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Today is indeed the beginning of the Starbucks Free-Wifi era. Hooray for “2008 as a year of transformation in a difficult macroeconomic environment.” Or whatever. Customers who register a Starbucks card and use it twice a month will get 2 hours of free WiFi per day. [Seattle P-I]
A blogger who is friends with a Starbucks manager says that it looks like the long-awaited free AT&T WiFi, even if you’re not an AT&T customer, inside Starbucks will launch tomorrow. A few caveats:
We decided to check back in with Starbucks’ social “idea” site to see what ideas they were thinking of implementing.
BoltBus offers service between Washington D.C. and New York with fares starting at $1. Each ride comes not just with WiFi, but with power outlets at every seat—a luxury usually confined to Amtrak. The downside? (There are several.)
Starbucks has launched a social customer feedback site that asks you vote on and submit your own suggestions to improve Starbucks. The most popular suggestion right now is (unsuprisingly) “give loyal customers the occasional free drink.” After that, free WiFi is suggested:
Continental Airlines has announced that it will be offering Wi-Fi and satellite TV in some of its planes, thanks to a partner ship with LiveTV (owned by JetBlue.)
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AT&T broadband subscribers will now get free access to AT&T wifi hotspots. These are mainly found in Barnes & Noble, McDonald’s, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and airports. [AT&T via Gizmodo]
The recently reported TJ Maxx security breach—where data on 94 million credit card accounts was stolen in 2003, 2004, and 2006—has ended up costing the company $200 million and counting. But although it’s the biggest example so far of retail data theft, TJ Maxx isn’t the only retailer doing a poor job of keeping sensitive data protected from hackers. One wireless security vendor recently surveyed thousands of stores and discovered that a significant number of retailers don’t practice good wireless security:
The Chicago Sun-Timestakes a look at the difference between American Airline’s new in-flight WiFi service and other failed services that came before it. What will be the big difference? Technology. Unlike more pricey satellite services American will use technology that uses ground-based cellular phone sites to provide internet.
American Airlines will test fee-based broadband on its transcontinental flights early in 2008. If you hate listening to other people talk on the phone, don’t worry—they’re going to block Skype and its ilk.
David Pogue of the NYT has written a gushing article about T-Mobile’s new WiFi enabled calling feature:
It’s called T-Mobile HotSpot @Home, and it’s absolutely ingenious. It could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars a year, and yet enrich T-Mobile at the same time. In the cellphone world, win-win plays like that are extremely rare.
Michigan charged Sam Peterson II with a felony for accessing a coffee-shop’s WiFi network from his car over several weeks. The police visited Sam’s car after a barber next to the coffee-shop mistook Sam for a stalker.
Hotel Chatter has unleashed their yearly survey of that most elusive of perks, free wifi! We don’t know if any hotel executives read this blog, but if you do, put free wifi in your hotel. Do it right now. Then call your friend Bob who works at an airline and tell him to put free wifi in his terminal. The Jenny who works at the library and Peter who works at the Parks District…
Boosting a WiFi signal can be an expensive proposition, requiring the purchase of either a second wireless router, or a wireless signal booster. Unless, of course, you build one yourself. From Instructables:
The parabolic Asian cooking (dumpling) strainer is the perfect candidate for this project. I was able to pick up 20 more access points in the city and connect to a network a few blocks away! This is BY-FAR the most simple of all Wifi extensions!
To build the booster, you need a USB extension cable, any USB WiFi adapter, and a tight-mesh parabolic cooking strainer. To reach WiFi signal heaven, stick the USB WiFi adaptor through the center of the parabolic strainer and connect it to the USB extension cable.
Airlines will start turning their airplanes into WiFi hotspots beginning early next year, WSJ reports.
This particular device was involved in a landmark United States regulatory decision related to telecommunications. The 1968 Federal Communications Commission allowed the Carterfone and other devices to be connected directly to the AT&T network, as long as they did not cause damage to the system. This ruling created the possibility of selling devices that could connect to the phone system and opened up the market to numerous products, including answering machines, fax machines, cordless phones, computer modems and the early, dialup Internet.
The Carterphone provision was never applied to cellphones, giving providers a closed system. If Skype successfully petitions the FCC, cellphones could be “unlocked” to third-party applications such as Skype. This could be good for you, the Skype-loving consumer. —MEGHANN MARCO
Debbie Foster was sued by RIAA member company Capitol Records for allegedly sharing copyrighted material on a P2P file sharing network. However, the alleged infringement was apparently committed by someone else with access to her ISP account. Foster had the case dismissed last summer, and as reported by Listening Post earlier this month, was awarded attorney’s fees in excess of $50,000.
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