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

[louis.b]

So I brought my Macbook Pro to the Apple Genius bar for repair today and out of all the issues I had was the battery health. According to the iStat menu my battery health is down to 89% after less than 6 months. When I notified the Genius guy he dismissed the app saying it "means nothing" since it's a third party app. I was speechless.

[Raunien]

There is a major bug with 2012 classic MBP's where setting the fan speed to a preset doesn't change numbers on the bar (where you can drag to set value).

Also when you put the computer to sleep and wake, the number gets reset to default.

Please fix this

[benthewraith]

Originally Posted by louis.b

So I brought my Macbook Pro to the Apple Genius bar for repair today and out of all the issues I had was the battery health. According to the iStat menu my battery health is down to 89% after less than 6 months. When I notified the Genius guy he dismissed the app saying it "means nothing" since it's a third party app. I was speechless.

Depending on how you're using the battery, that may or may not be a sign of bad battery. If you're charging it and running it down everyday. Still, he should have at least tested the battery with the tools provided rather than dismiss it outright.

[Bjango]

Originally Posted by louis.b

So I brought my Macbook Pro to the Apple Genius bar for repair today and out of all the issues I had was the battery health. According to the iStat menu my battery health is down to 89% after less than 6 months. When I notified the Genius guy he dismissed the app saying it "means nothing" since it's a third party app. I was speechless.

“Battery Health” is simply a comparison between the advertised capacity and reported capacity by OS X. Maybe if you mention it like that they may have a harder time of shooting you down?

System profiler will give you some of the info. I think “Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 6262” shows you the current full capacity for the battery, so you'd have to find a source from Apple for the manufacturer's potential and you could give them the health using their own tools. (Please note that I'm the designer on the project, which is why I said “I think”.)

Originally Posted by Raunien

There is a major bug with 2012 classic MBP's where setting the fan speed to a preset doesn't change numbers on the bar (where you can drag to set value).

Also when you put the computer to sleep and wake, the number gets reset to default.

Thanks. Fan settings not sticking sometimes on wake from sleep is something we're looking into.

[cvs]

Originally Posted by Bjango

We'll definitely consider it.

Hi, also upgraded to new version without knowing this issue.
Yes, please provide an option asap to disable this, no need for the SSD to have this load.

Until then, if there is a workaround by editing the preferences or whatever, can you please provide it?

[Bjango]

Originally Posted by cvs

Yes, please provide an option asap to disable this, no need for the SSD to have this load.

Until then, if there is a workaround by editing the preferences or whatever, can you please provide it?

There's no current workaround but we're looking into ways to make it better.

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by Bjango

There's no current workaround but we're looking into ways to make it better.

Cache data for writes every 1/5/10/30/60 minutes?

[GIZBUG]

4.03 out now I see?

18 December 2012
Fixed an issue where items wouldn’t update.
Improved download & upload order to be more consistent in the Combined item.
Improved selected state for menubar icons.
Improved some menubar icons.
Fixed an issue where where the world clocks list didn’t display correctly.
Fixed an issue with processes not displaying.

[Badagri]

What was the reason for the widgets being discontinued? or was there one? I can only assume it's because of the term "apps"? since widgets don't make money.

Even when it was under the name iSlayer I was kind of disappointed since I keep my menu bar cluttered free of unnecessary menu items. Diehard dashboard user, sadly.

[stevelam]

bought istat 3 not too long ago and was completely fine with it on my rmbp. upgraded to istat 4 to support the devs. thanks!

one comment: i think theres an overusage of gradients in this version. I definitely prefer a much more minimal look to it. for example im definitely not a fan of those blue gradient bars.

[Bjango]

Originally Posted by Badagri

What was the reason for the widgets being discontinued? or was there one? I can only assume it's because of the term "apps"? since widgets don't make money.

There's many reasons. Apple seem to not consider widgets as first class Mac software — widgets can't be sold on the Mac App Store. Dashboard has also been moved around a bit and it seems possible that it will go away in the next major OS X update or so. It's a shame, but that seems like the reality.

And yep, we had lots of downloads of iStat Pro, plus it ended up taking a huge amount of effort to maintain. The hosting alone was costing us a small fortune.

We love that so many people used the widget, but something had to give eventually.

Originally Posted by Badagri

Even when it was under the name iSlayer I was kind of disappointed since I keep my menu bar cluttered free of unnecessary menu items. Diehard dashboard user, sadly.

iStat Menus has a feature to combine many menus into one. So if you use iStat Menus for your clock, then you don't need to sacrifice any menubar space.

Originally Posted by stevelam

bought istat 3 not too long ago and was completely fine with it on my rmbp. upgraded to istat 4 to support the devs. thanks!

Thank you. We really appreciate it. I hope the new Retina graphics in iStat Menus 4 look nice on your Retina MacBook Pro.

Originally Posted by stevelam

one comment: i think theres an overusage of gradients in this version. I definitely prefer a much more minimal look to it. for example im definitely not a fan of those blue gradient bars.

Ok. Thanks for the feedback. We'll definitely keep tweaking things as iStat Menus 4 updates roll out.

[wharzhee]

It would be nice if this is available on the Mac App Store

[Blaine]

Originally Posted by wharzhee

It would be nice if this is available on the Mac App Store

I definitely agree

[JoelBC]

I suppose that I am in the minority as I much prefer the widget as I find that I do not need the iStat information on a regular basis but when I do need it I like to have it available.

I suppose that this could be addressed by the ability to close / open the application without having to turn the slider / toggle for each item off / on...any thoughts of adding this?

I would also like to see simplified information options.

Thanks,


Joel

[benthewraith]

Originally Posted by wharzhee

It would be nice if this is available on the Mac App Store

I don't think it can be because of sandboxing issues.

[wharzhee]

Originally Posted by benthewraith

I don't think it can be because of sandboxing issues.

oo. thanks for the insight.

[Bjango]

Originally Posted by benthewraith

I don't think it can be because of sandboxing issues.

Yeah, sandboxing, private APIs for the menu items (we use the kind that can be reordered and positioned just to the left of the Spotlight icon), plus many, many other reasons. iStat Menus would be totally different and worse if it was on the Mac App Store. That's fine and Apple have very good reasons for their guidelines, but it means we have to exist via web download only.

Originally Posted by JoelBC

I suppose that this could be addressed by the ability to close / open the application without having to turn the slider / toggle for each item off / on...any thoughts of adding this?

We have a way to combine many things under one menubar item, saving lots of space, but keeping quick access to all the stats you might want. Does that sound like what you're after?

Originally Posted by JoelBC

I would also like to see simplified information options.

Many of the dropdown menus can have sections disabled or things combined to save space or simplify how things are show. There's quite a lot shown in iStat Menus and there's quite a few options... we try to keep things as streamlined as possible, but most people use iStat Menus because they want to see what's going on. It's a balancing act — we want to show as much as possible without going overboard.

[JoelBC]

Originally Posted by Bjango

We have a way to combine many things under one menubar item, saving lots of space, but keeping quick access to all the stats you might want. Does that sound like what you're after?

Image



Many of the dropdown menus can have sections disabled or things combined to save space or simplify how things are show. There's quite a lot shown in iStat Menus and there's quite a few options... we try to keep things as streamlined as possible, but most people use iStat Menus because they want to see what's going on. It's a balancing act — we want to show as much as possible without going overboard.

Bjango:

Appreciate the response and apologize for not spending more time on configuring the application...that said, would you be so kind as to PM me or post how to simply the information and look as posted herein to get me started so that I can / will try iStat 4 once again.

With much thanks,


Joel

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Badagri

Even when it was under the name iSlayer I was kind of disappointed since I keep my menu bar cluttered free of unnecessary menu items. Diehard dashboard user, sadly.

I feel similarly. iStat has a "combined" option to reduce menubar clutter, but I don't use it. Instead, I use Bartender (which anyone who hates menubar clutter would probably appreciate). It basically acts as a second menubar that you can bring up and dismiss by a click or hotkey, and you can choose what goes into that secondary menu bar. In my case, I have two "critical" iStat Menu items in my primary bar, and almost everything else is loaded into the Bartender bar (along with a host of other application icons that take up space on the menubar). I can highly recommend it.

Originally Posted by Bjango

There's many reasons. Apple seem to not consider widgets as first class Mac software — widgets can't be sold on the Mac App Store. Dashboard has also been moved around a bit and it seems possible that it will go away in the next major OS X update or so. It's a shame, but that seems like the reality.

I still use the Dashboard for weather and occasionally for iStat (out of habit), but it does seem like it's getting neglected. Perhaps most telling is Apple's change in keyboard layouts, where the F4 key on newer computers activates Launchpad (and has a new icon) instead of Dashboard.

[Blaine]

Any way to turn off individual things in the drop down menus?

For example, I use everything combined into one icon on the menu bar. When I hover over the temperatures, I don't need 90% of all the temps that are shown. How can I pick which information is shown, so that I can hide unneeded info.

[Bjango]

Originally Posted by JoelBC

would you be so kind as to PM me or post how to simply the information and look as posted herein to get me started so that I can / will try iStat 4 once again.

Sure. Which info do you want to hide? iStat Menus is a big app that shows a lot of info! Not everything can be hidden, but where sensible we try to provide options to do so.

There are some situations where we do need to find smart ways to add the ability to hide some things though — please see below for one such example.

Originally Posted by Blaine

When I hover over the temperatures, I don't need 90% of all the temps that are shown. How can I pick which information is shown, so that I can hide unneeded info.

That's not currently possible in iStat Menus 4, unfortunately. If we can think of a smart way to add it, we will.

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Perhaps most telling is Apple's change in keyboard layouts, where the F4 key on newer computers activates Launchpad (and has a new icon) instead of Dashboard.

Yeah, it seems like a clear indication of the future of OS X and Dashboard.

[JoelBC]

Originally Posted by Bjango

Sure. Which info do you want to hide? iStat Menus is a big app that shows a lot of info! Not everything can be hidden, but where sensible we try to provide options to do so.

There are some situations where we do need to find smart ways to add the ability to hide some things though — please see below for one such example.

Let's start with a look / layout similar to that shown in *POST 142" of this thread which I can / will expand on from there...

I - like Blaine - i) do not need the amount of detail on a daily / regular basis but ii) do want the ability to dig down when necessary [i.e. something is not working properly].

Thanks,


Joel

[TouchArchive]

Originally Posted by wharzhee

It would be nice if this is available on the Mac App Store

Originally Posted by Blaine

I definitely agree

Originally Posted by benthewraith

I don't think it can be because of sandboxing issues.

Originally Posted by JoelBC

Let's start with a look / layout similar to that shown in *POST 142" of this thread which I can / will expend on from there...

I - like Blaine - i) do not need the amount of detail on a daily / regular basis but ii) do want the ability to dig down when necessary [i.e. something is not working properly].

Thanks,


Joel

Not chance to see on Mac App Store,Apple not agree to make changes

[Gaelic2]

Originally Posted by oneMadRssn

iStat Pro for Dashboard is gone, no more. You can find a few thread on if here, one thread has been updating it and fixing some of the incompatibilities it has with Mountain Lion, but overall, its donezo.

I have a new iMac 21.5 and moved iStatPro over from my older Mac, an early 2009 24" model. It is still working well. I see no need to buy one when this one (free) still does the job.

[Concorde Rules]

Sad to say but I've gone back to 3 and my what a relief.

Sorry but 4 needs some work to bring it up to what 3 was at

I'll keep 4 on my MBP for the moment tho