Square (company)

Square Co., Ltd. (株式会社スクウェア, Kabushiki-gaisha Sukuwea) was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masashi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became Square Enix. The company also used SquareSoft as a brand name to refer to their games, and the term is occasionally used to refer to the company itself. In addition, "Squaresoft, Inc" was the name of the company's American arm before the merger, after which it was renamed to "Square Enix, Inc".

History

Square was founded in Yokohama in September 1983 by Masashi Miyamoto after he graduated from Waseda, one of Japan's top universities. Back then, Square was a computer game software division of Den-Yu-Sha, a power line construction company owned by Miyamoto's father. While at the time game development was usually conducted by only one programmer, Miyamoto believed that it would be more efficient to have graphic designers, programmers and professional story writers working together on common projects. Square's first two titles were The Death Trap and its sequel Will: The Death Trap II, both designed by part-time employee Hironobu Sakaguchi and released on the NEC PC-8801.

Square (album)

Square is a studio album by Canadian hip hop musician Buck 65. It was released on WEA in 2002. Though it consists of four tracks, each track consists of multiple songs.

It was nominated for the 2003 Juno Awards for Alternative Album of the Year and Album Design of the Year.

Reception

Rollie Pemberton of Pitchfork Media gave Square a 7.0 out of 10 and called it "a melodic mix of folk rock sensibility, smooth early 90s style production, clever lyrical observations and a relatively enjoyable train ride into the mental station of Halifax's best-known emcee." Meanwhile, Clay Jarvis of Stylus Magazine gave the album a grade of B+, saying, "Square is built solely out of his strengths: hazy introspection, sparse snare-and-kick beats and simple, dismal instrumental refrains."

Track listing

References

External links

Square (band)

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Square was a short-lived musical trio from Lincoln, Nebraska who moved to Southern California in early 2000. It was composed of Sean Beste (vocals and keyboards), James Valentine (guitars) and Ryland Steen (drums). Their sound has been described as including elements of rock, pop, and jazz fusion.

The band moved to Orange County after entering an Ernie Ball-sponsored band competition. They won the grand prize, beating 600 other entrants. Shortly after winning the competition, they released their only full-length album, This Magnificent Nonsence, on an indie label called Lucy Smith Music. The band started playing many gigs in the area, including some with local band Kara's Flowers.

In 2001, the members of Kara's Flowers asked Valentine to join their group, an invitation that he accepted, effectively dissolving Square. Kara's Flowers changed its name to Maroon 5 and became one of the most commercially successful acts of the mid-2000s. Steen later joined the established ska band Reel Big Fish. Beste (who was initially upset and unhappy by Valentine's decision to leave Square but says he no longer harbors any ill will) started a band called The Excuse and moved to Portland, Oregon for several years. He has since returned to the Los Angeles area and has done some work with the band Maxeen.

Square, Inc.

Square, Inc. is a financial services, merchant services aggregator and mobile payment company based in San Francisco, California. The company markets several software and hardware payments products, including Square Register and Square Reader, and has expanded into small business services such as Square Capital, a financing program, and Square Payroll. The company was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and launched its first app and service in 2010. It has been traded as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange since November 2015 with the ticker symbol SQ.

Square Register allows individuals and merchants in the United States, Canada, and Japan to accept offline debit and credit cards on their iOS or Android smartphone or tablet computer. The application software ("app") supports manually entering the card details or swiping the card through the Square Reader, a small plastic device that plugs into the audio jack of a supported smartphone or tablet and reads the magnetic stripe. On the iPad version of the Square Register app, the interface resembles a traditional cash register.