May 2, 2008
Nab free AT&T Wi-Fi on your Mac, for now
Posted May. 2, ’08, 10:42 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Internet
If you follow our sister site iPhone Central, you’ll know that Starbucks is switching its Wi-Fi provider to AT&T, and some of the stores seem to be offering free Wi-Fi access to iPhone users (well, specifically those who are also AT&T subscribers). I tried this out at my local Starbucks and it seemed to work well enough, but since I spend more time working on my MacBook than my iPhone, it’s not exactly compelling for me.
The always clever Lifehacker team points out that a little subtle massaging of facts can nab you free Internet access on your computer. If you use Safari, you can change the User Agent to make it look like you’re on an iPhone by enabling the Develop (née “Debug”) menu (here’s an easy way to do that, courtesy of Mac OS X Hints) and selecting “Mobile Safari 1.1.3 — iPhone” from the User Agent submenu. Firefox readers can install an extension that will let them do the same thing.
You’ll still need a valid iPhone phone number in order to get access, which is fine if you’ve got an iPhone yourself, but you might need to convince your friend to let you use their number otherwise.
Of course, once AT&T gets wind of this, I’d expect them to find a way to close the loophole, so take advantage of it while you can.
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Actually in the latest version of Safari the Develop menu is available in the Preferences under Advance at the bottom of the window. Used to be you needed Onyx or Cocktail to turn it without a trip to Terminal.
Can't these "hacker" kiddies go away for a while? Why do you, MacUser, need to promote this kind of theft? The legal AT&T customers pay for it and they should be the ones who benefit from the free WiFi offer - not somebody who is using a shared iPhone number or maliciously uses another person's iPhone number, simply because they know that person owns one.
Just my two cents from a legal and satisfied AT&T customer.