Word: fi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Warchalking began a couple of years ago in London, and has since spread to the sidewalks of Seattle, New York City and San Francisco. Wireless guerrillas walk or drive around a city with wi-fi--enabled laptops, sniffing out wireless networks. They leave hieroglyphs that, to the untrained eye, look like graffiti. The symbols not only alert those in the know to a hot spot but also reveal how fast the network is and whether it requires a password. No password required for me--hence the open-faced moons...
OPEN NODE This wi-fi signal is unprotected...
Penny-pinching students like Ulbrick aren't exactly what Starbucks had in mind when it partnered with T-Mobile last year to roll out wireless Internet access in its shops across the country. Now with more than 2,600 Starbucks stores equipped with wi-fi, the duo has created the largest public wi-fi network in the U.S. It is also among the first to test consumers' appetite for paid wireless access outside the home...
...plan was simple: lure droves of tech-savvy customers into the shop with wi-fi, then ply them with grande lattes, oversize Rice Krispies treats and other high-priced snacks. But while the wi-fi hot spots have added modestly to Starbucks' cachet, they have generated less buzz than a cup of decaf. And some Starbucks watchers doubt that they will add much of anything to the company's bottom line. "I don't think it is ever going to be a hugely profitable enterprise for Starbucks," says InStat/MDR analyst Mike Wolf. Pyramid, an analyst firm, predicts that the monthly...
Starbucks shrugs off such dire predictions. "Analysts love the doom and gloom," says Lovina McMurchy, director of Starbucks Interactive. "We believe there is money in wi-fi," she insists. This past summer Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz even pointed to wireless as a factor contributing to the company's $410 million in revenues in June 2003, a 27% increase compared with $323 million in June 2002. Neither Starbucks nor T-Mobile will say how many people are using the service or how much money the venture has actually made...