Skype is providing the service in the city from noon on 12/31 until noon on 01/01.

“New Year’s Eve revelers celebrating within the areas covered by Skype WiFi partner Towerstream’s network can say Happy New Year to loved ones via a Skype video call or voice call with free Skype WiFi,” says Skype’s Linda Summers.

Neighborhoods within the network include:

- Times Square
- West Village
- East Village
- South Village
- Greenwich Village
- NoHo
- SoHo
- Lower East Side
- Clinton
- Chelsea
- Union Square
- Midtown
- Midtown South
- Murray Hill
- Stuyvesant Park
- Turtle Bay

“Just connect to the ‘Skype WiFi’ hotspot on your device WiFi settings,” says Summers. “Make sure you have the latest version of Skype installed on your Windows or Mac device, or the Skype WiFi app on iOS and follow the prompts. Once connected with Skype WiFi, you can make a Skype video or voice call, surf the web, send an email, check your friend’s updates or hang out online. Enjoy.”

Again, Skype is encouraging users to tweet with the hashtag #freeskypewifi while they’re using it.

“Travelers passing through or delayed in over 50 airports across the country,” Skype’s Shadi Mahassel says, “will be able to access third-party hotspots using Skype WiFi and connect with loved ones via a Skype video or voice call for free.”

Here’s a look at the locations:

Included are airports in: Spokane, Portland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Monterey, Burbank, Scottsdale, Juneau, Billings, Jackson Hole, Denver, Aspen, Durango, El Paso, Austin, Houston, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Des Moines, St. Louis, Memphis, Birmingham, Atlanta, Miami, Louisville, Indianapolis, Chicago, South Bend, Kalamazoo, Mosinee (Central Wisconsin Airport), Detroit, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Albany, New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Norfolk, Newport News, and more.

Mouseover the Skype logos to see all cities.

“The holidays are all about connecting with those you love,” says Mahassel. “Skype is excited to help you maintain these meaningful connections wherever you may be this holiday season. A voice or video call via Skype when you can’t be together for the holidays is the next best thing to being there.”

While you’re using your free Skype WiFi, Skype is asking users to tweet about their experience using the #freeskypewifi hashtag.

That is, you’re going to have to pay for pretty much every little capability the iPhone has, including using your phone as an Internet hotspot.

According to TGDaily.com, Verizon is going to charge would-be hotspot users $20 a month for this “tethering” capability.  The additional charge, of course, is not included in the unlimited data package that’s required of all Verizon iPhone users.

So yeah, $30 for the data plan and $20 for the ability to be used as a hotspot already puts the customer up to $50 a month, and we haven’t even discussed the charges stemming from the phone usage plan.

It should be noted, Verizon already uses this same charge for Android phone users, so the news shouldn’t come as a surprise… But then again, one wonders what, exactly, is covered by the unlimited data plan.  Clearly, Verizon is making a distinction between the two, and charging would-be users accordingly.

TGDaily has more:

Naturally, anything over 2 gigs of data usage will also be issued an overage charge by Verizon.

$30 for unlimited data and $20 for limited data as a hotspot.  Again, the term “they get you coming and going” feels quite apt when discussing Verizon’s iPhone service.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-CA, chair of the Intelligence Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee and former member of the Intelligence Committee has at least one wireless network in her Washington, D.C., home that could have been breached by Google.

The consumer group has written Harman and 18 other members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee whose homes are pictured on Google’s Street View which suggest their WiFi networks were scanned, and called for immediate hearings.

"This is the most massive example of wire tapping in American history and even members of Congress do not appear to be immune," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, which published the results on its InsideGoogle.com website.

"Whether it’s compromising government secrets or our personal financial information, Google’s unprecedented WiSpying threatens the security of the American people and Congress owes Americans action."

Over the last week, to gauge the potential threat posed by Google’s WiFi activities, the nonpartisan, nonprofit public interest group "sniffed" some Congress members’ networks to see if they were vulnerable to the Internet giant, but avoided gathering any communications. The investigation focused on a handful of members of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Internet issues.

Of the five residences the consumer group checked, one, Harman’s, had a clearly identifiable and vulnerable network. The other four residences had vulnerable networks in the area that may belong to the members of Congress.

Besides Harman’s unencrypted network, Consumer Watchdog found vulnerable networks near the Washington residences of Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA; Ed Markey, D-MA; John Dingell, D-MI and Rick Boucher, D-VA that could have been breached by Google. The networks could not be definitively tied to the Congressmen’s residences, however.

"It’s clear there are members of Congress whose networks could have been breached," said John M. Simpson, consumer advocate.

"We call on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold hearings and demand answers about exactly what information Google has in its servers. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt should testify under oath."
 

The first part of this plan will go into effect on July 1st.  Starbucks has promised that, starting that Thursday, there will be easy-to-access WiFi with no strings attached.  Forget about hourly beverage purchases, obtaining a Starbucks card, or facing a time limit, in other words.

The Starbucks Digital Network will follow later, launching sometime this fall.  It sounds impressive, too, with some genuine perks available to balance out whatever promotional stuff is also present.

An official announcement on the subject indicated, "This online experience . . . will be unique in its content offerings, allowing customers free unrestricted access to various paid sites and services such as wsj.com, exclusive content and previews, free downloads, local community news and activities, on their laptops, tablets or smart phones."

Yahoo’s last (and still ongoing) big to-do involving free WiFi benefited visitors to New York’s Times Square.

The suit is focused on the collection and storage of WiFi information by Google’s Street View team. The suit alleges Google had covert packet sniffing WiFi receivers to help gather data on WiFi users. The suit says the practice is in violation of both federal privacy laws and Massachusetts’s new data privacy law.

Google has admitted it did collect basic WiFi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using its Street View cars. Google says the collection of private data from WiFi networks was unintentional.

"Google had no reason to collect WiFi information, despite their rationale that they had not used the information and that the ‘payload data’ they collected was only network information available to anyone," said Robert Carp of Carp Law Offices.

"It is our client’s belief and the belief of the class action members that the data they extracted was private information, and they have violated both Federal and Massachusetts state privacy laws."

The complaint asks for class action certification, and for an injunction to prevent Google from destroying any of the data that could be used for evidence in a class action trial in Federal court.

Google says it has stopped its Street View cars from collecting any WiFi network data and it also has introduced SSL encryption on its search engine.
 

Alex Stamos, a partner at a security consulting firm called iSEC Partners, confirmed the first part of this story.  In a letter provided by Google, he wrote, "Before my arrival, Google staff had consolidated the wi-fi packet captures onto four hard drives. . . .  Upon my acquisition of the drives from Google staff, I noted that the hard drives had been stored in a secure manner within a secure portion of the facility."

Next, Stamos stated, "I created two new encrypted volumes on separate hard drives, and copied over all of the data with the exception of data that was identified as being captured within the Republic of Ireland.  I then witnessed the physical destruction of the four original hard drives."

As for what’s happening with regards to the UK dataset, Charles Arthur reported today that the UK Information Commissioner’s Office has ordered Google to destroy it, and while that might sound severe, it’s actually a good sign for the company.  Consider that the Information Commissioner’s Office might have tried to use the data as evidence in an investigation, or at least asked Google to let its people witness the process.

Of course, it’s looking likely at this point that many independent privacy groups, along with German authorities and the FTC, will not be so quick to forgive Google’s mistake.

The Gogo Monthly Subscription is aimed at frequent fliers and is available for $34.95 each month. Aircell says the service automatically renews each month.

"Building on the strong demand for our existing 30-Day product, frequent flyers are telling us that they want a single pass that provides a seamless and convenient way to stay connected across all Gogo equipped airlines," said Michael Small, Aircell’s President and CEO. 

Users can purchase the Gogo Monthly Subscription via the inflight portal. After registering, users will have Internet access on all Gogo equipped flights. The number of airplanes that are Gogo equipped stands at more than 800.

Gogo Monthly Subscription will initially be available on AirTran Airways, American Airlines, Delta, and Virgin America. Aircell says those airlines have a high percentage of their fleets equipped with Gogo.

Aircell’s goal is to offer airline passengers a variety of pricing options. The company will still offer Gogo passes for single flights starting at $4.95.

Gogo is currently available on all AirTran and Virgin America flights and on some Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta, US Airways and United flights. Later in 2010, Gogo will be available on Alaska Airlines and Continental Airlines.

Are you planning on purchasing an iPad? Let us know.

1.) The Name
Numerous names were being thrown around in the months/weeks leading up to the release (iTablet, iSlate, iPad) but which name was Apple going to choose? I had grown accustomed to referring to the device as the iTablet, I could even see calling it the iSlate… but iPad never seemed quite right. Why would Apple want to name their new product something that sounds so familiar to the iPod? Some people are objecting to the name referring to it as the “iTampon”.

Talk about foresight, this Mad TV iPad skit aired several years ago… and easily became 10x funnier. 

2.) No Multitasking
Are you serious… who thought this was a good idea? How can the iPad even compete with Netbooks if you can’t multitask? This means that if you’re writing a document you can’t listen to music, you can’t have TweetDeck open if you want to check your email, you can only do one thing at a time, which has always been a complaint with the iPhone.

3.) No Camera
Why is there no camera on the iPad, front or back? It’s got a microphone… but no camera. Look at the size of the case that surrounds the screen, there is ample space for a camera. The iPad should’ve at least come with a 3-megapixel camera built in. As it stands, this means no iChat/Skype chat for you. Good move Apple, good move.

4.) Huge Ridiculous Adapters
Want to access your camera or plug in something USB… well there’s an adapter for that, actually 2 separate adapters both excessively huge.

5.) Same Touch Keyboard
The iPad needed to re-revolutionize the keypad for touchscreen devices, make it easier to use. So what did we get… just a larger version of what we already had. It’ll be incredibly hard to type on, unless you’re lying flat with your knees holding the device up, or you buy the iPad Case (essentially a book cover).

BONUS: No Flash (We just couldn’t stop at 5)
Most of us are probably accustomed to Apple devices not being Flash compatible, but if Apple is truly wanting to compete with other Netbooks they need to remedy this. With a larger screen comes more responsibilities, i.e. you can’t just leave gigantic holes in the middle of webpages if you claim it to be "the best web experience you’ve ever had".

The iPad is still in its infancy, so we’re sure that it’ll get better with time. Only time will tell if Apple’s iPad will be a success or an iFlop.

What are some other problems you see with the iPad? Leave us a comment.

"One of the most frequently asked questions from our customers is: ‘Why don’t you have free WiFi at Logan?’ said Thomas J. Kinton Jr., CEO & Executive Director of Massport. "Well, we are pleased to be able to now say ‘We do!’ "

A secure WiFi system was installed through out the airport six years ago at a cost of several million dollars. The charge of $7.95 for the service allowed the investment to be recovered. For the next two years, Massport will continue its partnership with service provider, Advanced Wireless Group, and the free WiFi will be supported by advertising and sponsorship programs.

During the two month period when free WiFi was available as part of a Google sponsorship, use of the network increased nearly six-fold. Users who did not subscribe to a roaming service viewed a Google promotional page be fore accessing the Internet. Under the new system, roaming subscribers will get access and those using the free service will view advertising before accessing the Internet.
 

Related Articles:

>Google And Virgin America To Offer Free WiFi During The Holidays

>American Expands In-Flight Internet Service

>Google Offering Free Wi-Fi In Airports During The Holidays