Purveyor of pricy coffee and other hot drinks Starbucks announced today that it has officially started accepting mobile phone payments from users nationwide. The mobile payments option has been in testing in a few key cities for a while now and Starbucks claims that mobile payments are the fastest way to pay for drinks at the store.

The catch is that there is no official Android app available from Starbucks right now; the company says it is in the works though. Until the official app lands for Android devices, you can make do with the Starbucks Card Widget. The app allows you to manage the balance on your Starbuck cards and see how much money is on them at any given time. The app will also update those balances automatically so you always know how much loot you have for coffee.

Other cool features of the app include the capability to route you to the closest Starbucks near you and it will work on registered and unregistered Starbuck cards. The app is free and has no ads or anything else to irritate you when you are using it. The app will work for Android 1.6 and up and is on the Android market right now. To use the app you just scan the barcode it produces using the scanner at checkout.