Boingo and Samsung team up for a WiFi enabled camera – and you can win one!

Two of my favorite technology firms have teamed up to bring travelers a new product – the Samsung CL80 digital camera. This innovative camera features built in WiFi, and can wirelessly transfer your photos any time it is in range of a Boingo WiFi hotspot. To celebrate the launch, Boingo is giving away four of these cameras, worth $399 each.

The CL80 shoots photos in 14.2 megapixels and features a 7x optical zoom, 3.7″ AMOLED touchscreen, face detection and HD movie recording.

Boingo should not require an introduction, but if you’ve never heard of them, all you need to know is that a Boingo account lets you connect to thousands of WiFi hotspots all around the world, for a single monthly fee.

During a summer vacation, a Boingo account can earn itself back in one day – especially in hotels that still dare charge upwards of $25 for a day-pass.

To enter the Boingo contest, you’ll need to share one of your favorite photos in one of four categories – Boingo Hotspot, Travel, Technology and Happiness. To add a photo, head on over to the Boingo contest gallery and click add photo. The contest description and rules can be found here. And while you are sorting through your best photos, don’t forget to enter the Gadling summer photo contest, presented by Tamrac.

Boingo Wi-Fi Credits for the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad offers connectivity on the go

Boingo just released a new app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad – their second application for the platform. In this newly released app, you can purchase Wi-Fi connectivity credits on the go – using your App store credits or stored payment method. Credits are good for a single hour of access.

Credits can be purchased in blocks of one, or ten (with a buy ten get one free promo). Best of all, the app comes with one free credit.

By linking the Wi-Fi credit purchase with your existing app store payment method, you won’t need to reach for a credit card or worry about having to enter a new payment method on the road. Credits are just treated as an in-app purchase, like many other add-ons for App store purchases.The application manages the purchases, and also acts as a hotspot finder.

The new Boingo Wi-Fi credits app can be found in the App store. If you plan to use Boingo more than a couple of hours a month, you’ll be better off with their smartphone plan – which offers unlimited worldwide access for just $7.95/month.

Boingo introduces Blackberry connection app and $7.95 global Wi-Fi plan

Boingo is no stranger here on Gadling – the Wi-Fi company was one of our top 25 best travel products of 2008, and they are continuously making Wi-Fi on the road easier to use.

Yesterday, Boingo announced a new plan specifically for Blackberry users. For just $7.95/month, customers with a Blackberry Curve 8320, Curve 8900 or Bold can access any of the 100,000+ Boingo Wi-Fi hotspots around the world.

This means you will no longer have to deal with pricey roaming charges or other nasty surprises when you get back home.

To make the connection process easier, Boingo has created a Blackberry connection and authentication application. This program tells you when you are in range of a Boingo hotspot, and it takes care of the entire login procedure.

You can even sign up for the service through the software, or if you prefer, you can enroll on your own PC. The $7.95 plan is only for mobile devices, but this also means anyone with an iPhone, Android powered phone or any other Wi-Fi enabled mobile device can sign up. If you’d prefer to connect using your laptop or netbook, you’ll pay $9.95/month for a US plan, or $59 for a global plan. With hotels regularly charging up to $20/day for Internet access, this can easily be a money saving product.

Steal Boingo wireless by clearing your cookies

If you’ve got time to kill at the airport, wireless can be a life saver. In most terminals, however, wireless isn’t free, and three out of four of the available providers charge an arm and a leg for service. So what’s a cheapskate to do to access his Facebook account without paying through the nose?

Steal wireless, of course. Most people know that if they stand with the proximity of an airline lounge, many of the clubs have unsecured wireless networks. Other open signals can proliferate through the terminal as well, and its not uncommon to see people wandering around the empty halls, holding up notebooks to the sky.

Another way that one can score free wireless comes by using a loophole in the Boingo “sponsored ad” service. Many (not all) Boingo hotspots offer a few minutes free for those willing to jump through a hoop or watch an ad or try out a free service. In JFK’s terminal 8, one can get 20 minutes of free service by trying out Microsoft’s substandard search engine, Bing.

Boingo and your web browser calculate this time using what’s called a cookie, a small thread of data that’s stored on your computer. And cookies, like all security tidbits, are removable. All that you have to do is clear your cookies, reload the Boingo page a few times and reclick the free service ad. In Firefox, it goes like this:

  • Connect to the Boingo hotspot.
  • If you don’t immediately see an ad for sponsored service, reload the page or navigate around a bit on the Boingo website. It’s possible that this market doesn’t have a sponsor, so don’t be disappointed if nothing pops up.
  • Jump through the hoops for free service.
  • Update your Facebook status, Tweet what underpants you’re wearing and stalk your new love interest online.
  • When you run out of time, click Edit|Preferences|Privacy|Show Cookies
  • Ignoring all of your embarassing stored cookies, navigate down to “boingo.aero” or anything with boingo in it.
  • Click “Remove Cookies”
  • Reload the Boingo connection page. If necessary, disconnect from the wifi network and reconnect.
  • Repeat

Easy as pie, and before you know it, it’ll be boarding time. Happy browsing!

Daily Deal – Half price unlimited Wi-Fi access from Boingo

My deal of the day today is a way to get more than half off unlimited nationwide access to the Boingo Wi-Fi service.

With Boingo, you can access wireless hotspots from iBahn, T-mobile, AT&T, Wayport and Sprint. With unlimited access to these services, you’ll be able to get online from virtually every paid hotspot location in the country, including McDonalds®, Starbucks®, Barnes & Noble® and most hotel chains and airports.

The Boingo unlimited service normally costs $21.95 a month, but with this deal, you’ll be able to signup for just $9.95 a month. This rate is not a promotional rate, so it stays this low as long as you are with Boingo.

Many airports charge for Wi-Fi access, so if you have been a regular user of these services, you’ll easily earn that $9.95 back. The deal is also quite attractive for people currently subscribing to other Wi-Fi providers. The T-Mobile hotspot service is $19.95 per month, but since it is included in the Boingo unlimited package, you can see why it would make sense to pick Boingo instead.

To learn more about Boingo, and the locations they offer their service follow this link. A more comprehensive hotspot search site can be found at JiWire where you will also find an iPhone version of their search engine.

To signup, follow this link or go through their normal sign up procedure and use code UNL01090USD0 in the promotional code field.

Source: Flyertalk.com