See T-Mobile files suit against Starbucks over WiFi transition to AT&T

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Menlo Park, California Peet's Coffee and Tea store now has wireless. Officially! You connect to the wireless router named "Peet's." Your browser window will then open to a Peet's sign-in page, asking for a code. You get a code from the register, enter it into the browser, and you get two free hours of wireless.

Wireless at Peet's! I no longer have to buy a Peet's and then go sit outside a Starbucks to use the wireless. Finally!

Do any readers have any news about any other Peet's locations with wireless?

Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm working in a Starbucks -- instead of Peets because Peet's won't get wireless.

There's a guy in here with a new Mac Air. Oh, that thing is beautiful!

I told him if he charged people a dollar to touch it he could probably pay for it in a week.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Through the Crave Gadget blog: Starbucks ditches T-Mobile for AT&T,

T-Mobile HotSpot subscribers will continue to have access to Starbucks Wi-Fi thanks to an agreement between AT&T and T-Mobile. But the new AT&T plan allows all customers 2 free hours per day, with a $3.99 fee for additional 2-hour chunks of time. Monthly subscriptions will cost $19.99 and will enable access to other AT&T hot-spot locations in addition to Starbucks.

In addition, AT&T broadband customers will be able to surf at the more than 7,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. for free.

The deal is a boost to many Wi-Fi users, who will get two hours of free Wi-Fi service in-store per day if they have an active Starbucks Card or already are one of 12 million users who subscribe to AT&T broadband, Starbucks and AT&T said.

Continue reading "Starbucks Changing Wireless to ATT" »

Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh no. I just parked myself in a Starbucks to work for a while. I forgot that it's Christmas music time. Oh no. Oh no. And I already bought my half-caf Americano (extra roomy). Oh no.

Param-pa-pum-pum.

I try to avoid Starbucks this time of year. Sure it's nice to stop in,but Christmas music all the time... The poor baristas, having to listen to this all day. Why don't they form a union?

Peet's WHY oh WHY can't you get wireless?

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm working at a Starbucks (because Peet's doesn't have wireless). For about an hour they were playing classical Christmas music, but they just put on "parum pa pum pum again." I can not STAN parum pa pum pum.
Rum pa pum pum
Rum pa pum pum

Sheesh. Gotta go. It's beginning to look a lot like working at home for the next three weeks.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here I am at a Starbucks, when what I'm really craving this morning is a Peet's. But I have to work, and Peet's just will not get wireless!

So I'm having a Starbucks half Sumatran, half-decaf Sumatran. It's OK. It's not a Peet's. Usually when I have to work I get a Starbucks Americano with extra room, beause thast is a strong drink, and I miss my Peet's less. But Peet's just won't get wireless, so I give my money to Starbucks. Go figure.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

At Starbucks Gossip: Is Starbucks cranking up the music to annoy the wi-fi crowd?

Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

eXtension IT: Coffee Shop Etiquette? weighs in on the great controversy of our time.

Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At Virtual Coffee,
Let Them Eat Wi-Fi by Steven Krolak,

Since he had begun offering free wi-fi, he said, the cafe had become a magnet for a whole new customer base. That was the good news. The bad news was that these customers tended to like wi-fi and table space more than coffee and panini. The result was what I had witnessed the previous day: a cafe full of campers, many of whom had been nursing a single coffee drink through several e-chats. The owner told me of one customer who had stayed in the cafe for six hours. During that entire sojourn, he had only ordered one beverage.

Am I a table hog? What's the solution?

Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (1)

Ah yes, the premier question of our time. Starbucks or Peet's? Let's start the discussion right at the start of the blog itself. Let no one say that the Smelling the Coffee blog avoids the tough national controversies! In the future we'll have Starbucks and Peet's proponents writing here, and lots and lots of stories about the great independent coffee shops and roasters around the country.

I'm sitting in a Starbucks writing this, drinking a half-caf (but watery) Americano. Not to fault Starbucks Americanos, though, because I order them for a reason -- that they're almost as good as a regular old Peet's coffee (to me), for when I just have to sit at a table and get work done. You see, Peet's doesn't have wireless Internet service for computers! Can you even imagine that? And Peet's doesn't even begin to understand coffee-shop atmosphere. So for work, it's Starbucks.

Continue reading "Starbucks or Peet's" »

Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBacks (1)