I hate this. All the electronic waste, batteries and whatnot for a 15 day trial. I hope such a thing wouldn't be allowed in EU with the stricter waste laws
We all knew that as the cost and size of hardware decreases, in the future we would have computing and connectivity everywhere. What I never expected is that computing and connectivity would come hand-in-hand with <i>advertising everywhere</i>.<p>Today it's a magazine ad with 15 days of sponsored WiFi. At the rate we're going, it's only a matter of time before we have Free Happy Meals with hallucinatory ad-sponsored connectivity delivered over the network straight to the visual cortex.<p>--<p>Edit: corrected "15 minutes" to "15 days," which is what I actually meant to type. Thanks JimmaDaRustla!
A few months ago there was a full Android phone in a magazine:<p><a href="http://www.geek.com/mobile/fully-functional-android-phone-embedded-in-entertainment-weekly-1520099/" rel="nofollow">http://www.geek.com/mobile/fully-functional-android-phone-em...</a>
This is just a copy of the lame "cellphone in a magazine" stunt that happened not too long ago. Read the article closely and you'll notice that it says <i>"a number"</i> of magazines have this, not all of them. The number is not disclosed, but I'm betting it's very small. This says nothing about cheap ubiquitous hardware, the future of magazine publishing, etc. It's just an expensive publicity stunt.
I can't wait till the day that a magazine comes with a free portable 3D printer to print and redistribute copies of the magazine. That'd be a nice publicity stunt for the printer maker.<p>Edit: seriously though, I'd hate to be the unsuspecting subscriber who tries to bring his Forbes issue onto an airplane<p>Edit: if I were Microsoft and I wanted the most bang for the publicity buck, I'd sell these issues exclusively at airport newsstands
There's a glut of these devices on the market right now, someone must have accidentally added a zero to the order (there was a similar rationale for the Android phones included in EW a while back). Amazon used to have the Overdrive Pro for $100-250, and it was new a couple years ago.<p>Recently[1], there have been promotions for 500MB/mo free data, if you buy the hotspot for $50. One catch is they tack on $1/mo if you don't use it at all. Apparently the hardware is horrible, with crazy overheating problems; best usage practice is just to remove the battery and run from USB. You can get them attached to all sorts of carriers, but this one is Sprint; I figured it was worth a try.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.freedompop.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.freedompop.com</a> -- beware affiliate links
They seem to have neglected to mention how many copies got this treatment. That would be interesting to know.<p>Next month: A free car with your print magazine*<p>*selected subscribers only
This is perhaps one of the most awesome publicity stunts I've ever seen.
I wonder if this type of tactic is going to catch on. Can you imagine if each copy of Wired shipped with 30 days of free wi-fi? Their subscriber count would shoot through the roof!
Doesn't the magazine make a pretty poor enclosure for the electronics inside? I feel like people generally consider magazines to be disposable and mistreat them but it doesn't seem like a good idea to do that to what looks like a Li-poly battery.
Very clever, but I hope there is a way to make use of the electronics after the time when Microsoft wants to pay for the data have passed. Our ecosystem cannot sustain this short product life-cycles.
I take issue with the definition of "15 days free internet."
I happen to own one of T-Mobile's "4G" mobile hotspots, and I pay $50 for a whopping 5 GB of data.
The "Data Pass" I purchase from Team Mo' Bull is good for 2 months...
As if anyone on today's internet could make 5 GB of data last 60 days!???
If I'm not careful I can go through 5 GB data in 72 hours.
Thus, if a consumer with one of these magazine WiFi hotpots were to use, say 20 GB data in 15 days, will overage charges apply?
I think a better marketing gimmick would be to distribute these things to villages in impoverished nations and then to show the villagers logging into office 360. "If rice farmer mi ling from this is rural chinese village can use 360 out of the office, so can you!".<p>It would be great for the recipients as well, especially if lasted longer than 15 days.