Coming soon to a hotspot near you

Glenn Fleishman of Wi-Fi Networking News has the scoop on Apple's new Wi-Fi-enabled iPod Touch, as well as a couple of things I personally find even more intriguing-a Wi-Fi-only version of the iTunes Music Store, and a somewhat curious marketing arrangement with Starbucks. Bring your wiPod (or laptop with iTunes installed) into one of their stores once this is up and running and you can not only connect to their T-Mobile network for free, but you can buy whatever song they happen to be playing at the moment, or browse through the last ten they've played, as well as make a regular iTunes purchase.

It isn't clear if the free access will extend beyond iTunes, but my guess is it won't. I'm baffled as to how Starbucks has survived this long-let alone been so successful-as play-for-pay. I can't imagine anything worse they could do to alienate their obviously loyal customers than to give something away for free to Johnny-come-latelies that their more established clientele is still asked to pay for.

The best hope, of course, is that this could prod Starbucks' management to finally turn the page on the calendar, say "sayonara" to T-Mobile (or, perhaps more appropriately, "auf Wiedersehen," since they're a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom) and join the "free" world.

And it'll be interesting to see whether the wiPod, if it really takes off, will have any social effects on wireless Internet and how we use it. Since you won't need a computer to load content onto a wiPod, how will the issue of parental control be addressed? Will there be pressure on operators of open hotspots-like public libraries-to block access to iTunes, or will this fall on Apple? And since five will get you ten that the porn peddlers are already gearing up to shovel smut at those few wiPodders who'll be in the market for it, could we eventually see a push for age restrictions on the sale of this and other wireless devices, or mandates that content control mechanisms be incorporated into them?

I also see the potential for some hotspot operators, somewhere down the line, to put the kibosh on filling up your wiPod on their networks should video overtake audio as the preferred content, owing to bandwidth concerns, at least until networking technology catches up.

Then again, this thing could go the way of the Newton. Anyone else out there remember the Newton?

By the way, Fleishman is one of the most insightful writers covering wireless networking technology. Bookmark his site or pick up his RSS feed. He's well worth a daily read.