In what will surely be a boon to caffeine-seeking techies everywhere, coffee giant Starbucks and Square, the San Francisco-based payment system startup, have reached a deal that will see Starbucks using Square’s system in all its U.S. stores. According to the report, Starbucks is putting 25 million into Square as part of the deal, which will also see Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz joining Square’s Board of Directors.

Here’s how it works: “Once the system is in place, customers will need to show the merchant a bar code on their phones. But when Starbucks uses Square’s full GPS technology, the customer’s phone will automatically notify the store that the customer has entered, and the customer’s name and photo will pop up on the cashier’s screen. The customer will give the merchant his or her name, Starbucks will match the photo and the payment will be complete.”

We’ve been fans of Square for quite awhile now with some of us here at The Flickcast using it frequently for personal and business transactions. It’s a great app with a lot of potential. This new deal will hopefully help the company achieve even greater recognition and levels of success.

Now if only Starbucks could work on improving the coffee. . .

Not sure how this one got past us as it combines at least three of our favorite things (comics, coffee and sitting on our asses). Maybe its because a lot of the team has been going to Coffee Bean lately? Anyway, let’s get on with it.

Customers at Starbucks stores nationwide can get a bit more with their coffee these days thanks to a new deal announced last week between the company and online publishers like Marvel Digital Comics. Marvel currently offers more than 9,000 comics online, all of which will be available for free on the Starbucks Digital Network, a portal available at 6,800 U.S. Starbucks locations.

Before you get too excited, comics at Starbucks will be available to view, not download. What did you expect?

Don’t like comics but still want to read and sip a giant Frappuccino? Starbucks will also be adding finance news from The Economist, sports news from ESPN Inside Rumor Central, and media jobs search help from Mediabistro.

“Today we’re broadening the offering and will continue to develop the network’s channels with a spectrum of new content,” said Stephen Gillett, Starbucks chief information officer and executive vice president of Digital Ventures, in a statement.