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All is right with the world; iStat Menus 2.0 is here

by Steven Sande Sep 3rd 2009 at 12:00PM

The world was looking bleak and dreary after Snow Leopard arrived last week, for my little menu bar friend, iStat Menus for Mac, was incompatible with the new version of Mac OS X.

This morning, however, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, fluffy kittens are playing again (see image at right for proof), and all is right with the world! iStat Menus 2.0 has arrived, and now my CPU monitor, calendar, and clock are back in the menu bar where they're supposed to be. The new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard compatible version is running just fine, and less than a week of darkness filled the hearts of all of those who love iStat Menus. You can download it for free, although a donation is requested.

While iStat's developer, iSlayer, has resolved this disturbance in The Force, there's still a dark and evil presence in the universe. Apple, taking on the role of Emperor Palpatine with gusto, recently forced all iPhone developers to remove or retool apps that use a Free Memory function to display memory usage and/or clear out wired or inactive memory. As a result, iStat for iPhone [App Store] version 1.1 was released with the Free Memory function removed. Bjango (the iPhone arm of iSlayer) has kindly posted instructions for how to use version 1.0 to keep the function intact, but we're all wondering why Apple decided to axe all apps that performed this useful function.

Since this latest kerfuffle has forced Bjango to release a feature-limited version of iStat for iPhone, the company has reduced the price to US$1.99. There's no word from Apple on why they chose to kill all of the Free Memory apps. When you're the Emperor, you don't have to give any reasons for stomping on kittens.


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Galo

After installing 2.0 I've found that the CPU meters for both cores are the same all the time. Since I don't think it's GCD doing so well I must think it's some kind of bug maybe.

Does anyone else has the same experience?

September 04 2009 at 3:47 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Galo's comment
Aslam Nathoo

Yeah I have this too I think. Let me be clear, the menu bar representation has both processors showing exactly the same graph. However if I open on the menu, the larger graphs in the drop down, do correctly show the different cpu usage graphs.

I am running this in 10.5.8.

September 04 2009 at 5:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ned

I prefer MenuMeters anyways

September 04 2009 at 12:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JedixJarf

2.0 is nice, my only complaint is that they put the disk activity in it's own section and not in the hard disk section.

September 03 2009 at 10:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
[TheBORG]

I had already gotten Menu Meters a few days ago, but I tried out iStat Menus and like them a little better, plus it has the temperature right there! I like that! I think I'm sold on iStat Menus!

September 03 2009 at 6:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Alex Blauvelt

BEWARE! I think they got hacked. Anyone who downloaded 2.0 .... Check your activity monitor for a DashboardClient that is taking up 99% CPU.

I installed it, and found a dashboardclient process that wouldn't go away no matter what I did.

There's some malware here. Its a tricky little bugger too.

It seems to revolve around: /System/Library/Extensions.mkext you delete it, and it comes back. I've disabled my dashboard for now to prevent the invisible dashboard widget from doing whatever it is doing. Getting rid of the kernel extension is going to be a much harder battle.

-Alex

September 03 2009 at 6:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Alex Blauvelt's comment
Alex Blauvelt

Further research revealed I was wrong...

nothing to see here.... please move along...

September 03 2009 at 6:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Greenie

Takes a man to come back and admit it. Bravo.

September 04 2009 at 12:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
fevio

I definitely love the new option to have a white drop-down menu! It finally matches the rest of the OS. Also, the date/time display updates are pretty slick. I think I'll use it instead of the default.

September 03 2009 at 4:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ryan

finally! my menubar was so naked.

September 03 2009 at 3:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
J*C

I was running version 1.3 in Leopard and after updating to its wintry counterpart, was still running 1.3 with no problems.

September 03 2009 at 2:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dagamer43

Growl still isn't fully 64-bit, and other developers are waiting for the update before releasing their 64-bit apps.

September 03 2009 at 1:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to dagamer43's comment
iGO

I installed the 64Bit Beta og Growl (third on the list, under the link below) supporting Snow Leopard.

So far working like a charm for me.

http://code.google.com/p/growl/downloads/list

September 03 2009 at 3:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brooklynguy

Apparently you have to download the file "SensorsModule2.0.bundle", copy it to /Library/Application Support/iStat local/, log out and back in.

Still can't find that setting that combines the display of both fans into one rpm sensor on the Menu Bar, though. I wonder if they took that out.

September 03 2009 at 1:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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