Fortunately, for everyone (Android and iDevice), 802.11u, aka "Hotspot 2.0" neatly solves the problem by doing away with c(r)aptive portals.
802.11u is supported today on some Android phones, and has been (yes,publicly) announced for iOS 7.
Good to hear. Our long nightmare will finally end someday.
Re:Starbucks’ WiFi goes Google
by alexeisadeski3 on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @09:01PM
(#6137943)
It's likely going to get much, much worse. Try to sign in to Starbucks wifi in Italy & much of continental Europe.
That's the future, sadly - Italy for one requires you to register with your passport or other ID in order to access free wiki. It's an anti terrorism measure. Every hotel you stay at requires you to sign on individually, in a manner connected to you personally, every single time.
Holy cow! Seriously? You cannot use the internet, at all, without it being tied to a real-life ID?
Wow... you're the Friday Q&A Mike Ask. Aloha!
Fortunately, iOS itself is smart enough to notice when your network has a login page like that, and will display that page on-screen automatically so you can click through it. Not as smooth as that Android app (which I'm now jealous of), but at least things don't invisibly fail until you figure out what's going on.