My iPhone accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express…

Yes it’s true. Not too far in the future, my Gar­age Sale will take cred­it card pay­ments. Cour­tesy of a neat inven­tion that you knew someone had to invent; the Square iPhone dongle. The premise is pretty simple:

• Plug it into your iPhone
• Swipe a cred­it card to com­plete a transaction

Square announced the device earli­er, but recently launched a bit more pro­mo­tion around it. Tech­Crunch had this to say:

Think payp­al, but any­one can now accept phys­ic­al cred­it card pay­ments, too. With no con­tracts or monthly fees. People are sent receipts by text and email.

And accord­ing to the LA Times:

Begin­ning some­time early next year, Dorsey wants every­one to use Square.
“I think we’re going to give the Squares away for free,” Dorsey said on the phone from San Fran­cisco on Tues­day, “because they’re pretty cheap for us to make.”

I’m think­ing this is a pretty nifty device. It’ll help boost sales for mobile data devices, be they Android or iPhone fla­voured. And the busi­ness mod­el seems well thought out; the bar­ri­ers to entry are pretty min­im­al.

0 to $60 in under 10 seconds.
Start accept­ing pay­ment cards imme­di­ately with Square. No con­tracts, monthly fees, or hid­den costs. Effort­lessly man­age all the money you take with an easy and intu­it­ive interface.