Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Digest

Talk of the day

By Times Staff Writer
Published September 25, 2007

Grande Freebie for Starbucks' itunes launch

Starbucks Corp. plans to give away 50-million free digital songs to customers in all of its domestic coffee houses to promote a new wireless iTunes music service that's about to debut in select markets. From Oct. 2 to Nov. 7, baristas in the company's more than 10,000 U.S. stores will hand out about 1.5-million "Song of the Day" cards each day. The cards can be redeemed at Apple Inc.'s online iTunes Store. Thirty-seven artists with featured songs include Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell - the first two to sign on with Starbucks' Hear Music label - along with Joss Stone, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Annie Lennox and Band of Horses. The first song will be Bob Dylan's Joker Man. Starbucks also will offer a limited-edition reloadable purchasing card that includes two free iTunes downloads when customers register cards online.

Take MySpace virtually anyplace

Millions of MySpace addicts can get their fix a little easier now: The social-networking site launched a free version for mobile phones. Now anyone with a Web-enabled mobile phone or PDA can access a scaled-down version of MySpace. Users will be subject to advertisements, provided and powered by Baltimore's Millennial Media. Previously, mobile MySpacers had to pay about $3 a month to access a phone-friendly site. MySpace parent company Fox Interactive Media said it plans to launch similar mobile sites "in the coming months" for other holdings, including its local television stations and AskMen.com, an online men's magazine.

Historic images now highly defined

The Smithsonian Channel debuts this week after a 10-month delay, bringing the sights of tiny bats, airplanes and Abraham Lincoln's last photos into high-definition sharp focus in a deal with DirecTV. The new television unit is a joint venture between the Smithsonian Institution and Showtime Networks Inc. Its shows are to begin airing Wednesday for DirecTV customers who subscribe to HD programming. The network said it is working to finalize deals with other carriers.

Telecommuting's powerful benefits

Using electronic devices to telecommute saves enough energy to power 1-million U.S. households for a year, according to a study released by the Consumer Electronics Association. The study, commissioned by the association and conducted by TIAX of Cambridge, Mass., found that "just one day of telecommuting saves the equivalent of up to 12 hours of an average household's electricity use." The country has about 3.9-million telecommuters, who collectively save about 840-million gallons of gas and 14-million tons of carbon dioxide emission a year, equal to taking 2-million vehicles off the road, the study said.

[Last modified September 25, 2007, 00:11:23]