BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Skyhook Wireless, provider of the patented Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) and the hybrid positioning system XPS, today announced a partnership with Android LBS app Find Starbucks.

Find Starbucks is a simple location search app that finds Starbucks coffee shops nearest to the user. The app was released in early June and already has over 3,000 users. Find Starbucks is an example of a simple location-based app, popular because it serves a large demand of smartphone users: fulfilling their daily coffee fix.

“My application has the ability to provide driving and walking directions from a user’s current location to the Starbucks stores nearby. With Skyhook I can get the exact location within a couple of seconds. This makes my application much more useful,” said Wenzong Tang, developer of the app.

“Find Starbucks in an example of an app that completely revolves around location, and therefore needs the fastest and most accurate location available. Skyhook ensures that users of the app can quickly locate nearby coffee,” said Kate Imbach, director of marketing at Skyhook Wireless.

Find Starbucks can be downloaded for free today in the Android Marketplace. Find out more information about the developer and the app here. Skyhook Wireless offers a publicly available SDK for Android developers, available here: www.skyhookwireless.com/developers/sdk.php.

The heavenly brew, once deemed harmful to health, is turning out to be, if not quite a health food, at least a low-risk drink, and in many ways a beneficial one. It could protect against diabetes, liver cancer, cirrhosis, and Parkinson’s disease.

In the war to win coffee consumers, McDonald’s Canada started a new tactic Monday — giving away cups of the beverage.

Under the two-week promotion, the fast-food giant is offering customers a small coffee with no charge and no purchase necessary whenever breakfast is served.

It’s a sign of how fierce the competition is becoming for the lucrative breakfast market that McDonald’s is going head-to-head against more traditional coffee retailers such as Tim Hortons, Starbucks and Second Cup.

“Coffee is really about enhancing our breakfast meals,” John Betts, president of McDonald’s Canada Ltd., said in an interview.

“Canadians are big, big consumers of coffee and coffee leads to breakfast and breakfast leads to meals.”

The stakes are high enough that the company has invested in national employee training, standardizing equipment and introduced a new “on-the-go” cup and lid.”

McDonald’s has also brought on premium roast brewed decaf and a line of premium teas.

Analysts say consumers are replacing higher-end lattes with simpler cups of joe. Starbucks Corp. reported a 10 per cent same-store sales decline for its fourth quarter, losing share to McDonald’s Corp., which reported a five-per-cent increase in its U. S. same-store sales.

In February, McDonald’s Canada sold about 1.3 million more cups of coffee than during the same period last year.

Betts said the giveaway is aimed at changing consumer perceptions of its coffee.

But one coffee lover leaving the Jasper Avenue and 101st Street Starbucks remains unconvinced.

“I enjoy the level of quality, so I don’t think I could be enticed to switch,” said Joshua Kupsch, a landscape architectural technician. He admits he hasn’t tested McDonald’s coffee lately.

“I have the feeling that it’d still be weak diner-style coffee.”

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Business/McDonald+turns+coffee+wars/1514990/story.html