geekosystem

Coffee leviathan Starbucks wants you to kick your morning habit -- no, not your coffee. God, they're not monsters. They just want to see you ditch the disposal cups that so many of us use and then toss into a garbage can -- or, yes, at a particularly annoying co-worker before our second cup. The retailer is banking that they can get more customers using reusable tumblers for their morning joe by crashing the price point, introducing a new reusable coffee cup in their stores in North America that will cost just one dollar.

Having access to wi-fi in places like coffee shops is wonderful, unless those places get crowded with other people using the same wi-fi connection. That's when speeds drop and problems begin. It's almost enough to make you want to carry around your own hotspot, but thankfully researchers from North Carolina State University have a new way to increase wi-fi speeds up to 700% on crowded networks.

We've all tested that el cheapo "Day Old Baked Goods" basket at the cafe, and most of us have been burned by it, whether it's with a chocolate chip cookie that goes to dust in your mouth or a scone you could use to hammer nails. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong, working in conjunction with coffee giant Starbucks, have developed a new use for pastries that have overstayed their welcome. By treating the pastries in a bio-refinery, lead researcher Carol S. K. Lin and her team break down the baked goods into their most basic forms -- strands of simple sugar molecules. Those simple sugars can then get a new lease on life as bioplastics or detergents, turning food bound for the dumpster into your next plastic water cup.

Not content with dominating the coffee business, and also not content with their current coffee energy drink, the Starbucks Doubleshot, Starbucks has announced that they'll be entering the non-coffee energy drink market, with a new line of fruit flavored energy drinks, dubbed Refreshers.

To our North American readers, Starbucks likely conjures images of overpriced coffee and a plethora of MacBook Pro users occupying all the seats. It does not bring to mind architectural innovation, but perhaps it should, as the Starbucks located in Fukuoka, Japan is nothing short of astounding. Designed by architect Kengo Kuma, the structure uses hundreds of interlocking wooden blocks -- a particular favorite of Kuma. The architect apparently wanted to give the impression that the Starbucks was nestled in a tree. While beautiful, the design also functions as a roof support and Kuma claims that the entire complex could be disassembled and rebuilt somewhere else. See more pictures, after the break.

You've probably never walked into a Starbucks and thought to yourself "How can I order the most expensive coffee possible?" Logan A. Warren, on the other hand, has. On top of that, he actually ordered it. It doesn't seem like it would be that hard; you just scan the options and pick the priciest one, right? Not so, you can purchase all sorts of upgrades for your coffee, each at extra cost. That's how Warren wound up paying $23.60 for a single coffee, and one that was practically undrinkable at that.

Reportedly, a drunk man entered a Boston Starbucks on St. Patrick's Day and, as they say, made it rain. Shown in the picture above, snapped with a mobile phone, the man threw $100 bills around the Starbucks, while shouting "I'm rich!" multiple times before leaving the establishment. Supposedly, no one made a mad dash for the bills sitting on the floor, probably too stunned by the act, or too embarrassed to be that guy. A Starbucks employee eventually collected the money and donated it to Japan earthquake relief efforts. Head on past the break to see the news report.

Remember the Trenta, the 31-ounce coffee drink size that Starbucks teased last year as a means of saving us from smaller coffee beverages ... and ourselves? Well, as of today, the Trenta, housed in Starbucks' biggest-yet coffee cup, is beginning its national debut with a rollout in 14 states: It will be available in Starbucks locations in all 50 states by May 3rd. As the above graphic by the National Post notes, the Trenta is larger than the average capacity of the human stomach, so that's always nice.

An English professor named Lynne Rosenthal claims to have been forcibly ejected from a Starbucks yesterday when a barista refused to place her order because she refused to use Starbucks' ordering protocol. The usual populist complaint against Starbucks concerns the chain's deliberately pretentious sizing: Rather than 'small,' 'medium,' and 'large,' they've got 'tall,' 'grande,' and 'venti.' (And, God willing one day, the 32-ounce Trenta, which is currently being tested in some markets.)

But while the New York Post says that Rosenthal "refus[es] to employ the chain's stilted lexicon -- balking at ordering a 'tall' or a 'venti' from the menu or specifying 'no whip,'" and "insists on making a pest of herself by ordering a "small" or "large" cup of joe," her complaint this time was a little more arcane, and concerned bagels:

Today, at Wired's Disruptive by Design conference, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced that, beginning July 1st, Starbucks will offer free WiFi internet access in every one of its American stores.  No time limit, no registration required.

Right now, patrons are only allowed to surf for two hours at a time, and have to have a Starbucks card in order to get access.  By this fall, Starbucks will also be rolling out The Starbucks Digital Network, offering free access to a number of for-pay-only sites to its customers.