(Image source: Wired )

 

BY SARAH KARNEY

 

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

 

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, released the Square Register app for iPad on Monday. The app allows businesses to use iPads as cash registers. Square uploaded a video of the app in action.

“Easily browse your items and create shortcuts for quick access to favorites. Register allows your customers to pay with credit cards, cash, or even their name.”

And the app transforms the tablet into more than just a cash register.

Merchants can upload pictures of inventory, track returning customers when they are nearby, and email receipts. It even has an analytics program. TechCrunch explains .

“The dashboard provides a glance of basic sales information and recent transaction history ... It also shows several interactive data sets, breaking down sales by month, days of the week, time of day, and even size of payment. ”

The app is free, and Square also sends businesses a free credit card reader that plugs into the iPad’s audio jack. Square makes profits by charging a 2.75 percent fee on each credit card transaction. Tech blog GigaOm thinks the app will benefit small businesses, saying...

“Small businesses have watched customers flee and take their business to larger retail chains ... It is creating a more level playing field ... for those who otherwise couldn’t afford the kind of business analytics the big retail chains took for granted.”

However, the app may only be worth the download for serious entrepreneurs. A blogger for the Seattle P-I says...

“This isn’t an app an individual would use occasionally ... You’d have to do quite a bit of work at the outset, inputting your inventory and setting up a system to keep it up to date.”

According to The Business Journals, iPad usage in small businesses has quadrupled over the last year. This app will allow more businesses to be there...and be square.