iPhone users are expected to get free, unlimited WiFi from Starbucks if multiple rumors are true. Starbucks announced that AT&T would replace T-Mobile as its Wi-Fi provider, back in February. The transition is expected to to be completed this summer, although some Starbucks in California and Texas have already been upgraded.
A special iPhone formatted page asks for your mobile phone number, explains Mac Rumors. Once entered, you can access the Wi-Fi access for free.
But the AT&T system is based on the iPhone’s User Agent, which can apparently be easily be faked on laptops.
Under AT&T hotspots (including all those at Starbucks), any WiFi-enabled device up to two free hours of consecutive WiFi each day. If users need more than two hours a day, they’ll can purchase day passes, or sign up for an unlimited access for $20 per month.
If you’re an AT&T broadband subscriber, you can enjoy free hotspot access. Now iPhone users get free access, too.
This would be over Glenn Fleishman’s dead body:
Free Wi-Fi from Starbucks? Ha! Ain’t. Gunna. Happen.
[Of course, I thought WiMAX was imminent five years ago]
In other mobile news:
- AT&T’s planned $200 subsidy on the iPhone could double the sales of the new 3G model, according to one analyst. Despite the hefty $400 price tag, Apple has sold 5.7 million iPhones, over half the way to its goal of 10 million for the year.
- AT&T will offer MediaFLO mobile tv service on May 4. The Vu from LG Electronics is available for $299.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate while the Samsung Access phone is available for $199.99.
- Boingo, which handles net access at heaps of airports around the world, is now offering iPhone and iPod Touch users 15 minutes of free access at 28 of its US, Canadian and UK airports. The promo is currently only for Apple users, but the company plans to expand the free 15 minutes to Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Windows Mobile users soon.
- Wayport provides vertical markets [like AT&T] with WiFi services, and now claims 10,000 locations served (with the help of McDonald’s).
- Google News is now available on the iPhone and iPod Touch. A full-fledged version of Google News will also feature YouTube videos embedded with news stories. Go directly to Google News at http://news.google.com in your browser.
- Michael Arrington says multiple sources claim that Twitter is planning on moving away from Ruby on Rails as a developmental platform due to scaling problems. Twitter may abandon Ruby on Rails as their web framework and start from scratch with PHP or Java. But Britt Selvitelle, a senior engineer at Twitter, praised the Rails framework and the language is it based on, Ruby.
