Update 3-2-09: iStat Menus 2.0 is now available. Download.
Update 8-29-09: iStat Menus is a hot button for Snow Leopard. With yesterday's release of Snow Leopard, it wasn't my review that was getting link love it was my iStat Menus update. While I am not sure of iSlayer or BJangos beta policy, I am running v.111 with Snow Leopard and it's working like a champ. The link above will get you to the beta program.
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One of my major disappointments when upgrading to Snow Leopard a week ago was the loss of iStat Menus. Yesterday, after writing an email to Bjango about my anticipation of their update, I promptly got an invite to their beta program and a link to download the Snow Leopard-ready version. I did just that and have been back in business with all the stats at my eye-tips and finger-clicks that I care to peruse.
So in honor of Bjango's rapid response and pre-Snow Leopard beta testing program, I thought I would give a little show of what makes iStat Pro so essential.
My iStat Menus modules in Snow Leopard
You can configure iStat Menus to your heart's content, and what you see above is my layout.
1. The Calendar icon: shows current date – I can't tell you how many times a day I look for this. I had to add the info back to my clock until iStat was back on duty. One click on the icon reveals a navigable monthly calendar and a single click will open iCal if you actually need to schedule something. This has got to be the simplest feature and the one that I bemoaned the most while I was without.
2. Fan/Temp: I guess my MBP is running cool tonight. I like the temperature at a glance. It's not like I need to know HOW hot it is when my palms are aching from the heat, but it's a good warning when the temperature rises above 150 degrees that I need to do something different. With all the information about how heat affects battery life, knowing the status of your internal core temperature is fairly important. One click and I can see all the temperature points and measurements as well as the fan speed as my machine struggles to cool itself.
iStat temperatures
3. I/O Speeds. This is a numeric and graphic readout on how fast my network is transferring data. I am using the stacked view, there are four other graphing options.
4. CPU Usage. This one shows both my COREs. And as you can see the computing power of the Core 2 Duo is well over what I need to be writing in WordPress. There are multiple display varieties for this as well. Beside the display graph is the percentage of utilization. The only time I see the processors maxed out is when I am doing heavy audio or video editing.
5. Free Ram. This final graphic shows me the usage of my available ram both in a pie chart and a free available ram percentage.
There are more options but I use a bare minimum. I was lost without these little touchstones. Some how they give me the feeling that I understand my computer performance and usage patterns better if I am dynamically aware of the feedback from iStat Menus. I don't know if there is anything like this for Windows, but with a laptop so dependent on battery life, heat and performance a little tool like iStat Menus part of my critical path.
iStat Pro Preferences - Snow Leopard Review
@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/istat-menu
Again, my thanks to the iSlayer team and Bjango for giving me a shot at the beta. It looks good to me folks.
Gizmodo has a nice snow leopard benchmarking review: Snow Leopard Review: Lightened and Enlightened
August 28th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Not quite everything I need to know. Where can you get the beta? URL please!
August 29th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Sorry David. I can't give the beta info out. You should contact iSlayer directly for that.
August 29th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
you shloud share de beta version with us.. Anytime you need others peoples help…
August 29th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Because I don't work for iSlayer or BJango I cannot give out the beta. It is working great and should be available soon. Send them an email they were very responsive to me.
August 30th, 2009 at 2:23 am
Why is it not readily available, most of developers have a Beta update option when updating. If you have it why can't we?
August 30th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Well I upgraded my mac, ran into one problem, and it was the program I couldn't live without. Have considered using time maching and going back to 10.5, as I can find a solution. I sent a mail to the BJango folks but no response what so ever, now their saying on their twitter it's going to be days. They shouldn't have let you review it, as it upsets me the most that it is available, yet those of us who have been using it for so long, don't have it.
August 30th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Betas are usually closed tests. I am not able to provide the beta software. I've been using it for a long time as well, and guess my writing is why they let me in the beta.
August 30th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
And that's pretty sad. I'm a software developer, can definitely test the app, and write valid bug reports. I asked to be in the beta, but I wasn't aware of it until Snow Leopard went live, by which time BJango wasn't giving out any more beta invites. Now I've gone 2.5 days without it, and I've spent an hour today looking around for an alternative.
August 31st, 2009 at 2:34 am
Beta finally posted here:
http://digg.com/apple/iStat_Menus_2_0_beta_for_...
August 31st, 2009 at 7:40 pm
From the file drop page:
This file can not be downloaded at this time.
The file iStat Menus Installer.zip has reached its download limit. Files in non-premium drops can only be downloaded 1000 times, both to prevent abuse and because at very high download rates our service becomes prohibitively expensive. If you need to download this file, ask the drop's administrator to remove this download limit by upgrading this drop, either through drop.io manager or a one-time upgrade.
August 31st, 2009 at 8:37 pm
I have notified iSlayer of the problem and will post any information I get from them here.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:15 am
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November 8th, 2009 at 4:34 am
Oh, thank you thank you thank you!!! I missed Istats on my menu bar!!! And now it's back. My Macs now feel complete again :-)
November 8th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Oh, thank you thank you thank you!!! I missed Istats on my menu bar!!! And now it's back. My Macs now feel complete again :-)