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Filed under: Business, iPhone, Mobile

Starbucks lets customers pay for coffee via iPhone

Starbucks is late to adopt the branded iPhone app trend, but now the coffee giant has entered the mobile market in a big way. Starbucks just announced two iPhone apps: myStarbucks and Starbucks Card Mobile. myStarbucks is pretty boring, unless you're completely addicted: it lets you know where nearby stores are located, when they're open, and what amenities they have. Starbucks Card Mobile, on the other hand, is pretty cool: it lets you pay for drinks using your phone.

Starbucks Card Mobile allows you to manage your Starbacks card from your iPhone. Anybody can enter the number of a physical Starbucks card to check the balance and reload the card with more money. Soon, you'll also be able to pay for your drinks without a card at all, just using the iPhone. This mobile payment feature is currently being tested in three major tech (and coffee) hubs: Seattle, Cupertino and Mountain View.

[via AppScout]

Filed under: Business, Fun, Productivity, Web services

Death by Caffeine

death by caffeineThink coffee helps you stay productive through the day while you bang away at your keyboard? Ok, so it does. But how would you feel if you knew the exact amounts of coffee or caffeine it would take in order to stop your heart?

The online "death by caffeine" tool calculates your weight with your beverage of choice and serves up some stats on how many cups it will take in order for you to drop dead.

They have also put together a caffeine database chart that compares how many MG's of caffeine are in a drink. Ok, enough writing, its time for my 4th cup of Starbucks. 30.86 more to go.

Filed under: Design, Developer, Fun, Internet, Blogging, Web services, Social Software

ThisJustBrewed serves social news for social beverages

thisjustbrewed social newsThisJustBrewed serves up some discussions around your favorite beverages, coffee, tea, wine and beer. Social news is everything, so why not one have one targeted around social beverages?

This social news site plays off of the Digg, Netscape model. Users submit stories and articles, and users vote them up or down. Of course the news on ThisJustBrewed is targeted around coffee, tea, wine and beer instead of tech and politics. If you can't get enough Arabica, Earl Grey, Stout or Lager, this is the site for you.

ThisJustBrewed is built off of the Pligg Content Management System. Pligg is a way for designers and developers with little knowledge of PHP and MySQL to install and work with a highly customizable personal content management system.

[via Emily Chang]

Filed under: Audio, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Freeware

Download coffee (or at least its effect)

Sound WavesOkay, there's no doubt this is a quirky download. I'll tell you right now that it's not a software download; this one is a simple sound file. If you're not interested, I suggest you move right on... but if you're interested, check it out.

Stefanos Karagos posted about a 20 MB MP3 sound file he created that exploits the brain's Frequency Following Response to give the listener a boost of energy, similar to what you'd experience from drinking a coffee. The instructions for use are quite simple; use stereo headphones, only play it once in a session (don't let it loop), and adjust the volume to a comfortable level.

The sound file sounds like a nature tape (birds chirping, etc) mixed with what seems like random noise at a very slowly escalating pitch. I was surprised how much it affected me; a couple of times I found myself actually becoming anxious, before realizing that I was simply being manipulated (by my own doing) by a sound file. Crazy, eh?

If you're skeptical or simply want to learn more about what this is all about, the site contains a very nice description of the theories involved. Also, there is a warning that explains who shouldn't attempt to use this sound file due to the techniques it uses.

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