Square mobile credit card processing solution makes taking credit card payments accessible to anyone.

Ever wondered why is it that only companies and business in general accept credit cards as a method of payment? Well a San Francisco company has been asking the same question and has come up with a solution designed to brake that monopoly. The service is called Square Up from a San Francisco company called Square .
One reason behind the statu quo until now may have been the number of red tape and countless fees associated with setting up a credit card merchant account. Now for a moment, forget about all that. According to the New York Times, the Square Up system practically get rid of almost all fees reducing them to a bare bone of a couple: a transaction fees representing 2.75 percent of the total, plus 15 cents.
Concerning the equipment, all you need is an iPhone, Android phone, iPod Touch or an iPad and a half-inch reader attachment if you own any of the Apple devices while Android phones owners whose devices is equipped with a card-swiping slot, do not need any other piece of equipment.
To set up the whole system, you would need to download the app which is free.
Beside the low transaction fees, another beauty of Square Up is the fact that you only pay as you use it; if you don't, you don't owe anything.
To "ring" a transaction, just swipe the customer's card into the slot and have him or her sign their names on the phone's touch screen with their fingers. In case the customer is not physically present, just like any merchant would do, just have them provide their cards' required information.
From that point on, your phone connects to Square's server, process the transaction authorizes the purchase, sends a receipt by e-mail to the buyer and logs the transaction on your personal Square Web page. There, a tidy table that you can download as a spreadsheet, reports your income for the day.
To sign up with Square Up, you will have to provide your bank routing and account number allowing Square Up to deposit your money according to the New York Times.
But there is a little hang concerning the transfer of the money to your account: only the first $1,000 of each week's transaction ends up in your account immediately. Any amount over that may take up to a month pending review by the company's auditors before reaching your account. If you expect to use the service to process amount exceeding that threshold, there is a way to get around that $1,000 limit by providing Square Up with more information about your business when you first sign up.

For more, see NewYorkTimes.com

Swype text-input application now available for download for all Android phones.

Most Android phones owners who were lucky enough to own a model with Swype, the text-input application pre-installed, have fallen in love with the application. That have created some sort of Swype-envy among the do-not have. Now, that is about to change with the company opening up the possibility for any Android phone owner to experience the thrill of swyping as the practice of forming words on a phone screen by tracing the letters, is called.
Starting today, any Android phone owner can download the application from the company Website (it is not available in the Android Marketplace) but only for a limited time and with a limited features said crunchmobile.com.
For the first time, Swype will provide support in Spanish and Italian. And for people wondering what Swype is, there is a video tutorial on Youtube.com


For more, see mobilecrunch.com

Zomm and Phone Halo are wireless key-chains phone locators.

Most cell phones users have experimented being involuntary separated from their beloved devices one time or another only to be left wondering if they will ever be reunited again.
That is a testimony of how much invested in their cell phones, people are nowadays.
To help that from ever happening, there are some solutions as simple as what amounts to a modern day leash for your cell phone.
The idea is what is behind two products reviewed by the Wall Street Journal; they come in form of key-chain gadgets that works as wireless leashes for Bluetooh-connected phones.
They are the $80 ZOMM, available at Zomm.com and the $60 Phone Halo available at Phone Halo.com. They are gadgets that you attach with to your keyring and they basically work the same way by emitting an acoustic warning whenever you find yourself further than a preselected distance from your phone.
Beside that simple proposition, both of them offer more or less conveniences in terms of what kind of phones they are compatible with, or what sort of little extras they offer.
For instance, the ZOMM works with any Bluetooh enabled phone while the Phone Halo works only with Blackberry and Android based phones for now .
The Phone Halo is available for purchase at Phone Halo.com, while the ZOMM won't be available for sale to the general public till next month. But according to the Wall Street Journal, people were able to pre-order it and those orders should have been shipped early this month.


For more, see WSJ.com