Results tagged “wifi”

Check out the lipstick on this pig factory farm cow: McDonald's Corp. spokeswoman Danya Proud says this McDonald's location on Sixth Avenue between 14th and 15th streets is the first in the nation to get a so-called "urban redesign." It has free Wi-Fi and laptop outlets, upholstered vinyl chairs instead of seats bolted to the floor, subdued lighting, and all-black uniforms for employees. The metrosexual look is, naturally, de rigueur in Europe, but like something out of another world for us boorish Americans. One customer tells the Associated Press it's "beautiful" and more "like a lounge"—but with the same revolting "food."

How come Times Square gets all of the perks? First it got all of those free chairs, then it got free bathrooms, now it gets free WiFi! From now through next year, Yahoo will provide free wireless internet service to those who visit the pedestrian island on Broadway between 43rd and 44th streets. Passersby who aren't carrying their computers can even borrow laptops on a first-come, first-served basis, according to the Daily News. Two years ago, CBS launched a similar promotion in a wider swath of Midtown — minus the free computers.

Officials in Babylon have announced that the town will become the first on the Atlantic seaboard to offer free WiFi at beaches, parks and pools. The Suffolk County town will be opening four separate internet cafes at its various beaches over the next few weeks, the first one debuting this weekend at Overlook Beach. The cafes will also offer three free laptops as loaners and the signal will be strong enough to reach nearby boaters. Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone told the Post, "For the first time you'll be able to surf the Internet. It is very cool. We're very excited. You can take it down to the water, you can go into the water, if you want to." Less cool news recently came out of nearby Robert Moses State Park, where the only signal beach goers were getting was from Park officials telling them to head elsewhere since large portions of the shore had to be closed off due to erosion.

Seems like just yesterday that the Parks Department was compiling a map of all the free WiFi spots in the city parks—but now CityRoom is reporting that "the long-troubled arrangement to install wireless Internet networks in Central Park and other New York City parks has quietly collapsed after the contractor, Wi-Fi Salon, ran out of money." The company has been removing equipment from Central Park, Prospect Park, Washington Square, Battery, Riverside, Van Cortlandt, Pelham Bay, and Flushing Meadows-Corona Parks, annnd Orchard Beach. However, since Bryant Park's WiFi is provided privately, you'll still be able to log on there. The Parks Department confirmed the termination, but also that they will "soon unveil a series of digital inclusion initiatives focused on expanding access to, and adoption of, broadband technology, including service in parks across the city."

Might as well check your trenchcoat with the Skycap, fellas; American Airlines has reversed course and decided to filter pornographic content on its in-flight Internet service. You'll recall that flight attendants had been pressuring the airline to block porn because they didn't want to police pervs who can't go a couple hours without pleasuring themselves to Edward Penishands or Sex Trek: The Next Penetration. Wired reports that Girls Against Porn has also been lobbying American to install filters, citing a lawsuit against American over a particularly nauseating masturbatory incident that, incidentally, occurred without pornographic inspiration. Of course privacy rights advocates are alarmed that once airlines take away the pornos, they'll start blocking other sites like maybe all the ones trashing American Airlines.

Since equipping its aircraft with in-flight WiFi, American Airlines has gotten "a lot of complaints" about passengers using the Internets to enjoy adult entertainment, presumably joining the Mile High Club with a little help from Rosy Palmer and Handjela . Ah, but ain't that American? The airline started offering the service in August for $12.95, but unlike Jet Blue, didn't install Internet filters to block porn. And despite pressure from flight attendants, they have no plans to do so. An American spokesman tells the Post: "Customers viewing inappropriate material on board a flight is not a new scenario for our crews, who have always managed this issue with great success." Besides, passengers who can't bear to be separated from their precious porno for the duration of a flight have always been allowed to bring adult magazines and DVDs on board, so why deprive them now?

In an attempt to pump up its shrinking customer base, starting today Starbucks will offer two hours of free Wi-Fi per day. Well, free for anyone who puts at least $5 onto a reloadable Starbucks Card and registers online for the Starbucks Rewards Card program. Rewards program members get other perks too: free syrup and milk options with drinks, free refills on coffee and one free beverage with the purchase of a pound of coffee beans.

Grand Central Terminal will now feature its own Wi-Fi Internet access to those waiting in the Station Masters Office, one of the few places one is still allowed to sit down at the terminal without being told to get up and move along. The new wireless service will allow as many as 60 users online at a time and should prove an invaluable amenity for commuters to check or send off emails before and after getting off trains. The Station Masters Office is restricted to ticket-holding passengers.

The NYC-DC bus fare wars have a new player: Greyhound division BoltBus will be launching service on March 27 and has started to sell tickets for as low as $1 (plus a 50 cent booking fee).

Jaunted took a jaunt over to the new Terminal 5 (not the music venue) at JFK. The terminal, with design by Gensler, will house JetBlue and is set to open in September of this year.

Could Apple be planting a seed on a location near Lincoln Center? The Meatpacking district Apple store still has that new-store smell as Apple fever extends north. According to the Post, Apple is looking to take over space at the northwest corner of Broadway and West 67th, where there's currently a two-story Victoria's Secret store.

If you've been paying for Wifi at coffee shops between 42nd Street and Central Park South and between 8th and 6th Avenues, you can start saving up for more grande mocha lattes. CBS will be creating a "CBS Mobile Zone" with free wifi in midtown. In turn, CBS will lead users to an ad-supported homepage. CenterNetworks says that Citi and Salesgenie.com have already signed up. CBS, which owns CBS Outdoor, will wire billbards, MTA displays...

When it comes to driving routes for a JFK airport pickup, George Costanza advocates taking the Grand Central to the Van Wyck, deriding Kramer’s L.I.E. route as a “suicide mission.” In the current New York Magazine cover story, “How to Escape Airport Hell”, the editors invited chauffeur Kevin Sullivan to weigh in. While he comes down squarely on Costanza’s side, he also shares some invaluable alternative routes to all three airports in the unlikely...

In his latest installment, Jordan headed to Wi-Fi hotzone Bryant Park to see what people were using the Internet for in a completely public place. The results are interesting: a religious study group, marketing Mandy Moore's new album, yoga, an online opera audition, and managing a business where giant rats are used to detect explosive land mines. We'll have to pay more attention to what people are working on the next time we're in Bryant Park.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery at Union Turnpike in Queens, a fatal fall victim on Union St. in Brooklyn, and an infant water rescue at Mallow St. on Staten Island.
• What loud-mouthed inflammatory interrogator could MSNBC get to stand in for Chris Matthews? Tonight it will be Al Sharpton interviewing former DNC head Terry McAuliffe and one-time Presidential candidate Howard Dean. Set your VCRs, DVRs, Tivos, or whatever.
• A swimming pool in Hells' Kitchen is sprouting weeds as more than $3 million of private funds sits in the bank, waiting to be used. We imagine it will get sorted out around January.
• A self-described pacifist wrestled a shovel away from an attacker and started hitting the thief with it after the man went after his wife. The whole exchange occurred in a Queens cemetary and cops eventually arrested the initial shovel-wielding thief.
• The enforcement of a new city noise code is unsurprisingly lax.
• For the 130th year, the Fresh Air Fund is sending NYC kids upstate and further north for some summer recreation.
• Bookmark it: a GoogleMap of open WiFi spots around the nation.
• A downtown Manhattan pizzeria offers lapdances with its lunches. Employees must wash their . . . everything, before returning to work.

On opening day of this season's Midsummer Night Swing, Lincoln Center has become a free WiFi hot spot. So if you're at Josie Robertson Plaza, in Damrosch Park, or on the North Plaza by the Reflecting Pool, your laptop, phone or PDA will be wired.

SoHo, Lower East Side, Nolita, and other residents and workers, you'll want to make sure you have your library card, because today at 3PM, the New York Public Library opens its 87th branch in SoHo. The Mulberry Street library, located at Mulberry and Jersey Streets just south of Houston Street, is 12,000 square feet of books, DVDs, computers, WiFi access and more.

Thinking about playing hooky in a city park with your laptop? The Parks & Recreation Department has created a Google mash-up of parks with WiFi. There is even a live status update for the hotspots - looks like our plan to blog from the polar bear area of the Central Park this afternoon is foiled!

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to...

Have you groaned about how much those Grande Mocha Lattes are costing you? Have you ever wondered how you can make money from the Internet? And do you live in wireless-Internet-access range of a Starbucks? Wireless company Fon is offering free routers and the lure of cash to anyone who lives above or near the coffee chain. How does it work?

By installing your FON router, you let others share your broadband for a daily fee. A fee that goes straight into your pocket. A savvy patron of your Starbucks need only pay $2 a day for your WiFi. They'd have to be a grande drip to pay the $10 Starbucks charges. Each customer who chooses you puts $1 into your latte fund. Cha-ching.

Leaving our local Key Food this morning, for the first time we heard the spare change guy's rendition of "Bad to the Bone" and then we turned to one of our weekend rituals: Reading the The Brooklyn Paper.

The Internet signal you are receiving right now is probably not coming from an electrical outlet, especially if you are living in New York City. But if you are living in Europe, Cincinnati, Ohio or Virginia, then it’s quite possible that your computer’s power and broadband signal are coming from the same connection.

Quiet Stroll, by Greg Brophy.

This was not a very happy week for the -ist network as one of our own,

We hear that Crumbs flagship location on 8th Street (between Broadway and University) has opened and they're handing out free cupcakes all day!

Via The Daily Politics, the City of New York has created its own Google-type map with all sorts of information overlaid to show you the nearest services.

- Stephanie Adams' cabby says she's a vampire!

Strange finding in Central Park's sheep meadow: An actual sheep, with its legs bound, was left there, only to be found on Tuesday night. The sheep is now at a farm in Connecticut (why not the Queenty County Farm?) and am New York says that the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals transported other farm animals on behalf of Animal Care & Control, including roosters and chickens (yes, it seems that annoying neighborhood roosters are sent away, not killed).

- And NJ reaches a budget deal, but it means a 1% sales tax hike

- Oh, and Park Slope was shut down for three hours tonight because of a bomb scare. Happy holidays!