Square today unveiled a new version of their card reader that is designed to work with the EMV chipped credit cards. EMV credit cards are a mainstay around the world and just starting to make headway in the United States (including a fraud liability deadline for businessses coming up in October 2015), and the new version of Square supports EMV in addition to the old-school magnetic swipe strip.
Square EMV maintains the same rounded-square design as previous iterations of the card reader, with a wide pass-through slot for magnetic swiping and a narrower slot for chipped cards. Just push the card in (chip-end-down, obviously) and there’s said to be enough friction there to hold it in place while you complete the transaction on the attached iPhone or iPad.
There’s not a release date or price yet for the new EMV-equipped Square card reader, but the company will be taking pre-orders for it later this year. It’s been a while since attention’s been paid to the Square reader — the company has been focusing on services like in-store pickup and online orders over the past several months.
