Items tagged with Coffee
Can you imagine what would happen if the world suddenly ran dry of coffee? It would be chaos as sleepy-eyed commuters made their way to the workplace and tried to grind out the work day instead of grinding coffee beans. That could have been the case today for Starbucks patrons following a mysterious and reportedly widespread register outage, except that baristas decided to hand out free cups of java at affected locations. It is not clear what is causing the outage or how many stores are affected. According to a local NBC news affiliate, baristas at some locations told customers that Starbucks may have been a victim of a cyber attack. That has not been confirmed by Starbucks, which as of this...
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Keurig’s attempt to lock its competitor’s coffee pods out of its brewers (all while running “The choice is yours” branding) has finally come to something of an end – though it’s not one that will appease some Keurig owners. The company announced that it is bringing back the My K-Cup in time for the holidays, giving its customers some freedom when choosing which coffee the Keurig will brew.“We want customers to be able to brew every brand, any brand of coffee in their machine, and bringing the My K-Cup back allows that,” Keurig CEO Brian Kelley told analysts in a call this week, reported Fortune. Supporting the My K-Cup will let customers choose their own coffee, but keeps competing (sometimes...
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It's no secret that caffeine can be addictive... we've known it for years. But have you ever wondered why your body may feel an urge to make another pot of joe or grab a soda? Believe it or not, the science behind it is rather simple, and definitely interesting. An addiction to something implies that you "need" to intake it often, and while it is about as simple a drug as they come, caffeine is in fact a drug. Many who consume lots of caffeine usually experience withdrawals after going without it for a while, much the same as someone who's trying to kick the smoking habit will, though it goes without saying that kicking caffeine is by far the easier of the two. Because caffeine is both water...
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As far as rewards programs go, Starbucks has one of the least attractive on offer. Frequent hotel dwellers and airline goers have been pretty upset lately by point devaluations that are ruffling through the industry, but Starbucks gives loyal drinkers next to nothing for stopping in on a daily basis. Clearly, that's not hurting sales. The coffee giant still seems to be pulling customers in left and right, and while you'd think it would have to offer something fairly amazing to get people to pay using their phone, that evidently is not the case. Mobile payments on the whole have struggled in the United States. Google Wallet has been all but a dud, and while Square is doing well, that still involves...
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With the highest of over 50 bids now at $180,000, someone is going to win a charity auction for what will undoubtedly be the most expensive cup of coffee ever. Those bidding aren't in it for the coffee, of course, but what comes with it -- one-on-one time with Apple CEO Tim Cook at his company headquarters in Cupertino, California. If you want to be that person, you have to bid at least $185,000 to trump the current high bidder. Proceeds from the auction, which runs until May 14, 2013, will go to to The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. As for your time with Cook, the winner gets to sit down with and pick the brain of the man Steve Jobs chose to navigate his company before...
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Mobile payments couldn't possibly be hotter right now. It's a trend that has caught on in my European and Asian nations, but the USA seems content with their old fashoned payment methods. But it feels like the future is finally catching up, and with major brands like Visa and Starbucks backing the initiative, it's going to be even tougher to ignore. The coffee giant has today announced that mobile payments are debuting nationally at their stores, with the Starbucks Mobile App offering customers with BlackBerry phones, the iPhone and the iPod touch a way to pay even more quickly at nearly 6800 U.S. company-operated Starbucks stores. That means that you can part ways with your cash even faster...
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Regardless of what you think of the company as a whole, Starbucks is a worldwide icon. It's on most every street corner in most every major city, and it's always a solid place to go when you're looking for free Wi-Fi. Well, sorta. Starbucks has offered free Internet to Starbucks card holder as well as iPhone users and those with an AT&T Internet/U-verse account, but everyone else has had to login via other means or simply watch as everyone around them enjoys free wireless. Starting on July 1st, Starbucks will open up their Wi-Fi hotspots to every patron, regardless of whether they're affiliated with AT&T or not. The Wi-Fi will still be provided by AT&T, but all 6,700 U.S. corporate...
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Wall Street Journal is reporting something we've noticed recently, locally, at one location. However, they're reporting it's happening in New York City in a big way: coffee shops offering free wi-fi are starting to boot out the free (wi-fi) loaders. We noticed this locally at a Panera Bread store, which offers free wi-fi. But during lunch hours, they restrict the amount of time you can be connected to the service. What the WSJ is reporting is similar, with some coffee shops even going so far as to cover --- and lock --- their electric outlets. Yes, it's not just the fact that customers sitting in a coffee shop surfing the Web during the busiest times of the day might keep paying customers from...
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Jack Thompson, best known for his crusade against video games, which he considers to be overly violent and to contain too much sexual content, has been disbarred. His most famous crusade was against Rockstar Games and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, after the famous "Hot Coffee" content was exposed (no pun intended).The Florida Supreme Court has ordered his permanent disbarment (.PDF), though it has given him 30 days to "close out his practice."The Court approves the corrected referee's report and John Bruce Thompson is permanently disbarred, effective thirty days from the date of this order so that respondent can close out his practice and protect the interests of existing clients. OK,...
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You gotta love Steve Ballmer. He's like the crazy uncle at the family reunion that wants to sing karaoke with a lampshade on his head. I imagine that when the Washington Post asked for a wide-ranging interview with the Microsoft CEO, they figured they'd get all sorts of inside spin in Ballmer's tussle with Yahoo! chief Jerry Yang, or maybe a sneak peek into Ballmer's future vision for Microsoft. Ballmer was pretty tight-lipped about his opinion of Yang, and Microsoft's future, for a change. But he was more than willing to tell the Post that there would be no such thing as print media in a decade or so. Awkward. In the next 10 years, the whole world of media, communications and advertising are...
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The frequent flyers over at Flight are reporting that iPod connectivity to airlines' in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems are starting to take off: "Singapore Airlines last week started supplying iPod and iPhone connectivity on the first of five newly reconfigured all-business Airbus A340-500s. United Airlines is expected to soon offer this feature in the premium cabins of its international widebody fleet, and Air New Zealand has opted for iPod integration as part of a retrofit of Airbus A320s and Boeing 767s with Panasonic's new X Series platform.Panasonic appears well-positioned to capture even more business. It claims to have the only IFE solution that can natively support Apple's authentication...
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So you might want to file this one under "huh?" right from the get-go but allows us to expand your horizons a bit anyway. Imagine it's 6:43AM, you're just sitting down at the breakfast table to a couple of english muffins, a bowl of grapenuts, or the lumberjack breakfast. Whatever gets you going in the morning; you get the idea. But something just isn't right. Ahhh, right. Like a double Espresso, grande caramel macchiato or tall cold Rockstar, you need your morning shot of HH! The day just wouldn't start off right without it. Have no fear, the Yuno PC is here... ya know?"The Yuno PC is a new personal computer concept designed to help you get the most...
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Seattle has been a boomtown a half-a-dozen times over the years. Looks like it is again. The entrepreneurs of the digital age seemed to have settled on the Seattle area as the next big thing - the overcast version of Silicon Valley. “The Seattle start-up ecosystem is vibrant, and growing rapidly,” said Oren Etzioni, an artificial-intelligence expert at the University of Washington and a serial technology entrepreneur.The University of Washington, in fact, is one of the big draws. It is fostering the entrepreneurial climate here the way Stanford University does in Silicon Valley. Another advantage is the tech-savvy talent at the Seattle-based Amazon and nearby Microsoft.Microsoft offshoots,...
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