Starbucks Signs Up with Square

I am a huge fan of Square. I use it to accept payments. My wife uses it to accept payments. I use their amazing Pay with Square app to buy coffee at my favroite coffee shop.

Even though I have become a bit snobbish about my coffee in the past year, Starbucks helped me to have an interest in the caffeinated beverage. And I still like Starbucks every now and then, because they were integral into kicking off this little area of my life that I take a little pride in. I still like to go and sit at a Starbucks every now and then, and when I am on the road, I know I can get a fairly decent brew there.

Today, Square and Starbucks have teamed up. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square:

It’s amazing to think that Starbucks began as a single coffee shop in Seattle. The concept of taking a good idea and helping it grow is not foreign to them, and Starbucks doesn’t just view Square as the simplest way to accept payments. They see an opportunity to extend and accelerate a model they grew up with: the idea that business is local and that community plays a vital role in job creation and economic vitality. When Starbucks builds the Square Directory into their apps and in-store Digital Network, it gives Square new visibility, driving more customers to opt-in to Square. And with nearly 7,000 Starbucks stores soon accepting Square, these new payers will be able to find your business (including coffeehouses) and pay with their name, building community and creating value.

This is huge and exciting. I think this is going to be a fantastic partnership for both companies, and I hope more people and businesses sign up for Square.

Onward.

iOS 6 Beta 4 Shows Built-In YouTube App the Door

Back in June, I listed a few things I’d like to see Apple remove from iOS. One of those was:

The YouTube app seems slightly irrelevant these days, given that is somewhat out of date with YouTube’s current feature set, and YouTube’s mobile site is more than functional. Heck, let Google roll their own YouTube app onto the App Store.

I just don’t see much advantage to having a built-in YouTube app anymore. And let’s face it, the icon is hideous.

Apple released beta 4 of iOS 6 to developers today, and the built-in YouTube app is gone. The Verge has a statement from Apple:

Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.

I’m sure there are folks who will be upset. I just see this as a reclaimed spot on the Home Screen.

Touchdown

Back in June I noted the “seven minutes of terror” surrounding NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover. Well, about a half hour ago, those seven minutes have come and gone, and Curiosity has landed safely on Mars.

This is a great day for science, space exploration, and America. It’s also a great day to be a nerd.

CandyBar's Fate

Panic gives an update on CandyBar, their OS X app that helps you easily customize icons for the system, apps, and folders. It’s now free, yet unsupported. It’s also finding a new home over at The Iconfactory.

I remember customizing everything I could to follow a theme. I started trailing off on doing that a little over a year ago and keeping things pretty close to default (not sure why). Maybe that’s a good thing, since customizing is getting harder to do.

iWork '09 Updated for Mountain Lion

Pages, Keynote, and Numbers all received incremental updates to support Mountain Lion, iCloud, and Retina display Macs.

That’s right, iWork ’09 is alive and kicking. With a walker.

OS X Mountain Lion Released

Just $19.99 on the Mac App Store.

Watch for my review sometime within the next day or so.

OS X Mountain Lion to be Released July 25

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, in a press release moments ago (emphasis mine):

"We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline."

End of Development

Some high profile apps have ceased development today in the Mac & iOS ecosystem. Pulp and Wallet by Acrylic and Sparrow, the eponymous email client focused on Gmail. The companies were purchased by Facebook and Google, respectively.

I’m sure the developers are elated. Their users, however, can expect no further feature development (I wouldn’t count on bug fixes, either).

So, if you were a fan of Wallet, you should probably look into migrating to 1Password. And Pulp users may want to look at Reeder. And Sparrow users better get comfy with Apple Mail again.

I think Marco Arment puts it best today:

If you want to keep the software and services around that you enjoy, do what you can to make their businesses successful enough that it’s more attractive to keep running them than to be hired by a big tech company.

Honestly, getting free updates in the App Store all the time is nice on my wallet, but I’d rather have a frictionless paid upgrade path for major releases than to watch great apps fade away.

Microsoft Reports First Quarterly Loss Ever

Martha C. White reporting for Market Day on NBCNews:

Microsoft, the once-dominant computer software giant that has seen its fortunes wane in recent years, posted its first quarterly loss since emerging as a public company in 1986 Thursday as it took a huge charge for a failed acquisition.

Ouch.

Tweetbot for Mac Public Alpha

Tapbots have released a public alpha of Tweetbot for Mac. If you’ve ever used either of their iOS versions of Tweetbot, you’ll feel right at home with it on your Mac, as Tapbots have maintained consistency.

The public alpha is free to download for now, but it is far from a finished product. Expect bugs, crashes, and incomplete features. I imagine that when it hits 1.0, it will be a paid product in the Mac App Store.