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McDonald's Going WiFi!!!

i've been to ones at starbucks, the service at UT austin, and the Airport, all of which aren't free. usually the way they regulate it is allowing you to connect to the wifi router, but you can't connect to the internet till you open your browser, which automatically gets redirected to a site with payment options or passwords or such. it's very open standard, tazo, they won't be closing out macs.
 
Originally posted by Shadowfax
i've been to ones at starbucks, the service at UT austin, and the Airport, all of which aren't free. usually the way they regulate it is allowing you to connect to the wifi router, but you can't connect to the internet till you open your browser, which automatically gets redirected to a site with payment options or passwords or such. it's very open standard, tazo, they won't be closing out macs.
Click to expand...

i am sure they could find a way to keep out macs, i was just commenting on the the article mentioning 'wireless intel chip..."
 
It doesn't seem like it would be in their best interest to "keep out macs". They are a business trying to make money. They would want to appeal to everyone - mac users eat burgers too.

I could see it being an issue if the system wasn't standardized, but wifi is a standard protocol, so there's no extra effort they have to take to support macs. It don't think it's reasonable to assume they will try to block mac users. :)

You're probably just being paranoid. The writer of the article didn't necessarily have any idea how wifi worked, or they wouldn't even have said Intel specifically. IMO anyway.
;)


Alia
 
Hey I think this news just got even better, in Todays San Jose Mercury news, there is an article discussing it a bit more clearly, saying that all you need to do is pay 4.95 for 2 hours. But that you will get free WiFI for the first 6 weeks. But what cought my eye was not what the article was about, but rather the picture of a lady with a PowerBook Sitting in Mc Donalds. So all you need to Do now to get great, free, WiFi acsess is a Big Mac :D
 
Boston Globe, Business Section 7/9/03 has an article "McDonald's expands wireless Net access" Julie Ask, a senior analyst for Jupiter Research, shows a picture of her using a PB 17" in a San Francisco resturant. Interesting already 10 in NY and now expanded to 55 in the SF aread. I wonder how long it will be before Boston will offer thise service?
 
I don't think McD attracts the market or demographic necessary to keep this little project afloat. McD's will take another hit on this project. It may be good for some people, but seriously, $4.95 for 2 hours of web time? Who is going to need to wi-fi for 2 hours at a McD**ks? :D

I think their idea would survive if they charged $1.50 to "supersize" their combo to one that includes their WiFi. I think people would do that, but people would rather hang out at a Starbucks for 1 or 2 hours.
 
I can see it now:

User goes to McDonalds. Orders greasy everything. Sits down. Opens iBook. Stuffs face. Tries to wipe grease off hands; gives up. iBook is now fully booted. Sits there for 30 minutes surfing web on "McWi-Fi network." Ends up getting greasy slop all over iBook.

Calls Applecare. Whines. Apple refuses to fix iBook. User is immediately a "victim."

User sues McDonalds because the unusually high grease content of their food ruined their laptop investment.

User wins lawsuit, buys Dual G5, 23" cinema display.

Everyone reads the story on CNN and gets livid.

McDonlands issues warnings on menu "Warning, our food is greasy and will ruin your little computer. Don't sue us because you are a slob"

****
Just some weird humor for today. Too much coke. Hope you liked it.

-Breeze:cool:
 
Originally posted by Abstract
I think their idea would survive if they charged $1.50 to "supersize" their combo to one that includes their WiFi. I think people would do that, but people would rather hang out at a Starbucks for 1 or 2 hours.
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Amen to that. This was a dead project from the start. I stated in another discussion that grease+mess+kids=trouble .. there's no way I'm taking my powerbook there (nevermind the terrible food..)

LoL .. supersize the combo to include WiFi .. that's funny.

Starbucks is a significantly better environment to surf the web, IMO. Well .. even some of the smaller, more local coffee shops that have WiFi are the best. Comfortable and clean .. just the right kind of place to take my PB. :)
 
for those of you that have seen Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Dogma this reminds me of the computers that were in the mcd"s knock off Mooby's
 
McDonald's Corp., which already has been offering wireless Web access at 10 restaurants in New York City, is expanding the pilot program to dozens more restaurants spanning the San Francisco Bay region.
Click to expand...
What they fail to mention is that nobody uses it in NYC. I have never seen more than 2 or so at any one time using the service.
 
lame.

they're not thinking this through.

mcdonald's is built on the premise of fast food. make your order, get in, get out, it's over. the 'restaurants' were never intended to be lounges or hangout spots. i doubt there are very many people going in there with the intention of spending more than 10-15 minutes max.

If the service were free, or included once you passed a certain dollar amount, it might be good for someone who incidentally remembers that he needs to check on an e-mail or send out a meeting reminder.

Otherwise it's going to flop spectacularly.
 
If they wanted to make this a success, they should build the monitors into the table, a la the old Pac-Man tables (something that the patron couldn't "accidentally" walk away with). The only thing that they'd have to worry about is content. McDonald's loses its child like appearance when the pages of Hustler are being displayed. Also, what about p2p?
 
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