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Private car services may not be the cheapest way to get around the city, but at least you can get a little work done while you're stuck in traffic, now that a handful of them are equipped to deliver free ad-supported Internet access. Or so the rationalization goes.

But it's not just the well-heeled who will benefit from this perk; these mobile hot spots may be the answer to delivering free Wi-Fi to all of New York City.

LimoRes Car & Limo Service, a private car service company, has outfitted 25 of its cars with Wi-Fi hot spots … Read more

Clearwire is rolling out a 4G hot spot designed dubbed the iSpot to appeal to Apple users.

The WiMax service provider on Wednesday launched the iSpot, a personal hot spot with dedicated support for the iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone. In many respects, the Clearwire move makes a lot of sense. Most Apple plans are tethered somehow to AT&T. Clearwire is looking to tap into disdain for AT&T among Apple users to poach a few accounts.

How does the iSpot support Apple gear? Clearwire said the iSpot is made exclusively for Apple devices with a casing … Read more

Motorola's Droid X Wi-Fi hot spot feature is a remarkable new level of integration in a smartphone. But packing more and more high-function stuff into a small device has its trade-offs.

The Droid X appears to be a hit, with reports that it was sold out at many Verizon stores (indeed, my local Verizon store in suburban Los Angeles was sold out on the first day of sales). To recap quickly, Motorola's new high-end smartphone allows a user to create a hot spot, similar to the access point that patrons connect to when in a Starbucks. Except, of … Read more

Circling a crowded neighborhood for 45 minutes looking for a parking spot is easily my least favorite part of driving. Google's latest experimental app from its Labs aims to make finding street parking just a bit easier. Appropriately dubbed Open Spot, this free app for Android phones provides a user-generated map of available parking spaces near the user's current position.

Open Spot uses the GPS positioning function present in most smartphones to track your position, displaying the surrounding area using Google Maps. At the beginning of a trip, you use Open Spot to mark the parking space you … Read more

Music services for mobile phones are enjoying increased popularity thanks to the fact that cell phones are replacing standalone MP3 players for many people. MSpot is one of many solutions that has cropped up as a solution for on-the-go listening. The company offers a music cloud service that lets you upload up to 2GB of music for free and access it from any Wi-Fi-capable computer or Android device.

Continue reading the mSpot for Android review.

An article about Apple's plan to "soon" launch a cloud service featuring music and movies stirred up a great deal of speculation on Thursday. "Soon," however, is a relative term because Apple has yet to snag licenses from the top four music labels, sources tell CNET.

The Boy Genius Report's article cited an anonymous source who declared that the Apple service will offer "streaming music and movies from Apple's servers to your computers," will sync iTunes with devices, and will stream content from a home computer to other Web-enabled gadgets.

While … Read more

One of the most interesting bits of news to come out of today's Google I/O conference was the company's stealth acquisition of Simplify Media a couple months ago.

Until March of this year, Simplify offered a free software application for PC and Mac that let users stream music from the iTunes or WinAmp libraries on their home computer, over the Internet, to other devices they own. The company also made an iPhone app that let the iPhone or iPod Touch receive these streams.

It was a nifty solution for users with big music libraries at home and … Read more

Time Warner Cable has launched free Wi-Fi for all 1 million of its New York City customers.

According to Time Warner, customers can connect to "thousands" of high-speed Wi-Fi hot spots around the city starting Thursday. Time Warner Cable subscribers will have unlimited access to the Wi-Fi services, which run on Cablevision's Optimum Wi-Fi network that launched in 2008.

It should be noted that only New York City-based subscribers will be able to access the hot spots. In order to access a hot spot, customers will need to log in using their Road Runner username and password.… Read more

Before we get into the stories on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast, let's spend a moment on the magic of Lady Gaga. In this morning's pre-show, Jeff admits he's finally fallen for the incendiary pop star, and it's all because of her newest video, "Bad Romance." We all agree that the diva is definitely the most talented pop star, but the nerds inside of us have to ask: does she have to constantly pimp her Monster Heartbeat headphones in every single music video?

Wilson also shows us a "no duh" iPhone app from AT&T called "Mark the Spot." The app gives AT&T customers a chance to vocalize and report their poor service complaints. It even lets you note your current location and the frequently of the issue. Anyone else think it's ironic that you have to use AT&T's servers to access this complaint software? How are we supposed to use it if the network is struggling?

We've been patiently waiting for Space Beer to come out ever since the debut of Space Beer Guy back on Episode 109, and it's finally here! The beer made with barley grown in space is finally available for the low price of $113, which actually isn't that much when you consider the shipping fee. Unfortunately, there are only 250 boxes of the stuff available, so you might have to fight us to get your hands on a bottle.

Finally, we've received so many new theme song submissions that we've decided to play a new one every day for the rest of this week! Today's entries include two 8-bit versions from Callum and Adam and a synth-y remix from Mad Dogg. Keep listening to the rest of this week's episodes for more submissions, and thanks to all the talented folks who are taking the time to help out this podcast. We owe you all a Coke!