to big box stores could benefit from this kind of system and the implementation cost would obviously scale to the size of the organization and amount of functionality offered on the system. Restaurants for example could allow wait staff to both place orders with screens in the kitchen and bar, and then checkout all on the same device. Personally, as a customer, this would be a great benefit as it's always so annoying to give a waiter your card and then have to sit there for typically several more minutes while he checks you out. Handing a waiter my debit card and being checked out right there in under a minute would definitely make me a happy diner, assuming of course the food was up to par.
Someone else suggested tying or bundling the devices together with a Mac Mini Server. This seems a rather brilliant idea to me. Using the restaurant example again, a single Mac Mini Server should definitely have the horsepower to run all of the ordering and checkout for even a busy restaurant. Using a couple of bottom end iMacs at the bar and kitchen would allow for display of food and drink orders where needed. This would actually allow the waiters to spend more time on the floor servicing tables more efficiently and effectively. The kitchen/bar could even use the system to inform the waiter that their order is ready. This could obviously be taken a step further by allowing a manager to track inventory usage and potentially even automating product ordering from their vendors.
Anyway, I definitely agree that Apple appears to have a huge market available here.
The app is called "Billing Credit Card Terminal". This app has an amazing interface and also captures the customers signature on the screen using his/her finger in place of a pen. This is one of the apps I think would fall under the no extra hardware needed since all its features and functions are built into the software.
direct link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/billi...326255801?mt=8
web: http://www.spartadata.com/
Am I the only one who reads POS as a swear word every single time it is mentioned ?
No, you're not. I laughed when I read this too.
Not for anyone who has worked retail.
... or for anyone who reads message boards like this one?
Target for example has many many Symbol scanners running Windows CE 5. Almost every employee gets one to use on their shift.
-Backroom gets them for getting their batch lists of product that needs to be scanned out of locations in the backroom and brought out to the sales floor.
-Food Ave. uses them to reorder food shipments.
-Front end managers use them to see which registers have requested change or get alerts from registers that need their approval code, etc.
-Guest Service uses them for sorting merchandise as well as processing defective merchandise.
-Managers use them to track the current sales for the day as well as any urgent tasks or recalls that are sent out by corporate.
-Inventory team uses them to scan all out of stock items in the whole store every day (all within 4 hours)
-Inventory team uses them to set up rain check pads and print substitution signs.
-salesfloor members use them to locate items, check back room stock, check prices, print signs and labels, check stock at other stores, set planograms, process mispicks, process defectives, check shelf capacity, create batches of items that need to be brought of from the backroom as well as many many other functions.
An iPod touch would be much welcomed. The Symbol devices are large, bulky, have horrible touch screens, are difficult to use without a stylus and need to be frequently rebooted.
The only problem I can see with Apples solution is the battery life and how impact resistant they are. The battery needs to be able to last 8+ hours. If it does, then great! However the Symbol devices are made to withstand impacts from 6 feet up in the air and it's a good thing. People drop them from ladders, drop them just walking around, accidentally leave them in the cardboard bailer and they get crushed. The iPod systems need to be ruggedized and need to be able to withstand the abuse the Symbol devices go through every day.
By the way, the Symbol device in the bailer was fully functional after being crushed.
Long post short, these devices are used for much more than POS transactions and Apple could tap a very lucrative market if they develop a more rugged version of their scanner cradle.
If this was reasonably priced it would be very well received! :-)
Why hasn't anyone else released this? Because the app is still "pending" review.
Why do companies want this even if impostors can play as clerks? Because customers wouldn't care, and retail will do ANYTHING to get customers.
They didn't release the POS because people would reverse engineer it? No, because all it takes is one stolen device to reverse engineer them all.