Wireless News

According to Global Secure Systems, Wi-Fi is no longer secure. In fact, the Russian firm now says that by using the processing power of the NVIDIA graphics card to speed up password recovery time to 10,000% for Wi-Fi.

Decryption of WPA and WPA2 systems has been possible for quite some time, but the use of NVIDIA cards to accelerate the process is “extremely worrying” according to GSS. We don’t know how long it took to break the encryption, so it’s hard to say what the real threat is.

However, I could see how this would be a real problem for those that rely on wireless networking for doing business.

Starbucks Corp. and AT&T Inc. will start offering a mix of free and paid wireless Internet service in most of the international coffee retailer’s U.S. shops, beginning this spring.

The move announced Monday ends a six-year partnership with T-Mobile, which did not include free Wi-Fi and charged higher fees than AT&T will.

Starbucks said it will give customers who use a Starbucks card two hours of free wireless access per day. More time than that will cost $3.99 for a two-hour session. Monthly memberships will cost $19.99 and include access to any of AT&T’s 70,000 hot spots worldwide.

Nearly all of AT&T’s broadband Internet customers, about 12 million, will automatically have unlimited free Wi-Fi access at Starbucks, the companies said.

The deal boosts the number of AT&T hotspots in the U.S. to 17,000 – the most in the nation.

”We’re very excited about what we’re doing together to align ourselves with what consumers want,” said Rick Welday, a chief marketing officer for AT&T’s consumer business.

Current T-Mobile HotSpot customers, who pay $6 per hour-long session, $9.99 for a day pass or $39.99 a month for unlimited access, will get Wi-Fi access at no extra charge through an agreement between AT&T and T-Mobile.

Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks’ chief technology officer, would not disclose how many customers use the T-Mobile service in Starbucks stores, but said he expects many more will use the new service. Starbucks will begin rolling it out this spring and aims to have it available in its more than 7,000 company-operated domestic stores by the end of the year.

Robert Toomey, an analyst with E.K. Riley Investments, called the move ”a good first step” for a company that has seen its traffic into U.S. stores decline for two consecutive quarters.

It’s smart for Starbucks to link the new Wi-Fi service to its purchase card, which tens of millions of people use to buy their mochas and lattes, he said.

”I think it’s a double positive for both product sales and traffic,” Toomey said.

Starbucks faced serious pressure to improve its Wi-Fi offering, since many of its competitors, from neighborhood coffee houses to fast-food chains like McDonald’s Corp., already offer it for free or at lower cost than the T-Mobile service, noted Howard Penney, managing director of consumer research at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc.

AT&T, has powered the network service Starbucks uses to run its cash registers and other computer systems for years.

Asked if problems with quality and service reliability were factors in Starbucks’ decision to part with T-Mobile, Bruzzo said no.

”Starbucks was at a place where we were evaluating who our right go-forward partners should be, and as we looked at who could provide that in the best possible way, AT&T continuously came back to the front,” Bruzzo said.

Starbucks’ switch to AT&T is a big blow for T-Mobile, which has nearly 8,900 wireless hotspots in the U.S., most of them in the coffee company’s stores. T-Mobile also offers its subscription wireless service in Borders Books and Music stores, FedEx Kinko’s stores, various hotels, airports and airline clubs.

T-Mobile USA, headquartered in suburban Bellevue, did not immediately return calls for comment.

Last month, AT&T, the nation’s largest telecommunication company, announced plans to make its 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots free to nearly all of its broadband Internet customers.

The move expanded access to include subscribers who have a lower tier of high-speed Internet service, increasing to 12 million the number of broadband customers who can use the hotspots free of charge. Previously, only subscribers to AT&T’s premium broadband service had free access.

”Here we are with the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network,” said AT&T’s Welday. ”Consumer trends are clearly pointing toward an increased need and desire to access broadband outside the home and office – what a terrific opportunity.”

The companies did not disclose financial terms of their deal.

AT&T also is giving Starbucks’ more than 100,000 U.S. employees free wireless accounts and said it will soon extend the Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless phone customers. The company announced no details or time frame for that expansion.

Starbucks offers in-store wireless Internet access in some international markets, including China, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and Mexico. Bruzzo said the company is committed to expanding it, though it has no timetable. He also said Starbucks plans to work toward offering wireless Internet at stores its licensing partners run in airports, shopping malls and the like.

Starbucks shares rose 26 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $18.52, while AT&T shares rose 50 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $36.87.

Eye-Fi is a neat little SD memory card with auto-uploading WiFi capabilities that you can use on any digital camera. The company teamed up with Nikon to extend the functionalities to the newly announced D60.

The D60 will be the world’s first ‘Eye-Fi Connected’ digital camera allowing direct wireless image transfer from the camera to photo sharing sites, laptop or pc.

Eye-Fi is smart enough to “automatically adjust its power timer setting to ensure that photos upload effortlessly for sharing and storing,” when it’s inserted into the D60 or any other Eye-Fi certified digital cameras.