Thrifty and Thriving

History is being made here, guys. Not just because you won’t need to already have an account or pay $6 to check your email while you’re sipping coffee at Starbucks, but also

In addition to the new free WiFi program, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told Wired’s Chris Anderson that the company is also planning on rolling out a new Starbucks Digital Network in partnership with Yahoo later this fall. This network, which will only be accessible in U.S. company-operated stores, will offers customers free and unrestricted access to paid sites and services like WSJ.com and other content providers on their phones, tablets or laptops.

Exciting! Ok, maybe a lot more so for people w/out the smart phones, those who do not live in a big city where this is readily available on every corner anyway… and for those connected to the newspaper industry

Read our article which summarizing Siena research on consumer confidence:

statewide gain [in consumer confidence] was largely resulted from confidence gains in the New York City area. Consumer confidence in upstate New York actually dropped.

Just when I thought my – seemingly – neverending question of whether or not to get a new phone came to a successful resolution (yknow, the one where I buy an iPhone and leave Verizon as soon as my current regular phone dies), I come across this article: AT&T: No more fixed-price unlimited Internet

Whaaaaaaat?

Existing smart-phone customers will be able to stay on their $30-a-month unlimited-data plans, at least until their current contracts expire or perhaps longer, but new customers will have to choose from two different plans: the DataPlus plan that offers 200 megabytes of data for $15 a month, and the DataPro plan that offers 2 gigabytes for $25.

Pretty sure I missed the boat on the “existing” customer clause and now I need a new plan. And yes, I do need said plan ahead of time, cuz when my phone dies I won’t have time to compare and contrast; I’ll just have to head straight to the mall. Or wherever they sell phones.