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June 6, 2008

updates

iStat menus gets updated to v1.3, wasting time has never been more fun

Posted Jun. 6, ’08, 11:00 AM PT by Aayush Arya
Category | Software » Updates

iStat menusiSlayer just released an update to iStat menus, their nifty little utility that allows obsessive compulsive people like me to keep track of what’s going on inside their computer when they’re using it—every second of every minute of every hour.

I swear, if this ruddy thing hadn’t come along, with its oh-so-cool fluctuating graphs and charts and numbers, I’d be several times more productive than I generally am.

Uh oh, got a little sidetracked there, what with the CPU usage soaring up to ridiculous highs. See what I’m talking about?

Coming back to the topic at hand, this version boasts of a lengthy list of changes, primary among which are text shadows and rounded graph corners, copy IP button (quite useful) and PPP controls, fans extra which can monitor power, current and voltage (apparently, those are three different things), actual running time (uptime minus the time it was in sleep mode) and a whole lot of other minor changes you can check out in the release notes.

As usual, it’s a free update to a free application, installs as a preference pane once you’ve downloaded it (direct link) and the developer requests donations for the hard work that has gone into it, which is clearly evident by its impressive quality.

Drat! CPU usage just shot up to 93%. Microsoft Word is wreaking havoc on my poor processors (it’s Pages actually, but blaming Word is just so much more satisfying, which I don’t even have installed).


5 Comments

Bob said:

I would cheerfully contribute if they would get rid of 'iStat Blaqua' in all of the drop downs. Why is everything written for Leopard so dark and depressing (the dock background, the default space desktop picture, the dark low-contrast icons, the darker -- than Tiger -- gray default color scheme, etc.)? Is Steveo seeing a therapist or something? What is the deal? Maybe everything in 'Snow Leopard' will be snow colored...ok, not the yellow parts just the white parts. Other than the color this version is really nice.

June 6, 2008 11:48 AM
Goobimama said:

I love the new dark look for the apps. Safari looks really awesome!

As for the iStat thing, which is better, the Dashboard widget or the menubar thing? Never tried the menubar one, and the widget is just super cool :)

June 6, 2008 1:54 PM
Call Me Yo Daddy Author Profile Page said:

"wasting time has never been more fun" LOL. Couldn't you guys have been a bit more thoughtful? How is iStat wasting time? It's a very USEFUL app that provides important info about your system in real-time.

I had been accustomed to these type of programs on Windows. So when I switched to a Mac laster year and found iStat I was overjoyed. In fact iStat is better than anything I used on Windows for the same info.

June 6, 2008 8:32 PM
Aayush Arya Author Profile Page said:

Well, as you might know, I’m having a little trouble getting Dashboard to work (and Apple seems to be in no particular hurry to fix it), so the menu bar implementation is the only one that works for me.

For you, however, it depends on which one you more frequently and easily access—the menu bar or the Dashboard. Also, the Dashboard widget has the advantage of being able to display all the statistics at once, while you have to click on the menu bar items individually to get detailed information. The advantage of the latter is that they’re always on the screen and occupy less space.

Choose your poison. :)

June 8, 2008 3:17 AM
Goobimama said:

@Daddy: Of course it is useful otherwise the wouldn't have posted it here. It is said in jest. Although, many a times i find myself just watching the stats with no real purpose, and it is fun.

June 8, 2008 8:20 AM

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