Get Magican for Apple Mac OS X

It is useful to be able to monitor various aspects of the Mac, such as whether downloads or uploads are taking place and how fast, the amount of memory being used and the amount free, the disk space used and how much is left, how much CPU time an app is using, and so on. One day we may have hardware that is so powerful we don't need to worry about these things, but CPU power, memory, disk space and internet bandwidth are limited right now and this doesn't look set to change any time soon. The problem is even greater if you have an older Mac with lower specifications.

It is surprising that facilities aren't built into the operating system to do this. Of course, there is Activity Monitor in OS X, but when it is maximised the window is too big and when it is minimised there is too little information available. If only there was something in between, a small app that provides updates on the essential resources.

There are several utilities available and one that is worth a look is Magican. It is currently free, although I suspect that at some point in the future you'll have to pay for it. It's only version 0.9.53 at the moment, so maybe that's why it is free. Grab it while you can!

Once it is installed you will notice two things and the first is a menu bar icon. It only provides access to uninstall, preferences and quit though. The main feature is the mini toolbar in the bottom right corner of the screen.

In the screen shot it is showing the up and download speeds (nothing is using the internet at the moment), but clicking the icon at the right hand side shows CPU, GPU and disk temperatures. It can automatically alert you if they rise too much.

Mouse-over this mini toolbar and a small window pops up that displays either the top apps using the most memory or the most CPU. Move the mouse away and it disappears.

The icon at the left-hand side opens the full application window and this has six tabs that display a variety of information and provide access to various tools. Here is a snapshot of the Stat tab (click to zoom in):

This is great information and it is attractively presented too. You can see the disk space, temperatures, battery health, memory usage, CPU and network activity. There are subtabs too, showing processes, network and file activity.

The other tab icons in the toolbar access cleaning functions so you can erase caches and logs, unused languages and duplicate files. You can view installed applications, widgets, plug-ins and other items, and remove unwanted ones. You can view documents, movies and music, send items to the Trash or permanently delete them, and get information about your Mac.

This is a really nice app and it is well worth installing if you want to monitor your Mac and access cleanup functions.  The only downside is that it uses more memory than I'd like for a system monitor - around 120Mb.