Why take in great views of London when you can stare at a screen?

If you took a whirl on the Coca-Cola™ London Eye but didn't stream it on Facebook Live, did it even happen? We needn't concern ourselves with that philosophical question any longer, because O2 has announced that its free WiFi network, which rea...

ICYMI: Pedestrian tracking bot and earthquake simulation

Today on In Case You Missed It: Stanford engineers are using a robot to understand the way humans move through a crowded space. University of California, San Diego researchers are using the world's largest outdoor shake table to simulate earthqua...

NYC plans free public WiFi expansion in all five boroughs by December 2013

Changing NYC

A handful of neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens and the Bronx will have high-speed WiFi access available for businesses and residents by the end of this year. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced an expansion today that'll roll out over the next few months, lighting up parts of downtown Brooklyn, lower Manhattan, Harlem and other areas by December 2013. Companies have invested $3.4 million in the new infrastructure, and the city has contributed $900,000 to get the job done. We're still a long way from having a city blanketed in completely free high-speed wireless internet, but with widespread availability in key areas, thousands of residents and smaller businesses should be able to drop their current internet providers before the ball drops to welcome 2014.

[Image source: AP/Frank Franklin II]

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Source: Michael Bloomberg

Google donates $600,000 to bring free WiFi to San Francisco parks

Google donates $600,000 to bring free WiFi to San Francisco parks

San Francisco has been striving for city-wide internet access since 2007, and with a little help from Mountain View, it's now one step closer to achieving that lofty goal. After receiving a $600,000 donation from Google, 31 public parks in one of the world's most tech-savvy cities will have free WiFi for at least two years. Google's gift will cover installation and maintenance of all necessary equipment for the project, which builds upon the the city's existing public WiFi hotspots like San Francisco International Airport and City Hall. While blanket coverage for the entire city is still a ways off, offering free internet access in places like public parks is a giant step forward in making the web accessible for all.

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Via: SF Gate

Head down to Birmingham and soak up free Virgin Media WiFi this September

Head down to Birmingham and soak up free Virgin Media WiFi this September

Should you live in the UK's second most populous metropolitan area, Birmingham, it's nearly time to congregate en masse in the city's center for an impromptu test of a brand new free WiFi network supported by Virgin Media. In exchange for access to various public fixtures, Virgin Media's outfitting Birmingham with free WiFi access; the benefit is two-fold, though, as Birmingham residents will ultimately enjoy better mobile infrastructure. The network's set to go live "by September," so set your clocks for just a month or so from now for that congregation.

[Image credit: 'brianac37']

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Source: Birmingham City Council

GOWEX now beaming free WiFi to San Francisco from 450 smart zones

Gowex beams WiFi to San Francisco from 450 smart zones

Starting today, San Francisco residents will have something else to brag about besides their quality of life and hosting tech extravaganzas: free WiFi. The silicon valley hub joins New York and parts of France in receiving the service from provider GOWEX, which is now live in districts like Union Square and Marina thanks to 450 smart WiFi zones. As with the Big Apple, residents and tourists will see download speeds up to 1Mbps, while GOWEX will see dollars from carriers (via network offloading) and advertisers in return. To use it, you'll need to download the free iOS or Android apps from their respective stores -- which we might just do ourselves, considering a certain little developer's conference in town at the moment.

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O2 customers get free pass on Virgin Media’s tube WiFi, last 12 stations go online this week

O2 customers get free pass on Virgin Media's tube WiFi, 12 more stations go online this week

Unless you're a Virgin Media, EE or Vodafone customer, you've either been shelling out for subterranean internet, or bid the London Underground's WiFi network a solemn farewell when free access ended in January. If you're with O2, however, your free pass has now been reinstated, as the bubble-loving carrier has become the latest passenger riding on Virgin Media's tube hotspots -- O2 WiFi users will even find themselves automatically registered. Also, the underground network will shortly be meeting its 120-station target, as Virgin will be flipping switches at the final 12 locations throughout this week (the station list is available at the source link). So, should you start seeing more people in more places frantically hammering their smartphones during those 30-second pauses on the platform, you'll know why.

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Source: Virgin Media

BlackBerry Z10 users can Gogo to Delta for free in-flight WiFi

BlackBerry Z10 users can Gogo to Delta for free inflight WiFi

Dangling WiFi-carrot meet your BlackBerry-made stick: the Z10. Perhaps because its user base has traditionally courted strong enterprise support -- a lot that typically overlaps with the jet set -- BlackBerry's offering an incentive to adopters of its BB 10 pearl, granting gratis Gogo-powered internet access for all domestic Delta flights. The best part? Latching onto that free WiFi is as simple as logging in and firing up the browser on your Z10 when it's "safe to use your electronic devices." Will this tip your hand and get you to switch to BB 10? Probably not, but it's the sort of pot sweetening that should keep BlackBerry's (moneyed) customers around for the long-haul.

[Thanks, Jared]

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Source: BlackBerry

GOWEX turns on free WiFi network in New York City, curbs coffee-shop hopping

GOMEX turns on free WiFi network in New York City, curbs coffee-shop hopping

The Big Apple already has a candy coating of free WiFi, between permanent providers, transient offers, and the million coffee shops (et al) with a router inside. If there were any dead zones left in the city, GOWEX probably has them covered, with its 1,953 free WiFi hotspots now live throughout Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Repeat: this isn't a plan, the network is up and running right now. Each connection gets 1Mb of bandwidth, and you can jump on access points with GOWEX's app (also free) for iOS and Android, which also hosts content like a hotspot map and other city-specific info not related to WiFi. The company has other major cities in the US on its to-do list, and expects to bring free internets to two additional locales during 2013. Not that it matters to users, but GOWEX ain't doing this for fun -- it'll be profiting from advertising, its "Smart City services," and charging carriers for lightening traffic on their data networks. Who needs a data plan, anyway? It'll soon be impossible to find anywhere in NYC without a free WiFi hotspot, or seven.

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Source: GOMEX