It's about time. Announced Tuesday in conjunction with AT&T, Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide will now offer free Wi-Fi access. The majority of the retail stores are already hotspots through AT&T, but the once paid access service will now be free of charge in an attempt to expand customer awareness of Barnes & Noble's growing e-book library.

Those with laptops, and Wi-Fi equipped smartphones and other wireless devices will now be able to surf the web in stores without being required to set up an account or pay.

Recently, BN took aim at Amazon.com and its Kindle e-book reader, announcing its own "eBookstore" along with plans to release its own dedicated e-book reader. Offering Wi-Fi for free in their stores is at least partially geared towards building customer awareness of the new eBookstore.

The BN eBookstore launched with 700,000 titles, 500,000 of which are free public domain books available through Google. Comparatively, Amazon.com has an inventory of 300,000 titles.