In an attempt to pump up its shrinking customer base, starting today Starbucks will offer two hours of free Wi-Fi per day. Well, free for anyone who puts at least $5 onto a reloadable Starbucks Card and registers online for the Starbucks Rewards Card program. Rewards program members get other perks too: free syrup and milk options with drinks, free refills on coffee and one free beverage with the purchase of a pound of coffee......

Grand Central Terminal will now feature its own Wi-Fi Internet access to those waiting in the Station Masters Office, one of the few places one is still allowed to sit down at the terminal without being told to get up and move along. The new wireless service will allow as many as 60 users online at a time and should prove an invaluable amenity for commuters to check or send off emails before and after......

The NYC-DC bus fare wars have a new player: Greyhound division BoltBus will be launching service on March 27 and has started to sell tickets for as low as $1 (plus a 50 cent booking fee). DCist explains BoltBus "operates on the EasyJet principle, where tickets start out dirt cheap and get more expensive as the bus gets fuller. I just purchased a ticket for $7, and if I had been willing to leave on......

Jaunted took a jaunt over to the new Terminal 5 (not the music venue) at JFK. The terminal, with design by Gensler, will house JetBlue and is set to open in September of this year. The original T5 was the Eero Saarinen-designed TWA terminal and will be incorporated into JetBlue's, which is set behind and connected to it (Jaunted notes that "airline reps say that at minimum there'll be check-in kiosks in the TWA......

Could Apple be planting a seed on a location near Lincoln Center? The Meatpacking district Apple store still has that new-store smell as Apple fever extends north. According to the Post, Apple is looking to take over space at the northwest corner of Broadway and West 67th, where there's currently a two-story Victoria's Secret store. Apple is supposedly going to put up a new building, but it's not clear how much of the structure......

If you've been paying for Wifi at coffee shops between 42nd Street and Central Park South and between 8th and 6th Avenues, you can start saving up for more grande mocha lattes. CBS will be creating a "CBS Mobile Zone" with free wifi in midtown. In turn, CBS will lead users to an ad-supported homepage. CenterNetworks says that Citi and Salesgenie.com have already signed up. CBS, which owns CBS Outdoor, will wire billbards, MTA displays......

When it comes to driving routes for a JFK airport pickup, George Costanza advocates taking the Grand Central to the Van Wyck, deriding Kramer’s L.I.E. route as a “suicide mission.” In the current New York Magazine cover story, “How to Escape Airport Hell”, the editors invited chauffeur Kevin Sullivan to weigh in. While he comes down squarely on Costanza’s side, he also shares some invaluable alternative routes to all three airports in the unlikely......

With New York adding Wi-Fi access to the Internet in city parks recently, some New Yorkers must be making use of the coverage in more than the usual way of checking one's email or what's new on Gothamist while one is in the park on a lunch break. The Wall Street Journal Online recently added a video podcast called "Tech Diary" to its site that has journalist Andy Jordan exploring the sometimes-odd intersection of......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery at Union Turnpike in Queens, a fatal fall victim on Union St. in Brooklyn, and an infant water rescue at Mallow St. on Staten Island. What loud-mouthed inflammatory interrogator could MSNBC get to stand in for Chris Matthews? Tonight it will be Al Sharpton interviewing former DNC head Terry McAuliffe and one-time Presidential candidate Howard Dean. Set your VCRs, DVRs, Tivos, or whatever. A swimming pool......

On opening day of this season's Midsummer Night Swing, Lincoln Center has become a free WiFi hot spot. So if you're at Josie Robertson Plaza, in Damrosch Park, or on the North Plaza by the Reflecting Pool, your laptop, phone or PDA will be wired. Lincoln Center president Reynold Levy said, “One of the goals of Lincoln Center’s transformation projects is to encourage visitors to our campus to come earlier and linger longer, both......

SoHo, Lower East Side, Nolita, and other residents and workers, you'll want to make sure you have your library card, because today at 3PM, the New York Public Library opens its 87th branch in SoHo. The Mulberry Street library, located at Mulberry and Jersey Streets just south of Houston Street, is 12,000 square feet of books, DVDs, computers, WiFi access and more. We visited the branch last Friday when NYPL staffers were getting ready......

Thinking about playing hooky in a city park with your laptop? The Parks & Recreation Department has created a Google mash-up of parks with WiFi. There is even a live status update for the hotspots - looks like our plan to blog from the polar bear area of the Central Park this afternoon is foiled! Very important: Here's information about connect your laptop to city parks wireless.......

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an ideal......

Have you groaned about how much those Grande Mocha Lattes are costing you? Have you ever wondered how you can make money from the Internet? And do you live in wireless-Internet-access range of a Starbucks? Wireless company Fon is offering free routers and the lure of cash to anyone who lives above or near the coffee chain. How does it work? By installing your FON router, you let others share your broadband for a......

Leaving our local Key Food this morning, for the first time we heard the spare change guy's rendition of "Bad to the Bone" and then we turned to one of our weekend rituals: Reading the The Brooklyn Paper. Why do we love the Brooklyn Paper? Because it covers stories here way before the dailies get to them, if ever. Because of the NY Post-style headlines ("Fowl play: Fairway ducks foie gras flap" comes from today's......

The Internet signal you are receiving right now is probably not coming from an electrical outlet, especially if you are living in New York City. But if you are living in Europe, Cincinnati, Ohio or Virginia, then it’s quite possible that your computer’s power and broadband signal are coming from the same connection. This technology, known as “broadband over power lines (BPL),” is one of the many new technologies being discussed by the City Council’s......

Zen koan for the day: if a gas smell blankets Staten Island, does anyone notice? Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: propane tanker derails in Queens, a truck vs. building in Bed Stuy, and person struck by the A train at 50th Street. Does anyone else think it's unfair that Miss New Jersey has to step down from her post because she got knocked up during her reign? Gowanus Lounge has some more details on......

This was not a very happy week for the -ist network as one of our own, Phillyist co-editor Star C. Foster, passed away early in the week. Her wit, intelligence, and good nature shone through the site, making Phillyist an immensely fun read. She was loved by many and will be missed by all. Phillyist paid tribute to her this week with a heartfelt letter to her and an obituary. And now, the awkward......

We hear that Crumbs flagship location on 8th Street (between Broadway and University) has opened and they're handing out free cupcakes all day! This flagship store will be bigger than the others, with seating for up to 35, longer hours, Wi-Fi access and a tapas dessert menu (milk and cookies, apple cider and pie, etc). The store also serves cookies, brownies, cakes, pies, sweet and savory scones, cheesecakes, pastries and tarts. But today...it's all about......

Via The Daily Politics, the City of New York has created its own Google-type map with all sorts of information overlaid to show you the nearest services. For instance, you can map an address and then find out the nearest post office, school, subway station or WiFi hotspot. You can also define boundaries as boroughs, zip codes - or landmark districts, business improvement districts, city council districts, or community boards. There's also regular map......

- The Village Voice has a good cover story on people living where the Atlantic Yards will be built - State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's granddaughter was found in Manhattan after she was missing for a couple of days - and the police have arrested a man in connection to what might be a kidnapping - Jennifer Moore had a chance to escape from her killer - The families of the defendents in......

Strange finding in Central Park's sheep meadow: An actual sheep, with its legs bound, was left there, only to be found on Tuesday night. The sheep is now at a farm in Connecticut (why not the Queenty County Farm?) and am New York says that the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals transported other farm animals on behalf of Animal Care & Control, including roosters and chickens (yes, it seems that annoying neighborhood roosters are sent......

- The NY Times says that WiFi in some city parks will come by the end of the month (and Nokia is a sponsor) - and amNew York is also providing some free wireless news and entertainment as well - Did the Metropolitan Museum spend $45 million for a fake? - On the upside of the Emmy nominations, both Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay were nominated for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, making......

- There's an air quality advisory today - ozone levels are high! - Another look at the Atlantics Yard project and Brooklyn politics - The noisiest neighborhood - or at least the one with the most 311 complaints - is Washington Heights/Inwood - ANIMAL has an interview with graffiti legend QUIK - check out his website here - Ooh, a timelapse video of the Shack Shake Webcam - will the fun never stop when......

Last September, the city announced that wireless internet would be coming to ten parks around the city, perhaps by summer. Fast forward nine months, only Battery Park's wifi has been completed, but the city set a deadline for all other parks to be wireless ready by July. Nevermind that WiFi Salon is unsure whether they can make it - owner Marshall W. Brown said, "That's the timetable set forth by Parks. Let's see if......

Internet service provider giving you some trouble (*cough* *cough* Time Warner Cable Sucks *cough* *cough*)? Looking to sniff out some free internet in the meantime? Symantec to the rescue... Sort of. As part of an internet security study the company sent a bunch of shmoes around the city with maps, laptops, wifi cards, antennas, and NetStumbler. The result is a breakdown by neighborhood of the percentage of wireless networks that are password protected. So......

Torontoist throws down the gauntlet and challenges all comers: pillow fight, bitch. They also stand up for a fellow blogger taking heat from the TTC and welcome city-wide WiFi. SFist can finally admit it: It's possible that Bary Bonds juiced. Is Bay Area artist (tempted to put quotes around that) Thomas Kinkaid "kinda crappy" or "explosively crappy" or does he just like marking territory? SFist wonders. Technology comes in the form of new Mac goodness......

Like that view up there? Sure you do. We bear good news about it. Soon enough, if the Parks Department gets the bids it expects, you should be able to sit on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and enjoy the awesomeness of that view of the Gotham skyline while you read Gothamist on your laptop. Why? Because on top of the free WiFi that should be appearing in Central and Prospect Parks this spring the......

NY Times writer Jake Mooney contemplated his missing home-delivered NY Times, wondering the best way to smoke out the culprit. Short of a surveillance camera and a special invisible trap, there aren't many options, even when another neighbor puts up a sign demanding that the stealing stop (our experience is that signs only shame, but rarely get people to change their actions). This is something Gothamist has wondered about - the "See Something, Take Something"......

On Sundays, Gothamist publishes reviews by its contributors and friends. The opinions belong only to the author, who once again, in this case, is me. Pop-up stores seem to be the latest rage in New York City retailing. This trend involves a major brand coming into town, renting a large retail space for a month or two, and creating a "retail experience" to promote their brand. For instance, in September, the Illy coffee company opened......