Starbucks changes it's loyalty program.→

File this in the same place as Amazon's shipping announcement today.    Wall Street only ever wants to see growth.   Easiest solution;  encourage your biggest users to spend more per visit.

From CNN Money:

“Right now, customers receive gold status once they’ve earned 30 stars in a year. That’s loosely equivalent to visiting Starbucks 30 times, if you don’t get any bonus points along the way.
Gold members get a free food or beverage product after 12 stars.
But when the new points system launches, customers will have to earn 300 stars — or spend close to $150 — to reach gold status.
After that, they will need 125 stars (the equivalent to spending about $63) in exchange for a free item.”

— CNN Money

Back!

Look who's back... Back again?

The CIA has released it's file on Saudi Involvement in 9/11, and it's HYSTERICAL!

Today after numerous FOIA requests and quite a bit of time, the CIA released a trove of documents relating to its investigations into the 9/11 terror attacks.  Included in the documents was a released document of the CIA's investigations into potential Saudi involvement in the attacks themselves.

View fullsize

Well. if you can call "released" when 90% of the document looks like that example page to the left.   No, that's not a joke.  Thats what the document actually looks like.

In fact there is only a single un-redacted paragraph in the entire document,  and to be honest, it doesn't say much of anything.

To read the entirety of the "document" please visit Gawker where they have the entire PDF embedded.

What ever happened to that whole "Most Transparent Government Ever" Thing?  Yeah, I dont know either.

The Talk Show gets an interview with Phil Schiller

Producer: Amy Jane Gruber @amyjane Junior Producer & Announcer: Paul Kafasis @pbones Directed & Edited by: App: The Human Story @appdocu Audio Engineering by: Caleb Sexton @calebsexton Webcast Production by: Hybrid Events Group @hybrideventsgrp

If you are an Apple fan in any capacity, there is NO other podcast you have to listen to this week.  I'm not sure quite how he managed it,  but John Gruber got Phil Schiller, Apple's SVP of Marketing to come on his show this week for a WWDC wrap-up.   Definitely another example of the new more open PR strategy of Apple post Katie Cotton.

Highlights include Phil Schiller ragging on Marco Arment's famous article about the reliability of the Mac platform,  as well as making a few jokes at the expense of Apple's previous PR... restrictions.

Great listen.   Also, even though I've linked to the show above, please visit John's site.   Even though I'm sure you're all familiar with it, it's always worth a new read.

Stunning 3d Hubble Images

Vimeo user Michael Lansdell has spent the time to make something quite amazing.   He took famous images from the Hubble space telescope, and did a 3d post conversion to make it appear that you are flying into these beautiful nebulae.   Check it out.  Most certainly worth your time.

Kung Fury

Just watch.  Nothing else need be said.

Pebble Time First Impressions

So my Pebble Time is finally here, and my first impressions will be unfortunately brief.  The build quality is far superior to that of the original!

The body itself is a beautifully textured plastic that actually feels quite nice while you're wearing it.   The bezel is a brushed metal, and the screen cover glass is now gorilla glass.   The buttons on the watch all have a nice tactile feeling to them.   They have a bit of give in them so they don't actuate immediately ( i suppose in case you bump into things or if it is lightly pressing into your hand.)  I would describe it as a similar effect to the half-press of a DSLR shutter.   When it does actuate, it has a nice solid feel.   Lastly, the band.  I actually like the rubber band of the Pebble Time a bit more than the fluoroelastomer sport band of the Apple Watch.  The Pebble's is just a bit softer, and a bit nicer feeling.  All in all the package seems much better put together than the last iteration.   It's no Apple Watch as far as construction, but it's also about half the price.

Unfortunately, that is where my impressions will have to end.  At least for now.   As I'm an iOS user,  I'm not able to actually activate and pair my Pebble Time, because the Pebble Time app is stuck in App Store purgatory at the moment.   This is more than a little frustrating, but since I sincerely doubt Apple is worried even a little bit about Pebble, I'm sure they will approve it shortly.   At that point I can do a more full review.  

For now,  not bad.   I cant wait to see how it actually WORKS.