So, the rumors had been floating around that because of Starbucks’s switch to AT&T for their Wi-Fi provider (ditching former partner-in-crime T-Mobile), iPhone users would be able to surf the web without paying a single dime. But anecdotal reports are not enough to sate this blogger—I needed first hand proof.
And so I stopped by just outside of the Starbucks near my home—I’m not allowed inside anymore, after an unfortunate incident with a half-caf mocha latte—and fired up Safari. Sure enough, the screen at the left greeted me, asking me to enter my 10-digit phone number. I managed to scrounge that up from my increasingly unreliable memory and pop it in. Blammo—yes, that’s precisely the sound it made—I was online. For free!
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not about to switch back to Starbucks just for the free iPhone Wi-Fi. After that traumatic coffee-related mishap, it just doesn’t feel safe to me, anymore. But it’s handy to know that the next time I’m stranded and the EDGE connection just isn’t cutting it, there’s somewhere I can turn. On every street corner. In the United States.
The iPhone’s location feature is pretty cool; I showed it off to some family yesterday to appreciative “Oohs” and “Ahhs”, despite the relative lack of precision from the cell phone location feature. One academic, however, has cautioned that the Wi-Fi Positioning System used by the iPhone and provided by Skyhook Wireless could be subject to tampering.
Professor Srdjan Capkun of the Department of Computer Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich showed that Skyhook’s system, which is based on the MAC address of Wi-Fi routers is vulnerable in two ways: firstly, from faking or “spoofing” a router’s MAC address, which is often easily done with the standard firmware, and secondly, from jamming the signal of legitimate routers. Either of these scenarios could make it appear to an iPhone user as though they were somewhere else entirely.
At the moment, that’s more of an annoyance than anything else, but as Professor Capkun points out, it’s something that “security and safety-critical” applications should take into account before relying too heavily on the Wi-Fi system.
Those of you looking for more accurate positioning from your iPhone's Wi-Fi location functions will be happy to know that the process just got even easier. When we first explained how to add your access point to Skyhook Wireless's database, it required you to assemble a bunch of information and email it off to the company.
I wonder if perhaps they got a little tired of fielding all those emails, because they've streamlined the ordeal by putting up a web page where you can enter the details. Just pop in your address and it'll give you the Latitude and Longitude with the built-in Google Maps interface. Add your access point's MAC address and your email, and you're good to go.
Sure, it's not GPS, but it's the next best thing. And think of all the time it saves you.
[hat tip: Cristofer]
The one upside to Starbucks's ubiquity, in my opinion, is that it means you can almost always find reliable Wi-Fi access, even if you have to shell out a few bucks for it. Up until now, the service had been provided by a deal that the coffee empire had struck with cell phone provider T-Mobile, but this morning the curtain has been pulled back to reveal that T-Mobile's been kicked to the curb and replaced by AT&T, effective this spring.
As if that's not enough, those who use the chain's Starbucks Card, will get two free hours of Wi-Fi access, while qualifying AT&T broadband and U-verse Internet customers will get free access as well. Otherwise you'll need to pay out $3.99 per two-hour session, or sign up for a $19.99 monthly plan.
But, soft! What of those millions of AT&T Wireless iPhone users like, er, me? Well, the press release does contain one tantalizing tidbit:
AT&T will soon extend the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers.What does it mean? We have no idea! When will it happen? Soon! At best, we're hoping that it means that AT&T is finally going the same route as O2 in the UK. At worst, well, you won't be any worse off than you are now, I guess.
Thanks to the iPhone's new self-location feature, the Zen amongst us can finally find ourselves—or a radius of where we're likely to be. But your results may vary depending on the data available for your area. If you're relying on cellphone location, it's only really handy if you've, say, been dumped out of the trunk of a 1994 Lincoln Continental and have no idea what state you're in. To give a completely hypothetical example. Otherwise, it's somewhat lacking (I'm in Boston? Thanks, iPhone!).
The Wi-Fi location information provided by Skyhook Wireless is definitely more useful—if your area is mapped in their database. Fortunately, unlike with the cellphone locating, you can do something about the Wi-Fi mapping. Reader Robert wrote in to tell us about his experience with contacting Skyhook on how to add his own Wi-Fi access point to their database. Interested in doing the same? Find the instructions, straight from the horse's mouth, after the jump.
Continue reading "Put yourself on the map with Skyhook for better iPhone location"
Two of nature's most unstoppable forces -- Starbucks and iTunes -- continued their hand-in-hand march to total global saturation. You may recall that, last month, Starbucks stores in Seattle and New York began offering special iTunes Wi-Fi Store connections as part of the partnership twixt the coffee retailer and Apple. Well, Wednesday, it was San Francisco's turn to join in the frappuccino-soaked fun, as my colleague Jonathan Seff reports over at Macworld.
The 350 stores in the greater San Francisco Bay Area join the 600 in New York and Seattle. And according to Jon's report, that'll just about do it for Wi-Fi Store-equipped Starbucks in 2007 -- look for Apple and Starbucks to resume rolling out the service to L.A. and Chicago next February.
In the first few days after installing 1.1.1, I started noticing that, for the first time, my iPhone's battery life seemed to be suffering from a problem with premature exhaustion. At first I chalked it up to chance: perhaps I'd been overusing the phone, or maybe I just hadn't been paying good enough attention.
But the other night, my iPhone's battery ran all the way down, after a fairly normal amount of usage. At that point, I started investigating this problem with a thoroughness reminiscent of the great detectives of our age: Columbo, Miss Marple, and of course, Encyclopedia Brown.
What I found, sprinkled throughout Apple's Discussion Boards, was a substantial number of anecdotal stories that seemed to concur with what I had noticed: after installing the 1.1.1 update, battery life appeared to be greatly reduced. Some users pointed fingers at the iPhone's Wi-Fi implementation, which in some cases seemed to be having problems as well (I sometimes can't find my home network when I'm sitting five feet from the router); others noted that the phone had grown increasingly warm (another symptom I'd noticed).
Several users have reported that restoring their phones firmware to 1.1.1 has alleviated the issue; others have gone so far as to take their phones back to the Apple Store and have them replaced. Given that the problem seems to have occurred with the advent of the 1.1.1 update, it suggests that what the software taketh away it could giveth back. But despite the fact the thread is listed as "Answered," no official statement has been made by Apple, and no 100% effective solution found.
So, I ask you, fellow iPhoners: have you noticed anything of this sort? Battery life dropping, warm iPhones, problems with Wi-Fi? Hit the comments below and let us in on it.
Apple and T-Mobile have released information about the rate plans for the iPhone in Germany, so if you're in Germany, and interested in buying an iPhone, we're guessing you will be quite interested. All plans include unlimited data (of course), Visual Voicemail (right), and access to T-Mobile's 8000 Wi-Fi hot spots in Germany—whaaa? This is, on the face of it, roughly the same deal as Apple struck with O2 in the UK, and which our fearless leader Mr. Snell mourned the lack of in the US.
In terms of phone usage, however, that €49 gets you just 100 minutes and 40 text messages. You can also shell out €69 to jump up to 200 minutes and 150 text messages, or €89 for the grand daddy of 1000 minutes and 300 text messages. I'm not sure exactly how this compares to what German phone users usually get—a quick check of T-Mobile Germany's site (thoughtfully rendered into English) shows a 100 minute plan going for €28, a 200 minute plan for €38, and a 1000 minute plan for €68. And, of course, the iPhone plans get you some text messages, unlimited data, and hot spots thrown in, which doesn't seem too shabby.
What say you, readers from Deutschland? Outrageous or in line with your usual prices?
Today's the day that Starbucks begins its iTunes Wi-Fi Store promo at locations in Seattle and New York. (You may remember that Steve Jobs announced this partnership with Starbucks during Apple's September 5 press event, alongside Starbucks founder and chairman Howard Schultz.)
So how's that launch going? I couldn't tell you -- I'm in San Francisco, which a person with even a rudimentary grasp of geography can tell you is nowhere near Seattle or New York. So I'm turning the stage over to Glenn Fleishman, a frequent Macworld contributor whose work also graces Wi-Fi Net News among other places.
Glenn's report from Seattle follows after the jump.
Continue reading "Starbucks and iTunes: Ready for prime time?"
