Starbucks, which started celebrating Christmas with a nice tech piece (the coffee giant launched a mobile device app which animates characters on seasonal red cups in the U.S. and Canada), is planning to continue to enhance consumer experience with technology next year with introduction of it mobile app payment system to the UK market on January 5, 2012. The new service comes on the heels of the recent announcement about the upcoming launch of the My Starbucks Rewards program across the country.

Yahoo and Toyota have rolled out a new interactive ad format for Toyota Prius, called the ‘living ad.’ The new format of the ads designed to provide iPad users with an immersive experience of the new Prius range. The ads include photography and sequenced videos that use the device’s accelerometer and large canvas and due to it appear to be moving. This campaign follows the successful ‘Prius Goes Plural’ campaign.

Microsoft celebrates the 10th anniversary of its Xbox game console. In 2001, The Pentium III-based Xbox has quickly conquered a place in living rooms of millions of gamers worldwide but was discontinued soon. In 2002, the company launched Xbox Live followed by the ‘DirectX Box’ or Xbox 360 in 2005 that 5 years later was redesigned again to become a Kinect technology-supported console.