Overview of Apple's New iPod Touch-Based EasyPay Retail Store Checkout System

[MorphingDragon]

Maybe in the UK/Europe, but it's not used in the US at all.


If you've ever been stuck in an Apple Store waiting to pay because their old system went so slow, this may be news.

If you run your own business and want a remotely operated way of cashing out your customers, this may be news.

If you like technology in general and are curious to see how an iPod could be used in retail, this may be news.

Its always the same with the US. They just can't use standardized options like the rest of the world.

110V RMS
Imperial Measurement System
American Spelling
CDMA
Still use Signatures
You guys are an ATM black hole
Operating Frequency
SD TV resolution. (480i)


Its such a pain, what next we cant use a normal BIC ball point pen in America!?

 

[MorphingDragon]

I believe you'll find that retail stores had been around for a long, long time before Gateway's came along.

I'll give credit to whoever gets a store first in New Zealand! (Sure as hell not Gateway) But its not like pretentious arty modern style isn't new. I mean, a Starbucks/Jean shop HAD to use it first otherwise it wouldn't be fashionable. Duh...

 

[srowndedbyh2o]

I’m a vendor at an outdoor weekend market and something like this would be great! Being able to swipe the card would give the best cc rates. There are Apps available for the iPhone to process credit cards, but you have to manually input the cc number, and the cc company charges more for those transactions.

 

[pccounter]

wow thats so cool, has it arrived in the market already? if not when is it expected to come out in the market for sale?

 

[aristobrat]

If you've never seen this old video (made by some Apple Retail employees), at about 40 seconds into it is why a lot of Apple associates hate the current version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7kaf43bXDM

Someone in France took a super quick video of the new model:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCq3mmr7dwU

 

[Komiksulo]

Note that in the French video, there was a chip on the credit card. But the card wasn't inserted into the reader during the video, which was really too short to be certain how the reader would be used.

 

[charlituna]

wow thats so cool, has it arrived in the market already? if not when is it expected to come out in the market for sale?

it is NOT a retail product. it is internal equipment. one day in the distant future it might be licensed to others. but that's probably not for at least a year.

 

[aristobrat]

Note that in the French video, there was a chip on the credit card. But the card wasn't inserted into the reader during the video, which was really too short to be certain how the reader would be used.

ifoAppleStore had a little more info about that:

Not all the payment features of the iPod touch were being used in the Paris store. In Europe, it’s common to use a dedicated, portable terminal to process payments made with a smart-chip card, and those terminals were present at the store. Staffers are not actually swiping a credit or debit cards. Instead, they are using the iPod touch only to record the sale and print or e-mail a receipt, and using the credit terminal for the actual payment. The are not taking cash for purchases, as the iPod touch is designed to handle. Instead, the central POS counter is handling cash purchases.

http://www.ifoapplestore.com/db/2009/11/08/thousands-greet-first-france-store/

 

[swb1192]

I went to the Apple Store in Scottsdale last night, and saw an employee using the EasyPay system on his iPod Touch. The customer was very interested in how the system worked, and the employee showed how the credit card was swiped, etc. I thought this wouldn't be out for a few months!

 

[skiguy09]

Could be.

In the same way that Apple sucks up flash memory supplies, Symbol and Intermec suck up laser scanner heads.

(I've got a bunch of Symbol and other rugged devices around my lab here... including a specially made CDMA Intermec handheld, which showed me that making a CDMA version of a normally GSM device wasn't that hard.)

Symbol and Intermec make their own "scanner heads" (which are actually called scan engines), so I guess they can use all the supply if they want.

 

[Daveoc64]

You wait - maybe not this time, but the next time you get a new credit card in a few years, it won't even have a magnetic strip anymore...

That's not going to happen for YEARS.

Not only do the card schemes like VISA, MasterCard, American Express etc. make loads of money from people using their cards abroad, the banks do too.

As long as there are countries that aren't using EMV, you'll have a magnetic strip on your card.

It would cost the banks too much to not have it, and would limit what customers can do with their cards.

 

[Daveoc64]

Do you know for sure that the slider on the back of the touch can't read chips?

I mean, if Apple's currently using Chip and PIN in the UK, I can't imagine that they'd implement a new system that all of a sudden couldn't anymore.

It's very tough to get a device certified for use with the EMV system (that underpins the "Chip and PIN" scheme).

I can't see Apple's solution being able to satisfy the necessary requirements.

Reading a magnetic stripe is very simple, all it does is store the information that is printed on the card in a format that a machine can read instantly.

That's why it is so easy to copy/forge.

A chip is more complicated and takes part in the transaction. It works with the terminal and (if connected) with the servers processing the transaction. The chip even has the power to authorise or decline a transaction.

 

[ct2k7]

The device unit, which houses the iPod Touch costs $499 per unit, but it's very helpful. The manufacturers provide an SDK so you can create the app for it.

 

[llurgy]

I had thought that Chip & Pin had become more or less universal?

Not much chip & pin in the US, Europe yes, here no. Hubby went back to visit family the other year in the UK and was asked to Chip & Pin and he looked at the check out person as if she had sprouted horns and just said "Duh" until she explained