In a recent deal, not only will Starbucks being servering up coffee, but they will also be providing their customers with Wi-Fi access.
The coffee giants have done a deal with BT to provide around 650 starbucks coffee shops across the UK and Ireland with Wi-Fi access and the ability to ’surf the web, email and make VoIP calls‘.
The partnership will include O2’s iPhone customers, who are already benefitting from the new Skype app.
The idea came about after it became clear that the number of people using BT’s Wi-Fi doubled last year and the popularity of being able to work or log onto the internet in a coffee shop became apparent.
Read more about this at Brand Rebublic
Last month iPhone users were able to download a Skype application from iTunes.
Users who have downloaded the new app from Apple will not be able to make calls over 3G connections and will not have all of the functionality offered by alternative Skype clients, so many have asked why have they bothered?
The news was announced at the CTIA – The Wireless Association – the iPhone application will allow users to make free calls to other Skype users and will provide them with cheaper calls using SkypeOut, but one of the users will have to be connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Although many industry bods have said that this is a great step and development, other functionality such as text messaging, file transfer and integrated voicemail are still missing. You also cannot pay for the additional Skype services in the usual way and instead have to go through iTunes, which seems a rather cumbersome way around the issue.
The iPhone is not able to run more than one application at once, which will make multi-functional applications like Fring and NimBuzz a lot more popular as these use multiple messaging and VoIP networks, including Skype.
There is much discussion around Skype and the iPhone, which seems to be advancing all of the time. Read more about this at The Register.
