﻿ Mobile payment app eliminates card reader | ZDNet  Mobile
payment app eliminates card reader  Summary: The Flint
application for iPhone uses the smartphone's built-in camera and
imaging features to make it easier for small merchants to accept
credit cards.  San Francisco start-up Flint Mobile is launching
a hassle-free mobile payments app for the Apple iOS platform
after testing the software in an invite-only beta. The company
hopes to differentiate its offering based on two simple things
-- it doesn't require a separate piece of card-reader hardware
to accept credit cards, using a phone's scanning and imaging
capabilities to capture card information instead; and it doesn't
require the small business or retailer to have a pre-existing
merchant account. If someone is uncomfortable with the imaging
option, you can enter the numbers manually.  The hardware twist
may be a bigger deal than many people realize - since small
businesses won't have to deal with any incompatibility if they
start on on an earlier iPho