(Initially posted December 6, 2023 on LinkedIn)
I’ve posted before about my love for Maccy, a clipboard editor that lives on your menu bar. A new computer this week made me re-evaluate my menu bar (thanks, new MacBookPro notch), and I realized have a couple of apps up there that I really enjoy and figured it was worth the share!
First up is PingStatus (Free). PingStatus shows my real-time latency to Google. Having this up on my menu bar is extremely helpful when a video call starts to sound like autotune and I can confirm if it’s my internet or someone else’s.
It’s pretty customizable, allowing you to change the host, interval, timeouts, etc. From a menu bar perspective, it gives you the option to show just your latency, an icon or both based on the thresholds you set.
Next up is WattsConnected (Free). Similar to PingStatus, this shows the input wattage to my Mac. This will eventually get relegated to my “hidden” Menu Bar apps (more on that later), but for now, it’s been fascinating to see the wattage various docks and USB-C adapters are outputting. I went from a 30W MacBook Air to a 70W MacBook Pro so having an idea of the wattage of each adapter is helpful.
Concluding this little walk through my current menu bar, the last app is Bartender ($16). Bartender hides menu bar apps you don’t like and gives you insane customization and triggers, like “when I plug in my mac, show me the battery icon.” Simply click on the empty space on your menu bar and the rest of the “hidden” icons appear:
I’m only beginning to scratch the surface of what Bartender can do, but it immediately made using my menu bar 10x better. Shout out to Gregory Baltes for the recommendation on this one.
What are your must-have menu bar or Mac apps?
Bryan Van Kampen 