During my visit to a closeby Starbucks (in bay area, California) days ago, I found something interesting with the t-mobile hotspots in the coffee shop. As usual, my iPhone (1.0.2) automatically finds and hooks up on the t-mobile AP in the store. Since I did not have an account with t-mobile, I did not bother trying the connection.

But my wife picked up my iPhone, opened the GoogleMaps, and it works! It connects and retrieve the maps with no problem at all! And the Stock and Weather work too! It seems the Gmap has used something other than the http to bypass the account checking process. Is it possible to make a browser to do the same thing?

Anyone knows why?

Does the iTMS/Starbucks deal not allow for all iPhones to use Starbucks hotspots? I was under the impression that was part of the deal.

no, i thought it said only "browsing to iTunes mobile music store"

http://www.apple.com/itunes/starbucks/

not all starbucks shops here in california have the t-mobile service so you do not need an account to get ont the internet.. thats just what happend when you went to that starbuks.. i know some stores that you can get on the internet for free, they dont have t-mobile and most of the other stores do have a t-mobile service so u need an account..