Once in a while you’ll check your Macintosh HD and be astonished that you only have 4 GB free. Maybe not the case with newer Macs – but for those of us running a 60 GB Macbook or MacMini something must be done.

That’s where GrandPerspective comes to play. Not only is it free, but if offers a beautiful visual representation of your data. It may not do much more than that but it does what it’s meant to do perfectly.

If you want something with more advanced options, WhatSize is available for $12.99 (USD) . To get GrandPerspective heard over to their SourceForge.net page.

iPhone 3.0 has brought some fantastic new features that are well known like Cut, Copy & Paste. However some smaller tweaks have been made to the operating system that provide a better user experience. To me most of these changes effect Podcasts. For example you now have easy access to the speed controls and a 30 second skip-back button incase you missed something. Fantastic for shows that go in-depth on specific topics like Security Now!

Also seen in the screenshot is the little envelope icon. This button allows you to share current podcast with a friend via an iTunes Link. This does not work on podcasts not featured in the iTunes store, so if you’re subscribed to an RSS feed you are unable to share.

The feature most important to me for daily use isn’t MMS, but the ability to quickly see the remaining battery life. My way around this was a little app called Free Memory, which has the auxiliary feature of telling you the battery life percentage. The app is still worth keeping around if you own an original iPhone or an iPhone 3G and for the ability to free some memory on your device. For iPhone 3GS owners, you now have a nice little option to show the battery life in the top tray of the iPhone.

To access the battery life option, head over to your settings button on the iPhone home screen. From there tap General, then tap Usage, and there will be a slider button on the top. This option is turned off by default and hidden in a screen most people never make there way into.

iPhone OS 3.0 has been great to me so far, but my big excitement is over the speed of the new 3GS which I was reluctant to pick up at first. A full review of my 16 GB 3GS White will be coming up soon. In the meantime, what features of the iPhone 3.0 update have proved useful to you?

Updated: Added text to help clarify that the battery percentage feature is an iPhone 3GS only feature. Thanks to the astute folks in the comments for pointing this out.

Once I got over that I’d have a $75 USD phone bill in an area where Edge is the only solution, I decided to get an iPhone. I went with the 8 GB Black rather than springing the extra hundred for something I knew I’d be replacing in a year or so. It’s been great so far, but does it compare to a jailbreak 1st gen? Is the GPS worth it without turn by turn? And which games and apps are worth the money? This series is going to cover why my iPhone relationship remains a love-hate one. I’ll cover a few quick topics to start with, check back weekly for a new article.

Dialing on the road:
In NJ and other states now it is a primary offense to use your phone without a hands free headset. iPhone includes nifty headphones that have a mic and answer button built on. Great stuff. But how about voice dialing? Or even haptic feedback with varying degrees of sensitivity and response for different numbers. You just don’t get that. Even a Razr has voice dialing, it cannot be that hard for Apple to design the phone so that when you hold the mic button down for 3 seconds, you can speak the name and have it dial when you let go.
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New iPhone in town, well, almost in town—July 11 it will be released. Here are a number of quick details we know so far from the WWDC keynote today:

New 3G iPhone Hardware

Memory Capacity: 8GB & 16 GB

Colors: Black and White (White = 16GB option only, unclear if 16GB comes in black as well)

Frequencies: UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); WiFi 802.11b/g; Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR.

Screen Size: 3.5 inches (diagonal), 480 by 320 pixels (163 ppi).

Dimensions: 4.5 by 2.4 by 0.48 inches (115.5 by 62.1 by 12.3 mm)

Camera: 2.0 megapixels

Location Services: Assisted-GPS, previous cell tower and WiFi geolocation services from previous generation iPhone.

The big change is the high-speed 3G data connection, which Apple claims approaches the speeds of WiFi, and for some websites some 2.4 times faster than the original iPhone’s EDGE speeds.

iPhone Software

Besides the hardware specs, there are a number of new anticipated software changes, most of which will be available to current iPhone and iPod touch users via a software upgrade, due in early July. We’ve heard before about the Exchange Server and ActiveSync synchronization to keep your calendar, contacts and emails up to date over the air with your iPhone. Now, the new version of .Mac, called mobileme, will empower the average consumer a number of the same synchronizing functionality, for $99/year, all contacts, calendars, emails, and photos synchronized with the “cloud.”

The iPhone’s Mail app is also upgraded, and lets the the user select multiple messages to delete or move, and can also now view PowerPoint and all iWork (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers) documents. The iPhone’s contacts are also now searchable, so you don’t have to scroll through all of your contacts to find the right person. The Calculator app is now scientific, the new functions reveal themselves when the iPhone is tilted on its side. Language support is also significantly improved, allowing for simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, and Japanese language support through new keyboard and character recognition input controls.

Last, but probably the most significant software addition to the iPhone platform is the App Store. The App Store allows for third party developers to create and distribute applications to iPhone owners. Apple announced that applications under 10MB could be downloaded over the cellular network and WiFi, and those over 10MB would be available over WiFi only. Apple also announced two additional ways for developers to distribute their apps, via the enterprise via a company’s network or “ad hoc,” which allows for the download of up to 100 copies of an app.

Additionally, it was noted that Apple will be providing developers with a specialized push messaging service, one that would permit applications to receive information from the Internet without having to run in the background. My first take is that while this may be a good thing to prevent the draining of an iPhones battery, it could be problematic from a competitive gateway point of view, as application developers would be required to go through Apple to pass along messages to their app (especially since other apps like Mail have this information automatically pushed without this kind of service, today). I’m sure this new service will be discussed in the days and weeks to come.

That’s the quick and dirty. I’m sure there will be more details soon enough.

Nova Media today announced introduction of a new version of their FoneLink app, version 2.0, which gives Mac users a really nice tool to keep their mobile phone in sync with contacts, calendar, and media—in ways that iSync can’t. If you know how iTunes lets you sync with your iPhone or iPod, this is the closest thing to it.

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Divine Robot has developed a new tool that allows Sony Ericsson mobile users copy and synchronize songs from their iTunes library to their phone.

Mac OS X’s iSync is good for synchronizing your contacts and calendars to your mobile phone, but not so much for your music. iTunes will generally only sync your music with iPods, some older MP3 players, the Motorola ROKR phone, and the iPhone. Not so much help if you want to play songs from your iTunes library on your phone. That’s where the helper-app EasyListening comes in.

Start up the app and plug-in your supported Sony Ericsson phone via USB. Up pops a brushed metal window that looks iSync, showing the name and description of your phone. From there, fire up iTunes and select individual songs or a whole playlist (not supported by all phones) and then drag them to the EasyListening window. You can also use EasyListening to sync songs to a Memory Stick card.

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Until the SDK comes out I’m stuck in envy of my friends who can play games like Labyrinth and use native apps such as iFlickr, iFlix, and MobileChat. Getting used to web apps can be difficult, but I’ve spent a fair amount of time sifting through the obscene amount of web apps that have little or no functionality to find the best.

Instant Messaging: There are a few options here but Meebo easily provides the best experience. It is essentially the same as the other options, however with Meebo you can use your existing account to log into multiple IM accounts at the same time. This however has a secondary purpose that makes it so great. When you’re instant messing with Edge there is a good chance you will get disconnected and miss parts of the conversation. Meebo enables logging when you sign up for an account, so you never miss any part of any conversation, and can refer back to it  at any time. http://meebo.com – automatically loads iPhone version upon visit.
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One of the goals of good design is to properly position graphic elements in a harmonious way. This includes good video design, especially when compositing titles, images and other video clips together. Both Final Cut Pro and Motion make it easy to reposition, rotate, crop and distort video clips and images in their respective Canvases. In Final Cut Pro the Image and Wireframe mode must be selected from the View pop-up menu in the Canvas (see figure 1). This tip focuses on moving the clip around.

Figure 1:
Selecting Image & Wireframe from the View pop-up Menu.

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Today is the last day in My Oovoo Day, which might more accurately been named My Oovoo Couple of Weeks. What is Oovoo? Does the post office deliver mail on My Oovoo Day?

Oovoo is a new video chatting application that is available for Mac and Windows. It allows up to 6 people to have a video chat at the same time in a display that has been compared (by people like me who watched too much TV in their formative years) to the opening credits of Brady Bunch or the grid for Hollywood Squares.
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If you’re in the market for a personal finance application, Liquid Ledger should be at the top of your list. While it does take time to get used to the organization and interface of the program, it gets the job done smoothly once you get going. At first setting up all your various accounts can get annoying, but the ability to overview all of your funds and accounts at a glance is well worth the time spent.

Liquid Ledger allows you to import/export multiple file times, including Quicken’s Interchange Format and more generic options to make compatibility a strong point. As mentioned earlier there is a great overview feature, included with that is the ability to print out several types of financial report and graphs.

In terms of finance there really isn’t much that Liquid Ledger can’t do, but the real question is if you will be able to make use of the feature set. Liquid Ledger is definitely a great application for those who do a lot of in-depth personal or business finance, but if you’re looking for a more minimal, simplistic application see Cha-Ching, to be featured next week.

The developers at Modeless Software, Inc. have made a 60-Day Trial available for free with minimal nagging that I’d encourage anyone to give a try. You can find it at liquidledger.com.