Amtrak has announced a "major expansion" of its on-board Wi-Fi service, moving it beyond the Acela train and on to a number of more widely used and affordable alternatives. more ›

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority announced today that passengers can now access free wireless internet at both National and Dulles -- the first time since networks were installed at the airports in 2007 that the service will be free for everyone, regardless of whether or not they have a subscription to a major wireless carrier. more ›

Acela Express trains are now offering free wireless internet service, Amtrak announced today. The service, dubbed AmtrakConnect, is in place on all 20 high-speed Acela trains, in addition to the six major stations along the Northeast Corridor (Union Station, Baltimore Penn Station, Philadelphia 30th Street Station, New York Penn Station, Providence Station and Route 128 Station in Boston), and in ClubAcela lounges. Both Business and First class passengers will be able to use the service on Acela. Officials say AmtrakConnect will remain free of charge "during the introductory period, after which the policy will be reviewed based on customer demand and system performance."
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Google announced today that it will provide free wireless internet access at 47 U.S. airports and on all Virgin America flights for the holiday season. Starting now through January 15, anyone should be able to log on to free Google WiFi at BWI, which is the only local airport included in the program. You can find the complete list of participating airports here. Naturally, Google says it plans to use the free service as a means to advertise its products, like iGoogle and Google Chrome, to potential new customers. Still, paying that extra $9.99 for a day pass for internet access at most local airports is a huge drag, so until every airport starts offering it for free, all the time, we'll take what we can get. more ›

Good morning, Washington. If for some reason you still haven't caught the D.C. United fever, there's yet another reason for you to get behind our city's best professional sports team: last night, Jaime Moreno broke the Major League Soccer scoring record with 109 career goals. As always, our United team of Matt and Kyle will have a full post on the game later on, but here's the United's coverage while you wait (in case... more ›

Good morning, Washington. We've just been catching up on the rather scary looking but thankfully not terror-related explosion in Manhattan yesterday. Naturally, our parent site Gothamist has complete coverage of the steam explosion that occurred on East 41st and Lexington Avenue (41st between Lex and Third) just before 6 p.m. yesterday. Unsurprisingly, the explosion, which killed one person and injured 30, had New Yorkers worried for a while, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said... more ›

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an ideal... more ›

They may be short on books, under-staffed, and generally depressing, but the District's public libraries are now all Wi-Fi hotspots. In late May the Georgetown branch announced it was the first public library in the city to offer free Wi-Fi, and now the remaining 20 branches and Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library will similarly do so. The District's Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the D.C. Public Library's Information and Telecommunications Office worked... more ›

The Labor Day weekend is just around the corner, and with summer vacation heaving its last gasp, we've got slim pickings as far as area author events go. MONDAY Jennifer Egan's latest novel, The Keep, blends meta-fiction, intimations of revenge, high-tech weirdness and claustrophobic creeps in a story of two cousins who reunite in Eastern Europe to refurbish an ancient castle. One of the characters in the book can apparently detect the presence of Wi-Fi... more ›

The Smithsonian Insititution announced Monday that it will install a Common Wireless Access System in phases over the next two years, a step which means both free wireless Internet and improved mobile phone reception in and around their museums. more ›

Sometimes The Onion is scarily prescient. Just yesterday I was browsing through the site on a whim and got a chuckle out of this story, titled "Verizon Introduces New Charge-You-At-Whim Plan". Then, while browsing through the local news, I came across WTOP's story about a new surcharge that Verizon is about to introduce. The stories even carry the same date. Like I said: scarily prescient. But enough Onion-admiration; let's move on to the Verizon-bashing. The... more ›

Happy Wednesday, Washington. Sadly, there's even more crime to report this morning, and yes, you guessed it, more rain — though after the record high temperatures we've experienced earlier this week, we dare say we wouldn't mind some more of those scattered thunderstorms predicted for the metro area — the high will 88° today, with a 40% chance of strong showers hitting this afternoon. Cooler temperatures will be a welcome relief after yesterday's first Code... more ›

The District's public library system may be bad enough that the person tapped to lead it will be paid more than the mayor, but at least it's moving into the 21st century. more ›

More on the church parking issue, you say? Today we find the Washington Times reporting that some Logan Circle residents are fuming at what they see as a concession to the neighborhood's powerful churches, a day after D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams put off enforcement measures and instead appointed a taskforce to study the matter. After close to a year of complaints, city officials promised to start enforcing the city's double-parking laws on Sunday, going... more ›

The weekly Ist wrap-up is written by Seattlest editor Dan Gonsiorowski. Torontoist throws down the gauntlet and challenges all comers: pillow fight, bitch. They also stand up for a fellow blogger taking heat from the TTC and welcome city-wide WiFi. SFist can finally admit it: It's possible that Bary Bonds juiced. Is Bay Area artist (tempted to put quotes around that) Thomas Kinkaid "kinda crappy" or "explosively crappy" or does he just like marking territory?... more ›

We've spent time talking about how great it would be if D.C. was a little more free WiFi-friendly than it is -- and thankfully, it soon may be. The Post is reporting this morning that D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams has asked companies to start bidding on a contract to build a free wireless internet network that would cover the majority of the city, including often underserved poorer neighborhoods. The network could become operational in... more ›

Leave it to community activists Dorothy Brizill and Gary Imhoff to come up with ideas for D.C. while on vacation. After returning from a European vacation last week, Imhoff wrote in his introduction to DC Watch's regular email newsletter about a surprising discovery the two had while on the Portuguese island of Madeira -- the small island was totally covered by a public and free wireless internet system. A number of local municipalities have built... more ›

Okay, so D.C. may not be very sexy, but we certainly are wired. Our streets, cafes, and metro cars are replete with Blackberries, WiFi, iPods, and countless other icons of 21st century high-tech culture. While such electronic services and devices may have the ability to both enrich our lives and boost our productivity, let us never forget that behind any scientific or technological advance is the ever-present promise of profit. Steve Jobs may be a... more ›

Photo of a member of the NatPack taken by Matthew Bradley posted in DCist photos Man Gets Life in Col. Brooks Murders: The Baltimore man found guilty in the triple homicide at Brookland's Colonel Brooks Tavern has been given a life sentence by a jury, the Post reports. Any Old Town Bloggers? The Post reports that the city of Alexandria has now started to offer free WiFi in a zone that centers on King Street... more ›

A faithful DCist tipster sends us this camera phone image from the 24th Street Barnes and Noble in Billings, Mont. While no other national newspapers aside from USA Today and The Wall Street Journal have seemed to have made their way into south central Montana, just below Shotgun News is ... The Washington Times. more ›

For those who had today off of work, we hope you enjoyed a relaxing three-day weekend. If you're getting back to the swing of things, here's what you may have missed on DCist over the past weekend. Here's a photo of the Key Bridge taken from the 36th Street/Exorcist stairs in Georgetown. more ›

Popular Adams Morgan coffee shop/bar Tryst is planning to turn off their free WiFi at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. We noticed the news on local blog prod & ponder, who thought it was "really disturbing" and even called to double check. more ›

DCist wandered into Common Grounds in Arlington yesterday only to discover it will be our last lazy afternoon spent lounging in the garage-sale chic coffee house in its current incarnation. At 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the five-year old Arlington establishment will be reborn as murky coffee arlington, sibling to the coffee house of the same name in Eastern Market. more ›

An exhibit by local photographer Louis Gomez opens this Thursday at Candida's World of Books near Logan Circle. The exhibit, titled "Cities," features photos from "Amsterdam, Chicago, Havana, Madrid, Prague, Santiago, Sydney and others" including presumably Washington, D.C. It opens tomorrow night with a party at the bookstore at 7:00 p.m. more ›