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Music services geared toward untethered listening are enjoying increasing popularity thanks to the fact that cell phones are replacing standalone MP3 players for many people. MP3tunes 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 Internet-connected computer as well as a variety of handheld devices.

The first step to using MP3tunes is to download the teeny, tiny LockerSync uploader tool, which lets the service analyze your library and add it to … Read more

When I was but a wee lass hunting for my very first San Francisco apartment, Craigslist was just starting to make a name for itself as an instrumental tool for such endeavors in the Bay Area. Now, the site is the place for classifieds online, with a presence in hundreds of cities around the globe.

One of the many useful categories on Craigslist is the "for sale" section, which allows you to list your unwanted goods and search for those that are lacking in your life--and it's totally free, to boot. As a seasoned navigator of this … Read more

If you're craving a mix for a specific mood or activity and you want to limit the DJ powers to a certain set of people, SongVote is the service for you. This extremely nifty (and completely free) Web-based app lets users create collaborative playlists based on a simple time-restrained voting system. Using it is ridiculously straightforward: visit the site; create a theme-, event-, or activity-based contest; and then sit back and wait for the votes to roll in. Once the time is up (based on an end-date you specify), SongVote provides a final playlist based upon the results of … Read more

Editors' take: MSpot is the latest service to promise free and unlimited streaming from the cloud to your computer or Android device. The company on Monday is finally opening up this service to everyone following a monthlong private beta.

To get it to work, users need to install a small piece of software on their Windows or Mac computer. This lets you pick which folders or specific albums you want to be synced to your mSpot storage. It can also be tied into the libraries of existing local jukebox software like Windows Media Player and iTunes. Every time you make … Read more

Slacker Radio is an intuitive online music player that lets you stream a variety of preprogrammed and custom-made radio stations. The service comes in two models: an ad-supported version that is completely free or a pay option that eliminates the ads and opens a few additional features, such as station caching on a variety of mobile devices. Avoiding commercials costs a very reasonable $4.99 per month, or you can pay an annual fee of $47.88, which works out to $3.99 per month. Paying for the service also lets you circumvent the six-tracks-per-hour skip limit that comes hand-in-hand … Read more

Like any decent self-proclaimed music discovery slacker should be, I'm a sucker for free services that help me expand my audio horizons. Even better when it's an attractive Web site adorned with bubbles and represented by a pink tuna with a giant googly eye.

Naturally, this means I was quite eager to check out Radio Tuna when a representative for the service contacted me. In the simplest terms, the service is a search engine that is designed specifically to scour Internet radio stations based on a variety of parameters. You have three search options: station name, genre, or … Read more

Gaia Online is a large, forum-based social network that attracts mostly teenagers. Users can create avatars, earn virtual money by playing games, and interact with the virtual world. In this way, the service has created a realistic economy that exists solely online, attracting the attention of several well-known economists.

Gaia also includes a video hosting service and a marketplace driven by a micro economy among its members. The natural appeal of the site is due both to community and the built-in rewards system for participation.

Gaia Online was founded in 2003, and has more than 100,000 micro-transactions happening on … Read more

Do you want to find more information about something? Check Answers.com. The service pulls information from several different reference sites to provide answers to your questions. You get full encyclopedia entries from services such as Wikipedia and Britannica, as well as spelling, usage information, and translations into different languages.

Since these other services are updated frequently, entries on Answers.com tend to stay fairly current. Users are also able to register, and answer questions that have been asked by other users. The service has also partnered with sites such as nytimes.com to bring the service to any word … Read more

Ask.com is currently the fifth most popular search engine on the Web. It lets users search the Web for links, images, videos, driving directions, and news, along with local city listings and shopping links for products.

In a space so heavily dominated by Google, Ask.com does one thing that no other search engine does: display results from other search types on the same page. This lets you see a wide gamut of results, all at once. It also differs from other search engines in allowing users to customize and skin various elements of the engine from a large … Read more