Hands-on with Starbucks' Wi-Fi iTunes Store

Starbucks finally launched its Wi-Fi iTunes store today (well, in New York and Seattle, anyway), so I moseyed on down to my local purveryor of overpriced (oops, I meant oh-so-tasty) java to give it a try.

As advertised, logging on to the Starbucks iTunes storefront was a piece of cake; I simply connected to the "tmobile" Wi-Fi access point under my iPhone's Settings menu, tapped on the iTunes icon, and voilà: more Starbucks-branded songs than I could shake a stick at (a "Starbucks" icon appears on the bottom-left of the screen; you can tap the other icons to return to the main iTunes store). Up top, you get a "Now Playing" section that updates in time with the music over the Starbucks speakers. There are also a few other (mostly low-key, of course) categories, including the much-vaunted "Recently Played" list (which shows you the most recently-played songs in your Starbucks), "Must Haves," "Coffeehouse Sound," "Under the Radar," and "Custom Blends." Amont the artists I found in the various categories were the Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and Paul McCartney. Buying a song was no problem, and it downloaded in about a minute or so.

A couple other items worth noting:

• The Stocks, Weather, and Google Maps widgets on my iPhone worked fine over the free Starbucks Wi-Fi, which I hadn't expected;
• Firing up Safari brings you to a Starbucks iTunes Store splash page; no regular Web browsing unless you buy a T-Mobile HotSpot day pass, unfortunately;
• No YouTube or e-mail access without a HotSpot day pass.
• TUAW reports that the Starbucks iTunes Store works on laptops, as well.

And one more thing: if you do go to your neighborhood Starbucks to try iTunes, don't forget to ask for your free song (part of a Starbucks/iTunes promotion that kicked off today and runs through November 7).