
Starbucks to Offer Free Wi-Fi Service - jamesbritt
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704324304575306801603799726.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
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dangrover
For a long time, I avoided Starbucks because they charged for wifi, but this
year with their card, I can get free wifi and free refills.

I actually end up patronizing Starbucks more because, unlike the local places,
I can be a horrible customer and only buy one $1.50 brewed coffee and stay a
long time. When I go to a decent local cafe, I end up buying a lot more
because I want them to stay in business (or because they're snooty and insist
on it), but if Starbucks goes out of business, I don't care. Kind of weird how
that works.

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lg
This is something that surprised me when I went to Spain and ate almost every
meal in tiny family-owned restaurants. Rather than appreciate the closeness
between owner and customer, I ended up just feeling awkward a lot (the
owner/host would sometimes scold me for not ordering enough food) and I missed
my old faceless American conglomerates, with their multiple layers of
indirection between the shareholders and me.

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spicyj
Paywall-less:

[http://www.google.com/url?q=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB...](http://www.google.com/url?q=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704324304575306801603799726.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines)

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u48998
Does this redirect work with all of WSJ articles? Nice.

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al_james
Nice indeed... Does anyone know if there is a browser plugin (pref. Chrome) to
bypass the paywalls of popular sites?

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pinko
This is a bookmarklet rather than a plugin, but just as good:
[http://mattbusse.com/bypass-the-wall-street-journal-
paywall-...](http://mattbusse.com/bypass-the-wall-street-journal-paywall-
faster-with-a-browser-bookmarklet/)

Or, if you don't mind losing the layout, this bookmarklet will get you
directly to the "mobile" version of the article without the intermediate click
through Google: [http://www.labnol.org/internet/read-wall-street-journal-
arti...](http://www.labnol.org/internet/read-wall-street-journal-articles-
free/4612/)

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u48998
Appending <http://www.google.com/url?q=> to the URL seems to be the key. Seems
to be working fine.

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al_james
Yeah, I might put together a browser plugin that does that to the current page
URL when I hit a button!

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spicyj
Voilà bookmarklet; should work on all WSJ articles (and ones from other sites
that also remove the wall for Google inbound links, I suppose):

javascript:window.location="<http://www.google.com/url?q=+escape(window.location)>;

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al_james
Awesome. Thanks.

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jedbrown
The wireless was/is free as long as you spend at least $5 per month. All you
need is $5 on a gift card to enable the wireless for the month. So buy a $5
gift card and at the end of the month, spend that $5 and put $5 more on the
card. Silly game and not so prominently advertised, but it works (as of a few
month ago when I was last in the US).

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Alex3917
Yeah, seriously, the WiFi has always been free for actual customers. The only
thing that's different is that now it's free for homeless people too. I'm not
really sure how this is an improvement.

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noarchy
Are homeless people with WiFi-enabled devices that much of an epidemic?

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sespindola
I'm posting this from a Stabucks in Buenos AIres where Wi-Fi is free and
unlimited, as it is on 99% of other bars and restaurants here. Last time I was
in NY, I had a hard time finding places with free Wi-Fi. I'll be there again
in October, do you people have any recommendations of good bars/coffee houses
with free WiFi?

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blackguardx
The best coffee in NYC is at Roasting Plant in the West Village. They also
have free WiFi and don't care how long you stay. Also, each seat/table has its
own dedicated power outlet.

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skinnymuch
They used to be 24 hours too...I'm so sad they aren't anymore. Though I
understand why..a lot of times after 1 or 2 AM it would just be me and one
other dude sitting around through the night until business picked up in the
early morning again.

They also have great dollar cookie dough shots.

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someone_here
They already do in Canada.

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ugh
And in Germany. (1hr/day limit, you have to enter your phone number and then
get sent a text message with the access code.)

They don’t seem to deploy their own infrastructure, T-Mobile operates their
hotspots in Germany and you can pay them if 1hr isn’t enough for you.

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MaysonL
NYT article: <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/technology/15starbux.html>

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RyanMcGreal
Wait, McDonalds offers wifi?

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frognibble
Apparently it does. I learned about it today thanks to the Starbucks
announcement.

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elblanco
Finally. It's about time Starbucks joined the rest of the world in this. I'd
like to see this happen in a couple major airports I have to deal with also
(Dulles _cough_ _cough_ ). It's not like it really costs all that much, and I
personally would be far more likely to frequent a Starbucks with free wi-fi.

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rikthevik
The only thing in Vegas that is free is the wireless at the airport.

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Supermighty
I always avoided Starbucks due to the two hour limit. Not that I often exceed
it, but just on principle. Also it was always a hassle to have to use a gift
card to get the free access.

I can see myself visiting Starbucks from now on.

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vegashacker
I'm curious--did you actually ever exceed it? What I mean is, I've never
encountered a Starbucks that actually enforced the 2 hour limit. Sometimes I'm
logged out, but I just log back in and everything works. In the beginning I
just assumed this was a glitch when they were rolling out the service, but if
it was, they never fixed it. (I go to lots of Starbucks, mostly in San
Francisco, and some around California.)

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rwhitman
Finally a coffee shop I can mooch wifi off of all day on one drink and not
feel bad..

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nnash
You must not support local joints, almost every local coffee shop I've been to
(in minneapolis specifically) has free Wi-Fi.

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iends
The point was, he would feel bad about mooching off local joints all day.

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rwhitman
Yes, this is what I meant

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goodmitton
I've been using their free wifi for a while now and I don't ever recalling
them charging me.

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rradu
An active gift card with them also gives you access.

I wonder if you will still have to make an account to get this free wifi.

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frognibble
As far as I can tell, the card only needs to be active when you register. My
account continues to work long after the card has been inactive with a zero
balance.

Creating an account is not all that bad. You only need to do it once and
Mailinator email address are accepted :)

