Gizmodo Australia » starbucks

This Man Is Extremely Dedicated To Live Network Television

Dan Nosowitz — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:30:00 +0000

This intriguing dude is watching a black-and-white TV, with a DTV converter box, in a Starbucks. Hey, it’s not his fault Hulu doesn’t carry Jeopardy!, right? [Kansas City Blog via Boing Boing Gadgets]

iiNet Offering Free Wi-Fi At Some Of The Few Remaining Starbucks

Nick Broughall — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:33:04 +0000

When Starbucks announced last year that they were closing down a heap of their stores, we commented on how this would effect the ~~free~~ wireless internet access, the only thing that would inspire us to walk into a Starbucks in the first place. Well, turns out the arrangement with Telstra soured completely, and now iiNet has stepped in to fill the void by offering free Wi-Fi for their customers in 20 Starbucks stores around the country.According to Dan Warne over at APC, iiNet customers can login with their user name and get up to 100MB free. Non iiNet customers will need to see how much it costs “in-store”. But if the costs involve drinking Starbucks coffee, then I guess I’ll stick to using my mobile broadband USB card…

[APC]

Image of the Day: Starbucks Is Not Your Office

Jason Chen — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Reader jessettrs sends in this ridiculous image taken at a Starbucks on 42nd and 9th. Yeah, it’s a guy with a Mac Mini and a 15-inch LCD.

Our tipster also says that there’s a T-Mobile G1 hanging off that contraption for some reason, and the guy looks like a homeless dude. Anyone who needs to bring the entire contents of their home office into a coffee shop is as good as, we say.

Send your image of the day suggestions to tips@gizmodo.com

iPhone App Makes Logging On to Free AT&T Wi-Fi Not Suck

Matt Buchanan — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

All iPhone users get free AT&T Wi-Fi, hurray. But the text-message-based access system makes it a pain in the arse to log onto. Enter Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T, an app that makes it, well, easy. When you fire up the app for the first time, you just enter your number. After that, when you hit an AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot, like at Harbucks, you just mash a giant button to log in, no hassle required. Ars says Devicescape is planning more automated connection apps for other operators, AT&T is just the first, thanks to the “approval store nightmare.” It’s free until Friday, then it jumps to $US1.99. [iTunes via Ars]

Over-caffeinated TIE Fighter Combines Starbucks And Star Wars

Gizmodo US Edition — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:20:00 +0000

Wired is having a little art contest to make things from the stuff you get at Starbucks, and to provide some inspiration, they showed off photographer Dan Winters’ amazing TIE fighter sculpture. Everybody’s favourite Galactic Empire spacecraft was made out of nearly 50 Starbucks cups, 216 stirrers, over 60 drink holders and a couple of coffee boxes thrown in for good measure. Wow. Even for me, that’s a lot of coffee. [Wired]

Laptops in Coffee Shops: What Do You Do When You Have to Go to the Bathroom?

Sean Fallon — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:10:00 +0000

Originally, this question was going to involve how often you bring a laptop to coffee shops, but when I discussed it with our own Jason Chen, he revealed to me that he always wondered what people do when they inevitably have to go to the bathroom. Immediately I realised that was a far more entertaining and thought provoking angle. Seriously–what do you do when you have a laptop open and you have had multiple cups of coffee? Do you pack everything up and bring it in the bathroom with you? Do you take a chance and leave it sitting on the table? Or do you simply wait until you are finished working?

On a related note, have you ever spent a minute or two counting the people using a laptop in your local Starbucks? DavidJr.com did. He walked into 10 locations in NYC and started counting. I have to admit that the results are kind of surprising. Hit the link to check out the vid. [David Jr]

Aussie Starbucks Closures Means Fewer Telstra Wi-Fi Hotspots

Nick Broughall — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:57:32 +0000

One of the ~~only~~ few things going for getting an iPhone on Telstra, especially in light of their terrible data packages, was the inclusion of free Wi-Fi at their hotspots around the country. But now that hotspot network looks to be a few locations fewer with the announcement that Starbucks is closing 61 of their 84 stores.

Because not every store had Wi-Fi before the closures, this probably won’t effect too many people. Unless you live in Canberra that is, where it’s likely that all three Wi-Fi enabled Starbucks stores will close.

The guys over at ZDnet got into the nitty gritty of the situation, and although there are a lot of unknown factors still involved around exactly which Starbucks stores will be closing, the loss of any ~~free~~ Wi-Fi hotspot is a sad day for Gizmodians around the country. Hopefully Telstra will be looking to expand their 1000+ network of hotspots in light of the Starbucks move. And hopefully they’ll make them free to everyone. Not holding our breath, though…

[ZDnet via Lifehacker AU]

Rumour Smashed: AT&T Free Wi-Fi for iPhones Isn’t Live Yet

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:46:33 +0000

Damn it AT&T, stop pulling this crap. Not only is the AT&T page proclaiming the good news down, Om got confirmation from AT&T that free iPhone Wi-Fi at Starbucks is not the droids you are looking for:

“We have not made any announcement regarding free Wi-Fi and iPhone. The webpage was posted in error and is being removed. Wi-Fi is a real differentiator for AT&T and it is our intention to make it available to as many customers as possible, but we have no announcement at this time.”

Can you just make up your mind then? [GigaOm]

AT&T’s Free Wi-Fi Hotspots for iPhones Now Online for Real

Kit Eaton — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:02:00 +0000

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 “lukewarm”, or maybe “tepid.” But at least it’s finally come good. UPDATE: Well it looks like Wi-Fi isn’t here quite yet. AT&T posted the info by accident and made a fail. [AT&T via MacRumors]

Free AT&T Wi-Fi Starbucks Lawsuit Settled, Lattes Still Overpriced

Gizmodo US Edition — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:46:00 +0000

Remember the T-Mobile vs Starbucks lawsuit over the free AT&T Wi-Fi, because the former said the latter broke their exclusive contract? Yeah, me neither, but apparently it has been settled: “T-Mobile, AT&T and Starbucks have entered into a memorandum of understanding to resolve their disputes and are committed to providing a high quality Wi-Fi experience for customers.” The terms are undisclosed, but unfortunately they don’t include the immediate closure of all Starbucks outlets through the galaxy. [Reuters]