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Earlier this month Attachmate laid off the developers working on Mono, an open source implementation of Microsoft .NET sponsored by Novell. Attachmate acquired Novell last year.

Today Mono creator Miguel de Icaza announced the formation of a new startup to support the open source project: Xamarin.

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Seattle-based coffee chain Starbucks is taking its mobile payments plan nationwide. The company started testing mobile payments in September 2009 and now it is expanding the program to 6,800 stores across the country and soon onto other devices.

According to The Seattle Times, one in five transactions is now made with store cards and Starbucks vice president of card and brand loyalty says that mobile payments "will extend the way our customers experience and use their Starbucks Card."

Starbucks announces the launch of the Starbucks Digital Network today. Powered by the free Starbucks WiFi, the digital network offers exclusive content to its in-store customers. Built in HTML5, the content is designed to work on all mobile devices - from notebooks to smartphones.

The network's content includes news, entertainment, business, and health channels, as well as local neighborhood information. Content providers for the network include Bookish Reading Club, Foursquare, GOOD, LinkedIn, New Word City, and The Weather Channel. And you'll be able to get access to special content from The New York Times, iTunes, and WSJ.com, the latter of which normally sits behind a paywall.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced this week that the Seattle-based coffee chain would soon be expanding its mobile payment program to more stores over the coming months. Launched in September of last year, Starbucks users with iPhones could pay for their purchases via their mobile device using a special Starbucks Card mobile application. The app was initially accepted at just 16 Seattle and Bay Area stores which were taking part in the pilot program. In March 2010, the company expanded the mobile program to include 1,000 Target stores across the U.S.

Now, Starbucks plans to expand it yet again. "We know believe that offering mobile payment and mobile gifting capabilities will result in a more efficient in-store experience," said Schultz.

Starting July 1st, Starbucks will finally begin to offer free and unrestricted Internet access over Wi-Fi in its stores. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz made this announced at Wired's Disruptive by Design conference today. With this, Starbucks finally joins the ranks of neighborhood coffee stores all over the world that have long offered free and easy access to Wi-Fi. By Fall 2010, Starbucks also plans to give Internet users in its stores free access to paid sites, including the Wall Street Journal.

Starbucks just launched two iPhone apps. One app, myStarbucks, allows users to find stores, build drinks, and browse the coffee chain's menu and find nutritional information. While this is interesting, the second app is far more exciting. Starbucks Card Mobile gives users a virtual Starbucks Card and in 16 select stores in Silicon Valley and Seattle, users will be able to use this app to pay for their drinks. The app will display a barcode that the baristas at these stores will be able to scan.