Kyle Wagner - 

The “ultrabook” designation doesn’t mean too too much, since manufacturers constantly look for ways to skirt around Intel’s sorta-arbitrary specs. But just being on Team Intel’s gonna get a few new perks, with its new deal to get all ultrabooks free, automatic, no-login access to 5.6 million Wi-Fi hotspots.

The deal with Devicescape will use a custom DNS query to let ultrabooks log in without going through the whole process. That’ll allow Intel’s autoupdating Smart Connect tech to, say, refresh your email or RSS or Twitter feed while you’re at a coffee shop, without ever taking your laptop out of your bag. Pretty cool!

The tech will require Devicescape’s software to be preloaded on the ultrabooks themselves, and there are certainly some security concerns if your computer is going to be autoconnecting to a bunch of strange networks. But the networks, at least, will presumably be monitored by Devicescape, and you can always turn the feature off if it creeps you out too much. [Reg Hardware]