Just ahead of the macOS High Sierra update, Bjango released iStats Menus 6, an update to its comprehensive suite of tools that sit in your Mac’s menu bar and monitor its systems and now, even the weather. With highly customizable notifications, iStat Menus is an excellent way to know what’s going on with your Mac and to be alerted if a problem is on the horizon. I’ve only been trying iStat Menus 6 for a short time, but like what I’ve seen.
Adding a weather widget to iStat Menus is a departure for Bjango, which has previously stuck to system measurements, but I like it a lot. iStat Menus puts the temperature and an icon of current conditions in your menu bar. Clicking on the temperature reveals a wealth of additional information that will warm any weather geek’s heart and help everyone else plan their week.
Notifications are highly customizable too. If there’s a statistic reported by iStat Menus, you can bet there’s a way to be notified of it. Already this morning it warned me of an air quality advisory issued for the unseasonably warm fall day we’re having in Chicago. I’ve also set it up to alert me if I run low on available storage and RAM.
iStat Menus has added a wide variety of additional features too including,
- Additional theme and color options with light and dark menu options.
- Hotkey support for opening and closing menus from the keyboard.
- A new dual line clock option.
- New ways to customize the menu items and their dropdowns.
- A new Notification Center widget with the most popular statistics in one place.
- Improved accessibility and localization.
People familiar with iStat Menus will be right at home with this new version. There are dozens of refinements and new features, but the mission of the app remains the same: to provide a wealth of information in a compact, cleanly-designed interface that keeps users informed. I’ve enjoyed tweaking iStats Menus’ settings today to suit my current setup as I test its new features. I’ve used the app on and off since version 2 or 3, but it’s been at least a couple of years since I last used it. I’m impressed with how far it’s come over the past couple of versions and plan to keep it up and running going forward.
iStat Menus 6 is available from Bjango’s website.
