When I first heard that Starbucks was working with Apple on an iTunes deal, I wondered if they would put Apple kiosks in their stores.

But apparently it's just another music distribution deal -- Starbucks-produced music will get promoted and sold on the iTunes store. Starbucks has been in the music business since 1999, and this is another channel for their distribution. Here's the press release and some background.

It seems kind of odd to encourage people to buy Starbucks promoted music online, instead of buying CDs at a coffee shop. I wonder if Starbucks knows how frustrated more established record labels are with Apple, a situation that has opened the door for Microsoft's Urge and Zune music services.

Starbucks kiosks were ahead of their time. By comparison, selling music on iTunes is kind of ho-hum.

After I voiced some doubt about whether the sharing feature of Microsoft's Zune player really works, I was invited over to the Bear Creek offices for another demo.

Sure enough, I was able to send songs back and forth between two devices. It was probably the ideal setting to share songs wirelessly though -- I was sharing music with a Zune product manager, Matt Jublier, in a conference room with the devices about a foot apart. I'm still curious to see how they work in the real world, especially places with a lot of wireless activity.

BRIER DUDLEY

Sharing music works in a demo at the Zune team's offices in Redmond.

You're only supposed to be able to play shared songs you receive three times, after which you have to buy your own copy. I was able to start a shared song more than three times, but didn't play it all the way through.

Microsoft is still doing builds of the Zune's embedded software, even though the device is already being manufactured and goes on sale next month. It seems down to the wire, but Jublier said the devices will get software updates automatically when people connect them to a PC connected to the Internet.

Among the things being locked down are the default settings. One decision that was made: The devices will be ready to share music wirelessly out of the box, but they'll also have a privacy feature turned on so that nearby users can't see detailed information about what's playing on your device. That setting can be changed if you want others to see what you've got playing, however.

Also interesting was the incidental tour of the Zune facility. The 180-person team was given the leeway to choose the look and feel of their offices, in a leased building across Highway 520 from the Redmond Target.

The team just moved into the newly remodeled first floor of the building this week. It has a large central atrium that serves as a cafeteria and meeting space. Furniture and carpets are modern, funky and colorful, and at lunchtime the tables all had clusters of people working together on laptops.

There are still individual, Microsoft-style offices, but they have sliding barn-style doors with silver hardware, frosted glass and espresso stained wood. Coming Zune: An in-house gym.

Here's an earlier column on the Zune, and Ben Romano's story on the September unveiling.

I'm getting bombarded today by e-mail invitations to view clips posted on YouTube, mostly from political advocacy groups. My editor is getting the same thing.

My account was set to allow e-mail notifications when friends post new videos, but I have zero friends listed in my YouTube profile.

Have people figured out how to spam YouTube members, tapping into the e-mail directory somehow?

Maybe this has been going on for some time and it's just reaching me, but it's got me thinking about deleting my account.

The new version has improved features for sharing digital content in the home, but I wouldn't touch the software if I was using Media Center to record TV shows.

Actually everyone should read the release notes before installing this one, or maybe just wait until the final version that will presumably be done when Vista's ready next month.

Apparently there's a glitch that makes some recorded TV shows vanish after three days, degrading the TiVo-like experience of Media Center.

I wonder if there's some link to the copy prevention software used in the Zune media player, which also places a three-day fuse on licensed content. The Zune lets you share purchased songs with friends, but they disappear from friends' Zunes after three days, unless the friends buy their own copy.

I wonder if the tech industry's productivity declined today as the grand Star Trek auction began in New York.

No doubt some of the online bids came from Seattle area Trechies.

The History Channel has a live Webcast of the auction here.