So, this morning for the first time I went online at a Starbucks hotspot. My car was in for an oil change, and I was on Park Street in Alameda. I was lucky in that my employer has an account with T-Mobile so I could get online for free (I was checking my work email after all). That got me thinking about free hotspots (not to mention the possibility of better cofee).

Tonight, I found a website that lists free hotspots in California. It also has some links to other places with lists, and a weblog for news about new sites coming online.

Interestingly, I noticed that there is a coffee shop on Park Street with free access (though I think that the name in the list is wrong – I suspect they mean JavaRama and not Jumpin’ Java). In addition to that, I noticed that the Pacific Coast Brewery in Oakland offers free WiFi, so it seems that WiFi is coming to bars here in the US as well as the pubs back home in the UK.

By the way, the site with the California list also maintains lists for other states, so if you’re somewhere else in the US check out your state too. If you’re reading this from outside the US, and you know of a good site that lists free WiFi in your country please leave a comment with the URL.