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Bullshit! MagTek has an IPAD product

Now look closer. The MagTek device in your link is a point-of-sale card swipe terminal, presumably sold mainly to the retail industry.

Now look at TFA. The Fujitsu iPad is a point-of-sale card-swipe terminal sold mainly to the retail industry.

The Apple iPad, meanwhile, is a consumer appliance, conspicuously lacking a card-swipe device and is not primarily targeted at the point-of-sale market.

Or, in other words, MagTek have Fujitsu banged to rights for infringing their trademark, whereas Apple have a strong argument that they're not operating in the same market.

Bullshit! MagTek has an IPAD product, and has filed the trademark in 2000 which was later granted and then extended several times. Even Fujitus was and is after the name for their product much longer than Apple.

knowing full well that Apple prefixes all their products with an i

Apple doesn't own "iX" and it shouldn't get any special treatment. If it wants a trademark then should apply for it like everyone else. In this case it's late to the game, in fact too late.

Have customers just select a password for each account. Retailers would verify the password the same way they verify CSC numbers now,

Visa and Mastercard have already implemented this option. The only problem is the store has to be capable of handling it, and not all of them are, unfortunately.

https://usa.visa.com/personal/security/vbv/index.html?ep=v_sym_verified
http://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/cardholderservices/securecode/index.html

The account number is simply placed on the card, and authentication comes from physical ownership of the card. (PINs don't count because they are unfortunately verified based on machine-readable information on the card itself.)

This is wrong. PINs haven't been stored on the card for a long time (I'm not even certain they ever were for all cards). You can easily check this yourself with a relatively cheap reader, or you can build one yourself.

Or buy a reader from Magtek, there is nothing legally questionable with that. These devices have lots of applications, and reading track 2 of your bank/credit card happens to be just as easy as reading any track of any magstripe card. The information there is not encrypted in any way.

This is why VISA/Mastercard and banks are pushing the new EMV standard with chip cards (smartcards) that cannot be skimmed and copied.

MagTek readers are very common in our industry. They have stand-alone readers availible in USB, RS232, keyboard wedge, and TTL configurations. You can also pick up insert kiosk-style readers for use in your own custom designed enclosures. The small form factor keyboard wedges are around $70 from many dealers. I've installed more of those than I can count. Search Google for the part number you're looking for and you'll probably get pages of matches.

If you're looking for more configurability, have a look at IDT-Net's readers. They are available in the stand-alone and kiosk-styles like MagTek, but they have models that can be programmed to pre-pend, post-pend, and modify swiped data before transmittal. That feature is REALLY nice when you're trying to decode some custom membership card that's got it's own wierd track II format. The Omni readers are in the $180 range.

MagTek readers are very common in our industry. They have stand-alone readers availible in USB, RS232, keyboard wedge, and TTL configurations. You can also pick up insert kiosk-style readers for use in your own custom designed enclosures. The small form factor keyboard wedges are around $70 from many dealers. I've installed more of those than I can count. Search Google for the part number you're looking for and you'll probably get pages of matches.

If you're looking for more configurability, have a look at IDT-Net's readers. They are available in the stand-alone and kiosk-styles like MagTek, but they have models that can be programmed to pre-pend, post-pend, and modify swiped data before transmittal. That feature is REALLY nice when you're trying to decode some custom membership card that's got it's own wierd track II format. The Omni readers are in the $180 range.

MagTek readers are very common in our industry. They have stand-alone readers availible in USB, RS232, keyboard wedge, and TTL configurations. You can also pick up insert kiosk-style readers for use in your own custom designed enclosures. The small form factor keyboard wedges are around $70 from many dealers. I've installed more of those than I can count. Search Google for the part number you're looking for and you'll probably get pages of matches.

If you're looking for more configurability, have a look at IDT-Net's readers. They are available in the stand-alone and kiosk-styles like MagTek, but they have models that can be programmed to pre-pend, post-pend, and modify swiped data before transmittal. That feature is REALLY nice when you're trying to decode some custom membership card that's got it's own wierd track II format. The Omni readers are in the $180 range.

Magtek sells them for a lot less than that. Here's a link to their product page-- they sell stand-alone and PC-controlled versions that can record on all 3 tracks on the stripe. Also, a lot of ID card printers have mag encoders built in, and they run somewhere around $2000--less if you find used ones. Fargo makes several inexpensive ones that encode and print in one pass.

Magtek sells them for a lot less than that. Here's a link to their product page-- they sell stand-alone and PC-controlled versions that can record on all 3 tracks on the stripe. Also, a lot of ID card printers have mag encoders built in, and they run somewhere around $2000--less if you find used ones. Fargo makes several inexpensive ones that encode and print in one pass.

At my college, our print servers use magreaders that are just simple keyboard wedge(a la cuecat). Unfortunately, they aren't branded or anything, but a quick google and tadah. PS/2 wedges. No drivers required:}