Starphones? Cellbucks?

After two years of trial service, Starbucks is implementing a new payment option. In an effort to expedite service, Starbucks will now begin offering mobile payment options in all their locations. The new payment option will allow customers to download an application on participating cell phones. Customers with Blackberry, Iphone, or Ipod Touches will be able to download a bar code onto their phones. After placing an order, customers pull up their bar code on their phone and allow the cashier to scan it. This scan will be deducted from a credit established by the customer online. Starbucks believes this new payment option will be highly successful thanks to cell phone dependence. As vice president Brady Brewer put it, “everyone always carries their cell phone.”

It is obvious cell phones have become a staple in our society, very rarely leaving our hands. This concept prompted the idea that switching payment methods from a credit card to a cell phone would improve productivity. After nearly two years of testing the mobile payment out, Starbucks thinkers proved themselves right. Customers would rather spend the extra minutes online adding the application, and linking it to a credit card, than spend the extra seconds on line taking out a credit card. The new mobile payment system supersedes gift cards, and will be only a matter of time until other companies install like systems in their locations.

The increase of cell phone dependence that will follow this new system makes me think Starbucks engineers may have bought stock in Apple.

"Happy New Year, TAKE A SHOT!"

The stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve is the most congested time for cell phone lines. At twelve o clock, of that time zone, hundreds of thousands of people place calls and pen text messages wishing their loved ones a happy new year. This surge in cell phone traffic clearly has an effect on service. Some cell phone services are completely shut down for hours due to the heavy traffic flow.

As a result of the heavy traffic flow and service shut down, many young people have begun a New Years Eve drinking game. The game is essentially a race. The rules require everyone involved to send a text message to someone else at the same party. The message of the text message is a command. This could range from a drinking instruction, to a request for the removal of clothing. The person who receives the text message within the first 15 minutes of the New Year must complete the task commanded to them. Everyone would like to see the person of their choosing complete the task they messaged, but not be subjected to the task they have been sent. This requires your cell phone service to be good, but not great.

It is amazing that a technological glitch can be transformed into a drinking game, and that people would actually be hoping for sub-par service on their cell phone. It is a testament though, to how enslaved we are to technology. The fact that people would delay their celebrations in order to hit send really says a lot about how tightly knit society is with technology.