If you were watching the news last week, you heard about Starbucks launching their Mobile Payment application in over 7000 locations! The mobile app had been tested in lots of stores prior to that but this past week they felt it was time to turn it up a notch! I loaded the Starbucks application on my Blackberry and was quite impressed with the ability to not only add my Starbuck's gift card but I could also load the card from my Blackberry AND use the card (on my phone) at a local Starbuck's! Here's how it works: with the application loaded on your smart phone (Android apps coming soon), you select PAY- the screen then displays a bar code and the barista scans the bar code to pay for your order. Very high tech or as my teenager would say; pretty cool 
. These types of smart phone applications are popping up all over the place and we are excited to see more ways to make payments both easier & FUN. Please watch our BLOG as we will be sharing lots of information on how you can turn your iPhone, Blackberry, Android and other smart phones into payment acceptance devices. We have lots of merchants who are already using these tools and we look forward to keeping you up to speed on mobile payments!
P.S. If you have a Blackberry and would like to add the Starbucks app to your phone, text the word GO to 70845 and they will send you the necessary link. If you have an iPhone follow this link: http://www.starbucks.com/coffeehouse/mobile-apps/mystarbucks
