the number of apple laptops at public wifi hotspots

[astroglide]

is grossly disproportionate to apple's market share. i swear to god more than 60% of the laptops i see at panera bread are ibooks or powermacs. and the person has some kind of 'i'm...so...CASUAL!' look on their face. on the table there's always some unopened book, some gay seasonal accessory (which would be a scarf right now), and they're just sitting there sipping their diet coke while they look at an instant messenger buddy list (not a chat window). i seriously want to kill these fuckers.

it makes me begin to question if the advertising is actually modeling the users instead of the users modeling the advertising.

[chaas4747]

Quite possibly the best description of someone who would by and apple product I have ever heard.

VNH

[Voltron87]

I remember the old Apple commercials that basically gave the message "you're fighting the system", alluding to 1984, by buying Apple.

[InchoateHand]

Apt description. Very few people are as self-consciously product-oriented as Apple users. Their marketing team is brilliant. Too bad the computers suck for my purposes.

[MicroBob]

I've noticed similar at my wi-fi hangout (where I am currently actually).

But it's not Panera...it's a non-chain coffee-place which attracts a lot of grad-students for the most part.

I would put the apple ratio closer to 35% around here though....still a fairly high ratio.

Plenty of Dell's to be found though as I glance around.


I think many of the apple users might hang out in the smoking side though...and since I like to breathe I don't feel like going in there to check.


Not quite as much accessorising here...but I'm kind of oblivious to such things much of the time.

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]

diet coke


[/ QUOTE ]

This is the only part i'd disagree with. Around here they would be drinking some kind of starbucks short soy no-foam latte.

[daryn]

what's the deal with those type places? how much do you pay? i want to go hang out at places.

[InchoateHand]

probably 2/3 decaf, just to make the counter person really happy with their bottom-of-the-barrel service industry job.

[OtisTheMarsupial]

Apple make the iPod. Not gay.
The iPod "sock"... well,
that's a question for another day.

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
i want to go hang out at places.

[/ QUOTE ]

Easily Sentence of the Day.

[InchoateHand]

Uhhh free at most spots. Break out your black turtleneck.

A friend lives immediately across the road from a Starbucks. When he leaves for work for the day, he aligns his wifi router directly towards it---giving starbucks customers the choice between paying for a wifi b connection or getting an eminently faster g connection for free. When the world switches to charging for bandwidth, such acts of good sumaritanship will come to an end.

[MicroBob]

starbucks charges (I don't know how much...I don't go there).

The place I hang-out at is no charge (except the cost of an iced-latte for whatever).
There are lots of places that are free.


I think you are in boston so I assume there would be a lot of places catering to the college-crowd.


jiwire.com has a list of wi-fi hotspots and you can filter to just look at the free ones. However...it doesn't have all of them listed...the two places in Memphis I hang-out at are not on the list for example.

But it's handy when travelling....I have 2 or 3 different places I go to when vacationing in New Orleans that I found via jiwire.com


Connectivity can be crappy in some places (too many computers trying to access the signal).


I freaking love it though...take my headphones (because the beeping of the tables helps me avoid missing a turn), get all caffeinated and socialize with a few friends I'll bump into.
Sit outside on the deck when the weather is nice (it was just barely too chilly for me to do it today).


If you see a coffee place with a bunch of people on laptops then chances are it's a Wi-Fi hot-spot and there's a reasonable chance that there's no charge for the connection.


Now....if only it was easier to bring my external monitor with me so that I could 6-8 table (although I suspect that would draw some attention).

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
When he leaves for work for the day, he aligns his wifi router directly towards it---giving starbucks customers the choice between paying for a wifi b connection or getting an eminently faster g connection for free

[/ QUOTE ]


That is freaking awesome!!
I wonder what percentage of the Starbucks customers take advantage of the free signal (obviously there will be some customers who pay for the signal before realizing there is another option).

Starbucks sucks for charging for their signal btw.
I hate them.

CC's coffee is a similar mini-chain in New Orleans and their signal is free.


Almost all of the privately owned places I know of are free.
Usually the owner just decides to splurge for $60/mth or whatever and set-up a high-speed connection in their place and don't even advertise it or anything. They just decide to set up a signal because they realize it's kinda popular.
no big deal.


[ QUOTE ]
Break out your black turtleneck.

[/ QUOTE ]


(snaps fingers in pseudo-beatnik mock approval)

[Duke]

Let's start a flame war as to which platform is better.

PartyPoker forces me to use a PC.

Everything else I do that involves a computer is better done with a Mac. Certainly everything I'd do at a coffee shop (web/chat/write/code).

~D

[InchoateHand]

Here in Michigan we have Espresso Royale as the chain, but they have free wifi (and free access computers). All of the locally owned coffee shops also offer it for free--the 30-90 bucks is simply good business, in my opinion.

[Dead]

What's wrong with certain seasonal accessories? I don't think that they're gay.

I happen to like wearing scarves during the winter and I am not gay.

[stabn]

Lets not.

[MicroBob]

Doesn't matter whether you ARE gay or not...if you're a male and wear a scarf you are pretty likely to LOOK gay.