Free Wi-Fi Score during Holiday Travel

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By Jason Fitzpatrick

If you're traveling for the holidays you don't need to forgo internet access or pay high fees for it. Know the lay of the land and score some free wi-fi.

Over at the computer magazine PC World they've put together a list of nationwide franchises and stores that offer Wi-Fi access. They also detail whether the access is free (like Panera Bread) or has some requirement (like Starbucks, where you have to get a Starbucks card). It's still not city-wide, blanketed Wi-Fi, but in a pinch, it's nice to know what nearby haunts will get you connected. -- LifeHacker

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Wi-Fi is now more accessible and convenient wherever you travel.

Wi-Fi on Airplanes Finally Coming

By Brad Feld

I’m not on an airplane again until 2010 (1/6/10 to be exact when I head to Las Vegas for CES) which is a relief since I flew 87 segments 2009.  Ok – not as much as Ryan Bingham in Up in the Air (very good BTW) but enough to decide to boycott United whenever possible.

One pleasant surprise on a flight from DEN to OAK on SWA was the presence of Wi-Fi.  I paid my $12 and worked online for two hours instead of using my airplane sleeping superpower.  Little did I know that I was on one of the four planes in the SWA fleet of 500 that had Wi-Fi according to the Gizmodo Complete Inflight Wi-Fi Cheat Sheet.

I think 2010 is the year that Wi-Fi will finally roll out across the domestic airline fleet.  It’s been in the works since 2000 and I remembered waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Connexion to roll out.  And then forgetting about it.  Until sometime earlier this year when Virgin America started offering in-flight Wi-Fi and quickly became my (and many of my friends) method of transport between the east coast and the west coast.  Todd Dagres from Spark Capital nailed it when he tweeted (presumably from an airplane) “True fact – planes with WiFi travel 2x faster than planes without.”

There is something magical about sitting on a seat in a giant metal tube that is flying 30,000 feet above the earth and playing FarmVille.  It finally feels like this is going to happen in 2010.  Hopefully there will be a lot more FarmVille than Skype on airplanes, although if everyone on the plane is on Skype at the same time it probably won’t bother anyone – too much. -- Technology Review

Free WiFi popping up in local businesses

By SHEILA J. CLARK

Free WiFi Internet access for anyone who needs it is a wish many folks have desired. Now it seems several companies are starting to make that wish come true.

Last week, McDonald's announced that more than 11,000 of its 13,000 U.S. restaurants will offer free WiFi for their patrons in mid-January. Eventually, free WiFi will be provided in all of McDonald's U.S. locations.

The free WiFi access offer will come with no purchase required and no time limits. The small catch is that the offer applies only to the McDonald's restaurants powered by AT&T Wireless.

Currently, all McDonald's in our five-county area offer some type of WiFi access. In our coverage area, that includes both locations in Danville, Harrodsburg, Lancaster and Stanford.

Read more about McDonald's WiFi access at www.mcdonalds.com/wireless.html. Also check out Knowzy's independent and complete guide to McDonald's Wi-Fi at www.knowzy.com/Internet/wifi/Free_Wi-Fi/Free_McDonalds_Wireless.htm.

While we are on the free WiFi Internet access subject, I need your help. I would love to include a roundup of places in our five-county area that offer free WiFi Internet access in a future column. If you know of any places, please e-mail me the locations, along with business hours.

Netbook update

An extremely cheap, environmentally-friendly netbook has been released by Cherrypal. The new netbook is called the Cherrypal Africa and it costs only $99.

First off, kudos to Cherrypal for being completely upfront and honest about its product. It is billing its netbook with three simple words, "small, slow, sufficient.”

The features of the Cherrypal Africa netbook include a seven-inch display, a 400MHz processor, 256MB RAM and 2GB of flash storage. Additional features include a 10/100M ethernet port, a SD/MMC card reader, three USB ports, built-in WiFi, built-in speakers and microphone.

The Cherrypal Africa netbook offers a choice between Linux or Windows CE for its operating system. The battery life is expected to last about four hours on a single charge. The netbook comes with an unconditional 30-day money back guarantee.

Learn more about the Cherrypal Africa netbook at www.cherrypal.com/products.php. Purchase the netbook from the Cherrypal Open Store at www.cherrypal.com/openstore/product_info.php?products_id=5&osCsid=fa9161170802d2ca294fc37751d43c0e.

How to re-enable Vista Sidebar

On the right-hand side of your desktop is the location where the Vista Sidebar usually resides. If it disappears and you want to enable and run the Sidebar when Windows boots up, follow these steps: Click Start, go to Control Panel, click on Appearance and Personalization link, click on Windows Sidebar Properties, check the box next to Start Sidebar when Windows starts, click OK.

Sites to see

Computer School for Seniors at www.CS4seniors.com is offering online computer and Internet lesson plans for Baby Boomers, seniors or anyone wanting to learn more about their computer. The site offers more than 100 senior-friendly lesson plans.

It offers two tuition plans. The basic six-month semester plan offers full access to everything on its Internet Campus for only $36. The special offer plan is tailored for kids, grandkids, caregivers, friends or computer savvy Boomers or seniors who want to help someone get connected with their family. This will allow someone to enroll for two consecutive semesters with a 10 percent discounted total of $65 and then enroll parents or grandparents for free. -- AM News

Big Macs soon to come with free WiFi

By Larry Magid

Starting in January, visitors to 11,000 McDonald's restaurants will be offered free Wi-Fi with their Big Macs.

The company announced last week that it will soon lift the $2.95 fee it now charges for two hours of Internet access. The move comes just a few months after the world's largest burger chain launched its nationwide rollout of McCafés featuring cappuccinos, lattes and sugary coffee drinks not unlike those on the menu at Starbucks.

Last year, Starbucks started offering two hours a day of free Wi-Fi for those who purchase and register a Starbucks card. Both Starbucks and McDonald's use AT&T Wi-Fi services in their stores. AT&T DSL customers can also get free access at any of AT&T's 10,000 Wi-Fi hot spots.

I can understand the appeal of surfing the Web at Starbucks over a cup of coffee or two, but I'm not sold on the idea of spending a leisurely afternoon sitting in one of McDonald's plastic chairs over a laptop and a large order of fries. Yet, I certainly can envision popping into a McDonald's for a few minutes to check my e-mail or quickly visit a Web site or two.

Most striking about this announcement is that McDonald's, along with a number of other companies, has put a price tag on Wi-Fi, and that price is $0 per hour. If this trend continues, we could get to a place where Internet access is simply part of the plumbing of our lives.

Already Google provides free Wi-Fi service to most parts of Mountain View, and Virgin America is temporarily (until Jan. 15) offering free Wi-Fi on all flights.

Virgin America — along with American Delta, United and AirTran — usually charges $10-$12 for access to its Gogo in-flight Internet service during a cross-country flight. All Virgin America planes are equipped for Wi-Fi. AirTran offers Wi-Fi on all flights departing from the United States, while the others offer it on "select" flights.

I don't expect the airlines to give away Wi-Fi, unless they are forced to for competitive reasons, but many hotels now offer it for free. Interestingly, you can almost count on free Wi-Fi when you stay at a low- or moderately priced hotel chain like Best Western or Red Roof Inn, but you often have to pay as much as $15 a day to access it at more expensive hotels.

In Germany last year, I paid the equivalent of $30 a day for Wi-Fi access at a five-star Berlin hotel. If a hotel doesn't offer free Wi-Fi for all guests, I now ask if there is a way to get it for free. Some hotels will waive the charge if you join their rewards program.

Of course, Wi-Fi isn't the only wireless way to get on the Internet. All of the major cell phone carriers offer wireless broadband access via their data networks, but it's not cheap. The going rate for a 5-gigabyte-a-month wireless broadband plan for PCs is $60 a month. It's worth it if you travel a great deal but not if you're just an occasional user. Verizon offers a 250-megabyte-a-month plan for $40, but you can quickly exceed that amount of data if you use the service to download music or video.

Some netbooks have wireless broadband built in and, in some cases, you can get the netbook free or for a greatly reduced price by signing up for a two-year broadband plan. But before you commit yourself to $1,400 for those two years of service, you had better think about whether you're going to use it enough to justify the expense.

Still, I've taken a cellular modem with me on a few trips to the East Coast, and I can testify that it does make life a lot easier to be able to count on access from virtually anywhere. A few weeks ago I was able to finish writing and then send in my column during a 45-minute ride from Dulles Airport to Washington, D.C. Not only was I able to meet my deadline, but it made the ride seem a lot shorter.

Over the next couple of years, all the major cellular carriers will be introducing so-called 4G networks with faster data rates, added capacity and wider penetration. My hope is that wireless broadband supply will so outstrip demand that they will wind up lowering prices to increase network usage. If the pricing model becomes attractive enough, I can see millions of people adopting the service simply for the convenience of never having to hunt for a hot spot.

In the meantime, "I'm Lovin' " the idea of getting free Wi-Fi access when I visit my local McDonald's next month. Too bad that a Big Mac, a medium fries and a medium Coke add up to more than 1,100 calories. -- Mercury News

Ford cars to become Wi-Fi hot spots

By Lance Whitney

Ford cars are about to become true mobile hot spots.

The carmaker announced Monday the next generation of its Sync system designed to let Ford owners plug a USB modem directly into a car's built-in Wi-Fi, creating broadband Internet access to all passengers. Those in the car can jump online through any Wi-Fi-enabled device, from smartphone to laptop.

Ford said that this factory-installed capability will be available next year on certain Sync-equipped cars and that no extra hardware or subscriptions will be needed outside of an existing broadband modem, which the customer supplies. Ford's Wi-Fi system will include WPA2 security, ensuring that only people in the car will be able to hop onto the network.

"The speeds with which technology is evolving, particularly on the wireless front, makes obsolescence a real problem," Doug VanDagens, director of Ford's Connected Services Solutions Organization, said in a statement. "We've solved that problem by making Sync work with just about any technology you plug into it. By leveraging a user's existing hardware, which can be upgraded independent of Sync, we've helped ensure 'forward compatibility' with whatever connectivity technology comes next."

Design by Ford and Microsoft, Ford's Sync lets drivers make calls, play music, get directions, grab news and weather, and search for businesses and other information, all using voice and text-to-speech technology. Ford's new Sync edition won't be the first Wi-Fi technology to give people on-the-road Internet. Similar devices have popped up over the past year, some dealer-installed and some independent.

Autonet Mobile designs similar hardware for cars, as does a company called Waav. Autonet does require a subscription fee for its service--$29 a month for 1GB of data or $59 a month for 5GB. But it's an independent device designed to work with different makes and models (though currently available as dealer-installed for Cadillac), while Ford's Sync only comes with certain Ford vehicles. -- CNET News