SystemMonitor
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A hands-on look at iStat Menus 3
During the summer of 2008, I was using my MacBook Air outside on a very hot (102°F in the shade) day when I noticed that the laptop seemed to have slowed down to the point that it was almost unusable. Fortunately, I had installed iSlayer's iStat, and I was able to tell at a glance that one of the cores of the Core 2 Duo processor had shut down. Sure enough, a quick look around the Web pointed out that other MacBook Air owners were running into similar problems in "warm" conditions. Cooling off the MBA resolved the issue (and made me a lot cooler, too!), and I've never had the problem since. That one occurrence taught me the value of a tool like iStat, so the application has been on my Macs ever since. Now comes iStat Menus 3, the latest version of the venerable Mac monitoring application. The company name has changed -- it's now Bjango -- but the product still remains a useful tool for those of us who like to keep an eye on the internal workings of our Macs. I recently bought iStat Menus 3 to install on a new i7 iMac, so here are some of my first impressions of the app.
Monitor your Mac's health with CheckUp
Geeks love to try out new applications, but hardcore nerds (like me) like installing new utilities.At first glance, CheckUp by App4Mac is a system monitor. Use it to keep track of your processor(s), RAM, disks, network activity and processes. But that's just the beginning.The UI is very nice. Each set of functions gets its own window. For instance, the "Profile" pane displays information like your machine's serial number, OS, processor(s), IP address, MAC address and more. The "System" pane lists all installed applications and their version numbers, plus all operating systems that your machine will support, including Windows and Linux. A drop-down menu lets you switch between installed applications, fonts, drivers, Internet plugins, preference panes and login items. The re-sizable window moves from pane to pane with a snazzy 3-D transition (either cube or swap) and is very easy to read. I especially like the "Processors" pane which lets you pop out the meters measuring processor activity.Here's the cool part of CheckUp. You can use it to monitor a remote computer, either on your LAN or across the internet. This is very handy for IT pros who could use a quick-and-dirty glance at a far-away machine.The purchase fee of $29US includes lifetime updates. If you're looking for a stylish system monitor that's actually fun to use, give CheckUp a try.
The Iconfactory releases new iPulse jackets
What fun are your utilities if you can't dress them up, right? The Iconfactory has released four new skins (or "jackets") for iPulse, their system monitoring tool (I personally like Scarab). With iPulse, you can monitor disk usage, CPU usage, system load, motherboard temperature and a lot more. Plus, it just looks cool.iPulse requires Mac OS 10.3 or better, is universal and costs $12.95US for a single license.
