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Square Inc. has introduced a mobile-payment device that enables users of Apple Inc.'s iPhone to accept magnetic stripe card payments. The device works with a small, cube-shaped card reader that plugs in to the audio jack of an iPhone. Consumers who enroll on Square's Web site also can upload a photo of themselves; when they use their enrolled cards with a Square reader, the picture is displayed on the phone, enabling merchants to verify customers are using their own cards. Square also is encouraging individuals to sign up to accept cards, which would enable them pay each other with cards. Merchants typically must sign up with an acquirer to accept card payments, but Square says its enrollment process is much easier than that of traditional acquirers. Twitter Inc. founder Jack Dorsey Tuesday used the microblogging Web site to announce that the company had gone live. Though Square introduced the system on the iPhone platform, it is hiring developers experienced in Google Inc.'s Android and Research In Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry operating systems, the company's Web site says.
