3 ms·

I've been in a store when one of the Revel iPad terminals couldn't get online. highly annoying. Don't traditional POS rely on the telephone lines? Usually more

by gdilla 12y ago

I've been in a store when one of the Revel iPad terminals couldn't get online. highly annoying. Don't traditional POS rely on the telephone lines? Usually more reliable than my ISP, that's for sure.

Someone1234 12y ago
I've been in an Apple store where their customized iPod Touches (or iPhones?) POS terminals couldn't get online. Irony of ironies.
doublerebel 12y ago
In the past, yes POS card processing relied on a telephone connection to the processor, but this is less and less common. Regardless POS intranet was always isolated from the internet, for PCI compliance and security. Only these new entrants have become reliant on an internet connection -- but most seem to be marketing the novelty of mobile technology, rather than creating an offline-first db-synced app built on proven internet technologies.
- refulgentis 12y ago
  Shameless plug here – I build an iPad point of sale that does exactly that. It's called Ambur (amburapp.com). We started with a local SQLite DB, then built syncing depending only on the router functioning (i.e. no internet dependency, one iPad acts as a server) using Bonjour discovery, and I just added NAT traversal so people can still remotely access the point of sale. It's the best of all worlds! Now to find some venture capital... BTW, why in the world don't any of the other point of sales do this? None of the stuff that's required is rocket science, you need a Core Data maven, a networking maven, and a decent UI programmer in the same room and you'll get a ton done. Removing reliance on a server seems like a no-brainer both for clients with unreliable internet connections with business-critical needs, and for avoiding complexity of having a "split brain" across iOS/the cloud for the service. It seems like server devs are valued over iOS devs for no clear reason.

3 ms·

I've been in a store when one of the Revel iPad terminals couldn't get online. highly annoying. Don't traditional POS rely on the telephone lines? Usually more

by gdilla 12y ago

I've been in a store when one of the Revel iPad terminals couldn't get online. highly annoying. Don't traditional POS rely on the telephone lines? Usually more reliable than my ISP, that's for sure.

Someone1234 12y ago
I've been in an Apple store where their customized iPod Touches (or iPhones?) POS terminals couldn't get online. Irony of ironies.
doublerebel 12y ago
In the past, yes POS card processing relied on a telephone connection to the processor, but this is less and less common. Regardless POS intranet was always isolated from the internet, for PCI compliance and security. Only these new entrants have become reliant on an internet connection -- but most seem to be marketing the novelty of mobile technology, rather than creating an offline-first db-synced app built on proven internet technologies.
- refulgentis 12y ago
  Shameless plug here – I build an iPad point of sale that does exactly that. It's called Ambur (amburapp.com). We started with a local SQLite DB, then built syncing depending only on the router functioning (i.e. no internet dependency, one iPad acts as a server) using Bonjour discovery, and I just added NAT traversal so people can still remotely access the point of sale. It's the best of all worlds! Now to find some venture capital... BTW, why in the world don't any of the other point of sales do this? None of the stuff that's required is rocket science, you need a Core Data maven, a networking maven, and a decent UI programmer in the same room and you'll get a ton done. Removing reliance on a server seems like a no-brainer both for clients with unreliable internet connections with business-critical needs, and for avoiding complexity of having a "split brain" across iOS/the cloud for the service. It seems like server devs are valued over iOS devs for no clear reason.