I call shenanigans. AT&T wouldn't do this just for the iPhone. It's worthless. Apple doesn't know what they're doing. They'll be bankrupt in a year.

~ ILikeMacsWhatAboutit.

Oh, please, please, please let this be true!

@Kaiser-Machead: BTW, just read you comment. Very funny.

free wi-fi would go nicely with a fresh cup of their recession-priced Pike Place (over)Roast(ed)

And in other news, everyone using Windows Mobile and Symbian change their browser's user agent to:

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

well as a sbux employee, i can tell you some things perhaps. the starbucks card that you can load up with moneys will become a lot more helpful. when you purchase a drink with the card in a store, you will get 2 hours free wifi. we havent been told when this will be enacted. also, im in the uk, so dont know how the usa will deviate from the workings over here.

Why would you alienate all of your other AT&T customers?

I could see AT&T being an extra special partner with Apple. :)

Apple has to make that 10 million iPhone goal, right?

They don't want Apple to leave, right?

It makes perfect sense, the iPhone has unlimited data, they should want us to use their wifi to save network bandwidth.

Where's the iPod Touch lovin??

After spending $5 on Starbucks!

That's the best they can do, which is to offer free Wi-Fi.

so you could change your firefox on your laptop to look like the iphone browser.

@ab3:

What's in it for ATT to give iTouch people anything? you aren't giving them $60 or more a month.

Even if this is true I bet it won't be permanent. Unless it's just a ploy to get folks how are willing to overpay for gadgets into a place where they have the opportunity to overpay for coffee.

it worked for me at a starbucks in LA, just a little while ago.

File this under who cares anyways, most independent coffee places (at least around here) have free wifi already. Plus the coffee doesn't taste like shit and cost $5.

@Randile:
Okay...seriously...I am sick of hearing this all the time.

First of all...Starbucks coffee does not taste like crap, and second of all, it doesn't cost $5 if you don't buy a huge ass coffee, that in all honestly isn't much of a coffee anyway, but rather is a candy bar in a freaking cup.

I go to Starbucks all the time, and when I am just ordering for myself, I have never spent $5...

This should also work for the Touch then?

i'm not sure who you talked to that didn't comment, but they offer it to iphone and LaptopConnect customers.

I was just at a barnes and noble today in Columbia, SC. I got the same screen when I tried to connect to ATT's wifi. Entered my number and was online in seconds.

Great job AT&T!

Does anyone know if this works for those of us who have unlimited wireless internet with ATT but do not have an iPhone?

It worked for me on my iPhone earlier today in San Carlos, CA. The coffee still wasn't as good as Peet's though.

@alienvenom: I doubt that will work, but there is no harm in trying. I am pretty sure the reason behind entering your phone number is to check to see if you are paying for an iPhone data plan from AT&T. If they did not then any hacked iPhone or prepaid SIM iPhone could hop on for free.

Then again, if you know a friend with an iPhone that is on AT&T and know their phone number, then you could get right around that...

I wonder if this will work with my Touch and my AT&T cell number (I have a plain, old RAZR)...

"Why would you alienate all of your other AT&T customers?"

They are also giving ATT broadband customers free wifi. So its not *ALL* of them :p

I'm definitely giving this a try tomorrow. (And for the poster above, Pikes Market is the one coffee they serve that isn't over-roasted :p )

I experienced this myself yesterday at a Starbucks in Lake Steven's Washington. Pretty unexpected but very very welcome.

Comment on AT The news part here is the roll out, not the 2 hours part. Read the bit below posted on Gizmodo over 2 months ago. http://gizmodo.com/354961/att-bringing-free-wi+fi-to-starbucks-finally "Beginning this spring, Starbucks Card holders can enjoy up to two hours of free Wi-Fi service per day at Starbucks locations offering Wi-Fi access, while more than 12 million qualifying AT&T broadband and AT&T U-verseSM Internet customers will have unlimited free access to the Wi-Fi service. In addition, more than 5 million of AT&T's remote access services business customers will be able to access Wi-Fi service at Starbucks locations. AT&T will soon extend the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers."

where was this 3 days ago when I was there with my Touch?

I tread this giz article at starbucks over edge, so I imediately tried it and can say it is true. All I needed was my AT&T phone number.

So, can I just drop a known iPhone user's number in then?

I got this screen today near an ATT store in Encinitas, CA. I'm also a ATT phone/net subscriber and have been using the free ATT wifi using my email address logon for a while now. The new phone number logon method is MUCH easier.

Nice.

@alienvenom: I think AT&T is smarter than to only check for Agent strings. I'm sure since 'legal' non-unlocked iPhones will have a number with AT&T, they will probably check the IP of the iPhone with AT&T backends and somehow make that connection. However, it would be awesome if it was just Agent strings as you could technically take any computer and use the free Wifi.

I'm actually getting free wifi via AT&T at mcdonalds on my iPhone.

I got this very screen at a Starbucks in Los Gatos, CA today. Very quickly I was browsing at about 1.5 Mbps -- totally for free. It was faster than the 1 Mbps free Google WiFi I got in Mountain View earlier in the day.

Nice.

went to a starbucks in oakland, CA on tuesday, went online using my at&t dsl account username and password.
Or maybe i logged into the at&t store next door, hmmm

Fuckin' A. I have a T-Mobile data plan for my Dash, so I get the HotSpot for free. Granted, I can just use the internet on the laptop via teathering, but still. Fuck them.

Comment on AT This worked for me today in the Seattle-Tacoma airport.

I was at a Starbucks in San Dimas California on Saturday the 26th and tried to use their hotspot. Expecting to pay t-mobile's crazy rate for wifi, I was surprised to see the ATT&T sign in screen. After typing in my number and failing to connect a couple of times it finally worked. Speed was great...and it was free.

@daftrok: Cuz they chose the wrong phone! Nah yeah that's true, I guess they figure that since most 75%+ of browsers are from Safari, no one would care, but they still forget about e-mails and the tiny percentage that are on opera/ie.

Nothing is free.

Um... guys, AT&T and Starbucks are giving free wifi to everyone, not just iPhone users.

Starbucks site

here is my persoanl tel. number.

Bill me in a couple of months.

Thanks.

then again this could be a hacking network setup to grab phone numbers and subsequently giving access to users iPhones for a later break in_

this worked for me 3 days ago! w00t w00t

Yeah, I actually noticed this yesterday at a Starbucks In Brentwood California, (Norther CA 1 hour east of San Fran, not O.J. Brentwood), this is true

Works on a hacked iPhone as well. Writing this from a Barnes and Noble on one. Just put in any number.

@TedB.:

Oh, so wrong... :)

[lifehacker.com]

Comment on AT Straight from the Starbucks Website: Travel the Internet anytime, anywhere from the comfort of your favorite cozy chair. Together AT&T and Starbucks will offer reliable, secure, high speed wireless Internet service to more than 7,000 Starbucks locations throughout the U.S.-using any 802.11x enabled device. The AT&T Wi-Fi rollout will begin in Spring 2008, and is expected to be complete by the end of 2008.

Straight from the Starbucks Website:

Travel the Internet anytime, anywhere from the comfort of your favorite cozy chair. Together AT&T and Starbucks will offer reliable, secure, high speed wireless Internet service to more than 7,000 Starbucks locations throughout the U.S.-using any 802.11x enabled device.

The AT&T Wi-Fi rollout will begin in Spring 2008, and is expected to be complete by the end of 2008.

I should check if I really do need that iPhone number. If so, it's times like this when my envy for a friend's iPhone comes in handy.