Ok, I know this really doesn't have anything to do with social software, but I can't help but to think about the iPhone and the platform it represents.

Starbucks iTunes music store

Basically, walk into a Starbucks with your laptop, iPhone, or iPod touch and buy whatever’s playing. Even if you’ve only partially downloaded a song on your iPhone, your computer completes the download automatically when you connect at home.

Why is this important?

Well, it's really the start of a new way to buy music, and perhaps it is also a vision into a very near future of automated kind of shopping that seems right out of science fiction.

Think about it, if you walk into an average shopping mall, you'll hear carefully selected music in each store. The music sets the tone of the store, the style and culture and Retailers work hard to find songs that fit the style. The pump is primed! It's not hard to imagine simply thinking, "I'd like that song when I get home, let me see what it is" and ordering it with a tap of your finger.

With me so far? Take this concept just one more step, and you're into science fiction.

Once you have a store connection that is local, it would be possible to place an order for your prescription medicine, right as you enter the pharmacy and simply pick them up on your way through. Your iPhone knows your prescriptions at the pharmacy and your favorite drink at Starbucks.

In a foreign city? Click on your maps, find a local retailer, place your order, get directions from where you stand to go pick up your items.

Why not have your grocery list be the real stock units and prices such that your order can be filled as you arrive, and is already paid for with a click?

Major supermarket chains can put their existing online Web-ordering system into a WIFI-enabled, instant point-of-purchase inventory system that is safe, secure, standard and oh, I bet Apple will make more money than VISA does today.

My imagination is clearly not able to really get the idea quite right, but I'm thinking that Apple, given some time and thought, just might figure out how this should all work.