Square poaches UI engineer Mike Thole from Apple
updated 07:00 pm EDT, Thu May 12, 2011
Former Safari team member jumps ship
A tweet from Second Gear software designer Justin Williams has revealed that Safari engineer Mike Thole has left Apple to join Square, the mobile-payment company who recently brought their innovative credit-card reader to Apple retail stores and other outlets as an alternative to traditional card readers, BusinessInsider reports. Thole, who has not yet updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect the change, listed his duties as working primarily on the user interface of Safari for the Mac as well as the iOS version.
Square, who confirmed the hire, have begun growing a national reputation based around their free card reader and companion app for small businesses. The reader turns any iPhone, iPad or Android device into a card reader for Visa, Mastercard, Amex or Discover that works with various point-of-sale systems, charging a flat 2.75 percent per transaction without a contract.
Thole has been working on Safari as a UI engineer since late 2008, and also developed the search app iSeek, now published by Ambrosia Software. [via BusinessInsider]
