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Howdy, I'm MG Siegler. I’m a general partner at CrunchFund and a columnist for TechCrunch. This is where I collect things.

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No Map, Indeed

Remember last November when, out of the kindness of their hearts, Google started allowing people to opt-out of wireless access point collection? All you had to do was append “_nomap” to the end of your SSID.

It was such a seamless and elegant solution. Surely, everyone started doing it, right?

I’m with Jason Irwin — I haven’t seen a single “_nomap” SSID in all the places I’ve been in the past six months. Not one. I doubt anyone has.

I initially joked that usage would be .01 percent of the 10 percent that actually understand what to do. I’m pretty sure it’s actually far less than that.

The point, six months later, remains the same: this was a total dickbag move on Google’s behalf. It’s not the collection of the SSIDs (which others, including Apple, do as well) that’s so bad. It’s the notion that Google was giving everyone a choice with their opt-out. It was a false choice. No one was ever going to opt-out — certainly not the way Google implemented it. 

Tags tech google wifi

“Greater Choice”

Late last night, I linked to a blog post Google put up and jotted down some initial thoughts. Given the response (thousands of views, 100+ notes, etc.), I thought it was only fair that I elaborate a bit.

Google’s post is entitled “Greater choice for wireless access point owners”. It outlines new opt-out functionality for Google’s location database. I ripped into the post — as did several others — not so much because of the feature itself, but because the post is misguided and disingenuous. In my view, it is probably the worst post Google has ever put on their blog. And that’s saying something. 

First of all, this is a post that should not have been written — at least not in the way that it was. Google is building their location database using WiFi hotspots, likely including yours if you broadcast your SSID (your router’s name). Apple does the same thing. So does Skyhook (which is suing Google for ditching their location database to build their own). So do others. It’s a good idea. And it makes locations services much better.

…More

Tags google location tech wifi on

You mentioned that you bought a Kindle Touch. Did you go with the 3G model? Just curious..

Asked by Anonymous

Nah. I have a 3G Kindle right now (2nd generation), I rarely use the 3G — just to download new books and sync occasionally. And I only ever use it because that device didn’t have an option for WiFi at the time. 

Paying an extra $50 for 3G seems silly (though it is a good deal if you’re going to use it a ton since there is no monthly fee, obviously). The bigger issue though is that 3G drains battery life much quicker. That’s the big reason I turn it off by default on my current model. 

Tags tech kindle kindle touch amazon 3g wifi

You Want Me To Do What To My What?

How nice, Google is allowing you to opt out of having your wireless access point (read: your wireless router) included in their Google Location Server (read: their giant location database). All you have to do is append “_nomap.” to the end of your SSID.

That’s great — 99% of the people who will want to do this will have absolutely no idea what any of the above paragraph means. 

I mean, this entire post is a joke, right?

Please tell me this is a joke. 

Tags tech google wifi jackassery

adwriter:

CoffeeCompany WiFi headlines.

Holland’s largest chain of coffee shops is called CoffeCompany. They wanted to attract more students, so they installed WiFi in some of its stores near universities. The problem is, lots of students just come into the store for the WiFi but hardly look at the menu.

So CoffeeCompany decided to move the store’s menu into the WiFi menu of customers’ laptops. They periodically changed the wireless network name from the normal “CoffeeCompany” to hard-selling headlines. So as students looked for a network, they found menu lines such as “mmm….YummyMuffinsOnly1,99″

This is beyond awesome.

Tags coffeecompany wifi headlines advertising

Reblogged from ADwriter  Source adwriter

WiFi App

They should really have a separate app for WiFi settings on the iPhone. Especially with folders coming in iPhone 4.0. I hate going into settings each time to get to it (and I hate the auto pop up notifications more).

Tags iphone wifi