Starbucks will start giving away free music in an effort to get people to purchase even more in their stores.

The coffee company famous for being everyone’s “third place” will now expand their reaches further into the music world by going digital.

Earlier this month, Starbucks and Apple announced a partnership that will allow users of Apple’s iPhone and new iPod Touch to download songs playing in a Starbucks shop directly to their portable devices.

The coffee chain’s icon will light up on the iPhone or Touch whenever a user is within range of a Starbucks shop’s Wi-Fi signal. People with the devices — or a laptop with iTunes software — will also be able to use the signal for free to browse and buy other iTunes music.

The service will launch at 600 Starbucks shops in Seattle and New York on Oct. 2, then roll out in San Francisco in early November.

I love my Starbucks but I had a revelation this weekend. My new favorite drink is chai and I’ve been getting it more than coffee lately. My mother-in-law gave me a cardboard container of Tazo’s decaf chai syrup on Saturday night. You just mix it with equal parts milk and you’re good to go. She bought it for $2.99. I could make about a gallon of chai with the mix for almost half the price of a single venti chai at the ‘bucks.

Source: Starbucks to give away 50 million songs

Image Credit: Metroblogging New York City

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The video below shares Jim Carrey’s interest in supporting a human rights activist named Aung San Suu Kyi who’s been imprisoned in Burma. She’s the only Nobel Peace Price recipient to have been imprisoned. It’s interesting to see this very serious side of Jim Carrey. He’s probably one of my favorite comics of all time, putting him right up there with Robin Williams for me. It sometimes makes it hard to take him seriously at all.

I also just read about Jim taking an interest in the autistic son of Jenny McCarthy. McCarthy even calls him the “autism whisperer”. This I don’t find very off-base, for some reason it seems obvious that someone like Jim Carrey could connect to Jenny’s son Evan in a very personal way that’s comforting to him.

By no means do I think Jim is doing this in some sort of “research” mode, but I’d put money on the fact that Jim could probably portray an adult autistic person with as much believability and sincerity as we believed Dustin Hoffman’s character in the move Rain Man with Tom Cruise.

For more information about the topic of Jim’s interest in Burma, visit these sites:

Human Rights Action Center
www.humanrightsactioncenter.org

US Campaign for Burma
www.uscampaignforburma.org

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This is just classic. To think I’d probably have never heard of this happening if it weren’t for the Internet.

“They got into a big confrontation, a verbal confrontation and a fist fight and he came after my brother, he came with full force, and head butted him as hard as he could,” said Elliot.

Known by the nickname “Rusty,” Redfern made a name for himself in the late 1980s for pen and ink drawings he does using his foot.

Can someone please tell me how that would happen? I may need this guy to draw me a picture with his foot to explain it.

Source: Armless Artist Questioned in Neighbor’s Death

Thanks to my friend Ryan for posting about this so I’d find out about it.

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It’s been a couple of days since this happened, but I just stumbled across this video taken by someone who survived the recent plane crash in Phuket.

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If you’d like to do something to show your appreciation for one of the men and women of our armed services, you can visit the Let’s Say Thanks website that’s sponsored by Xerox.

You get to pick a card and Xerox will send a free printed postcard to a soldier stationed overseas at no cost to you.

A nice gesture and something we can all do to say thanks.

So join me and Let’s Say Thanks together!

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via [iLounge]

It’s nothing new but I saw this picture of an iPhone activated in Manila posted on iLounge. A lot more people are sporting iPhones here in Manila.

I for one am still in the deciding process. The iPod Touch will be available here in Manila starting next week. At least that’s what I was told by my supplier. As for the iPhone, I have a friend going to the U.S. next week. I’m contemplating if I should get one already.

Oh well..

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I’m not really a heavy Office or iWork user. I hardly do presentations and the only software from any of these two suites I use is Word. However I was spurred by this discussion over at the Philippine Mac Users Group forum. For you Mac users, which software suite do you prefer?

Microsoft Office is the current standard. It’s been there quite awhile and you’ll probably find it on most computers both Mac and PCs. However that being said, it doesn’t mean its the best. Office 2004 which is the current version for the Mac is severely lacking an upgrade. It’s been around for years and it’s still not an Intel native binary.

Another thing against Office is the steep cost of ownership. The Standard Edition costs $399.95. That’s a bit expensive for most consumers. While a Student and Teacher Edition is also available for $149.95, it’s not available to all.

Microsoft Office includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Entourage and Messenger.

iWork on the other hand is Apple’s answer to Office. Its current version iWork 08 finally brings it up to competing with Office in the major areas of word processing, presentations and now spreadsheets.

Unlike Office, iWork is a universal binary which can take advantage of the native performance of the Intel processors. This translates to a much faster set of applications.

iWork is not as robust as Office in terms of functions but it has most functions that regular users need. Add to that the simplicity of its user interface makes it a great alternative to Office.

At $79 dollars, iWork looks like a steal.

So, which one do you prefer? Do you still think Office is a must have and can’t live without it or are you part of the growing number of people who think that iWork is a worthy alternative?

I for one think that for consumers, iWork is a great tool. Cheaper, faster and easier to use. For office or corporate use, I still think Office has the upper hand.

Office 2008 is on the way but I’ll reserve my comments until I give it a go.

So, share your thoughts. Leave a comment below.

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This is great for most iPhone users but a cause of worry for some people who have unlocked or hacked iPhones. The software update brings about new features to the iPhone.

This update brings the iTunes WiFi Music store to the iPhone as well as a bunch of other new features. Some of the features include the double tap on the home button to bring out the music controls or bring you to your favorites menu. Support for TV Out, bluetooth headset battery status and some other features.

For more details, Apple has posted a video on the updates. Watch it here.

My advice for iPhone users who have unlocked or hacked their iPhones, hold off the update for a few dates. Wait to see what it really does. In a few days the intrepid iPhone “enablers” will get things working again as it was prior to software update.

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After blogging about Pixelmator last June, it’s finally available to the general public. A couple of months late but who’s counting? When I found out that Pixelmator was available already, I went to the web site and downloaded a copy of Pixelmator to try out.

First off, the interface, awesome. It’s simply beautiful. This is how most consumer mac applications should look like. It makes it more fun to use. I love the fact that when you pick a tool in the tools palette, the chosen tool icon pops out.

Let me say that in the hour or so that I’ve been playing with it, I can safely say that it’s not a Photoshop killer. It is however a great tool for the casual image editor. It packs enough features to make it really usable. So you probably won’t be seeing this replacing Photoshop at design/advertising/creative/ agencies. However I think you’ll be seeing this inside the Mac of everyday consumers.

It has tools for selection, coloring, sharpening, zooming, cropping, etc. Basic image editing tools. It does however lack a pen tool or a tool to create paths.

I love the fact that it leverages things found in other Mac apps such as a photo viewer that gives you access to your iPhoto library. That certainly makes it easier to look for and open image files saved in your photo library.

Another feature I love is the fact that you can capture straight from your iSight camera and it places the captured image in a layer, ready to be edited.

Pixelmator has filters similar to Photoshop such as Gaussian Blur, Stylize filters (Pixellate, Pointillize, etc), as well as some others such as Generator (Star Shine, Stripes) that aren’t found in Photoshop.

Even if I haven’t explored this application fully, I know that this won’t replace Photoshop anytime soon but I do know it will make image editing more affordable for regular joes. It’s a perfect compliment to your digital cameras. At $59, it’s a steal.

In the next few days I’ll be playing more with Pixelmator and hopefully share more tidbits with you. If you’ve tried or using Pixelmator please send me a comment/thoughts on it.

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1. You’re one of the first people to get your hands on the iPod Touch. Where did you get it? How did you find out it was on stock?

I got it from Best Buy last Sep 15 here in the US.

I never knew that it’s already available not until I saw the demo unit and asked the salesperson.

2. What model did you get? Why did you get that over an iPhone?

Since I’m using the 30GB 5th Gen iPod, I decided to get the highest capacity available which is 16GB. How I wish a 32GB capacity were available, that would be my final choice. I simply sync only those collections that I want and copy it over to the iPod touch.

Why not iPhone, I considered it because it would reduce my monthly bill of $20 a month with my AT&T account. However as a Treo user, most of the 3rd party apps and Games are not yet available in the iPhone. Moreover, I don’t want to come to a point were I’ll have no more battery left in the middle of the day while I’m in public area and no means of charging the iPhone. I’m a heavy iPod user and I don’t want to compromise the voice calls when needed.

3. What are your impressions of the iPod Touch? How is it better than your previous iPod?

Initially I thought it’s an iPhone but it’s slimmer with aluminum polished back which make sense to be uniformed and categorized as an iPod though the black plastic cover at the top left is very distracting.

It’s better with my previous iPod because of Wi-Fi, able to add contacts directly from the unit, multi-touch and OS X liked User Interface.

4. Having had your iPod Touch, will you consider upgrading to an iPhone once it’s available in your area?

I have no plans of getting an iPhone yet not until the apps that I’m looking or an alternative becomes available.

5. What are the things that you’d like to see improved on the iPod Touch?

• Ability to add calendar events just like contacts were it is possible.
• Native apps which can found from the iPhone
• Cover Flow artwork to change while playing a music or podcast.
• Bluetooth
• External speaker
• A physical play/pause and volume control or at least a remote
• Matte Aluminum back casing
• iTunes Wi-Fi music store to be more robust like ability to search for videos.

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