Every once in a while, there are these little utility applications that I use that just make life easier, and I've decided to share one of the ones I use with you today (and it's free!): Disk Inventory X.
Since I use a Mac for daily use, my recommendations are going to be Mac focused. Sorry, PC folks. I'm sure tiny dancer might have something for you, but today it's all about the Macs.
What does Disk Inventory X do? Quite simply, you point it towards a drive or folder, and let it go. When it's done, you'll get a treemap of your hard drive that shows you exactly how much room each file is taking up on your drive in a wonderful, graphical, and easy to identify way.
The reason I was reminded of Disk Inventory X is that yesterday, the 20GB of free space I had on my startup drive had somehow completely vanished. I literally had 0KB of space left and Mac OS X was yelling at me and throwing a tantrum for being a horrible caretaker and stuffing it so much.
The fact that I hadn't stuffed anything into my startup drive meant I was not amused 20GB had disappeared from my drive, so I got to work trying to find the culprit.
My mind immediately jumped to iTunes 8.1, which had installed the night before. Sometimes weird things happen when you update iTunes, and I feared this was one of those times.
Comparing my iTunes data with my backup drive (unfortunately) acquitted iTunes of all wrongdoing. Damn.
I started searching through my hard drive using my Finder, finding nothing out of place, until I remembered I had downloaded Disk Inventory X some time ago. I figured I'd give it a shot.
I started Disk Inventory X up and pointed it towards my startup drive, let it scan the drive and minutes later voilà! A treemap was in front of me, and conspicuously sitting right in the middle was a very large square that represented a huge file sitting on my drive. Ah hah! Found the fraking bastard!
Clicking on it gave me all the info on the file: the output log file for an application had somehow ballooned to over 20GBs in size! Apparently, the application had got stuck in an output loop and just chugged along outputting to its log file continuously all night until it simply ran out of room on the drive. Peachy. A simple right click on the offending box let me reveal the file in the Finder and trash that file right away.
Mission accomplished.
If you've got less room free than you'd like on your Mac's drives, give Disk Inventory X a try. It's a very easy way to identify those large files taking space on your drive, and at the price tag of $0, you can't go wrong!
Product Page [Tjark Derlien]
CNET has their review up for the new G1 Android phone on T-Mobile, the first Android phone to hit the market. How does it work? Is it going to be worth it? Should I chuck my iPhone into lake Michigan like I've been wanting to and switch carriers yet again? Watch the review to make your own assesment.
There are a few other reviews out on the intertubes right now, but as with any major electronics release, I wouldn't so much trust those as a solid reason to or not to get the product. They've probably only had the product a couple days (if that) and are doing their damndest to be first to publish. In any case, we have a few readers that are patiently awaiting their G1's, so I'd love to hear from y'all when you finally get your hands on it and get a chance to play around with it for awhile.
Welcome to the first video feature here on Homotron.net!
Today, I'm reviewing the top 10 best free applications available on the App Store for the iPhone 3G.
The 13 minute video is in two parts due to YouTube's 10 minute time limit. Enjoy!
UPDATE: The first version of Part 2 had some sync issues added by YouTube, I've uploaded a second version that has the correct audio sync.
UPDATE #2: It seems YouTube doesn't want to cooperate with audio sync issues, so apologies for the mis-sync at the end.
If you have any feedback, please write it in the comments below or send it to my e-mail so we can make these video features even better!
Social media is a big deal. A really big deal. Tons of money is being spent on developing social networks, various apps to run on social networks, and a myriad of other services based on the social networks' APIs. Social media is such a big deal that someone had the bright idea of Flock, the social-media-centric browser that incorporates blogging tools, an RSS Reader, Facbook and Twitter integration, and various other social staples (It's also my current browser du jour). While some see Flock as just too much (Seriously, it's pretty hard core social media centric), others just don't feel like it offers enough. For those people, and for those people that are interested in the idea of Flock but not sold on the browser itself, I present Yoono.
Yoono is a new FireFox extension built on the idea of integrating Social Media into your browsing experience. This plugin offers a ton of options for the social enthusiast, including Twitter integration, Facebook friend updates, Last.fm feeds, an RSS Reader, YouTube searches, and many, many other tools to expand the horizon of your browsing experience. Recently, I received an invite to try out the beta and I've been playing around with it for a bit now. To see what I've like, disliked, and whether or not I suggest you jump on the Yoono bandwagon, hit the jump for the rest of the write up.
In case you got sauced on tequila and woke up face down in a puddle of your own sick and cannot remember what I wrote yesterday, here's a refresher: Nine Inch Nails (specifically the Hottie McHotterson Trent Reznor, pictured) yesterday released The Slip, the newest addition to their catalog. Absolutely free.
In fact, it's so free Mr. Reznor doesn't want you to pay for it at all unless, of course, you're stuck in the early 90's and want to buy the CD come July.
So, Erotobots—what do you think of the new album? Does free content mean a decline in quality?
Personally, I think it's great; a throwback to 2005's With Teeth. Very danceable.
The little touches, too, are what makes it great. I noticed each track has distinct album art in iTunes and, unlike my other iTunes "purchases" (read: illegal downloads), these tracks included lyrics! I remember reading a long time ago that Apple planned on adding lyrics to all downloads but never saw the dream come to fruition.
Again, leave it to Trent Reznor to influence the music industry just a tiny, delicious, barechested bit.
Logitech's got a new line of very slick-looking computing accessories, and the Z-10 Interactive Speaker System is one of its successes - in terms of looks, performance, and cool-feature-factor. Nifty touch-sensitive buttons and smart-shifting LCD that routes song and album info from iTunes, Winamp, Musicmatch and other services make this 2.0 speaker system attractive to desktop computer users, and a surprisingly robust context-sensitive game display feature gives PC gamers an extra reason to drop $80 - $150 on this sleek sister.
And it sounds great, too.
Make the jump for the full review!
The Digital Life show in NYC yielded some interesting finds. As I have been doing so much traveling, I was really drawn more towards the smaller items. After I finally tore myself away from the Gelaskins booth, I made my way across the aisle to check out the Vibe Duo earbud headphones from V-Moda. I have been on the market for some new headphones since I lost mine during my jaunt to E for All. The headphones that come packed with the various Apple devices are always incredibly uncomfortable to me. Something akin to sticking trashcan lids in your ears, they never quite fit right and always seem to fall out of my ears.
Needless to say, I was delighted when the lovely gal behind the table handed me a pair to try out, thus solving my headphone dilemma in one swoop. I have always thought thought of all headphones to be fairly similar as far as sound and comfortability with some slight variations. But, five minutes with the Vibe Duo proved that I was wrong.
I admit it, I am a customization whore. I love having my gadgets and accessories match my personality rather than carrying around that same old white iPod everyone else has. I have bought stickers and decals for my various consoles and handhelds in an attempt to find something cool, but I am inevitably disappointed. I either put the thing on wrong and have to remove it, causing the corners to bend up and never stick down again or I try to remove the decal months later and end up spending hours with Goof Off trying to remove the sticky junk left behind.
When Tiny and I attended the Digital Life Holiday showing last week, I was instantly drawn to the Gelaskins booth. Here they were, decals for every laptop and iPod you could imagine with some really amazing designs. Of course, my inner customizer came out and I looked over the table, my eyes filled with longing, secretly hoping that here I may have finally found the answer to my prayers. And I was right.
3D iPhone glasses. Why?
