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Panera will test an AI coffee system from the makers of the Flippy burger bot
Miso Robotics' CookRight Coffee is designed to help restaurants run more efficiently.
Panera Bread now delivers through DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats
Panera Bread can't resist the siren's call of offering food through third-party delivery apps. The restaurant chain has made its delivery service available outside of its own apps for the first time, offering its menu through DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats. Don't expect to see someone from those services at your door, though. Panera's own couriers will fulfill orders in "most markets," so you could still see familiar faces if you're used to having your Toasted Frontega Chicken sandwiches delivered.
Subway hopes touchscreens will bust up its sales slump
It couldn't be that their bread used to contain the same chemicals as yoga mats. It certainly isn't the fact that their high-profile spokesman of 15 years is now serving 15 more in federal prison on charges of sex with minors and child pornography. No, no, no. Obviously the reason that Subway's sales have been in a three-year slump, one of the worst in company history, is that their restaurants aren't sufficiently high tech.
KTLA goes Apple Pay shopping with Apple's Eddy Cue
Apple senior vice president of internet software and services Eddy Cue has a lot to be happy about with a successful Apple Pay rollout in the last month. He's so happy that he went out and did a lot of early holiday shopping with KTLA's Rich DeMuro at a number of stores that feature -- surprise! -- Apple Pay as a payment method. Cue and DeMuro started their day at Panera Bread, where they ordered a quick breakfast using the chain's app and picked it up, all without interacting with one of those pesky human beings. Then it was off to Bloomingdales, where Cue had the opportunity to pay at a terminal using the now-familiar tap with his finger on the Touch ID home button. At the Disney Store, Cue had to sign for his transaction, explaining that some retailers are still requiring signatures for larger transactions. DeMuro notes that Apple is hoping that eventually retailers will get rid of the need to sign at all. Eventually, the duo showed up at a Santa Monica, CA Apple Store to buy some new iPads ... which of course allow Apple ID purchases from within apps. All in all, this is a great introduction to Apple Pay if you haven't yet had the opportunity to try it out. The video will start in about 30 seconds after the ad.
Tis the season to subscribe: What's on my annual service renewal lists
As November rolls around, it's generally time for me to take stock, look at my current service subscriptions (as opposed to entertainment subscriptions like Netflix and Hulu) and weigh what items I'm going to invest in for the next twelve months. Some of my subscriptions are annual choices. They time out after 12 months. Others are ongoing, so a time to evaluate and choose is especially helpful. Of course, services are a highly personal thing. The ones I subscribe to may or may not meet your needs and vice versa. So I've tried to keep my list of the services I'm considering fairly general and Apple consumer specific. If you have suggestions to add, please drop them in the comments -- and let me know if you run across particular deals that crop up near Black Friday. Offsite Backup. Time Machine, which I swear by, will get you only so far in life. Unless you're backing up offsite, you're exposing your data to enormous risk. Any physical damage to your workspace will probably affect your onsite backups as well as your main system. Offsite means greater peace of mind. Personally, I'm a Crashplan customer due to the unlimited backups and reasonable yearly fees. (Plus Mike Evangelist really sold me on the service.) Regardless of which provider you go with, you really should be thinking about adding an offsite plan to your Black Friday grab bag. Last year, Crashplan offered an insanely sweet deal for new customers (which I missed out on by two freaking weeks) so keep your eyes open for theirs and other deals on the day. VPN Service. If you lean towards the Wi-Fi lifestyle (and I do), when hanging out at Panera, Einsteins, Starbucks, and so forth, you'll probably want to consider picking up a VPN subscription for the year. There's a lot of give and take between Wi-Fi and onboard cellular, but the biggest difference is security. When you grab data directly over cellular, you can generally feel pretty good about privacy. Using shared Wi Fi means compromise -- speed, reliability, transparency. Using VPN enables you to shop, read mail, and perform other personal tasks without worrying about snooping. I've been using Witopia this year and it's been pretty good. I find it much better for light surfing and email when on the go than for privacy when at home, so about 90% of my use has been on my iPad and MacBook Air. Although I had intended to use VPN for day-to-day work, I found that heavy data loads (such as downloading new versions of Xcode) over VPN is just an exercise in frustration. Cloud. I want my data wherever I am. I'm a big fan of Dropbox and not such a big fan of iCloud but that's just me. Your mileage will, of course, vary -- and there are many new providers now out there in the field. This is a really good time of year to hunt for cloud deals for pro level accounts. Just be aware that real life stories like Everpix demonstrate why you need to be very, very careful as to where you trust your data. Online Apps. Unlike last year, this is the year that subscribing to cloud-based applications really took off. You might want to take a peek at Adobe, Microsoft Office, or Apple's iWork to see if their offerings might be what you need for next year. I'm intrigued by iWork in particular, and looking forward to seeing how well it transforms my work flow from desk-based to mobile. What services do you subscribe to? And which ones are you considering testing for the first time this year?
iPad point of sale kiosk spied at Panera Bread
Reader Domenico Bettinelli has shared this image of an iPad at a Panera Bread in Pennsylvania. It's being used as a customer-facing point of sale kiosk, which sounds pretty handy. Domenico writes: "You pay at right the station and then pick up your cup. [When your meal is ready], they bring the meal to your table." He also notes that it's inside a secure stand, and it appears to cover the Home button but extends well beyond the iPad's ends. I haven't seen one of these, but it sounds convenient. Let us know if you've used one.
Breakfast Topic: Oh, the lengths that we go
A man walks into a bar... or in this case, a Panera Bread café, lugging his whole iMac. He orders a cup of coffee and proceeds to play World of Warcraft using the coffee shop's free Wi-Fi. It almost sounds like a joke, except that it isn't. Gizmodo reported that the Panera Bread iMac Man has made a habit of going to his favorite haunt with his entire desktop computer and playing WoW using the complimentary Internet connection. I'd probably be surprised if I wasn't guilty of having done similar things using a less conspicuous machine. By less conspicuous, I mean a Macbook Pro mounted on a laptop cooling pad and flanked by a Belkin N52te, a Razer hard mat and mouse, while wearing a headset. That wouldn't stand out too much in Starbucks, would it? I do order an iced venti 1-pump classic nonfat 8-scoop matcha green tea latte and a maple oat scone to camouflage my set-up somewhat. Let's face it. Many of us love this game so much we sometimes go to great lengths just to play it. Logging in from a friend's house, an Internet café, or even bringing around our entire computer set-up around in a van, Vork-style, just looking for a place to log on. I've got an HSPDA USB modem in my laptop bag, you know, just in case. What were the extremes you've gone through in order to play the game? When you needed to log on just at the exact time, maybe to catch that expiring auction you've been watching, or to finish those Achievements just before the holiday goes away. Because of the Gizmodo story, my imagination right now is limited to nabbing free Wi-Fi, although I'm sure some of you have more outrageous stories to tell... cutting meetings short, excusing yourself in the middle of lunch, or even *cough* calling in sick. What lengths have you gone to just to play WoW?
