Boingo has a great wireless network for Wi-Fi access around the world.  If you’re on the road they seem to be a pretty good alternative to paying on a site-by-site basis, and it is even a decent price often just for a daily.  Well, it seems that they are pretty keen on getting more subscribers on their monthly plan rather than holding out for the daily subscribers, so they’ve cut their subscription pricing drastically, from $21.95/month to $9.95 for folks joining up now.

The key is to use promo code UNL01090USD0 when you are signing up.

Originally noted here.  Thanks!

UPDATE: Three caveats about this offer.  First is that it expires July 31st. Second is that the “unlimited monthly usage” is actually 3,000 minutes/month.  So don’t leave it logged on overnight at the hotel and you should be fine.  Third is that it is only good in North America; global roaming will cost you per minute.

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The press have been covering in-flight broadband trials by Aircell for some time now. They even managed to get Walt Mossberg on a flight to test the service. But in-flight broadband is not new, and the service being offered here is (on paper) quite similar to something that was launched back in 2004; Boeing Connexion.

The Boeing system was first put into service on a Lufthansa flight on May 17th 2004. Services included Wi-Fi Internet access, streaming video to the in-flight entertainment system as well as streaming video to laptops.

Connexion ceased operation In August 2006 due to a lack of commitments from major US operators. The Connexion network still exists, but is only being offered to the US government and has been renamed the “Boeing Broadband Satellite Network”.

So, why could Aircell succeed where Connexion failed?

Read the rest of this entry »

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WiMax has long been seen as a potential competitor to cellular-based data networks, allowing a combination of high speeds and reasonable range.  Plus roaming between access points is supposed to be way easier to manage than normal WiFi connections.  Of course, it also requires a whole new infrastructure to be built out and it isn’t backwards compatible with other technologies such as WiFi, so it is a bit of a hard sell to drive adoption.  Still, companies are developing solutions.  Sprint has been working on their XOHM network for a while now, with a launch expected any day now or in several months, depending on who is giving statements to the press on any given day.

Things like this seem to take off more quickly in Europe, with more densely populated cities and a populace generally more willing to adopt the new technologies.  And so it is that Amsterdam was the target of a WiMax network launch this week.  With access priced at 20 Euro per month and unlimited download capacity the offering is priced lower than most other broadband options, so they’ve got a chance to take over a decent market share.  At the same time, however, the company’s management acknowledges that unless they are able to expand their coverage area and their subscriber base pretty significantly that they won’t be able to stick around too long.

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Here is a nice and simple way of getting 30 free days of T-mobile Hotspot access, without any kind of commitment.

Signup for their "pay as you go" plan, and you’ll get to try it out for a month, and after that it will convert to a pay as you use plan without any monthly fee. Pay as you go costs $6 per hour/login.

The promotion is officially intended for users of a Kodak Wi-Fi digital camera, but is open to anyone.

Product page: T-mobile Hotspot promotion (via Fatwallet)

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If you have ever struggled with the login page of your Wi-Fi provider, then this application may make life a little easier.

Devicescape is a free downloadable application for your portable device (and laptop/desktop) that automates the login process of most hotspots.

Free & Open Hotspots. Instant access to millions of free and open hotspots. Devicescape will find hotspots and notify you when you’re connected to the Internet.
Automated Access. Fast, secure access to nearly 1,000 paid, university, municipal and other Wi-Fi networks worldwide. Enter your username and password once, and Devicescape will automatically connect you to that network in the future.
Personal Networks. Add your home and other personal Wi-Fi networks, and the devices that can access those networks.
Wi-Fi Buddies. Selectively and securely share your home Wi-Fi network with friends and family. And, expand your own Wi-Fi coverage with access to their networks as well

The Devicescape client is available for Windows, Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch, Windows Mobile, Nokia 770/N800/N810, Nokia Symbian phones and the Linksys WIP300 VOIP phone.

I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve installed the client on several of my devices and will report back with a full review in the coming week(s). If it does what it promises I’ll be mighty impressed.

Product page: Devicescape

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In a previous article, I reviewed the Eye-Fi wireless 2Gb SD card.

The review showed you how the card can transfer your photos wirelessly from your camera to your PC or a variety of photo sharing sites.

Today Eye-Fi announced a new lineup of products that take their current card, and spice things up a little.

• Eye-Fi Home - transfers from camera to home PC only.
• Eye-Fi Share - transfers from camera to photo sharing sites and home PC (the same features as the current Eye-Fi card).
• Eye-Fi Explore - same features as the Eye-Fi share, but adds 1 year of Wayport hotspot access and basic Wi-Fi geotagging.

The new cards will cost $79.99, $99.99 and $129.99.

Source: Eye-Fi blog

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Well, they’re calling it the Bold anyways. The latest smartphone model was announced officially overnight Sunday, and it pretty much matches what was expected based on previous Blackberry 9000 reports.

Features include:

• GPS
• HSDPA connectivity
• WiFi
• iTunes support
• 2MP camera

ATT is the US launch partner for the device, which is expected on store shelves later this summer.

With the multimedia support and HSDPA data speeds, this device is clearly a shot across the bow of Apple’s iPhone, though that one also seems to be undergoing a shift in availability and functionality, pending an official announcement, of course.

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This is getting silly; iPhone users had a couple of days of free access to all AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots, then AT&T took that away. But now Macrumors points us to the AT&T iPhone features page, which clearly says that it DOES come with Hotspot access…

I suspect it is going to be a free feature, and probably one they’ll hope will prevent too many people from dumping their non-3G iPhone and buying a new one.

They probably also hope that people will use Wi-Fi when they can, so the 3G network doesn’t overload when 3 million iPhone users all try to download the same Youtube clip at the same time.

Source: Macrumors.com

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Remember last week? AT&T tried to show how generous they are by handing out free Wi-Fi access to any iPhone user through their hotspot network.

Sadly the freebie has already been turned off. Things may change once they make an official announcement, but in the meantime the only way to get free iPhone hotspot access is at select local airports through Boingo.

Or course, the whole thing could also have been turned off because it only took people a day to discover how they could get free access using their PC or Mac and have their browser pretend to be an iPhone…

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Runway Girl is repoorting that Boingo is looking to partner with AirCell, extending their WiFi peering arrangement with one of the major players in the airborne WiFi space.  AirCell is currently providing service to American Airlines and Virgin America.  Back in the Connexion days, Boingo users were able to roam onto that network, and clearly it is something that their customers would demand so it is nice to see them moving in this direction.  Still no word on how much they’ll charge for the roaming, but we can hope that it will be reasonable.

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