On 10.02.24, In A glimpse of a random Mac menu bar and what it has to offer.
What’s On My Mac Menu Bar?
I’ve been a Mac user since around 2005 but it’s only recently that I got to realize the convenience of utilizing the menu bar. The menu bar is that strip of.. well, bar, appearing on top of the screen. It also contains the Apple logo which provides a quick access to information about my Mac, software updates, as well as the Force Quit, Sleep, Restart and Shut Down functions. The menu bar simply indicates to me which application is active at that moment: whatever word appears on the right of the Apple logo.
On the far right side of the menu bar, icons of some other features which you can conveniently access and use, are likewise displayed. Typically, you would see Spotlight, Battery, Date & Time, and Volume. I activated the Airport icon as well since most of the time I’m moving about and around the house.
While I was tweaking my Gmail account a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon the Gmail/Google Notifier. It’s an application which sends notification when you receive new messages in your Gmail or when there are new upcoming events on your Google Calendar. I only have the Gmail icon activated since I don’t have any events listed on my Google Calendar. The Gmail menu bar icon shows how many unread emails you have. It also allows you to see a list of the last 20 unread messages, a shortcut to your inbox and compose mail page. I actually consider it as one of my essential icons. I don’t have to open a browser and login to Gmail’s site all the time, just to check if I have new messages. Google Notifier is almost real-time, with a few minutes delay, depending on the time intervals that the application takes to check your account. I tried looking for preference settings which modifies the time intervals but couldn’t find any.
Since it’s only been a few months since I joined Twitter, it was also only recently that I’ve decided to use a third party application to access my account right from my menu bar. Twitterrific is an app which lets you know, by sending a notification (visual and/or auditory), that there are new tweets. It takes only the minimum from my hardware and the interface is clean and simple. There are only 4 buttons: one to access your Twitter profile page, another to go to Twitterrific settings, a third to refresh, and lastly, the close button. You just have to hit Enter to publish your post. Even the compose post or “tweet” area is a space-saver: just a one-liner! Of course the downside of it is you can’t see the entirety of your tweet but you will have to scroll using your keyboard arrows. Mentions and direct messages are likewise enabled in this program but retweets are currently not supported. I used to have the window pop-up every time I receive tweets but it gets distracting along the way so I chose now only to activate the notification sound (bird chirping or “tweeting”) while the menu bar bird icon turns blue when there are new tweets. The window stays closed until I’m ready to read new tweets and click on the blue bird icon. You can choose to have your Twitterrific ad-free by paying a certain amount of money but the ads are quite reasonable, popping in between tweets only about every hour or so.
Adium is an open source instant messaging application specifically for Mac OSX. It is a third-party client which connects to the different instant messaging services. What actually made me to move to Adium is its capability for multiple accounts login and the vast number of services it supports such AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, and Facebook, among others. It provides an integrated login service which conveniently saves me time, effort, RAM and hard disk space all together. I can also login to different accounts at any one time which makes me readily available to anyone, whether for personal or business purposes. The Adium menu bar icon, which basically shows your current status (green for available and red for away or busy), is only ancillary as part of the Adium program. You can turn this function off, by going to the Preferences, then under the General tab, uncheck the “Show Adium status in menu bar.” The icon also provides a shortcut to the Contacts list, Accounts list, and you can also set your status from here. It also uses Growl, a notification system: a pop-up window will temporarily take space on your monitor when there are any activities from any of your applications. Adium does not support however all other services offered by the instant messaging companies (ie. webcam capabilities). File transfers are also wonky. But hey, this is open source so all future support and development are to be expected. This system has a lot of potential to improve so I might not give up that easy.
In a nutshell, my latest addition, the Menuet, is an iTunes remote control. You can control your iTunes from the menu bar by simply using your mouse, or using hot keys which you can customize to your fitting. I’m currently using a cute purple hanging monkey skin that supports album art viewing. Menuet is a Charityware application which is bundled with the Art Collector application so users can easily access and complete their album art collection. I have to open my iTunes separately though which still takes up some RAM. If you’re into song ratings, this app would work great for you. By right-clicking on the tiny menu bar icon, several functions can be found, one of which is star-rating the songs right there and then.
There you have it, a quick glance on my menu bar and my top picks. Finally, it is worth to note that users can customize their menu bar icons depending on their preference and usage. There are applications specifically for different purposes such as web access, information management, and interface modifications. For other menu bar items to fit your style or habit, you can check out this listing and let me know your own picks.
Leave Your Response