Starbucks Rolling Out Free Content Network to Keep You Loitering in Stores [Starbucks]

Starbucks’ free wireless service is a boon to the mobile employed and unemployed, or anyone just trying to kill it slow. But starting tomorrow, every store inside the nation can even offer sippers a pleasing buffet of free online content.

The Starbucks Digital Network puts media picked out by the coffee giant on a platform designed by Yahoo, taken with free. We’re not talking feature films or anything here, nonetheless it’s a respectable, well-designed offering that may make you’re feeling a touch better about your caffeine addiction. The ” network” is actually a web site-with mobile-optimized versions-accessibly only when connected to a Starbucks WiFi point, and provides plenty of digital distractions, from exclusive film clips and song of the week picks, to hefty eBook excerpts. More interestingly, the positioning may also allow unfettered access to a few services which can be pay-only outside of the store-notably, the full Wall Street Journal website, famous for their iron pay wall.

We asked Starbucks reps whether they’d be beefing up their bandwidth in anticipation of this onslaught of connection-heavy stuff-and they aren’t. That’s a little bit worrisome, since not less than in our neck of the woods, the connection at Starbucks isn’t always speedy or reliable. Rarely both. But they did maintain that they’re keeping track of the service at each store, and would make upgrades accordingly. So, in case your free connection slows to a crawl, you could possibly know what guilty, but enjoying your morning paper at no cost ninety nine and some neat videos alongside your latte ain’t so bad. We just hope they’re as committed to the hardware end of things as the thoughtful media side. And now, I stop complaining about a free service. [ Starbucks ]

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This post is tagged: caffeine addiction, digital distractions, feature films, neck of the woods, optimized versions, wall street journal