iStat Menus 5 shows you everything you need to know about your Mac

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Over the years, one of my favorite Mac apps has always been iStat Menus by Bjango. In anticipation of OS X Yosemite launching, version 5 was released today with a completely new design and some cool feature additions.

The main purpose of iStat Menus is to show you everything you need to know about your Mac’s system from the menubar. Everything from available disk space to battery charge cycles to GPU activity is available in a clean, attractive interface.

Dark on dark. Yes please.
Dark on dark. Yes please.

What I appreciate most about iStat Menus 5 is that it’s already optimized for Yosemite, which just received its fifth developer beta yesterday. As part of being Yosemite-ready, iStat Menus supports the OS’s new Dark Mode. You can theme the app’s colors in settings, and there’s of course the option to enable and disable certain menus.

Different menus will serve different peoples’ needs, but I’ve found Memory, Disks, Network, Battery & Power, and Time to be my favorites. The great thing about iStat Menus is how it presents info about your Mac in such detail, like the addition of which processes are consuming the most power in version 5.

You can see available disk space on not only your internal drive, but attached external ones as well. The Network menu provides all kind of data about what’s happening on your internet connection, including your public IP address and current speeds.

iStat’s alternative menus for time and battery are way better than Apple’s. There’s a month view and world clock baked into the dropdown for the date, and you can quickly glance at the health of your battery along with attached devices like a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

For a full rundown of the new features in iStat Menus 5, head on over to Bjango’s website. Pricing is $10 for an upgrade from versions 3 or 4 and $16 for a new license. Not available in the Mac App Store.

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