Apple is promoting its Starbucks partnership by giving away 50 million songs at the chain of coffee shops. The new wireless service "Now Playing" allows iPhone- and iPod Touch-using Starbucks patrons to preview and purchase the music that happens to be playing in their local shop. [AppleInsider]

Kitchen appliances:

"This microwave looks great. Does it have a popcorn setting?"

"A popcorn subscription, yes."

"Sorry?"

"There is a popcorn setting, but it's only good with this list of popcorn manufacturers. We were at least able to get Pop Secret and Orville Redenbacher to agree on a 99-cent price point for each use."

"Erm. How about this model? Is popcorn free on this?"

"Yes, but you can only use it three times."

"Oh."

"There is, however, a bonus: You can play five pre-loaded microwave games."

"On this little screen?"

"One of the games is 'Guess what I'm cooking.'"

MacLife has put together a list of the 10 worst Apple commercials of all time — but with the exception of the infamous Ellen Feis, who became an Internet celebrity with her bleary-eyed exhortation to switch to a Mac, none of the ads seem to date from the current Steve Jobs era. Could this really be the case? Are all of Apple's recent ads uniformly brilliant? Take, for example, the first-ever ad for the iPod, which features actor Jeff Goldblum a Jeff Goldblum look-alike, um, moonwalking. The clip, after the jump. Any other nominations? Leave a comment.

Sorry to get your hopes up, folks. After early reports that American Express was giving cardholders $200 refunds on their iPhones — after Apple slashed the price earlier this month — it now seems the company has reconsidered its generosity. Early adopter Muhammad Saleem blogs that he only got a $100 refund, not the $200 he requested. An AmEx rep told him that he had to apply to Apple, which now offers a $100 credit to premature iPhone buyers, to get the other half. Saleem and other cardholders should consider themselves lucky to get anything at all, though. American Express discontinued its price-protection benefit last fall, and the company is only offering iPhone refunds at its discretion — likely because it's a high-profile case of a price drop, and it hopes to win positive publicity and customer goodwill.

Apple's shiny white posterior has been bruised and tarnished today. First there's some whining over iTunes being offline. Then CEO Steve Jobs was subpoenaed to testify in the SEC's lawsuit against Nancy Heinen, who allegedly backdated stock-option grants. Apple was than accused of cavorting with "the most cock-thirsty and money-grubbing conglomerates in the United States" — that is, Hollywood studios. And then there's this sob story: Apple is blocking hacked iPhones. Maybe all these headlines will finally get the Apple devout to realize that Steve Jobs is not their best pal. Rather, he's the figurehead of a corporate entity trying to make money. It's like keeping a crocodile as a pet. It looks cute, sure, but eventually it's going to try to bite off your hand. And can you blame it? It's just hungry. (Photo by Daniel Shaw-Cosman)

With Apple's lineup of European carriers for the iPhone taking shape, speculation has already turned to the Asia market. KTF, a Korean wireless carrier, is already talking about their negotiations and declaring a Korean iPhone will use the WCDMA platform rather than EDGE/GSM. In other words, expect KTF to join the ranks of Steve Jobs's spurned, unhappy ex-girlfriends when Apple actually announces its Pacific partners. [The Korea Times]

Apple's Steve Jobs waxing metaphorical on playing European carriers against one another during iPhone contract negotiations: "Partnerships take a lot of work — you want to go out on a few dates before you get married," said Jobs. "Yes, we dated a few people but didn't get married, and so there were a few unhappy girlfriends out there." [AppleInsider]

While American analysts question whether an iPhone price cut means the uberphone is a disappointment, European analysts wonder how Apple secured as much as 40 percent of all revenue from partner O2, the British wireless carrier, on the eve of the iPhone's impending European launch. Orange and T-Mobile have been "confirmed" as the French and German mobile carriers, but things could change as Steve Jobs continues to negotiate for even a larger share of mobile revenue. [The Guardian]

Being either too aggressive or too compliant can be disasterous when negotiating with Apple so News Corp's president Peter Chernin opts for the safety of being obvious. On upcoming music negotiations with the computer maker: "I assume it will be prickly and dicey and contentious like all negotiations are and like all negotiations should be." [Reuters]

Even with the controversial price cut and an impending European launch, the Apple's iPhone is so passé. Why? The entire Valley (or almost everyone) is convinced search giant Google is about to enter the telecom business in a big way. They just have no idea what way: A software platform? Their own handsets? A significant wireless services revolution using the wireless spectrum soon to be auctioned? No one seems to be sure, but — just as everyone was confident Apple could deliver a better, consumer-focused handset — they're also sure that Google will do something that will overturn the existing mobile apple cart. And do so in a way that others can capitalize for themselves unlike Apple who prefers to keep profits to themselves. And while some hope to see an unlikely battle between partners Apple and Google, what they really hope to see is one of these giants break down the walled gardens controlled by the telecom carriers.

Sick of those $3,000 bills for international iPhone data roaming? AT&T has created a data plan that is slightly less wallet- gouging at a generous $25 a month for 20MB of data transfer. [The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

From the mailbag: "Hey gawker folks — can you put up a blurb about how the iTunes store is down, and hasn't been working since Tuesday? Downloads disappear, you can't download them, but your credit card still gets charged. the iTunes store's customer service people insist that there isn't a problem... I hate that Apple makes crack addicts out of us all, then takes away our supply. Grrr." Sure thing! Also, why aren't you just illegally downloading music for free like everyone else?

Fake Steve on Justine Ezarik aka iJustine aka the hot chick lifecaster and her new Apple logo tattoo: "I know it's wrong for us to use women's bodies to sell our products. Is it also wrong for this woman to use our products to sell her body?" [The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs]

The iPhone price cut produced pissed-off early adopters — and a ton of new, nonenraged customers. It bumped sales 200 percent, according to one report. [Apple 2.0]

If it's not a feud, it's a very strange friendship. News Corp. president Peter Chernin says, "We're the ones who should determine what the fair price for our product is, not Apple." He's speaking, of course, of the massive Fox library of TV shows and movies his company controls, and Apple's penchant for uniform pricing for video downloads. A translation of Chernin's comments: "We're staying put for now, but watch your a**, Steve Jobs." While Apple has sold 1 million iPhones and over 100 million iPods, its storefront is replaceable (Amazon Unbox, Microsoft's Xbox 360 Marketplace, Joost, etc.). Content partners like NBC are not. Apple best do what it can to quell this proletariat uprising before things get out of hand. What exactly would Apple do for its video iPods and iPhones if studios went on "strike?" Probably let users contentedly fill their devices with pirated BitTorrent downloads.

Unless Apple and Treo get their respective acts together, David Carr and Joe Nocera are going to go elsewhere for their MP3 player/smartphone needs. And then write about it. [NYT]

Why did the iPhone price cut blow up in Jobs' face? Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics, explains consumers hate companies that look like they're dropping the price simply to make more money. Apple would have been better off disguising it as a component upgrade. [Freakonomics]

Pity the underworked and lonely Apple PR staffers. Whenever they have a chance to do their job, the boss takes all the action for himself. Following the iPhone price drop and Steve Jobs's Marie Antoinette-esque "That's technology" declaration, a reporter at a major newspaper put in a call yesterday to the the PR department asking for comment. A mere half-hour later, Jobs himself returned the call. Shortly thereafter, Apple posted Jobs's iPhone-credit announcement to its website. Has the man never heard of delegating?

· Will Smith re-teams with his Pursuit of Happyness creatives for Seven Pounds, the story of a guy who falls in love while trying to kill himself [Ed.note—Isn't it a little tacky to be announcing a suicide movie so soon after the Owen incident? Just sayin'.], hoping that audiences will shed just as many tears watching Smith nobly overcome personal adversity as they did when he was hugging his kid while sleeping in that filthy Happyness bathroom. [Variety]
· Audiences will get a chance to see David Duchovny try to fuck away the pain of being a writer for another twelve episodes, as Showtime gives Californication a second season pick-up. [THR]
· Apple keeps trying to drive away the Hollywood content partners that just want to love them, proposing to cut the price of TV episodes to 99 cents. [Variety]
· Rupert Murdoch gets a pay raise to $24.3 million per year, but still officially makes less than News Corp second banana Peter Chernin. [THR]
· And in other continuing-cinematic-love-affair news, Joaquin Phoenix and director James Gray can't get enough of each other, teaming up for the third time for the drama Two Lovers. [Variety]

We have a great idea for a new drama to fill NBC's faltering fall lineup: "iTunes," the TV show. The public soap opera over negotiations to keep NBC's TV episodes in the iTunes Store catalog is sparking more drama than a season of "ER" — and more comedy than "Scrubs." Sure, NBC is looking for creative ways to gouge consumers. But Apple is equally to blame. Apparently it wants to chop the price of TV episodes in half to 99 cents a download. The way it sees it, studios will make money on volume than on keeping margins high. NBC and other studios worry that a 99-cent price point, though, would anger important DVD distributors like Wal-Mart and Target. So many partners to please! The threat of pirates looming in t he background! Will NBC be able to woo Apple into tiered pricing with a flutter of its eyelids? Will Apple slash prices to bolster its video store? Find out as the world downloads.