I’d like Apple’s promised new Wi-Fi hotspot feature to go one step further

A report over the weekend said that iOS 19 will have a small but useful new feature when using public Wi-Fi hotspots. According to Bloomberg, if we register with any of our Apple devices, then all our other ones will automatically log us in next time. In other words, register for your coffee shop Wi-Fi with your iPhone and you’ll benefit from automatic login on your iPad or Mac on a subsequent visit. That’s great, but I’d love to see Apple go a step further … Back in the very early days of public Wi-Fi hotspots, things were simple. You saw the SSID, connected to it, and were immediately online. Then along came one of the worst inventions in technology: the captive portal. This is a splash screen which automatically pops up when you first connect to a new hotspot. It typically demands your email address and tries to trick you into signing up for spam by including a consent checkbox above or below the mandatory ‘agree to terms and conditions’ one – and sometimes also demands that you ... Read full article.