14 DAY TRIAL // Second Gear software designer Justin Williams has confirmed via Twitter that Safari engineer Mike Thole is no longer on Apple’s payroll. Thole is joining Square, the mobile-payment company behind the Square Credit Card Reader for iDevices.
Thole is yet to update his LinkedIn profile to confirm that Square Inc. is his new employer, but a tweet from Justin Williams shows this is the case indeed:
“Congrats to my pal @mikethole on joining all the cool kids at @square,” Williams wrote yesterday.
Thole’s work at Apple focused around the user interface of Safari for Mac OS X and iOS.
After taking a stroll through the virtual aisles of the online Apple store in April, Softpedia was pleased to report that the Mac maker had added the Square Credit Card Reader as an offering for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
The product is advertised as being “the simplest way for individuals and businesses to accept credit cards.”
Indeed, the makers are building quite a good business around it, as it allows users to just plug in the reader and use it in conjunction with the free Square app from the App Store to carry out transactions for Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover.
The software is compatible only with new-generation iDevices.
Download Square for iOS (Free)
The company charges 2.75 percent per transaction and there are no contracts involved.
It is unclear whether or not Apple lost Thole because the man had simply grown tired of doing the same boring thing every day.
After all, how much excitement can there be in working with the Safari toolbars and pref panes? We kid, surely his job wasn’t just to stare at Safari all day long.
The most likely scenario is that he simply saw an opportunity to make a better living at Square, whatever his role within the company will be.