Savvy Wi-Fi citizens should not only be on the lookout for fast and nearby hotspots, but also be sure to lock down a secure Internet connection. Accessing open Wi-Fi signals can expose you to hackers, malware, and viruses, which can put private information at risk. At Boingo, we don’t want you to worry about practicing Internet safety, so we’ve developed a handy solution for you – Boingo Security VPN! Continue reading
It’s Cyber Monday, y’all! If you’re hunting for some tech bargains, check out our ten favorite deals below. If the prices are right for you, hurry up and buy. These discounts are expiring at the end of today (11/28/2011) or within a few days. Know of other good tech sales? Share the wisdom! 1. Case-Mate Gadget Case Outfit your favorite gadget in a stylin’ case from Case-Mate, currently offering 25% off everything from its site. 2. Capacitive Touch Screen Gloves for Apple iOS Devices Baby, it’s cold outside. Keep those fingers warm and operable with gloves designed specifically for Apple touchscreen devices. We’ve seen these gloves listed for as much as $30 but iGear is offering them for only $9.95. Comes in black, red, pink and gray. 3. Sony Speaker Dock for iPod and iPhone 4 Need a home base for your iPod and/or iPhone 4? The Sony dock station is on sale at Walmart for $49. That’s 50% off the list price of $99. 4. Samsung HD Flash Memory Camcorder If you’re looking for a pocket-sized camcorder, check out this Samsung one, which retails for $159.99 but is now on sale through Best Buy for $99. 5. Fujifilm 16 MP and 15x Optical
Boingo’s leadership in the growing universe of Boingo hotspots is featured in an IDG article by Mikael Ricknäs; the article has been syndicated across the IDG network on various trade publications including PC World, CIO and Network World. Cool! Kudos to Christian Gunning, our director of corporate communications for his contribution to the article. Here are the highlights: The number of worldwide public Wi-Fi hotspots is expected to quadruple, and total 5.8 million by 2012, as operators look for ways to reduce traffic on their mobile networks, according to a recent study by Informa Telecoms and Media. “One of our strategic initiatives right now is to expand coverage into categories that haven’t been built out, but will be,” said [Christian] Gunning. Few big national restaurant chains in the U.S. have hotspots in their restaurants…restaurants will see a big build out in the next three or four years, he said. Wi-Fi hotspots in sports arenas, concert halls and shopping malls will also become more prevalent. Wi-Fi hotspots are also about to become more integrated with mobile networks thanks to a specification called Hotspot 2.0, which is being developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance. It allows users to automatically move between the two network
We’re happy to announce that you can now use PayPal when buying Boingo Wi-Fi access. And we have to give credit where credit is due: Boingo customers suggested we add PayPal as a purchase option, and we thought that was a brilliant idea. Thanks to the community for the guidance! Hopefully, PayPal will ease the payment process for our international customers, who voiced the strongest desire for this option. Also, we think the addition of PayPal will help those of you purchasing Wi-Fi on your mobile devices, which can be more challenging to navigate because of smaller screen sizes. Now, you can simply select the PayPal option, log in to your PayPal account, and you’re done! No additional account information required. Read the Boingo press release on PayPal. Please let us know if you have any questions. As always, we get some of our best ideas from our customers, so send us your suggestions!
We “watched” Apple’s iOS 5 event today through several live blogs (sources referenced inline) and posted real-time updates to our Facebook page. Take a look at the highlights below and let us know your thoughts. What’s your reaction? Excited, neutral or disappointed? Are the iPhone 4S features everything you were hoping for and if not, what’s missing? Who is pre-ordering the iPhone 4S?
Like most businesses, Boingo derives pleasure and value from engaging with our community. But fundamentally, we respect your privacy — after all, we’re consumers, too. We don’t like the idea of our personal information shared without our explicit consent. That’s why we researched the privacy implications of Facebook’s new auto-share, i.e., “Gestures,” and provided instructions for disabling the feature. The skinny on app auto-share: Facebook’s new auto-share feature affects anyone who has added social apps to their Facebook account. Social apps are created by popular sites such as CNN, YouTube, Flickr, and Spotify. The apps connect a specific site to you Facebook account, allowing you to click “Like” or “Recommend” to share a news article, video, photo, or song to your Facebook news feed. The first time you share content from a site, you must first “allow” the site to access some of your information. As you can see from the above screenshot, apps typically request access to your “basic information,” including anything you’ve “made public.” In other words, access to personal data is limited to what you’ve chosen to post on your Facebook profile, as well any public action on your part, e.g., posting or “liking” articles. That was
Computers are such an integral, inextricable part of our lives that we sometimes treat them like real people. Admit it: you’ve experienced one or more of the following: Talking to (or swearing at) your computer Sleeping with your smartphone Feeling deep attachment to your favorite gadget Having a panic attack when separated from your favorite gadget What if computers were actually human? Or more specifically, what if common computer problems — crashes, slow processing, inaccessible files — were literal, real-life behaviors? Well, the funny folks at Awkward Spaceship show you exactly what this looks like. Give yourself an LOL treat and watch the video above. It’s hilarious.
Google announced today that is has released the first version of Google Wallet to Sprint customers with a Nexus S 4G phone. Google Wallet is an app that turns your phone into a wallet that securely stores your credit card information. To pay a tab, you tap your phone to a compatible NFC reader offered through the merchant. Watch this demo for more details: For now, only Citi Mastercards and Google Prepaid Cards are supported; however, Google says it aims “to eventually support all the payment cards you keep in your leather wallet today. So the only plastic you’ll need is your phone.” Google Wallet also stores loyalty rewards and Google Offer deals. Google says that it envisions Google Wallet to be more secure than carrying around plastic in your wallet. In order to make a purchase, a PIN is required. Account details are stored on an encrypted computer chip called Secure Element. What are your thoughts on Google Wallet? Are you going to give it a whirl as soon as it is available on your credit card of choice? If you’re not an Android user, do you hope Google Wallet will be available on other smartphone platforms? For more details
Click play on the video above and check out the array of destinations visited by the Boingo community this past summer in 2011. Just a word of caution: the photos could trigger or exacerbate the post-summer blues. If you’ve seen our videos before, you might recognize that we often use Animoto to produce our videos. Unlike standard photo slideshow programs with static presentations, Animoto creates polished and animated visual stories that look polished and professional. The company says the foundation of their platform is a “patent-pending Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that thinks like an actual director and editor.” We couldn’t tell you what that means exactly but we can guarantee that the resulting production — complete with a music soundtrack — will make you look like a cinematic genius. Animoto offers a range of pricing plans, including: Lite for free, Plus for $30/year, Pro for $249/year and a Reseller option for $499/year. Here’s a quick tutorial on the Animoto user interface: Step 1: Choose a template. Animoto offers various background templates, some of which are available to free accounts. There are also several holiday themes. Step 2: Upload photos and/or video clips. You can retrieve media from your computer, Facebook,
Recently, there have been a lot of headlines identifying mobile data growth as a crisis in the making — a collection of different voices adding to the discussion, culminating in a chorus of warnings about the coming capacity crunch. Even with upgrades to 4G, there won’t be enough mobile data capacity to meet the exploding demand for data thanks to the proliferation of powerful smartphones that put the Internet in our hands, available at every turn. Andrew Seybold, one of the wireless industry’s best established pundits, has added his voice to the chorus with his newsletter article “Managing the Demand for Wireless Data” — and it is one of the most thorough deconstructions of the issue that we’ve seen in print. Sometimes it takes a seasoned veteran to distill the myriad complexities of the issue down into a single, comprehensive overview that readily addresses the critical aspects of the issue at hand, including the likelihood of increased costs for heavy users due to new tiered pricing structures. We highly recommend reading his article, and then reading it again. It’s that good. LINK: Managing the Demand for Wireless Data
We spent the U.S. Fourth of July holiday at the Home Depot Center, where we watched a great soccer match between the LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders. The Home Depot Center is extra special to us because it’s a Boingo-managed hotspot! We got online with our iPhone, iPad and Android smartphone to upload video clips to Facebook, watch replays on ESPN and send photos to our friends. Watch the video above for a play-by-play of our adventures. Continue reading
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