AT&T's free hotspot access finally useful with auto-connection in iPhone OS 3.0
By Chris Ziegler 
posted June 17th 2009 6:31PM
posted June 17th 2009 6:31PM
posted June 17th 2009 6:31PM
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And at my local Barnes and Noble where I use it the most there's no cell phone service. I would have to walk up to the Starbucks, enter my number, and then walk back outside to wait for the text.
You know, there was an app that made this very easy called "Easy Wifi for AT&T". It's probably one of my most-used apps. One click and you're authenticated.
Bravo! There was nothing quite like walking into a McDonalds the second-third-fourth time, seeing the full-strength wiFi indicator, and wondering why I couldn't get my e-mail. Duh. I finally just clicked "Forget This Network" and never bothered with those HotSpots again. This new feature is a welcome addition.
There's an auto login app in the app store that I put to great use. Looks like I only have to use it one more time before I send it to the dust bin.
All of the McDonald's around here have AT&T hot spots as well so that's an even bigger footprint.
Who goes into macdonalds these days?
er, mcdonalds. >_>
This just shows how crappy the 3G service is where one is happy to have Wifi available.
Wifi is faster than any 3g network (alright maybe not NextG), and on good platforms, much more power efficient.
Though you're right, AT&T's 3G network is embarrassing. When I was on Sprint, oh man was that fast...But I like the iPhone better than my HTC Titan, simply because of the apps...
the Titan was on at&t 8525
Big deal. I have ATT at home, so I was able to set my Pre to connect to all their hotspots for free from day one.
Now, let's see if they can make it possible to share the hot spot connection via tether (seeing as you have to connect to the hot spot with your iPhone). This would let them save their precious 3G bandwidth.
Connecting at McDonald's was easy for me with 2.0. I opened Safari, skipped the terms and conditions and pressed OK. Presto.
Not that this isn't cool.
Does this mean that when tethering is finally enabled by AT&T, we will be able to surf for free on PC's/Macs using AT&T HotSpots?
So to access the AT&T hotspots do we need to sign up with another service to use it or is that covered with out 30 bucks/ month internet usage that we pay for?
what about that thing at starbucks thing that tells you what song is currently playing on the speakers at starbucks that they toted when the first iphone came out, does that still work? or did it ever?
Nobody will ever know.
Honestly, if someone ever says 3 dot 0 in front of me they are in for a serious face scratching. I'm not kidding, I will go circus clown freak show on their ass.
Another big on is you can listen to music on bluetooth speakers !!!
No good for Touch.
Oh, and in case anyone cares, with this system, the WiFi system is using your SIM in your phone to authenticate, so you have zero anonymity, not that you had a whole lot before.
This is also (one of the reasons) it doesn't work on Touch.
What do you mean it's no good on the touch?
It works perfectly okay for me. Unless you mean it's no good becuz you have to pay for it with the touch?
JUst not following what you mean. Whenever I click on Safari on the iTouch It prompts me to AT&T's wifi home page and asks for my username and password or if i don't have one if I want to purchase a pass for 2 hours.
Not rocket science. Any iPod Touch can get online at Starbucks.
Hmmm I love Starbucks....
Seriously, this guy creeps me out. He puts a face on all my angst towards AT&T. If I ever come across this guy in person I'm not sure what's going to happen.
i know whatll happen, youll jam your tongue down his throat passionately.
Friend, you made me laugh out loud at that one. Gracias :)
Who cares about this? Are there really a lot of people dying to get on wi-fi with their iPhones?
I could care less about wi-fi access. I've got 3G in most places, it works fine for me. Even at home where Wi-Fi has always been auto-authenticated, it just isn't worth the effort to turn on wi-fi to gain access. Only time I use it is when I want to use the Remote app to control some music.
But 3G on AT&T's paltry network is, at its best, laughable...That's why Wifi is still such a huge deal for iPhone users (myself included).
AT&T really makes me mad. They still want $600 for an iPhone on my plan. If AT&T has ever steered you astray, visit my site at www.iphoneont-mobile.com Make your voice heard.
...and the Latte sipping, Blog-writing-douche-bag image, that Apple users have worked so hard to maintain...lives on...
Anyone know if this will translate to Telstra in Australia? We have the same crap SMS verify code system and it is a real pain.
Err... Just a ?
Isnt this an OS3 software feature?
Of so, wouldnt this work on your POiPhone with v3.0 s/w installed???
//GH
Ken Weaver - Great post! Can you please put that on as many of the heavy hitter sites for the people that just love bashing the iPhone!
I have had them all, but I always end up back with my iPhone.
You Idrones crack me up. Its just a phone. Iphone working on its fourth year in design and production and finally cut and past. I can't believe that Apple and Idrones are so scared of the new guy on the block. Your product is good and the Pre will get better. You gotta admit... that Palm OS is real nice...yea. On year one. One second off your ass and gaining. Don't look back to long.
This is Full of Shit advertising. This does not make me feel better...to the point where i'm going to sign another 2year contract with ATT. Since when did ATT ever helped or was on the customer's side. I'm surprised they didnt reveal that they will charge us .99 for that auto login feature. Show me free tethering, then I can believe ATT.
I guess this is what they mean by living vicariously. Oh wait, I mean parasitically.
I can only hope that ATT is paying the establishments or the carriers. Otherwise, it's deplorable.
does this work with 3.0 firmware on the Touch as well?
I'm so glad I kicked my slow-ass iPhone to the curb. These WiFi spots are so bloody important to the iPhone crowd because AT&T's 3G sucked so bad it was like trying to slurp molasses through a straw.
How will this affect T-Mobile Hotspot users who connect through AT&T wifi? I use it on my iPod Touch often.
@Ken Weaver...
What the heck, I'll feed the troll. Let's start with the carrier:
For the unlimited plan with data and unlimited texting, you pay $150 on the AT&T network.
The equivalent plan, with GPS, TV, Data, and unlimited messaging at Sprint is $100.
Advantage Pre. Over your two year contract, this will be $50*12*2 = $1200.
Regarding multitasking, the reason Apple did not enable it for 3rd party applications in 3.0 is that the Iphone 3G (and the iPod Touch 2G) do not have enough RAM to support it. As a disclaimer, I have both an Iphone and an Ipod Touch 2G, jailbroken, that I use regularly. To illustrate this low RAM problem, try setting up an SSH tunnel to somewhere, then using RDP through that tunnel to connect to a desktop. If you have anything else open, you will get the dreaded "Out of Memory" error. I went to the Sprint store, tested the palm PRE and opened 8 cards, without having the same sort of error. I did not have a chance to definitively test the device, but on first glance, it appears to be much better than the iphone hardware. The new 3Gs has doubled the RAM, so hopefully it helps with this sort of problem. Of course, to even experience the problem you have to jailbreak your unit, because Apple does not allow this by default.
Advantage Pre. And this is a large advantage.
And who wants to multitask 3rd party apps? If you are doing tech work, you might need to do what I mentioned above (open terminal session, background it, and connect an RDP session through your SSH tunnel). But a regular user might want to open Pandora, and then browse the web. Oh, that's right, you can't -- because your music will turn off as soon as you switch to Safari.
Advantage Pre.
Speaking of the iPhone, I also own one a 3G. Yes, boys and girls, you can own a Jesus phone and still be aware of its strengthes and weaknesses. And here is another weakness. The new Bluetooth A2DP feature that was added works great -- except, it does not allow me to utilize the "skip" buttons on my Motorola S9-HD, only the play/pause. Apple apparently did not include this profile feature. I used to have a PPC6700 under Sprint (5 years ago?) that supported this. Really Apple? Is it that tough to get it right? Oh, the PRE supports real A2DP too, and allows these features.
Advantage Pre. This may or may not matter to some people. It matters to me, as I use my bluetooth headphones a lot. I was hoping to get rid of the adapter on the bottom of my iPhone (S9-HD) but it looks like I can't do this, at least not yet.
Lets talk about tethering. Apple claims to have allowed tethering on the new Iphone 3G -- I haven't tried this yet. But AT&T/Apple have disabled this for 2 years already. In the Windows mobile environment, there are a plethora of applications to tether. There is WMWifiRouter, which allows adhoc tethering to wifi. There is bluetooth tethering. There is USB tethering. PDANet. The list goes on and on. Hopefully, this tethering actually works (I haven't tried it yet with 3.0), but this is a question mark AT&T might charge handsomely for. (see point 1) The PRE, while it does not support it out of the box, already has community support that has enabled tethering. And speaking of which, this is the biggest strength to me about the PRE. The company (PALM) does not frown upon user development, but is subtly encouraging it. I don't doubt that the PALM firmware leak was intentional, by PALM themselves, to encourage development but not actively thwart whatever contract negotiations they have in place with Sprint.
Slight advantage PRE... to be determined by tethering when AT&T finishes their list.
I started to go down your long list of crud to refute stupid items:
*7.2 Mbps network speed? -- As if AT&T users were so proud of their pitiful 3G network? I know I'm not!
*podcasts/songs/audiobooks? -- works with itunes, enough said
*native in car navigation? -- PRE includes FREE turn by turn navigation with the $99 plan, or its $10 a month? (not sure)
.
.
.
...but I realized again, that you are simply a troll. If I had to guess, I would place your age between 16-22 because of your emotional attachment to a hardware product. Any takers?
That being said, I probably will buy the IPhone 3GS in a month. AT&T cell service (the talking part) works well for me where I am, and although Sprint might work fine, having reliable cell service is more important to me than whatever add ons and gadgets the phone might come with. AFter all, phones are supposed to be used for making and taking calls, no?
Why does everyone only ever use the unlimited voice and texting options for rate comparisons? Oh yeah, because that's the only place where there's actually a difference.
How about this - 450 anytime minutes + unlimited nights and weekends + unlimited data:
AT&T - $70
Sprint - $70
Verizon - $70
T-Mobile - ($60 or $80 for 300 or 600 minutes)
I wager a LOT of people who read engadget are not 14 year old girls and therefore do not need unlimited voice and text messages.
You mean an iPhone is not infallible? My world is crashing down!
Must... buy... more... overpriced coffee...
A lot of people use texting other than 14 year old girls. For instance, if you work in a data center (as I do), perhaps you used text messages to get the status of your machines. Maybe you want to send someone a quick message without calling them. I suspect a large number of the customer base at AT&T who sign up for the iPhone plan (unlimited or low minute plan like this one) also subscribe to at least the small package of messaging.
$70 at AT&T
* nights and weekends starting at 9pm
* rollover
*70 at Sprint
* unlimited text messaging (including MMS, which iPhone doesn't fully support yet, even though Apple claimed we would get it)
* Nights and weekends at 7pm
* GPS navigation
If you compare the two service providers head to head, price wise AT&T cannot compete. Sprint hands down has the better service plan. Now if Sprint doesn't work in your area, then it doesn't matter.
Referenced below:
Copied from AT&T website:
Rate Plan Details
Anytime Minutes 450
Night & Weekend minutes* 5000 (starts at 9pm)
Mobile to Mobile minutes Unlimited
AT&T Unity Minutes Not Included
Long Distance $0.00
Roaming Charges $0.00
Additional minutes $.45 per minute
One-time activation fee $36.00
Contract length 2 years
Copied from Sprint's website:
Everything Data
Maximize your phone's potential with unlimited data, Direct Connect and messages.
This plan includes
* Unlimited data: Web surfing, email, BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS), GPS Navigation, Music Premier, TV Premier, NFL Mobile Live, NASCAR Sprint Cup MobileSM
* Unlimited Direct Connect: Direct Connect and Group Connect (for capable phones)
* Unlimited messaging: Text, pictures and video
* Talk: Unlimited mobile to mobile, night calling and weekends starting at 7 p.m., nationwide long distance and no roaming charges
WOrks seemlessly with ipod touch
What is it about that guy in the video that makes me want to hit him? I mean, REALLY hit him hard. It's an uncontrollable urge.
Weird.