This evening while enjoying an over-priced beverage at my local Starbucks, I noticed that I had my iPod touch 2G with me which just happens to have iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 5 loaded on it. Wanting to connect to the internet, I opened up Settings and went to select the AT&T wireless connection that almost all Starbucks have nowadays.

I connected to “attwifi” and then clicked on the blue arrow to see what my IP address was (I wanted to know it for pure geek-reasons) and I noticed something I hadn’t ever seen before – an option to “Auto-Join” the connection from now on. I turned it from Off to On and went back to the Wi-Fi Networks selection screen and tapped the Home button to get back to my Home screen.

Almost immediately, an AT&T “Log In” screen popped up on it’s own; I didn’t have to open Safari, Mail, or anything else to get that to happen. The familiar AT&T “Get Connected” page loaded which gives you your standard AT&T hotspot connection options. Knowing my username and password, I logged in with my pre-existing account which I normally use with my iPhone 3G when I’m at Starbucks (which does not have OS 3.0 installed on it for what it’s worth). After logging in, The window closed and I was back at my Home screen and sure enough, I was able to check my e-mail and surf the web as usual.

When OS 3.0 is released to the general public and this option is presumably implemented on all iPhone OS 3.0 devices and not just the iPod touch that I used here, I can definitely see this as a very useful feature especially for people who aren’t really technically inclined.

For example, as it stands now, if you want to connect to an AT&T hotspot, you have to manually open Safari and open up any website in order to be re-directed to the “Get Connected” screen and then login from there.

This method has, without doubt, confused some users because if they don’t know to open up Safari in order to actually login after connecting to the hotspot, they are left staring at a spinning wheel in the Mail app that just says “Connecting…” for an infinite amount of time.

The addition of the “Auto-Join” option, which only appears as an option for connections made to AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots, is also a welcomed feature. Assuming that this option will be available on the iPhone, I won’t have to manually turn off Wi-Fi every time I go near a Starbucks, McDonalds, or other location where AT&T has their Wi-Fi blanketing the area; I can just turn Off “Auto-Join” for the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot network name and it won’t automatically connect.

Have any of you guys out there found this feature present in your OS 3.0 devices specifically on the iPhone? If so, let us know in the comments!