iStat Menus by Bjango has been updated to version 4, adding a new look and new features. Among other things, the app now shows a historical chart of various system metrics looking at the past hour, 24 hours and week. It also adds a Little Snitch-esque look at which processes are using up network bandwidth.
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Bjango has now come out with iStat Menus 4, and the new version has some interesting and, for me, welcome changes. Aside from the usual bug fixes, Retina support and better Mountain Lion compatibility, iStat Menus 4 introduces a refreshed look that brings consistency with Bjango’s other iStat app, iStat 2. iStat Menus now features the same style for graphs and charts as iStat 2, and, even better, it comes with the same History menu to view a component’s performance over time. For instance, you can mouse over the CPU’s main graph and check out a second menu with History for the past hour, 24 hours, and 7 days. There are more time-related view options available, and there’s more to customize in the app’s Preferences (which have also been redesigned, and it took me a while to get used to them at first). I appreciate the consistency with iStat 2, and I like History because it lets me easily check my network’s conditions over time.
iStat Menus 4 is available for $16 via Bjango's online store. It's $9 for current iStat Menus 3 owners.
Top Rated Comments
This may be me, but it looks really messy and ugly to me. Having your internet speed and CPU usage showing all the time is a unnecessary distraction and goes against the 'it just works' Mac philosophy. It's all a bit linux-sy!
This post makes me sad.
Still shows that all GPU memory is used. :mad:
This is a known issue. OS X 10.8 introduced some changes for some graphics cards that meant memory usage isn't reported correctly. At this point we believe it's a driver issue and one we can't fix at our end.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.
That's correct — we kept the iSlayer website and all the widgets around for several years after we ceased development of them. If you'd like to download one of the widgets, I can provide a link.I just upgraded. It's buggy. Clicking to next month takes me to December 2013. Clicking the heading to return to current month takes me to October 2012.
This is a known issues that some users (definitely not all) are seeing. We're working hard on a fix right now (we think we have it solved, but are still doing some testing).The text indicator for upload/download speeds stays stuck at 0.0b/s.
Do you have the Primary Interface set to Automatic? It's possible you're monitoring an interface that's not the one you're using for internet.Those disk space indicator bars and most of the other graphs are UGLY.
Ugly in which way? We're definitely going to make some design changes as version 4 progresses.The text in the menus is way too large and makes my sensors menu extend WAY off screen.
Which Mac model do you have? The text is already smaller than Apple's standard menus. I'm not sure we'd want to go much smaller.I'll stick with version 3.
We're totally fine with that and hope you're enjoying iStat Menus 3.I just bought v3 three days ago. Complained yesterday when I saw the new version, and they sent me a new registration for v4 five minutes later.
November 12 is the cut off. If anyone purchased iStat Menu on or after November 12, please get in touch and we'll give you an upgrade.Not sure if v3 had info about which processes was consuming the most bandwidth, but very nicely done in v4 (no need for little snitch).
That's new for iStat Menus 4. :)At least there is upgrading pricing.
Yep. We've been able to do a few nice things like upgrade pricing, a 14 day trial and we've been able to upgrade people who bought recently. All not possible if we were on the Mac App Store. (Not that iStat Menus could be on the Mac App Store anyway.)If it were on the MAS (BTW, I think app store restrictions make it impossible) what would happen is the old version would get pulled and everyone would have to pay full price. :rolleyes:
Relevant, Bjango's take on the app store. (http://bjango.com/articles/hotdogapplife/)
Well for one, it's fugly.
Thank you. Please see above regarding Mac App Store. Not possible for iStat Menus without drastically changing the functionality, unfortunately.I never thought I'd say this, but I downloaded the trial, and absolutely fell in love with it. I too wish it was on the mac app store, but oh well.
Again, it's been 31 months since I purchased 3.0 and they've constantly upgraded the product through various Apple system upgrades to maintain compatibility. This product is a steal at the price. Don't begrudge the authors for wanting to make a little profit. They have a nice suite of integrated products at reasonable prices. It would be nice if there were more small developers like them.
We've updated iStat Menus 3 twenty times since the initial release, plus added new features and support for new Macs. To add support for new Macs, we typically have to buy every single model. We often sell the Macs not long after, but it's a huge app to maintain and develop. Thank you for your comments — this definitely hasn't been a trivial endeavour for us and we still have lots of things planned for 4.x.—
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them in a timely fashion.
Cheers,
Marc
http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/
Why do they keep charging for every version? Its so annoying once a new version comes out and then it either bugs you to update or if you update it by accident it will tell you now you need to buy it. Its still the same app just with some new graphics.
They need to put it on the app store and give free updates. Just my opinion. I know developers need to get paid too, but I don't think a few new icons is worth the money.
You've got to be kidding me. I bought v3.0 in May 2010 for $16. More than two and a half years later I can get an upgrade for $9. That's less than three lattes at Starbucks. It really isn't that much money. I have to say I use iStat menus a lot. I like to see the network speed when I am transferring files around the house and I like to see the CPU temp and activity levels - especially when I am doing video encoding. It's a very useful application.
The developers have to make some money, they really can't just give the product away for free. They aren't out there monetizing the thing every twelve months. Again, it's been 31 months since I purchased 3.0 and they've constantly upgraded the product through various Apple system upgrades to maintain compatibility. This product is a steal at the price. Don't begrudge the authors for wanting to make a little profit. They have a nice suite of integrated products at reasonable prices. It would be nice if there were more small developers like them.
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.
Yeah, I don't see any reason to upgrade either.