iStat Menus Updated With New Look, History Views, and Bandwidth Monitor

[redshovel]

Originally Posted by milo

Celsius verus Fahrenheit maybe?

No its definitely still reading Celsius.

If I leave the MBP idol the reading does eventually drop to 40 but shoots up-to 50 to 60 the second I start doing anything like open Safari or iTunes.

Is the default sensor reading in iStats 4 'CPU Die - Digital' the same as in iStats 3??, because there is no way my machine used to run at 50 with just Safari open!

EDIT

After performing the usual system resets readings have settled down a bit but the temp reading is still higher than recorded by version 3 earlier today.

[Bjango]

Originally Posted by NickZac

Okay...so I went back to the image and not seeing it is my fault. I apologize for my original comment regarding that. To be completely honest with you, I don't think a lot of people read the fine print.

I agree and we're definitely going to make sure that next time things are done a little differently.

Originally Posted by NickZac

I honestly just saw 'upgrade' and 'install'.

Yep. The button should have probably been labeled "Install Trial". Please note that you can install iStat Menus 3 again if you choose.

Originally Posted by NickZac

I spent a good 30 minutes playing around with 4 and could not get the image to the same level of sharpness. For most, that probably is not an issue. For me, it is the difference in being able to read it and not. From what I have noticed, some retina-tuned programs seem to lose a bit of clarity on non-retina screens, but that could just be me.

We'll try to look into that. As you've said, it can sometimes be difficult to make font choices for small text that looks great on non-Retina and Retina.

Originally Posted by redshovel

If I leave the MBP idol the reading does eventually drop to 40 but shoots up-to 50 to 60 the second I start doing anything like open Safari or iTunes.

I'm not sure why you're seeing different temperatures to iStat Menus 3. 50ºC to 60ºC definitely sounds well within normal operating temp though. As mentioned previously, we try to audit sensors each release, to make sure they're showing the correct values. This is why some names change and why some values are a little different.

[NickZac]

Originally Posted by Bjango

I agree and we're definitely going to make sure that next time things are done a little differently.

Yep. The button should have probably been labeled "Install Trial". Please note that you can install iStat Menus 3 again if you choose.

We'll try to look into that. As you've said, it can sometimes be difficult to make font choices for small text that looks great on non-Retina and Retina.

Thanks for the response

If the text sharpness of 4 can be improved on non-retina screens then I wouldn't be opposed to upgrading. But as of right now, it's too blurry for me to read without having to move in close and squint.

[wtsitmn]

Originally Posted by Quu

I actually purchased iStat Menus 3 when it released but I don't think I'm going to pay for this new version. I don't see why I would pay to get what is essentially a Retina Graphic update. The new features are pretty worthless.

Do not "Update" to version 4 unless you're absolutely certain you want to keep it and pay for it. If you install it, then decide to go back to version 3, you'll have quite a mess on your hands. The icons from version 4 will remain, but you won't be able to access them because they now link to the version 3 preference menu you reinstalled. Your old version 3 options will be gone, and if you select any of them you'll then have version 3 and version 4 both showing. WTF?!! I could have checked for a way to resolve all this nonsense, but I chose to simply restore from my last backup rather than going through all the headaches. It was painfully clear that the boneheads running Banjo [sic] were only interested in making a profit rather than caring for their customers. FOR SHAME!!!

Dear Banjo Boneheads:
When you prompt users to "update" their software, they don't expect to get an upgrade they then have to pay you for without a way out.

[MacRumoren]

Originally Posted by wtsitmn

Do not "Update" to version 4 unless you're absolutely certain you want to keep it and pay for it. If you install it, then decide to go back to version 3, you'll have quite a mess on your hands. The icons from version 4 will remain, but you won't be able to access them because they now link to the version 3 preference menu you reinstalled. Your old version 3 options will be gone, and if you select any of them you'll then have version 3 and version 4 both showing. WTF?!! I could have checked for a way to resolve all this nonsense, but I chose to simply restore from my last backup rather than going through all the headaches. It was painfully clear that the boneheads running Banjo [sic] were only interested in making a profit rather than caring for their customers. FOR SHAME!!!

Dear Banjo Boneheads:
When you prompt users to "update" their software, they don't expect to get an upgrade they then have to pay you for without a way out.

Yup, this is the most MESSED-UP upgrade ever. There was no warning when the app automatically updated itself. I considered paying for the upgrade but now no matter what I do (unistall, reinstall etc), I can't resolve the "TOP PROCESSES no showing" issue documented on their site here: http://bjango.com/help/istatmenus/noprocesses/

Anyone else having this issue of "processes not showing"?

[PhilipPeake]

I have to agree that if an upgrade requires a new licence (money) then it should be clearly stated, and provision made to stay at the current release without being bombarded with new upgrade notifications.

I was quite annoyed to find that having installed the upgrade I had to pay to use it, and apparently no ability to roll back to the previous version.

The expanded graphs (black background) are pretty ugly. I would much prefer the ability to customize them back to the V3 format.

Moving stuff around is a pain. I am used to looking at the battery widget to see what the current consumption is. That has now moved under the "Sensors" widget - which displays temperature ... a bit odd to click on temp to see current consumption.

Would be nice to suppress all the silly "progress bars") or whatever they are called and just display the value as a number (Hint: If I wanted an iPad, I would BUY an iPad, I REALLY don't want my laptop to look feel or behave like an iPad).

Generally, not terribly pleased with the money I was forced to spend.

This moved from a "Yes, go buy this thing" classification to a "Meh!" classification.

The history stuff is good, the bandwidth monitor is good. All spoiled by gratuitous shuffling stuff around and crappy aesthetic changes.

[Ledgem]

I saw the notification about it being a paid update very clearly, and held off on it. Since I don't use a "retina" display and didn't see any compelling features in version 4 over version 3, I figured I'd just stick with it. However, the upgrade pricing was low and I use this app (as well as the out-of-support Dashboard app) many times each day, so I figured I'd do my part to support the developers. I upgraded to version 4 yesterday.

I'm neither pleased nor displeased. There are some neat changes (such as having more information, over a longer span of time), and then there are some things that I'll need to get used to. The big one is the color scheme. I had mine set to green, which matched my iStat Pro Dashboard widget's color scheme and was rather calming on the eyes. If I remember correctly, the color scheme setting influenced the color of some of the text, and the color of the menu graph items. Now all of the text is gray, and the graph colors seemingly can't be changed from blue and red. It's not a bad thing, it's just different from what I'm used to.

I do have one request for the developer. I use Bartender for keeping my menu bar somewhat minimal. This allows me to have the most critical iStat measurements visible at all times, and to have the rest in a secondary menu bar that I can pull up and hide on demand. I can highly recommend it to anyone who thinks that the iStat readouts take up too much space, and who doesn't want to use the Combined feature in iStat. Bartender's options differentiate between "system" items (seemingly, those designated by Apple), other items, and items corresponding to applications. It's not a critical thing, but for some reason iStat shows up under the system items. It would be nice if it showed up under the "active menu items," instead. I assume this has something to do with how iStat Menus is designating itself, but it may be an issue on Bartender's end. If it's intentional, that's OK - I just figured I'd mention it.

Regardless of my personal preferences, I'd also like to say "thank you" to the developers for working on this application. It's very useful.

[freeskier989]

WTF the menu bar for HDD suddenly shows 0 for used/free? Check it out:

[Concorde Rules]

Is this a bug where the history graphs show the wrong peak values?



Also, it would be nice if you can choose how big your graphs are.

They are kind of too small and lost on at 27" at 2560x1440...

Finally, with the history graphs, can you link the lines (i.e. bridge the gaps) when the machine is asleep/restarted? I don't know how this would look but I've got large 12 hour gaps which make the graphs look, abit silly.

[Bjango]

Originally Posted by redshovel

Just purchased iStats 4 - looks very nice however temperature reading on menu bar has went from an average of 35 to around 75.

75ºC is fairly normal for a CPU Die temperature sensor, while things are being done (Safari can be fairly demanding).

Originally Posted by redshovel

Is the default sensor reading in iStats 4 'CPU Die - Digital' the same as in iStats 3??

What was the name of the sensor in iStat Menus 3? Maybe it was a CPU proximity sensor you're comparing to? I believe the die sensors are located in the CPU and the proximity sensors are nearby, so the proximity ones are typically lower.

Originally Posted by wtsitmn

Do not "Update" to version 4 unless you're absolutely certain you want to keep it and pay for it. If you install it, then decide to go back to version 3, you'll have quite a mess on your hands. The icons from version 4 will remain, but you won't be able to access them because they now link to the version 3 preference menu you reinstalled.

This shouldn't be the case at all. Did you uninstall iStat Menus 4 before reinstalling iStat Menus 3? Due to the nature of the app, there's a lot of moving parts in the background, so you can't just drag the app itself to the trash.

Originally Posted by PhilipPeake

I have to agree that if an upgrade requires a new licence (money) then it should be clearly stated, and provision made to stay at the current release without being bombarded with new upgrade notifications.

We could have definitely made it more clear (lesson learned), but there is a button that can be used to skip the update (Skip This Version), plus a way to disable update checking completely, if you'd like to do so.

Originally Posted by PhilipPeake

I was quite annoyed to find that having installed the upgrade I had to pay to use it, and apparently no ability to roll back to the previous version.

If you'd like to revert to iStat Menus 3, please uninstall iStat Menus 4 and reinstall iStat Menus 3.

Originally Posted by PhilipPeake

I am used to looking at the battery widget to see what the current consumption is. That has now moved under the "Sensors" widget - which displays temperature ... a bit odd to click on temp to see current consumption.

Battery usage should be under the battery menubar item (configurable from the Battery tab within iStat Menus).

Originally Posted by PhilipPeake

Would be nice to suppress all the silly "progress bars") or whatever they are called and just display the value as a number (Hint: If I wanted an iPad, I would BUY an iPad, I REALLY don't want my laptop to look feel or behave like an iPad).

Which bars are you talking about? They may be able to be changed.

Originally Posted by Ledgem

I saw the notification about it being a paid update very clearly, and held off on it. Since I don't use a "retina" display and didn't see any compelling features in version 4 over version 3, I figured I'd just stick with it. However, the upgrade pricing was low and I use this app (as well as the out-of-support Dashboard app) many times each day, so I figured I'd do my part to support the developers. I upgraded to version 4 yesterday.

Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Ledgem

It's not a critical thing, but for some reason iStat shows up under the system items. It would be nice if it showed up under the "active menu items," instead. I assume this has something to do with how iStat Menus is designating itself, but it may be an issue on Bartender's end. If it's intentional, that's OK - I just figured I'd mention it.

This is because iStat Menus uses NSMenuExtra, rather than NSStatusItem. NSStatusItem is the method Apple want third party developers to use (and the only method acceptable for the Mac App Store), but NSMenuExtra items have many advantages, like the ability to be reordered and placed just to the left of the Spotlight icon. For iStat Menus, those two features are essential. So, unfortunately, it's unlikely we'd change. Maybe there's something the Bartender guys could change at their end.

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Regardless of my personal preferences, I'd also like to say "thank you" to the developers for working on this application. It's very useful.

Thanks. We're a tiny company, but we work hard. I hope it shows.

----------

Originally Posted by freeskier989

WTF the menu bar for HDD suddenly shows 0 for used/free?

Can you please check to see if you have a disk added to the Menubar Disks area? This will determine which disk(s) are shown in the menubar.

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

Is this a bug where the history graphs show the wrong peak values?

The values in the history graphs are averages of time periods in question. This will smooth out spikes, but also give a better indication of what happened within that period.

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

Finally, with the history graphs, can you link the lines (i.e. bridge the gaps) when the machine is asleep/restarted? I don't know how this would look but I've got large 12 hour gaps which make the graphs look, abit silly.

Showing a gap is probably the more true and correct way to represent the data though.

[fortunecookie]

Hopefully the upgrade from the version 3 to 4 would be a lot cheaper than $9

[Kimcha]

Love the update, thank you! Finally my menu bar is super sharp On my rmbp!

[Mr. McMac]

Love the update but I'm having a slight issue I've had with earlier versions of iStat Menus 3. When I set my fan speed 2300 rpm's,(I named it "normal") it will run at the speed until I put my 2011 Mac Mini to sleep. When I wake it up, the fan will now run at the default 1800 rpm's even though the normal setting is still selected as seen in the image below. If I re-click my normal setting, the fan will speed up to where I set it. The issue doesn't occur when I power up or re-boot, only when I wake the system from sleep

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by fortunecookie

Hopefully the upgrade from the version 3 to 4 would be a lot cheaper than $9

Show some respect. These guys put in a lot of time and effort into this program, and $9 isn't that much to ask - particularly considering that they don't have an aggressive upgrade schedule (for an example of what I mean, look at Parallels, which has a $40 to $50 upgrade pretty much annually). Don't like it? Don't buy it, but don't whine to the developer about it.

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by Bjango

Showing a gap is probably the more true and correct way to represent the data though.

That is all very well but I end up with a completely pointless 7 day graph:



Thinking about it, I'd prefer it if the gaps weren't shown at all and just show the 7 days equivalent uptime.

It is a tricky one but the graph atm is completely pointless IMO.

If they could be adjusted in size so you can actually see more then that might be better?

Three user options I'd like to see implemented:

1. Show average or peak over 1 hour/24 hours/7 days. (I'd be interested in my SSDs actual PEAK throughputs).
2. Adjust the size of the graphs.
3. Choose if they want 7 days graph to be real-time or up-time based, because I'd prefer the latter.

[Bjango]

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

1. Show average or peak over 1 hour/24 hours/7 days. (I'd be interested in my SSDs actual PEAK throughputs).

That would be great. Please understand that there's some significant technical hurdles in making it work like that though. (For performance and space reasons, data is consolidated.)

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

3. Choose if they want 7 days graph to be real-time or up-time based, because I'd prefer the latter.

Moving the data so it forms a continuous graph seems like we'd be misrepresenting the data though. (Please also note that iStat Menus and iStat Server are often used by people who have machines running long hours, so seeing sleep time would be advantageous).

Thanks for the feedback though — we definitely will keep refining iStat Menus.

Originally Posted by Mr. McMac

Love the update but I'm having a slight issue I've had with earlier versions of iStat Menus 3. When I set my fan speed 2300 rpm's,(I named it "normal") it will run at the speed until I put my 2011 Mac Mini to sleep. When I wake it up, the fan will now run at the default 1800 rpm's even though the normal setting is still selected as seen in the image below. If I re-click my normal setting, the fan will speed up to where I set it. The issue doesn't occur when I power up or re-boot, only when I wake the system from sleep

Thanks for letting me know. I've logged the issue and we'll hopefully get that fixed soon.

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Don't like it? Don't buy it, but don't whine to the developer about it.

Just a small addition to this: We're a small and lean company, and we really love making software. If iStat Menus (or all our apps combined), don't provide us enough income to eat, pay the mortgage, live etc, then we can't continue to develop them. It really is as simple as that.

The reason the iStat Menus 4 upgrade is $9 is based on the number of users we have. This is also why some iPhone apps can be 99c (iOS has a lot more users than OS X). Software isn't cheap because you bought it, it's cheap because other people bought it.

Apologies for the rant.

[Yujenisis]

Originally Posted by Bjango

We could have definitely made it more clear (lesson learned), but there is a button that can be used to skip the update (Skip This Version), plus a way to disable update checking completely, if you'd like to do so.

Thanks for recognizing and owning the issue that clearly upset a number of people. I have yet to upgrade myself, as I found myself not using iStat 3 nearly as often as I thought I would.

I think we all appreciate your time spent addressing folks' concerns.

[DT39]

I love istat 3 it's great a few bit are not right but still very good. I had the upgrade notification pop up so upgraded to 14 day trial of version 4 it only lasted about a hour on my 15 rMBP dont like the look and i get constant read & write to ssd with it installed!

Big let down that you have to pay for a upgrade that has so many reported bugs seems more like a pay for beta! I paid $19.20 in August for Version 3 and now they want another $9 to upgrade, no thanks i will stick with version 3!

[Bjango]

Originally Posted by DT39

constant read & write to ssd with it installed!

That's the history being saved to disk.

Originally Posted by DT39

I paid $19.20 in August for Version 3 and now they want another $9 to upgrade, no thanks i will stick with version 3!

Thank you for buying iStat Menus 3. We're going to keep improving iStat Menus 4, so maybe at some point you'll give it another try. iStat Menus 4.03 should address the last few known issues, so we can get back to adding features.

[mag01]

Originally Posted by Bjango

That's the history being saved to disk.

But we don't want such writes with SSD disks. The less writes the better.

[leandrofgj]

Originally Posted by mag01

But we don't want such writes with SSD disks. The less writes the better.

Exactly! I tested and I get approx. 1 GB of writes for 10 hours of running. Due to the nature of SSDs, while the system writes 1 GB the drive is writing much more on the flash disk:

"Write amplification ensures that while my OS may be writing 7GB per day to my drive, the drive itself is writing more than 7GB to its flash. Remember, writing to a full block will require a read-modify-write. Worst case scenario, I go to write 4KB and my SSD controller has to read 512KB, modify 4KB, write 512KB and erase a whole block. While I should’ve only taken up one write cycle for 2048 MLC NAND flash cells, I will have instead knocked off a single write cycle for 262,144 cells."
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2829/6

Sorry but I won't be using version 4 with historic. This might be useful for some users but not for me. Maybe you could leave this as an option.

[Robsta2142]

Not sure if anyone else is experiencing this, but since installing the new version, the menus all keep freezing, including the normal OS clock.

[Badagri]

So Bjango is still iSlayer just under a new name? same developers and all?

[razmarino]

Originally Posted by leandrofgj

Maybe you could leave this as an option.

+++ for this

[Bjango]

Originally Posted by Robsta2142

Not sure if anyone else is experiencing this, but since installing the new version, the menus all keep freezing, including the normal OS clock.

We just released iStat Menus 4.03, which fixes that issue. Please let us know if you have any issues with the new update. Clicking Check For Updates should give you the new version.

Here's what's new:
http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/versionhistory/

Originally Posted by Badagri

So Bjango is still iSlayer just under a new name? same developers and all?

Yep, we just changed names.

Originally Posted by leandrofgj

Maybe you could leave this as an option.

We'll definitely consider it.