free wifi

Starbuck tweeted today that coming July 1st, Starbucks will provide free, 1-click WiFi access… and right after Starbucks sent me my new Gold Card which provides 2 free hours of WiFi daily. You see, I have a slight problem and I use Starbucks as a productivity center away from home distractions usually once a week.

So, this doesn’t affect my iPad usage as I have no-click WiFi connectivity at Starbucks stores now, but one-click, no registration WiFi connection will be welcome for laptop usage as I now have to login using an AT&T account. I say, about time Starbucks… weren’t really the leader on that idea!

While everyone’s excited about the free WiFi, Starbucks has also announced intentions to launch its own digital network to provide media company partners, including Yahoo!, WSJ, Zagat, NYT, USA Today and the free weekly iTunes pick download. Yahoo! will provide the portal while AOL will integrate local content from Patch in the Starbuck Digital Network. We’ll have to see when SDN launches how many people stick around the initial portal before VPNing to work or heading to blog on their sites.