Although I like this idea, I worry about the attack vectors that might open up. If stealing session cookies doesn't even require a manual connection any more, the reward rate for such an attack becomes much higher.

That being said, I don't think those concerns are an indication that this technology is bad. It is an indication that security practices around free and open WiFi networks needs to be improved.

It is likely that this technology will be available before we see any real improvements to that sort of security, so hopefully the system would be easy to configure/turn off and would use sensible defaults to ensure it minimises risk.

EDIT: edited for clarity/grammar

Really this is more like a feature to help you choose which AP to use when you can see more than one open AP at a time. But it doesn't provide any APs that aren't already open.

First comment on article:

"Would this be hardware-based or software-based? As in, what if I put Linux on my ultrabook, can I still avail of this feature?"

Connects automatically when in range of any supported network even when device is in sleep mode. What a wonderful way to needlessly drain your battery.

If your device is asleep during your commute, do you really expect it to have any charge left after driving through downtown and connecting to two dozen wifi networks?

Sounds like more Windows malware to me.

Worse than the battery life implications are the security implications. I do not ever want to connect to some random, sniffed wifi network and have automatically all my data pulled to my notebook.

However, as you will most certainly be able to disable that feature, I think it is a great addition, since there seems to be no downside. If you do not like it, do not install it :)

But is it opt-in or opt-out? It is import to not introduce insecure defaults.

who said it was running windows? intel is not only windows, could be a linux machine as well, couldn't it?

I would expect any machine in sleep mode that is eyeing out for wifi networks to last considerably longer than my commute. Though I'm surprised they are able to keep searching for wifi while in sleep mode.