Starbucks customers who are logged in to the Starbucks Digital Network can now access up to 15 articles per day.

It’s a bit more complicated than that, however. Customers are forced into three articles per day from each of these four categories: Top News, Business, Technology and Most E-Mailed. The final three articles per day comes from a rotating section that changes every day:

Sports (Monday); Science (Tuesday); Dining (Wednesday); Styles (Thursday); Weekend (Friday); The Magazine (Saturday); and Sunday Review (Sunday)

Anyone can log into the Starbucks Digital Network via Starbucks’ free Wi-Fi. But the NYT access is only applicable to U.S. stores that offer AT&T Wi-Fi.

Starbucks first launched SDN back in 2010, and has continued to add content to it every year. Starbucks Digital Network features content from ESPN, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, USA Today, and Yahoo.

“Starbucks is the ideal setting for The Times to offer enhanced digital access,” said Yasmin Namini, senior vice president, marketing and circulation, The New York Times. “Customers on SDN will discover a diverse selection of Times content updated in real-time, from the day’s top stories to more in-depth features and opinion.”

So, next time you’re grabbing a caramel macchiato, you can catch up on what the New York Times has to offer – for free.

Soon after launching their new ecommerce platform Facebook Gifts, the social network began suggesting that you send friends a gift when it’s their birthday. Suddenly, a cheesy Timeline post ceased to be enough. Facebook wanted to promote the new Gifts platform by attaching it to birthdays – which is understandable.

Now, it looks like they’re taking it a step further by suggesting that you gift friends with a Starbucks e-gift, specifically.

Facebook told Business Insider that this is an “experiment.”

We’ve noticed that if the birthday boy or girl “likes” Starbucks, that information will show up alongside the Starbucks logo. That way, you’ll know that getting him/her a Starbucks gift card would be a good idea. You know, because they “like” it.

It’s unclear what the arrangement is here, and whether Starbucks (and presumably any other Facebook Gifts partner) would pay for the birthday suggestions placement in the future. As with all Facebook “tests” or “experiments,” there’s always the chance that it will never reach a large audience. But something about this one makes me feel like we’ll be seeing more and more of it as Facebook looks to further promote and monetize Gifts.

Square and Starbucks are further bolstering their relationship, building on one that already includes millions in investment and a payment option deal. Starting soon, Starbucks customers will be able to purchase Square mobile card readers at their coffee giant’s 7,000 stores.

The Square card reader normally sells for $10, but the company offers a full rebate for new Square-using businesses.

Last August, Square and Starbucks entered into a (slightly more important) partnership that saw Starbucks’ 7,000 stores offer Square as a payment option. Square now processes Starbucks’ credit and debit transactions, and customers can also use their Square Wallet (cardless app) to buy their morning cup of coffee.

Starbucks’ further investment in helping Square become the top mobile payments option in major stores around the country is no surprise considering Starbucks is a major investor in Square. Last September, Square closed a round of funding that included $25 million from Starbucks.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz also joined Square’s Board.

At the time, Square boasted that it was now processing over $8 billion in payments annually. To keep that growth, more small businesses will need to start using Square as their mobiel payments option. And getting their card readers in 7,000 of the most popular retail stores around is a pretty good start.

[via TechCrunch]

The company said in its announcement:

One year ago, Square had approximately 150 employees and processed over $1 billion in payments on an annualized basis. Today, Square has over 400 employees and is processing over $8 billion in payments on an annualized basis.

Square’s growing revenue and workforce precedes the company’s plans for international expansion later this year.

Last month, Square announced that Starbucks had signed up for Square, but also that the company would invest $25 million in Square. Additionally, Starbucks Chairman, President and CEO, Howard Schultz, joined the company’s board. More on the Starbucks deal here.

Square also recently announced a flat monthly fee for small businesses, who can pay $275 a month with 0% processing fees and no additional costs or contracts.

According to daily deals aggregator Yipit, we have a new king of the daily deals. Wednesday’s $5 for $10 worth of Starbucks offer shattered records, selling 1.5 million gift cards in sum. That means that LivingSocial’s Starbucks deal is now officially the most popular daily deal in the daily deal era.

By 11pm ET last night, the offer was completely sold out. People truly love their Starbucks coffee, and they love getting it on the cheap even more.

Wednesday’s LivingSocial deal was the first (second, Google Offers back in April) deal that Starbucks has ever authorized through a daily deals provider, so that explains a lot of the excitement. According to Yipit, the previous record holder for top daily deal belonged to another LivingSocial deal – a $10 for $20 gift card from Amazon.com. That deal sold a little over 1.1 million.

Out of the top 10 best-selling daily deals according to Yipit, LivingSocial has 6 of them.

And for today, Starbucks is king. I’m sure those gift cards will be used to purchase many a Pumpkin Spice Latte in the near future.

[via Mashable]

And you can help make sure that the Pumpkin Spice Latte debuts in your city first. All you have to do is interact with Starbucks on Facebook.

For the second year in a row, Starbucks is holding the Pumpkin Spice Latte Challenge on Facebook. Beginning today, the challenge sees Starbucks fans competing to earn points for their city through shares on Facebook and Twitter, and various mini-games including word searches, trivia, and artistic contests.

Starbucks currently has over 31.4 million likes on Facebook.

Follow @Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee
@Starbucks

Get your game face on, #pslchallenge starts tomorrow!

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
22 hours ago via Spredfast · powered by @socialditto

The city with the most points will be the first to receive Starbucks’ famous beverage. The company picks one U.S. and one Canadian city as winners. Last year Chicago and Calgary were the lucky locations, with Chicago garnering 7.3% of all the points in the U.S. and Calgary taking 16% of the Canadian points.

Square will process Starbucks’ U.S. credit and debit card transactions, which Square says will significantly expand its own scale and “accelerate the benefits to businesses on the Square platform, especially small businesses, while reducing Starbucks payment processing costs.”

It will be interesting to see if the deal leads to more major chains jumping on the Square bandwagon.

“It’s certainly a good validation for Square that there’s mainstream corp interest,” Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg tells WebProNews. “Landing a major chain is a big win.”

While there are certainly a few, it’s hard to imagine too many potential partners that could have the kind of impact on Square’s future success that Starbucks could.

“It’s not about one partner or another but making the service valuable in as many places as possible where consumers shop,” says Gartenberg, who notes that if the fruits of the partnership take off, the number of stores where Square is available as a payment option will likely spread.

“We’ll see, 7,000 is a good place to start,” he says.

It will be really interesting to see what the partnership means for Square’s competitors (not to mention Starbucks’).

“Obviously [it] puts more pressure on others to do deals of significant size to gain traction and mindshare,” says Gartenberg. “The real issue is the need to convince the consumers that this system is somehow better/easier/more valuable than just taking out the plastic card they already carry that’s used EVERYWHERE and transition that function to their phones.”

Starbucks does already accept PayPal.

In addition to getting Square into thousands of Starbucks locations, Square is also getting a hefty sum of money – $25 million – from Starbucks as part of a Series D round of financing. Starbucks Chairman, President and CEO Howard Schulz is also joining Square’s Board of Directors.

“Square began with a really simple idea: everyone should be able to accept credit cards,” said CEO Jack Dorsey, in a letter to Square merchants. “It should be easy and free to get set up, it should use simple technology people already own, and, most importantly, it should instantly adapt to any size business—from the person chasing a dream to the largest organization on the planet. By embracing Square, Starbucks has validated these ideas as powerful tools—not just for small businesses, but for smart businesses.”

“It’s amazing to think that Starbucks began as a single coffee shop in Seattle,” continued Dorsey. “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.”

You can read the full letter here. Last night, he tweeted:

Follow @jack

Jack Dorsey
@jack

More details tomorrow. For now: I’m extremely proud of both the Square and Starbucks teams. This is just the start. Good night. #Onward

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
8 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

Customers will be able to pay at Starbucks using Square’s payer application, from participating stores in the U.S. later this fall. They will also be able to find nearby Starbucks locations in the Square Directory. The company also notes that Starbucks customers will more easily be able to discover other businesses using Square, via the directory.

Square will process Starbucks U.S. credit and debit card transactions, which Square says will significantly expand its own scale and “accelerate the benefits to businesses on the Square platform, especially small businesses, while reducing Starbucks payment processing costs.”

In addition to all of this, Starbucks is actually investing $25 million in Square, as part of the company’s Series D funding round, and Starbucks Chairman, President and CEO Howard Schultz is joining Square’s Board.

Now, if Dorsey can just get Starbucks to use his other product more. @starbucks hasn’t tweeted since July 27.

It’s certainly worth noting, by the way, that Starbucks also accepts PayPal payments.

The announcement was made at Venturebeat’s MobileBeat conference, where PayPal will be talking more about its mobile strategy.

“The process is simple,” says PayPal VP of Global Product, Hill Ferguson. “Android users running 2.2 and above just download or update the Starbucks app for Android and link a PayPal account to their Starbucks card stored in the app, so when they’re in store, they can scan and pay easily. If the card is running low on funds, users can reload with PayPal quickly and securely, knowing all their financial information stored safely in the cloud.”

“As the consumers continue to demand more sophisticated mobile experiences, here at PayPal we’re committed to making it easier for people to shop and pay — anytime, anywhere and any way,” says Ferguson.

You can download the app here.

The company partnered with Opportunity Finance Network to form Create Jobs for USA, which they plan to contribute to with each product they sell. For instance, if you spend roughly $15 to bring home a bag of Starbucks’ “Indivisible Blend” coffee, $5 will be officially kicked directly into the fund. Although some might argue that such a contribution is nothing more than a drop in the proverbial bucket, every little bit helps in the long run. This program might ultimately spur other corporations to do the same thing.

More importantly, Starbucks’ decision to sell American-made products has helped create new jobs, including a few at the American Mug & Stein factory in East Liverpool, Ohio, where the company’s ceramic mugs are manufactured. The tumblers, meanwhile, are crafted in Chicago. Domestic production currently employs around 12 million individuals, which, when compared to the 20 million the industry counted amongst its ranks in 1980, needs a little improvement.

Starbucks’ Chief Executive Howard Schultz hopes that the Create Jobs for USA inspires other companies to follow in their footsteps. Some might saythe irony of the situation is that Starbucks cut nearly 600 employees from its workforce during its restructuring a few years ago. It’s also worth noting that not all of the company’s products are made in the USA; only the aforementioned mug, tumbler, and coffee are manufactured in the States.