IstatMenus
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Friday Favorite: How iStat Menus saved my MacBook Pro from burning up
Early last week, my 2011 MacBook Pro started acting up. The fan was spinning wildly and the aluminum case was hot to the touch. So hot that it left red marks where it was resting on my legs and the laptop shut itself down. I fired it back up again, shut down some of the extra apps that usually run in the background and kept working. Things cooled down inside my MBP, so I just brushed it off as an unusual combination of warm weather and excess apps. I was wrong -- the next morning and again the next evening I experienced the same overheating. To help diagnose the problem, I turned to iStat Menus from Bjango to see what was going on underneath the hood of my Mac. iStat Menus is perfect for diagnosing problems as it tracks a wide variety of statistics for your Mac. The app sits in your menu bar and can track your CPU & GPU usage, memory usage, disk activity, network activity, battery level and sensor readings like temperature. I picked iStat Menus because it was the first one I found that measured hardware as well as software. I was interested in fan speed, which is measured by iStat and not by built-in tools like Apple's Activity Monitor. My previous laptop overheated due to a bad CPU fan, so I initially thought I was dealing with a hardware problem again. I was able to put CPU die temperature (which once climbed to 99°C before my MBP shut down), CPU proximity temperature and exhaust (fan speed) in my menu bar and monitor them simultaneously. This let me watch the fan speed ramp up as the temperature went up, so I knew something else was awry. I then watched the CPU usage using iStat Menus and in just a few minutes, I was able to determine it was a software issue. I singled out TweetDeck as the culprit that was maxing out my CPU and driving my temperature upward. As soon as I force quit the Twitter client, I watched my MBP CPU temperature fall back down to a comparatively cool 50°C. My problems started soon after Tweetdeck was updated on June 14, 2013, but I can't lay the blame on Tweetdeck as I am running OS X Mavericks. I expect wonky behavior like this when I am using beta software. For a few days, I stopped using Tweetdeck and started using it again when OS X Mavericks beta 2 arrived. I am happy to report that this latest build of OS X is Tweetdeck-friendly, and my MBP is now running like a champ again. iStat Menus is available for US$16 from Bjango's website. There is a free 14-day trial so you can check it out before you buy it.
Ask TUAW: DVD Sharing on an iMac, menubar calendar, network scanning, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we have questions about using DVD Sharing on an iMac (instead of a MacBook Air), ignoring Software Updates, getting a drop-down calendar in the menubar, seeing Wi-Fi network channels, using iChat with other services, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume that you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.
iStat menus 1.1 released
We last discussed iStat menus back in June and now the Australian company iSlayer has pushed out version 1.1, adding a variety of new features. Most important perhaps is the re-designed preference pane interface and calendar. There are also a variety of new graphs and breakdowns, as well as some a new sources and some Leopard-only features and improvements. While I've always been a fan of MenuMeters and MenuCalendarClock for similar functionality, iStat menus looks very intriguing, especially given the large number of possible data sources it can monitor.iStat menus remains a free download from iSlayer.[via Macworld UK]
iStat menus v1.1 preview screenshot and details
The iSlayer crew has released a preview screenshot on the company's blog that highlights a few key features coming in v1.1 of iStat menus, their utility for keeping an eye on your Mac's various statistics from the menubar. Specifically new in this upcoming version will be network graphing, monitoring of S.M.A.R.T. hard drive temperatures, a breakdown of every temp sensor on a CPU and what looks like a significantly redesigned calendar. Stat junkies will likely appreciate these new and finely tuned features, though there's no word on when this new version will become available.iStat menus, like every one of iSlayer's mostly statistic-obsessed products, is still provided as freeware.
iStat menus 1.0 released
Last month, the iSlayer crew allowed us to review a beta copy and post a screenshot gallery of iStat menus, their new full-blown app that brings system statistic and resource tracking to the menubar. Known widely for their iStat line of high-quality Dashboard widgets, iStat menus ushers in a new era of customizability and - as I discovered in my review of the beta - noticeably better performance and less resource requirements (hey, it's only fair to test how many resources are used by tools designed to track resources and system statistics). Unfortunately at the time, iStat menus was in a private beta, which meant our dear readers weren't able to get their hands on their own copy. Until now - iSlayer today has announced the availability of iStat menus 1.0. As far as I can tell, not much has changed from the beta I saw in May, but that simply means that an awesome, streamlined app for monitoring your system stats in the menubar has only gotten better since then. Amazingly, iStat menus is still provided as freeware (no, seriously: I would try to get the iSlayer crew committed if I knew where they lived) with the rest of their vast collection of widgets and apps, so grab a copy and start keeping an eye on your system from the comforts of Mac OS X's menubar.
First Look: iStat menus beta and screenshot gallery
For what seems like forever (or at least since April 29th, 2005), the crew at iSlayer have leveraged their obsession with system performance and statistics and provided us with arguably the best darn donationware iStat widgets on the block. For a little while now, they've been teasing their fellow stat enthusiasts with screenshots on the iSlayer blog of their latest creation, iStat menus, which is currently in a private beta. As you might guess, iStat menus is an app (installed and managed as a System Preferences pane) that will display your vital system stats in the menubar, complete with a thoroughly customizable set of options for displaying just the information you want to know. Thankfully, the iSlayer folks were kind enough to give me a copy of the beta, along with permission to post thoughts and a screenshot gallery for your perusal. While I've been trying iStat menus out, I've also been asking the crew a few questions surrounding how it stacks up against iStat pro and nano, especially in terms of performance. One catch with the way iStat menus runs is that it doesn't create its own separate process that can be monitored in Activity Monitor (or, I assume by relation, the Terminal). Instead, each menu item monitor you activate runs as a Menu Extra which lumps itself into the SystemUIServer thread, so the only way Marc Edwards at iSlayer recommended I could compare iStat menu's performance against my long-time favorite iStat pro is simply to watch that thread before and after enabling iStat menu's items. %Gallery-3291%
