I used iStat Menus 2 to easily control the CPU, memory and network usage, but out of the blue iStat Menus 3 stops being freeware so I had to look for an alternative because I won’t pay $16 for a non essencial software.

I start looking and I found MenuMeters, it’s almost as good as iStat Menus (it lacks the date & time and the temperature features) but it’s free and it gets the job done.

For now I’m satisfied but do you know anything better?

PS: Just a quick tip if you are looking for freeware apps for Mac OS X, here is a good list.

If you are using VirtualBox with a Mac OS X host and when you try to use Bluetooth inside VirtualBox guest you get this message:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.blued.plist
sudo kextunload -b com.apple.driver.BroadcomUSBBluetoothHCIController
sudo kextunload -b com.apple.driver.AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController

sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.blued.plist
sudo kextload -b com.apple.driver.BroadcomUSBBluetoothHCIController
sudo kextload -b com.apple.driver.AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController

If you know and easier solution let me know!

I got an Aluminum Macbook and I want to connect it to my Television (Mini DisplayPort -> S-Video), how can I do it?

Is it amazing how Apple haven’t made a simple connector Mini DisplayPort -> S-Video, haven’t they forgot the fulks who doesn’t have money to buy DVI televisions???

I have found some “solutions” (this and this) throw Amazon but I still not sure if they work at 100%. Can anyone help?

My aluminum MacBook reaches extremely hot temperatures and the summer is still to come.

All the temperature were measured by iStat pro. In normal CPU usage I get 60ºC CPU temperature, but when I turn on my virtual machine the CPU temperature can go up to 84ºC and the processor thermal specification is 90ºC!

Above there is a list of CPU temperatures and respectively fan exhaust rpm:

84ºC – 3265rpm
80ºC – 2427rpm
78ºC – 2004rpm
40ºC – 2000rpm

There is another list of the max and min temperatures achieved by all components:

HardDisk : 33ºC – 17ºC
CPU A : 84ºC – 32ºC
Enclosure Base : 30ºC – 17ºC
Enclosure Base 2 : 30ºC – 17ºC
Enclosure Base 3 : 30ºC – 17ºC
Heatsink A : 72ºC – 30ºC
Heatsink B : 60ºC – 25ºC
Northbridge 1 : 55ºC – 26ºC

I already report it in Apple Discussions, but still no official answer. Is it supposed to be normal?

UPDATE: I found a application (smcFanControl) that allows to control the fan rpm, so I increase the fan rpm and the macbook temperatures decrease significantly

First of all let me tell you that I am an apologist of free software, but when I change from Windows to Mac OS X I had some difficulty finding the right software, took me almost half a year to find good freeware replacements to all my favorite application, but I finally got it

So you don’t have the same problem I had, I will share with you the list of cool software that I found. I also found a good site to download all the software. If you got any suggestions or if you know a better application just let me know.

Short URL: freeware.lebreiro.com

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Applications

CDs/DVDs

Burn, cds / dvds burning application

File compression

Split&Concat, split large files to be uploaded, or to put together split files
The Unarchiver, a much more capable replacement for the built-in archive unpacker program
UnRarX, expand rar archives and restore corrupted or missing archives using par2

Internet

Adium, instant messaging application that can connect to Gtalk, MSN, Twitter, Yahoo, and more
Cyberduck, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Cloud Files & Amazon S3 Browser
Firefox, web browser
JollysFastVNC, a good VNC client
Macfusion, connect to servers across the internet and mount them as Volumes
Skype, talk across the internet using P2P technology
TeamViewer, remote control your partner’s PC as if you were sitting right in front of it

Multimedia

Album Artwork Assistant, finds album cover artwork on the Internet and adds it to music track files in iTunes
iScrobbler, an alternative last.fm client
RealPlayer, play all major audio and video formats
Switch Audio File Conversion, convert and encode a range of audio file formats
TuneLyrics, fetches lyrics for iTunes on-the-fly
VLC Media Player, play DVD/VCD/MPEG/DivX and more

Production

Bean, small, easy-to-use word processor
Eclipse, universal tool platform, an open extensible IDE for anything and yet nothing in particular
GanttProject, project scheduling and management
OpenOffice, word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager and drawing program
Seashore, basic image editing
Skim, PDF reader and note-taker, is designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF
Skitch, 1-click uploading of images for fast and fun image sharing
TextWrangler, a powerful general purpose text editor
X-Mind, social brainstorming and mind mapping

System utilities

Alarm Clock, a alarm clock that can also wake your mac from sleep
AppFresh, helps you to keep all applications, widgets, preference panes and application plugins installed on your Mac up to date
Caffeine, prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers
coconutBattery, monitors all battery health parameters
Darwine, run “that” windows application on OS X
Disk Inventory X, disk usage tool that shows the sizes of files and folders in a graphical way
iBackup, simple to use backup/restore utility
NTFS-3G, integration of NTFS for Mac OS X
InsomniaX, disables the sleep mode allowing you to play music through speakers while it’s closed
QuickSilver, application launcher
smcFanControl, control the fan rpm

Virtualization

VirtualBox, supports a large number of guest operating systems

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Games

Pac the Man X, pac-man arcade game
PokerTH, internet-enabled multi-player poker game
Quinn, arcade-style tetris puzzle game
Solitaire XL, one-person card game klondike solitaire
SuperTuxKart, 3D kart racing game
The Battle for Wesnoth, turn-based tactical strategy game with a high fantasy theme
Wormux, a “convivial mass murder” game
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Others

Dashboard Gadgets

Deep Sleep, allow your Mac to sleep without using any power or drain the batteries
iStat pro, lets you monitor every aspect of your Mac
Minutes, countdown timer featuring simple interface, polished graphics and considered interactions
Organized, Swiss army knife for your Dashboard, including a calendar, world clocks, notes, iCal events and to do’s

Firefox Add-ons

Adblock Plus, block unwanted ads and banners
DownThemAll!, the best download manager for Mac
FlashGot, download all the links with a single click
Gmail Notifier, manage multiple gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications
Google Gears, enables more powerful web applications
Google Reader Watcher, shows how many unread items you have in your google reader account
Plain Text to Link, open links written in plain text or select plain text in a page and save it in a text file
StumbleUpon, discover the best sites on the web
Ubiquity, do common Web tasks more quickly and easily
Xmarks, bookmarks and passwords synchronizer

System Preferences

AppTrap, the uninstaller feature Apple forgot
Growl, notification system that allows any application to display a notification
iStat menus, monitor your system right from the menubar
Perian, QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats.