The Best Coffee at Starbucks Isn't on the Menu (drinks, people, latte, flat, white, Auckland)

Like most office drones, it’s hard to pass by a Starbucks on the way to work without stopping for a cup of America’s finest. But a new trend has baristas cringing and customers rejoicing: the Instant Brew. It’s not on the menu, but most baristas will make you one if the store isn’t too busy.

The Instant Brew is when baristas brew coffee directly into the cup and not into a giant vat of joe. It’s also known as a pour-over or single-drop. This trend is becoming more popular among small specialty coffee houses, and it produces a stronger brew similar to a French press, but without the grit.

There's a few more items from Starbucks which may further piss off your local barista.

• The Short Cappuccino: A cheaper, better cappuccino served in a smaller eight-ounce cup. This is a more European-size portion of the drink without the extra milk most baristas use to fill the tall cups. Most foodies agree that a proper cappuccino should be one part espresso, one part steamed milk and one part foam.
  
• Biscotti Frappuccino: buy an individual biscotto and ask your barista to blend it into any Frappuccino drink for a crunchy treat.
• Red Eye: a shot of espresso in regular drip coffee
• Black Eye: two shots of espresso in regular drip coffee
• Green Eye: three shots of espresso in regular drip coffee (with a side of insomnia and serious heart palpitations)
• Poor Man’s Latte: order an Iced Americano with no water and half ice, then pour in your own half-and-half at the condiments station; the result is a Breve Latte for a fraction of the cost.
• Chocolate Cream Frappuccino: a Frappuccino made with chocolate syrup and chocolate Frappuccino base
• Cake Batter Frappuccino: a vanilla Frappuccino made with both vanilla bean and almond flavoring
• Crunch Berry Frappuccino: a strawberry-and-cream Frappuccino with hazelnut flavoring; it tastes just like Crunch Berries cereal.
• London Fog: Earl Grey tea blended with vanilla flavoring
• Zebra Mocha (aka Penguin Mocha): a combination white-chocolate/chocolate mocha
• Red-Tux Mocha (aka Bleeding Penguin): a Zebra Mocha plus raspberry flavoring

Starbucks is also testing new brewing methods in key markets. Their concept store, Roy Street Coffee and Tea, also serves beer and wine and creates little heart-shaped designs in their cappuccinos. More importantly they offer custom brew coffee using the elusive Clover coffee machine, an $11,000 device that auto-adjusts its temperature and brew time to the individual bean. If that isn’t expensive enough, there is still the $20,000 siphon coffee maker imported by Ueshima Coffee Company which Starbucks has yet to offer. To experience the siphon’s cold brew you must visit specialty shops like Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco.

--Abby Technology - Mobile Phone Repair and Unlock Specialist

Abby Technology: Daily Pictures 02 August, 2010 (Auckland, New Zealand)

Some cool daily pictures for your viewing pleasure!  Brought to you by Abb Technology

HTC 1 can really make Apple iPhone 4 look ugly! (tech, news, report, leaked, pictures, Auckland, "Abby Technology")

HTC 1 Future Phone: Specs and Release Date Unknown

|HTC has been known for releasing beautifully designed phones. With this, another fabulous designed mobile phone is set to fascinate us in the future. It is HTC 1 as designed by the great designer who conceptualized the said design especially for HTC named Andrew Kim. The HTC 1 looks so simple but stylish. You will surely love its elegant design which is built with silver-plated brass body and comes with a built-in UV light which can kill germs on its surface as you charge your phone.

Known as HTC 1, the phone was built on the concept of having a single user, who is recruited for a cleaner and a more high- end approach. Looking beyond HTC 1, it seems that the design is very minimalist and that Andrew Kim has removed unnecessary design elements and made even simpler.

Andrew Kim also took time to make some improvement in its Sense UI. He took effort refining the existing widgetmania to a much simple set of icons and notifications. It has the news widget which provides quick access to your news sources and social widget which brings you the latest updates from your social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.

Ideally the HTC 1 is rumored to come up with a slightly curved touchscreen surface. It makes us think how this unique design will affect its users. The phone seems to be thick which provides ample space for a nice camera.

The HTC 1 is supposed to come with dual speakers located independently for a better experience together with a kickstand making it an ideal media device. With the kickstand, you can stand it upright as well as sideways. It has also a modern alarm clock on it. So with the stand and the alarm clock combine, you can simply transform your phone into an alarm clock.

The HTC 1 is also designed with the idea of creating a harmonized environment between its hardware and software design which is not currently present on most smartphones. And with its silver-plated body one can be assured that it is durable, smooth and has the ability to lasts for a long time.

The HTC 1 is also equipped with an integrated messaging feature that brings SMS, MSN, Facebook and other messaging sources into a single stream which makes messaging easier for its users.

With these features included in HTC 1 and its very elegant yet simple design accompanied by a high qualityperformance, it looks that the HTC 1 is something to watch out for. Release date has not yet been announced but expected to be around early next year in time to compete with the iPhone 4G.