STARBUCKS TO OFFER MUSIC TO GO
Starbucks is adding a new item to its coffee and Internet menu --it's launching an in-store music service that will allow customers to choose among 250,000 tracks, order the ones they want and have them burnt onto a CD to take with them when they leave. The service will debut in a Starbucks in Santa Monica, California and it will be gradually rolled out over the next two years to all 2,500 stores in the U.S. Starbucks has already inked licensing agreements with most of the major music labels and prices are expected to be along the lines of Apple's iTunes brand, which sells songs for 99 cents a track. "This is not a test," says Starbucks chairman Howard Schulz. "We're going for it." But some analysts expressed doubt that the company's service staff will be prepared to deal with music-to-go orders. "Your typical barista may be great at making espresso but is not in a position to fix the broken CD burner," warns Josh Bernoff, a digital music analyst. (BBC News 12 Mar 2004) (From News Scan Daily)
IT'S OFFICIAL: TOSHIBA'S TEENY HARD DRIVE IS WORLD'S SMALLEST
Guinness World Records has certified that Toshiba's .85-inch hard disk drive is the smallest in the world. The company says the tiny drives squeeze up to 4 gigabytes of storage into a stamp-sized device that will find a use in products such as cell phones and digital camcorders. "Toshiba's innovation means that I could soon hold more information in my watch than I could on my desktop computer just a few years ago," says Guinness science and technology editor David Hawksett. (Reuters 16 Mar 2004) (From News Scan Daily)
Hitachi has begun marketing a 400-gigabyte hard drive that can store up to 400 hours of standard TV programming, 45 hours of HDTV programming, or more than 6,500 hours of digital music. The company says it has designed the drive for audio/video products such as digital video recorders (DVRs), a market category which The Yankee Group research firm predicts will increase from 3 million today to 25 million by 2007. (AP/San Jose Mercury News 10 Mar 2004) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8154359.htm (From News Scan Daily)