![]() ![]() ![]() For $16, you get as much technical information as you want, plus a means of reviewing that data to see which components might need repairs or replacement. You use the iStat Menus preferences window to choose the hardware modules you’d like to monitor.ījango has created a standout application for hardware-level monitoring of your Mac. This is a driver issue, however, that will likely require collaboration between AMD and Apple to nail down, so the company doesn’t have an official estimate when this bug will be fixed. Bjango has noted that the company is fighting a memory-usage bug relating to particular AMD graphics cards on current MacBook Pro notebooks. Day-to-day functionality was smooth, with no latency or spinning beach balls to speak of, even as the application monitored everything it could. Throughout my testing, iStat Menus ran well on my MacBook Pro’s OS X 10.8.3 partition. This single click saves you a trip to a Get Info window or the Disk Utility application-a convenience that does not go unappreciated. Click the Hard Drive module, and you can quickly determine how much storage is used or available on each of your Mac’s mounted volumes, as well as each supported drive’s current S.M.A.R.T. Click the Network module, and you can clearly see your current IP address as well as useful tidbits such as your upstream- and downstream-data speeds. Where the program truly shines is in its user interface. Shortcuts for Apple’s Activity Monitor, Console, Terminal, System Profiler, and System Preferences give you easy access, so you don’t have to wade through the /Applications/Utilities folder to get to the app you want.Ĭlick the Hard Drive module to get info about your Mac’s mounted volumes. Other features, such as a battery-cycle counter and -condition readout, help answer pertinent questions, such as whether your battery is in good shape and when you might need to fork out some dough to Apple for a replacement. An easy-to-understand readout displays your battery’s health, cycles, and overall status. This feature is handy for diagnosing components that may be failing, and outside of a few programs-including the tools generally leased to Apple Certified Macintosh Technicians-it’s rare to find a program that offers readouts for specific modules, sensors, and system components. The utility can display historical data as a chart that allows you to see exactly how each component in your Mac has performed over time. A quick click on the Temperature-sensor module, for instance, reveals the temperatures for each element of your computer, down to components such as the CPU cores, your MacBook’s palm rest and battery, and so on. IStat Menus offers generous portions of valuable technical information in a readily digestible format. Dragging the desired components into place is easy enough.Ĭharts in the CPU module display what your processor is going through, and if anything is out of order. On my 2011 13-inch MacBook Pro, I prefer to display the Battery, Network, Hard Drive, RAM, and CPU modules on display. You can customize the application, which now resides in your menu bar, to display information about the specific components you’d like to watch. Over the years, iStat Menus has had a few radical transformations, growing beyond its origins as a freeware System Preferences pane to become a full-fledged application-but it has grown up gracefully. The Temperature module shows readouts for just about every sensor and component in your Mac. If you crave useful, at-a-glance information about your Mac’s components, iStat Menus puts that data right in your menu bar. ![]() To that end, almost no piece of software does what Bjango’s $16 iStat Menus 4.05 achieves, offering full monitoring of your system’s CPU, RAM, and disk usage network activity component temperatures fan speeds Bluetooth functionality and international dates and times. It pays to know what’s going on inside your Mac, whether you’re watching your free memory or monitoring hardware. ![]()
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