You call that a feature? Truely disappointing "additional feature". At least it doesn't impede on the normal functions of the ipod. At least it's not a "pop-up".

Has apple jumped the shark, or is this a step towards something bigger?

Strategic alliances, mostly. Whether they plan to do anything else with this is anybody's guess, but it's certainly a feature I couldn't be any less interested in.

They may be trying to bring over more of the 'trendy' crowd.... Perhaps this is their answer to the Zune's "Welcome to the Social" approach.

I'd be lucky to hear any music playing in my Starbucks. Most times it is full of mums and babies and the wailing means I hardly take the earphones out to be able to hear the piped muzak......

Maybe you should take out the headphones since it isn't Muzak. Usually it is a feed from their own XM channel where they play Hear label artists. Pretty eclectic (all over the map) but hardly Muzak.

Though I have no love for Starbucks, it's an intriguing move on the part of both companies. Starbucks has been getting more involved with movies ("Akeelah and the Bee") as well as music (Ray Charles' "Genius Loves Company"). Despite people's arguments for Starbucks to stick with coffee, the diversification has met with a reasonable degree of success.

For Apple, Starbucks offers a good "closed laboratory" environment to see if this new service will work. I'm sure in the time since T-Mobile hooked up with Starbucks to offer wi-fi, it hasn't hurt the T-Mobile bottom line. If this does work, there are Starbucks shops all over the place and one could see the profit possibilities in selling music that's playing in the store.

But I think it goes beyond Starbucks. If it's successful, I can imagine walking into a theater and being able to download the soundtrack after movie (or even the movie itself). Maybe if you were at a football or hockey game, you could download first half highlights or post game highlights afterwards. If you were at a concert, you could download a copy of the performance shortly after it ends (much like how some concerts allow you to buy CDs of the show afterwards). I think there's some serious money to be had by these very captive audiences.

I think much like how the iPod was the Trojan horse luring people to Apple and iTunes, I think the addition of this wi-fi partnership is another Trojan horse that will boost the iTunes store.

I'm sure Steve Jobs has already thought of this and I don't think a lot of people have really thought of the ramifications of this Starbucks experiment if it were to really take off. This could make iTunes even more dominant than it already is while at the same time unshackling it from the desktop.

Since I don't frequent Starbucks this is a completely useless feature for me but then again I don't plan on buying an iPod Touch. Though most likely they will add this feature to the iPhone when the next update cometh.

Quote: (Originally Posted by XXTwnz)
Maybe you should take out the headphones since it isn't Muzak. Usually it is a feed from their own XM channel where they play Hear label artists. Pretty eclectic (all over the map) but hardly Muzak.

Mebbe in your SB but mine is part of Borders bookshop so its whatever is playing.

Quote: (Originally Posted by honeybee1236)
Since I don't frequent Starbucks this is a completely useless feature for me but then again I don't plan on buying an iPod Touch. Though most likely they will add this feature to the iPhone when the next update cometh.

Yes, they did mention that the iTunes Store was coming in an iPhone update soon as well.... It will be the first "official" item in the fourth row at the bottom of the iPhone screen...

What I hate about this starbucks co-operation is that you can only buy music and not download free podcasts or video podcasts.

Simply put if you don't buy music from iTunes the whole Starbucks enchilada is nothing for you.

Yes... Personally, I was hoping for wireless podcast updates in general. While we'll have to wait and see what the iTunes WiFi Store actually does offer, I don't see any evidence that podcast subscriptions will be updated as part of the process.

Can we go on safari at starbucks?

Quote: (Originally Posted by XVI)
Can we go on safari at starbucks?

Yes.

By the way, why the hell did Steve Jobs state that it took two years to get the starbucks deal running? Did he just mean that it took 2 years to get the touch?

It's possible. And if you can go online at starbucks, that's a big deal, like online. That's huge.

Online for iTunes WiFi Store access. Obviously general surfing if you want to pay-as-you-go, but only iTunes Store will be accessible without paying....

Other than that I suspect it will work like any other access point.

I like the idea of typing homework into my iPod at starbucks by using Google Docs.

But then I can't do that in school because my school doesn't have a wireless access point.

What would be cool is if you could also print to shared printers.

wow. I act like it's a PDA.