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Free AT&T Wi-Fi for iPhones at Starbucks, Barnes&Noble

macrumors.com — Multiple individuals have reported that AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots at Barnes and Noble as well as Starbucks are now offering iPhone users a custom portal to access free Wi-Fi.

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  • capplecock, on 05/01/2008, -10/+6About time...
  • DonCornelius, on 05/01/2008, -9/+7Amen, brothers and sisters!
  • adambadam, on 05/01/2008, -7/+2Wow, the Death Star throws a curve ball, thought this would never happen. Perhaps it will take some stress off the EDGE network
  • jeffhayford, on 05/01/2008, -12/+2That's not enough, I want free coffee Apple.
  • time2go, on 05/01/2008, -3/+10I tried this yesterday in Anaheim. It worked great on my iphone but I couldn't sign-in the same way on my MacBook (they wanted $$). This would be really good news if laptops could sign-in through an AT&T number like iPhones.
  • MurphyMac, on 05/01/2008, -9/+2How can they NOT do that for iPhone customers?
    • MurphyMac, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4ok- think about it. you have a plan that gives you unlimited cellular data, but the same vendor is going to charge for data simply because the conveyance is slightly different? That's stupid. It's like making you buy a separate plan for calls that go over fiber optic versus copper. This move was inevitable. People should be mad it took this long, not thankful.
    • girlscout, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Exactly. The carriers, just like ISPs, have trained us to expect the least and be thankful for any little crumb. Visual voicemail, totally obvious. But they didn't bother. Free wifi, or at least a cheap add-on, is an obvious move too. But it took Apple to push AT&T into it.
  • fazik93, on 05/01/2008, -2/+9Nice 3G and Free Wi-Fi
  • jccromer, on 05/01/2008, -2/+8It would be great if someone who is a "web expert" could advise if there is any way to get to the special iPhone log-in screen on a laptop to take advantage of the free wifi.
  • jhop, on 05/01/2008, -3/+3Very nice. It makes sense for both parties. I'm sure ATT's costs for data at the hotspot are much less than EDGE, not to mention UMTS...
  • virtualball, on 05/01/2008, -0/+27For those who know what this is, you'll be definitely happy about this:

    Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A543a Safari/419.3

    :)
  • nusuni, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Sure the user agent can be spoofed easily, but what else could they do? Only good way I can think of would be for Apple to add in some sort of encrypted verification system to the OS to confirm with networks that "yes, this is an actual iphone", but even that could probably be circumvented on a laptop pretty easily.
    • gaowaranai, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1Checking to see if one is actually has an iPhone by requiring the user to enter in their number would be a possible option. Oh wait...
      If you limit the usage of wifi to a single instance per number, you've got a pretty good system.
  • mrswix, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3Updated: You can fake it on any laptop. Click the link at the bottom of the article. It works.
  • screwy3333, on 05/01/2008, -4/+2I have developed a portable modem that provides Satellite Wi-Fi beamed directly to my iphone....if they had only approved my patent...bureacrats
  • Rhendal, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Yeah, except they turn the service off overnight. I was lost the other day and tried to leech off of a Starbucks I came across to find out where I was because Edge wasn't connecting but nooooOOOOOOOOoooo...
  • TumblerWeed, on 05/01/2008, -4/+2I'm at starbucks right now on my MacBook.
    Open Safari go to the top menu [Develop] >> [User Agent] >> [Mobile Safari - iPhone].
    You may have to turn on "Debug Mode" in Safari before you can do this. See here to do that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNC4Giu3mYQ
    • TumblerWeed, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3Looks like you can enable debug mode in Safari's preferences now. Just go to the "Advanced" tab and check "Show develop menu in menu bar".
  • CLShortFuse, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2It's amazing how much AT&T is cutting from the price. Usually, you have to pay $30 for unlimited internet on a PDA and $20 for Wi-Fi. They're cutting off $30 monthly just because you have an iPhone.
  • stonebone4, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3P.S. you've been able to get free wi-fi at many McDonalds and Burger Kings for a long time now. Way to shaft all those people sitting in your stores writing novels on their MacBooks, Starbucks.
    • smergs, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3I don't understand why you were dugg down. Why anyone would pay to for wireless access at one of these stores. There are tons of places that offer free wi-fi. Why can't they do the same? And how many people really sit at these stores long enough to use the wi-fi? I can understand a college student looking for a place to go to get away from other distractions. But why would anyone else?
  • danielcmetz, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3You have to put in your iphone number, right? Is it...a trap?
    • thechosen, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3Waiting for the inevitable ASCII art...
      • jenel, on 05/01/2008, -1/+4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _________
        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./ It’s a trap!
        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _,,,--~~~~~~~~--,_ . . . . ._________/
        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,-‘ : : : :::: :::: :: : : : : :º ‘-, . . /. . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . . . . . . . . . .,-‘ :: : : :::: :::: :::: :::: : : :o : ‘-, . . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . . . . . . . . ,-‘ :: ::: :: : : :: :::: :::: :: : : : : :O ‘-, . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . . . . . . .,-‘ : :: :: :: :: :: : : : : : , : : :º :::: :::: ::’; . . . . . . . .
        . . . . . . . . .,-‘ / / : :: :: :: :: : : :::: :::-, ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ; . . . . . . . .
        . . . . . . . . /,-‘,’ :: : : : : : : : : :: :: :: : ‘-, ;; ;; ;; ;; ;; ;;| . . . . . . .
        . . . . . . . /,’,-‘ :: :: :: :: :: :: :: : ::_,-~~,_’-, ;; ;; ;; ;; | . . . . . . .
        . . . . . _/ :,’ :/ :: :: :: : : :: :: _,-‘/ : ,-‘;’-‘’’’’~-, ;; ;; ;;,’ . . . . . . . .
        . . . ,-‘ / : : : : : : ,-‘’’ : : :,--‘’ :|| /,-‘-‘--‘’’__,’’’ ;; ;,-‘ . . . . . . . .
        . . . :/,, : : : _,-‘ --,,_ : : : ||/ /,-‘-‘x### :: ;;/ . . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . / /---‘’’’ : # : : : : : | | : (O##º : :/ /-‘’ . . . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . /,’____ : : ‘-# : , : : : : ‘-,___,-‘,-`-,, . . . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . ‘ ) : : : :’’’’--,,--,,,,,,¯ :: ::--,,_’’-,,’’’¯ :’- :’-, . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . .) : : : : : : ,, : ‘’’’~~~~’ :: :: :: :’’’’’¯ :: ,-‘ :,/ . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . .,/ /|| | :/ / : : : : : : : ,’-, :: :: :: :: ::,--‘’ :,-‘ . . . . . . . .
        . . . . .’| |/ ‘/ / :: :_--,, : , | )’; :: :: :: :,-‘’ : ,-‘ : : : , . . . . . . .
        . . . ./¯ :| | : |/ :: ::----, :/ :|/ :: :: ,-‘’ : :,-‘ : : : : : : ‘’-,,_ . . . .
        . . ..| : : :/ ‘’-(, :: :: :: ‘’’’’~,,,,,’’ :: ,-‘’ : :,-‘ : : : : : : : : :,-‘’’ . . . .
        . ,-‘ : : : | : : ‘’) : : :¯’’’’~-,: : ,--‘’’ : :,-‘’ : : : : : : : : : ,-‘ :¯’’’’’-,_ .
        ./ : : : : :’-, :: | :: :: :: _,,-‘’’’¯ : ,--‘’ : : : : : : : : : : : / : : : : : : :’’-,
        / : : : : : -, :¯’’’’’’’’’’’¯ : : _,,-~’’ : : : : : : : : : : : : : :| : : : : : : : : :
        : : : : : : :¯’’~~~~~~’’’ : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : : :
  • djh816, on 05/01/2008, -1/+7To get it for Safari on any mac laptop:

    1) Open Terminal.app (/Applications/Utilities) and type in:
    defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

    2) Relaunch Safari

    3) Under the menubar, go to Develop>User Agent>Mobile Safari 1.1.3 -- iPhone

    4) Connect to wifi
  • polko, on 05/01/2008, -3/+1what about free coffee or free books?!
  • calebac09, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Yeah, I went in the other day and my Starbucks offered the same thing. The only problem was that it wanted me to put in my phone number, and seeing as I haven't activated with AT&T, that leaves me without free internet.

    Darn!
    • TCFrancis, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Have any friends with an iPhone and an AT&T account? Put in their number.
  • dtyler21, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1think this might be a short needed work around... free wifi to all coming soon? http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/ideas/viewIdea.ap ...
  • mentor972, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1Doesn't work everywhere. The AT&T is there, but no iPhone option. I asked the Starbucks employees and they were like, "Yeah, we have T-mobile here." I was like, "Well I'm on your AT&T access point and there's no iPhone option." They were like, "Yeah the AT&T thing won't be here for a while." I said, "Well I went to the AT&T website and it lists you as a participating Starbucks. I know you still have the T-mobile Access Point, but AT&T is here too." They said, "Yeah, we have T-mobile here."
    • arminiouz, on 05/03/2008, -0/+0the exact same thing happened to me, at my local Starbucks where i work. i asked the same questions and they gave me the same answer.
  • vvuiverine, on 05/03/2008, -0/+0Wonder what would happen if I simply changed the user agent string in Opera to match the iPhone's? :)
  •  

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