You’ll find all sorts of gems hidden in foursquare’s tips, from food recommendations to which room to request for the best view. One other thing that’s almost universally hidden in there are the locations — and often passwords — of wi-fi hotspots. For iPhone users, new, free app 4sqwifi can help you ferret that information out of the tips and actually turn those hidden tips into something useful.

4sqwifi searches the tips at nearby venues for information about their wi-fi network and then presents a list of all the venues where they’ve found wi-fi service. The result is a rather complete list of businesses offering wi-fi hotspots. Drilling down on a business shows a map and the wi-fi related tips that have been left there.

Many of the tips turned up by 4sqwifi say things like “Free wi-fi here!” Occasionally, you’ll get even luckier and find a tip that lists the password for a secure wi-fi network. I was testing the app during lunch yesterday and actually discovered one at the place I was eating that I’d never known about. You do have to be careful, however, and check each tip on the list because 4sqwifi isn’t too good at distinguishing between “Free Wi-fi!” and “No free wi-fi ” tips (these don’t appear nearly as often, though).

If you’re the type who spends your day hopping from wi-fi hotspot to wi-fi hotspot, you should definitely get this app. I’ve never found a site or app that provides even close to a complete list of local wi-fi hotspots, but I think 4sqwifi comes closer than any of them.

Do you rely on wi-fi? What do you think of finding nearby hotspots based on foursquare tips?

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