iStat Menus 7.0 Brings Comprehensive Redesign and New Features

[Hap67]

Would like to be able to edit the colors of this particular menu bar item (battery percentage), but you can see it doesn't respect the colors (combined view).

 

[thewiccaman]

Long time user via Setapp. This new version doesn't work - nothing shows up in the menu bar (with bartender installed).

Deleted and gone with Stats, open source and much better.

 

[Hap67]

Long time user via Setapp. This new version doesn't work - nothing shows up in the menu bar (with bartender installed).

Deleted and gone with Stats, open source and much better.

Bartender was great, until it was bought out and there are some indications the new developer is a bit shady. Deleted and went with the open source and free Hidden Bar.

 

[nottorp]

If you get all your software through the Apple Store, then yes, you’re right. But for anything outside that channel, including HomeBrew, you’d be better off monitoring their performance loads.

In my experience, it's usually Apple provided (and generally undocumented) daemons that get stuck at 100% CPU

 

[Jason_G]

I admit I may not have seen a lot of the content on these MacRumours forums over the years, but I have to say it really is so good to see the developer engage directly with the user base here, don't think I've ever seen that, so big thanks @Bjango!

Question: Is it still the case that the Mac App Store version still has a few less features than the version directly downloaded from your website?

• It can not control fan speeds.
• It can not show CPU frequency.
• The iStat Menus Helper is needed to view some stats.

I could have sworn I saw that weather wasn't available on the Mac App Store version on this site earlier:

Mac App Store version differences

Makers of iStat Menus, Skala and other great apps.

bjango.com

Cheers

 

[canadianpj]

This is the way devs ^^

Subscriptions can die in a fire

Unfortunately, that's old thinking and not sustainable for most companies. In the case of this software perhaps they have only a few developers or other sources of income but no company will survive on such low prices.

 

[tosbsas]

anyone knows the update price - cannot find that info

 

[Hap67]

anyone knows the update price - cannot find that info

I paid $12.99US for a Family Pack (5 License) upgrade.

 

[Daytona 360]

I’m not sure what you mean by “Kbits or kBytes”?

He is referring to the network menu bar item - KB/s or Kb/s is no longer an option and the decimal place selection does not apply when the interface is idle (e.g. if decimal place is set to 2, when there is network activity it will display for example 2.34 MB/s, but when idle it will display 0 MB/s instead of 0.00 MB/s)

 

[cueball73]

The Mac App Store and macOS are a bit different to the iOS App Store. I don’t think we’re being given any special treatment at all. We have to comply with the same sandboxing rules as everyone else.


Thank you so much!


On the time tab, clicking the pencil in the menu bar preview will open the time format sheet. Clicking the pencil in the sheet will let you edit. From there, you can click + to add items. The calendar icon is under “icons”, and the day of the week is under “days”. There’s a few calendar icon styles to choose from, too.

Here’s a setup using iStat Menus 7 that’s similar.

View attachment 2401818

Got it, thanks. I will play with it for the week.

 

[erthquake]

For a professional user (I work in post production) seeing what is causing slow downs or bottlenecks in real time is outrageously valuable. I spend less time troubleshooting and more time working. Suddenly the timeline is lagging? Check iStat, CPU through the roof, click, show top processes, oh this one app has gone rogue, quit, machine happy. All in less than ten seconds. In terms of its ability to sustain my productivity, iStat Menus has probably been worth hundreds of man-hours to me since it was first released.

Can you tell us other cases that iStat is useful for you? I'm considering buying, but a runaway process is easy enough to spot and kill in Apple's Activity Monitor.

 

[erthquake]

I’ve been owning Macs long before the App Store or Apple Stores existed. Running advanced third-party monitoring software hasn’t never been a necessity. What software you’re running or where it’s from has in most cases very little to do with having to monitor performance loads. macOS and your actual Mac will handle things just fine on their own. There are plenty of safeguards in place that won’t allow your system to just go up in flames or take it down. Unless you start tempering with your system on a hardware level (like overclocking the CPU) or there’s something out of the ordinary going on on the hardware level (like owning a Hackintosh or running a Mac with a defect), the use case of monitoring software such as this is fairly limited.

In the end it’s mostly about giving a (false) sense of control some people think their Macs can’t be without. Or simply because they think it’s cool.


Knowing how fast you’re driving is pretty essential and obligated by law. Constantly knowing how fast your CPU runs is not. Unless there’s some hardware defect your Mac is perfectly capable of handling that on its own. Any MacBook already comes with a “fuel gauge”; the battery indicator in the Menu Bar. 🤷‍♂️ But yeah, it’s a neat piece of software for enthusiasts. Obviously it comes with some other nice features - such as the weather - too.

For lot of us, apps like iStat are akin to fitness apps. Like any athlete who wants to understand how different workouts and diets affect the performance of their bodies, geeks want to understand how their computers behave in many different scenarios. iStat is like an extra sense that we can rely on to understand whether something on our computers needs tweaking to optimize performance.

 

[gank41]

Hi @Bjango I messaged from within the app, too, but for some reason I'm able to select all of the disks I want to show in the Menu Bar, but only one disk shows along with a bunch of empty space.
I've set iStat to have full disk access and checked anywhere else it may need to be listed, and all looks well from a security standpoint.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[n-evo]

understand whether something on our computers needs tweaking to optimize performance.

Cool. Out of interest: What is it you tweak on your Mac?

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

yes; always been a head-scratcher for me.

I guess some folks favor AIO?

They maybe have gotten like two or three feedbacks from individuals asking for it and then decided to add it in? Seems a bit odd but makes three people happy, lol.

 

[mib01]

It's not showing the sensors here, it says it's not supported by that model. Does it only work on Macs with Apple M processors?

To get around the problem, there is the Intel power gadget to reveal the CPU temperature, while the fan rpm would be missing if this new version of iStat really doesn't display everything for Intel Macs.

 

[nottorp]

Unfortunately, that's old thinking and not sustainable for most companies. In the case of this software perhaps they have only a few developers or other sources of income but no company will survive on such low prices.

It's sustainable if you don't think you're Google and hire / rent infrastructure for 2 billion users when you only have 30000...

Not taking VC money also helps. Zero pressure to grow like a cancer.

 

[cueball73]

Installed again... made it half the day. Went back to V6. I think the other guy in the thread put it better than I am able to. But V6 seems great. V7 definitely rubs me the wrong way. MAYBE on a $2.99 BF sale I might consider it. But the upgrade right now just doesn't feel like one. No offense meant to the developers who clearly put a lot of work and care into it.

 

[Ynk]

I don't understand why it's fixed in the menu? You can expand far less important graphs out like the temperature of the wifi-module over a 28 day period, why has that functionality been removed from the battery graph?

 

[culb0743]

Seems to force-activate the discrete GPU on my intel MacBook Pro (2018). Perhaps a bug? Very nice update on everything else.

 

[Bjango]

Sorry to say this, but at first experience it is a downdate
I have put this list in a support message:

Thanks for the list! iStat Menus is our livelihood, and we want to make sure it does everything an app of this kind should do. iStat Menus 7 was a big change in design, and as part of that process we’ve modernised everything about the project. From here, we can look at adding some features and tweaking the design.

Yes! @Bjango , can we bring this one back? I'd like to be able to hover over the "core circle row" and see a pop-up that includes a historical graph for each core. This was in the previous version.

Thanks. Feedback noted!

 

[splifingate]

I don't understand why it's fixed in the menu? You can expand far less important graphs out like the temperature of the wifi-module over a 28 day period, why has that functionality been removed from the battery graph?

?

 

[Bjango]

Would like to be able to edit the colors of this particular menu bar item (battery percentage), but you can see it doesn't respect the colors (combined view).

Ah, thanks. The iOS-style battery item isn’t supposed to have the ability to change colour. For now, that’s a bug (we’ll remove those colour options that don’t currently do anything). But, maybe we’ll add them back if we can work out a nice way to get the colours working. Sorry!

Long time user via Setapp. This new version doesn't work - nothing shows up in the menu bar (with bartender installed).

We definitely want to get the app working for you. If have time to trouble-shoot it, please get in contact: https://bjango.com/contact/

I admit I may not have seen a lot of the content on these MacRumours forums over the years, but I have to say it really is so good to see the developer engage directly with the user base here, don't think I've ever seen that, so big thanks @Bjango!

Question: Is it still the case that the Mac App Store version still has a few less features than the version directly downloaded from your website?

• It can not control fan speeds.
• It can not show CPU frequency.
• The iStat Menus Helper is needed to view some stats.

I could have sworn I saw that weather wasn't available on the Mac App Store version on this site earlier:

Thank you! We’ve put a lot of effort into getting the Mac App Store version of iStat Menus 7 as close as possible to the web version. I’ve just edited the help page you got that info from, too — the Mac App Store version can show CPU frequency (via the helper). You’re also right that the Mac App Store version of iStat Menus 6 didn’t include weather. That has been added.

That means the differences for iStat Menus 7 are that fan speeds can’t be controlled, and the helper is needed for some features (the helper is just part of the app for the web version, and doesn’t require a separate install).

We’re trying to get the Mac App Store version released. It’ll be as soon as possible, but things being how they are, I can’t provide an exact date.

Unfortunately, that's old thinking and not sustainable for most companies. In the case of this software perhaps they have only a few developers or other sources of income but no company will survive on such low prices.

You may be right, for most companies. We keep things very lean. The software you see on our website is our entire business. We’ve been around for 19 years and are self-funded. This means we answer only to ourselves and our customers. We’re not trying to be the next billion dollar company.

Having said that, you can expect some big projects from us over the coming years. We have a lot in the pipeline.

It's sustainable if you don't think you're Google and hire / rent infrastructure for 2 billion users when you only have 30000...

Not taking VC money also helps. Zero pressure to grow like a cancer.

Yep! We’re fully remote, and have been that way since the beginning. We’re completely fine with staying a similar size forever.

 

[splifingate]

Surprisingly, it was one of the top requested features for iStat Menus 5. It isn’t normally part of a tool like iStat Menus, but we felt it fit in well enough, and given it’s optional, people who don’t want weather can just ignore it.

Aye, I can see that; and I really do appreciate that it's an option

Y'all make exceptional soft . . . I wouldn't comp without it!

 

[Bjango]

For a professional user (I work in post production) seeing what is causing slow downs or bottlenecks in real time is outrageously valuable. I spend less time troubleshooting and more time working. Suddenly the timeline is lagging? Check iStat, CPU through the roof, click, show top processes, oh this one app has gone rogue, quit, machine happy. All in less than ten seconds. In terms of its ability to sustain my productivity, iStat Menus has probably been worth hundreds of man-hours to me since it was first released.

Thank you so much for this comment! I’m so happy it’s been useful. I hope we can continue to help you for many years to come.

anyone knows the update price - cannot find that info

It’ll depend on currency conversion, local taxes etc, but…

iStat Menus 7 = USD$11.99
iStat Menus 7 Upgrade = USD$9.99
iStat Menus 7 Family Pack = USD$14.99
iStat Menus 7 Family Pack Upgrade = USD$12.99

He is referring to the network menu bar item - KB/s or Kb/s is no longer an option and the decimal place selection does not apply when the interface is idle (e.g. if decimal place is set to 2, when there is network activity it will display for example 2.34 MB/s, but when idle it will display 0 MB/s instead of 0.00 MB/s)

The “bandwidth format” setting on the network tab lets your choose various formats, including one that uses KB/s and MB/s, as well as Kb/s and Mb/s. Showing “0” when two decimal places is used was an intentional choice. Would you prefer “0.00” when the value is “0”? I’m not sure you gain any extra precision from that?