9 posts tagged “starbucks”
Edward Kirk / iPhone Alley - RSS:
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News.com:10 minutes ago
AT&T's Free Wi-Fi Hotspots for iPhones Now Online for Real
It's been a saga of the on again, off again, on again, off again type, but it looks like AT&T's free wi-fi hotspot access is live at last. 17,000 sites across the US are available to iPhone users, including the fabled Starbucks
sites. According to AT&T's website, which also offers a hotspot
locator tool, AT&T knows "Wi-Fi is hot, and free Wi-Fi even hotter,
which is why we are proud to offer iPhone customers free access to the
nation's largest Wi-Fi hotspot network." Interesting... after all the
shenanigans, it looks more like AT&T thinks wi-fi is just "luke
warm", or maybe "tepid." But at least it's finally come good. [AT&T via MacRumors]
credit - gizmondo.com & techmeme.com -
A couple of readers have reported that AT&T hotspots are now offering free Wi-Fi access to iPhone users. Barnes and Noble, Starbucks and presumably AT&T's 71,000 other Wi-fi hotspot locations are now offering iPhone users a custom portal to access free Wi-Fi. A special iPhone formatted page asks for your mobile phone number. Once entered, you can access the Wi-Fi access for free.
MacRumors has been able to confirm this finding at a local Barnes and Noble. Blurry photo provided:
AT&T recently partnered with Starbucks
(displacing T-Mobile) to provide Wi-Fi access to Starbucks' 7000 stores
nationwide. This partnership allowed existing AT&T broadband
customers free access and AT&T promised that it would "soon extend
the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers", but no
official announcement has yet been made.
A list of AT&T's 71,000 hotspots can be found on AT&T's site, including Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, Airports, and McDonald's locations.
Update: MacRumors reader ntrigue confirms that AT&T's system is based on the iPhone's User Agent, which can easily be faked on laptops. He successfully accessed the free iPhone Wifi through his laptop (and a valid iPhone phone number)"
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/04/30/free-atandt-wi-fi-access-for-iphones/
Starbucks ditches T-Mobile for AT&T
Ubiquitous caffeine conglomerate Starbucks has ended its Wi-Fi partnership with T-Mobile in favor of one with AT&T.
Under the existing plan with T-Mobile, Starbucks customers needed a paid subscription to access the in-store Wi-Fi, and T-Mobile HotSpot subscribers will continue to have access to Starbucks Wi-Fi thanks to an agreement between AT&T and T-Mobile. But the new AT&T plan allows all customers two free hours per day, with a $3.99 fee for additional two-hour chunks of time. Monthly subscriptions will cost $19.99 and will enable access to other AT&T hotspot locations in addition to Starbucks.
In addition, AT&T broadband customers will be able to surf at the more than 7,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. for free. The new Wi-Fi partnership is expected to be rolled out gradually at Starbucks locations this spring.
It's an understandable move on Starbucks' part; the coffee chain has a number of deals in place with Apple and its iTunes Store. Apple uses AT&T as the mobile service provider for the iPhone. Rumors of a Starbucks mobile ordering interface for the iPhone have been circulating for months.
The new partnership also extends to the business side of Starbucks: AT&T will also power an "enterprise-class" network for internal operations.
AT&T Bringing Free Wi-Fi to Starbucks (Finally!)
AT&T is popping Wi-Fi hotspots at over 7,000 Starbucks stores, exploding their own network
and smothering
razing T-Mobile's biggest Wi-Fi front in one fell swoop. AT&T is
offering the true Starbucks killer app: Two hours of free Wi-Fi a day
to Starbucks Card holders (like the gift cards, so just pre-pay for
your fix) and unlimited internets to AT&T's broadband customers and
Starbucks slaves. Update: Even though T-Mobile has actually gotten
the boot from Starbucks, AT&T is letting T-Mo customers keep using
the hotspots for no extra fee.
AT&T is promising fatter pipes to boot—a necessity with the certain spike of wireless leechers. If you're not in the privileged classes, monthly subs that work at any AT&T Wi-Fi spot go for $20, while a two-hour hit runs $4. This all hits in the spring.
Am I the only one who finds it strange to suddenly see a Wi-Fi war in 2008, when we should be talking about mobile broadband, 4G—something a little less five years ago? That said, I'm not exactly one to complain about more, free internet access, however it gets to me, and it's good to see AT&T palpably improving its network assets.
More Than 12 Million AT&T, Starbucks Customers to Get Free Wi-Fi Access for a Rich In-Store Experience
New Offering Includes Two Hours of Free Wi-Fi Service Per Day for Starbucks Card Holders Beginning this Spring
All 100,000 U.S.-Based Starbucks Partners to Receive Free Wi-Fi at Starbucks Stores
Seattle, Washington, San Antonio, Texas, February 11, 2008
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) today announced plans to deliver AT&T Wi-FiSM service at more than 7,000 company-operated Starbucks locations across the United States. The initiative brings together two of the most recognizable global brands to create a powerful and convenient online experience for consumers and business customers. Starbucks and AT&T will offer a mix of free and paid Wi-Fi offerings at Starbucks stores to meet the needs of both frequent and occasional Starbucks Wi-Fi customers.
The initiative further expands the AT&T Wi-Fi network, already the largest in the United States, to more than 17,000 U.S. hot spots and more than 70,000 globally.
Beginning this spring, Starbucks Card holders can enjoy up to two hours of free Wi-Fi service per day at Starbucks locations offering Wi-Fi access, while more than 12 million qualifying AT&T broadband and AT&T U-verseSM Internet customers will have unlimited free access to the Wi-Fi service. In addition, more than 5 million of AT&T's remote access services business customers will be able to access Wi-Fi service at Starbucks locations. AT&T will soon extend the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers.
"People want to stay connected to their world 24/7, and Wi-Fi hot spots, broadband and wireless make that mobility possible," said Rick Welday, AT&T chief marketing officer, Consumer. "Laptops and smartphones give us the online mobility we crave, and now millions of AT&T and Starbucks customers will get Internet access free from the comfort of their neighborhood Starbucks."
"This is what our customers have been waiting for -- free Starbucks-quality Wi-Fi," said Chris Bruzzo, chief technology officer, Starbucks Coffee Company. "Through our new partnership with AT&T, we also welcome their millions of current customers who can now come in and enjoy free Wi-Fi as part of their daily Starbucks Experience."
As an added benefit for the more than 100,000 Starbucks partners in the U.S., all Starbucks partners will receive free AT&T Wi-Fi accounts allowing them to use the network in Starbucks company-operated locations offering Wi-Fi access.
"Our new relationship with AT&T gives us the opportunity to expand and enhance the range of digital entertainment experiences for our customers as well as our partners, including the continued rollout of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks," said Ken Lombard, president, Starbucks Entertainment.
In addition to the free Wi-Fi access for qualifying AT&T customers and any Starbucks Card holder, customers will be able to purchase tiered access to the AT&T Wi-Fi network at Starbucks at attractive price points. For a two-hour period, customers will pay just $3.99 per session. Monthly membership will also be available for $19.99 per month, and will include access to any of AT&T's 70,000 hot spots in 89 countries around the world.
AT&T business customers who subscribe to remote access services can also enjoy unlimited, flat-rate access plans at any Starbucks location offering Wi-Fi service or at other AT&T Wi-Fi hot spots.
Additionally, AT&T is providing Starbucks an enterprise-class network with increased bandwidth and redundancy. AT&T's underlying network technologies will enable a wide range of business applications and help Starbucks stores operate more efficiently.
"Delivering networking capabilities to help a world-class company such as Starbucks achieve greater business velocity is what we do," said Welday. "Our work with Starbucks is collaborative innovation at its finest."
The availability of AT&T Wi-Fi service at Starbucks will take place on a market-by-market basis with store implementation beginning this spring and completed by the end of the year.
I found this at webware.com and gizmomdo.com
iPhone Starbucks Ordering Screens Look Like the Real Thing, Precede Apple Patent
If you wanted to know how Apple's iPhone ordering and paying patent
could work in Starbucks, check these amazing screens created by
designer Phil Lu. They not only look like the real thing, but the most
impressive thing is that they were actually made before the Apple patent was publicized:
Starbucks
We asked Phil about why his design used a Semacode to confirm payment when you pick up your order, since Apple didn't use this system and just a regular credit card payment system. His answers was very surprising:
This concept was designed before the Apple patent is widely publicized. Similar to ordering song through the web via iTune account, Semacode works like a digital "receipt," allowing the user to use their iTunes account for the transaction (which will bypass credit card transaction/identification, and speed up the pick-up process).
While these screens look so good that we wish they were the real thing, we will have to wait for next tuesday see how they really look (if Apple announces anything related to that patent, that is.) [Genoco - Thanks Sacha]
10:00 AM ON FRI JAN 11 2008
BY JESUS DIAZ
45,431 views
Read More:
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APPLE, CONCEPT, IPHONE, IPOD TOUCH, MACWORLD 2008, ORDERING, PATENT, STARBUCKS, TOP
iPhone Is A Bigger Security Risk Than You Think
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Just when it looked like the iPhone might make headway with the business market, a security expert shows just how vulnerable the iPhone really is to hackers.
Here is a video with security expert Rik Farrow showing how one might hack an iPhone:
The full article from Fast Company is pretty scary. Here is a look at the findings:
As a result, there are a number of ways to exploit the iPhone's defenses. If you know your target's phone number, you could text message a link to a malicious Website, which would covertly install a third-party application executing malicious code. The corollary would be to send your target an e-mail with a nefarious attachment; he clicks on it and the attacker "owns" the phone. Or there's always the "man-in-the-middle" (MITM) attack, which is perhaps the most James Bondian: You sit in, say, Starbucks with a laptop set up, as part of the ruse, to operate as a Wi-Fi access point, so a target's Web browsing and e-mail pass through your computer first. (How can you tell who has an iPhone as opposed to someone with a standard laptop, rival smartphone, or PDA? Simple -- the exploit only works on iPhones.) "This method would allow exploitation of any application that downloads images from the Internet," Moore says. "This covers standard Web-browsing using Safari, but also includes the iTunes Music Store, the YouTube video browser, and theGoogle (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps application."
Now, before you go and lock your iPhone in a vault lined with tin foil let me point this out:
"Taking over a PC allows you to install spam distribution servers that shoot out ads," says Daniel Eran Dilger, a San Francisco-based technical consultant and contributing editor to AppleInsider. "There's no real business model behind the kind of spy surveillance imagined by many writers." And Apple (which declined to comment), in its latest patch, inoculated the iPhone against the Metasploit that Farrow used. But in the cat-and-mouse game that hackers and companies like Apple play, you can be sure someone somewhere is hatching up new schemes to hack the iPhone. Perhaps they already have.
What do you think? Are iPhones vulnerable to Metasploit and other
hacks? Will we see lots of iPhone users hacked in the next few weeks
and months? Or is this just more gloom and doom from security experts?
More on iTunes WIFI Store at Starbucks - Apple Phone Show
I live in San Francisco, but still own a home near Seattle in the small sailboat harbor known as Gig Harbor, Washington.
On a recent visit up north I decided to try out the new iTunes WIFI store at Starbucks.
I went to one of the smaller Starbucks in Gig Harbor (there are four within about a mile of each other) and turned on my iPhone. As soon as I clicked the new WIFI iTunes button on the phone, the Starbucks music store came up.
Sure enough, the Dire Straits song I heard playing on the store’s sound system was listed on my iPhone. I was able to click and demo the song and then click again to buy it.
The process went flawlessly.
While I don’t spend a great deal of time in Starbucks, I do see this as an interesting development. Whether it’s more gimmick than substance, time will tell. It does work. I can attest to that much.
P.S. - the WIFI signal from the Starbucks store was so good it reached out into the nearby intersection. I had to turn off WIFI there to get to the EDGE network to check my mail.
Starbucks & iTunes Begin Music Program - Apple Phone Show
Apple and Starbucks launched their music download service for iPhones yesterday in Seattle. New York is the next market in line to get the service followed by all major US cities by the end of next year.
Reports are that the service worked well for some users and not at all for many. It appears that in several of the 600 stores slated for the service, it won’t be available until next week.
Since I am now in San Francisco, I can’t test the service personally. But I will be in Seattle in a few weeks so I’ll give it a try and report here.
How about you? Are you in Seattle? What do you think of this new service?
http://applephoneshow.com/index.php/archives/930
Apple has posted a QuickTime
stream of Apple's
Wednesday iPod/iTunes event at the Moscone center in San Francisco. Apple
CEO Steve Jobs used the invite-only event to revamp its iPod line-up with an iPod
shuffle refresh, new "phatty" iPod nano, larger capacity iPod
classics, and a new
iPod touch line based on the iPhone platform. The company also used the
event to introduce the ability to create
custom ringtones for $1.98 (price of song plus $0.99 to create a ringtone--
now available in iTunes
7.4), a new iTunes
WiFi mobile store, a partnership
with Starbucks to enable direct purchase of music, and a 33
percent reduction in the price of the iPhone -- which angered
many users -- and the discontinuation of the 4GB iPhone model (available
for $299 while supplies last). [photos of the event are available after
jump]
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http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/09/06/apples.ipod.itunes.event/
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