An app as an essay, that is what is behind Robin Sloane’s, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hours Bookstore, app, Fish: a Tap Essay. It doesn’t do anything like allow you to play games or find friends. It is simply an essay with some thoughts on the Internet, and the way that we treat and view online content.

Would you pay to belong to an ad-free social network? Dalton Caldwell, mastermind behind App.net, akin to an ad-free Facebook or ad-free Twitter, thinks you just might. While he doesn’t presume that App.net will score the huge user-base of Twitter or Facebook, he does think that he will amass enough of a following that the $50 per person annual fee, coupled with the an ad-free and developer-friendly platform, will build a sustainable network that instills trust among both users and developers.

Check it out! You can get a free Nook (basic model) or a Nook Color for half price ($99 instead of $199) if you subscribe to the digital version of the New York Times (NYT) for a year. Now, granted, the subscription to the New York Times is $19.99 a month, making your free Nook actually cost $239.88, but given that a monthly digital subscription to the New York Times is $20 per month anyways, you are still getting one for $20.00 a month, and the other for free.

Google is gracing nearly 50 airports in the U.S. with free airport wi-fi for the holidays. Two of the airports – Seattle and Burbank – will keep their free airport Internet access, and offer free airport wi-fi permanently. (The full list of airports offering free Google wi-fi is below.)

It’s still winter break in Boulder, and so most of the independent coffee shops in Boulder are closing early until school is back in session. As a result, I found myself all dressed up and with nowhere to go to sit and work over a cup of joe last night. In desperation, I turned to the local Starbucks – even they were closing early, but not as early as the other coffee shops. And besides, I was curious to try Starbuck’s free wifi.