Square has just updated their Card Case “digital wallet” app for iOS with some impressive new features, such as support for geofencing in iOS 5, as well as hands-free contactless payment.
The updated app can now automatically establish a tab at participating stores within a boundary of 100 meters, and allows merchants to authorize a payment using a credit or debit card just by speaking to the person behind the register, who then confirms your identity with a photo. The app even automatically closes the tab when you leave the boundaries of the business.
Options are included allowing you to prevent the app from automatically opening the tap at selected businesses (or all businesses), and you must first authorize a business within the app before tabs will automatically be opened with a merchant.
The result of these updates is a unique hands-free payment solution that can help make it more convenient to shop af frequently-visited stores. The update is available through iTunes for existing users, and is a free App Store download for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch for new users (free, App Store Link).
This sort of technology really shows what the iPhone is capable of, and may serve as a compelling reason for why Apple doesn’t need to support technologies like Near-Field Communications for mobile payments (as long as merchants support services like Square).
