I am now being recorded in full-color video so I proceed to offer my idea in fairly decent detail, even motioning with my hands how the idea could be put into motion through a few actions on the part of our company’s new automation system for improving customer response times. I say the words “save now” and the video transmission is now saved in the inbox of my staff’s video terminals so that they will receive it as soon as they come into the office tomorrow. I then state “end connection” and the main menu for the iPhone returns and another audible tone is given to notify me that the connection has closed.

Thinking about what I will be doing tonight for entertainment, I decide to check the house system and see if there is anything I might want to watch when I get home. I speak the words “connect home” and soon the menu displays a menu for my house system allowing me to see the inside of my home with the words “monitor”. Instantly I am looking at a video feed of various views of my home from within the main rooms and from the back and front yards. I spot that there is a package on my doorstep from Fed-Ex. I say “control panel” and I am now seeing a menu that allows me to see and alter the current temperature of my house. I tell the iPhone to “warm 75″ and my heating unit then starts bringing the temperature up to 75 degrees.

Next, I state “entertainment” and a selection of tv and movie choices are selected on the screen based on my past preferences and tastes. I do not see anything immediately exciting, so I say “search” and then “blade runner” – quickly Spotlight identifies the movie in my media library and queues it for playback when I arrive.

I then remember that I need to pick up a special dietary food for my dogs so I state “menu” and I am back to the main iPhone screen. I then state the name of the store “PetCo” and I am presented with a map to the nearest store and the phone number with an option to “place call now”. After speaking with a store associate I know that they received their stock and the quantity of food I need is ready for pickup. The clerk has my account details on her screen already and places my order. The purchase is also recorded in the iPhone’s financial program, immediately notifying my bank and updating my ledger and balance with the details. This is nice, that I no longer need to record transactions such as this as I used to always forget when I took money out or made purchases. Now I don’t need to worry about that anymore. Since Apple licensed QuickPay from Visa, purchasing almost anything now is completely automated just about anywhere I go now.

As I exit the interstate, I notice that I need to stop and get gas, so I pull into the closest station and stop. After filling my tank, I simply wave my iPhone over the sensor at the pump and my purchase is completed and again the transaction is recorded.

Off to Petco I go, where I pick up the bags of food at the pull up door on the side of the building. This is nice because I don’t even need to go inside and the purchase is of course already debited from my account there when I placed the order earlier on the iPhone.

As I pull into the driveway, I see that my iPhone has noticed that my vehicle is due for service this month and has connected to the dealership to find the next available appointments. A list of appointment times are shown on the screen, and I simply tap the 3rd one down for the 5th of November, and instantly the iPhone confirms the date with the dealership and then records the appointment in iCal, setting an alarm automatically that will start notifying me 3 days in advance so that I won’t forget about it.

I pull into the garage and walk inside to the house, the lights are on and the fireplace is on and the house is warm. I walk into the living room and turn on my TV. Instantly a menu notice is displayed showing the film I chose, is ready to click to start.

Ah, my iLife is wonderful.

I give it an 8 because its a got a phat beat and you can jiggie to it.

I am what many would consider a power mac user. Not one that uses a Powermac, but one who uses Macs religiously and tends to know a lot about them. I have been using Macs since the beginning, in fact, before they were even called Macs. I started on an Apple II and actually began my graphics and web career on an Apple Lisa.

In all that time I have used thousands of different types of software. I’ve used everything from 3-D software to Photoshop and the Terminal. One of my favorite catgories of software is called “Free” software. I like it because it is FREE! This differs a bit from other types of Free Software that is more like free speech than just free as in free beer.

Today, I will be listing some of the Free Software that I have found and use and that in most cases beats out non-free software for just being best in the field. Some of these applications I have used for a long time, while others I have just recently discovered but quickly grown to love.

WhatSize

Download WhatSize

The first application I am going to highlight is called “WhatSize” and it is one of my favorites. WhatSize is an application designed to one thing and it does it flawlessly. From the developer’s own description: WhatSize is a simple tool that allows the user to quickly measure the size in bytes of a given folder and all subfolders and files within it. You would be surprised at how many useless files might be laying around on your hard disks. The files and folders are automatically sorted by size, with the biggest sizes first.

This application is nearly identical to the non-free software called Omni DiskSweeper except that the price is much better; Free! I can’t say enough about this simple program – it just works. It is helpful to find hidden files on your system that are needlessly taking up valuable space.

RSS Menu

Download RSS Menu

This is one that I use on a daily basis and I love it for its simplicity as well. I have tried almost all the RSS feed reader programs available today and while some of them are wonderfully overstuffed with features and whiz-bangs, they lacked what I was looking for: a simple, menubar based RSS reader. RSS menu delivers just that. It has everything I need, all in one small compact menubar item or menuling. The developer seems to keep it very updated and the program is super lightweight and takes up very little resources. It’s also running all the time, so I don’t have to worry about checking for news, it just gets it for me.

Serverskine

Download Serverskine

This is a newer application in my list but one that I am quickly finding hard to live without. It is developed by a fellow web development team and is designed for web developers who need to keep track of lots of information regarding servers, customer login information, and other daily details that can often overwhelm. There are tons of PIM programs out there, but very few that are as well-done and thought out from a web developers point-of-view.

Gawker

Download Gawker

Gawker is one of those applications that bears out of necessity but then shines showing that software doesn’t have to cost a lot in order for it to be valuable. I started using Gawker to access my iSight camera and record movies. I have been having trouble with my puppy (or so I thought) and I wanted to record the times that I am away from home to see what is happening and by whom. Apple requires Quicktime Pro in order to be able to capture movies with the iSight camera. This is just dumb and another reason why I think Apple needs to do away with the whole “Pro” registration racket that it uses, but this is material for another post, another time.

Gawker also offers something that is absolutely vital to what I needed, which was time elapsed videography. Who wants to sit and scan through hours of video watching to see what dog does what and when. Gawker lets me record every 5, 10, 30 seconds or any time value I wish. It also displays a timeclock onscreen which really helps a lot. Overall, Gawker is almost so good, that it really should be distributed with iSight to begin with, although it works with other cameras too.

There you have it, four applications that are free, yet immensly valuable. Hope you enjoy them and if you do, reward the developer by sending them a free beer or by donating to them through Paypal.