Apple this week released macOS 10.12.2 and with it, has made a change that impacts laptop users. The battery status menu bar item no longer displays an estimate of time remaining, only the percentage of remaining charge. There’s no way to reactivate it that I’m aware of, but there is a third-party tool that fills the gap. It’s called iStat Menus, and it’s from Bjango.
In reporting the omission, several Mac news sites have repeated the same basic idea: Apple pulled the estimation function from the battery status menu item because predicting the future is hard. Modern Mac laptops dynamically reallocate power to different subsystems as needed, so the estimate gauge was guessing, and doing a poor job. Sounds to me like Apple spin, provided “on background” – a PR euphemism which here means “you can use this information, but you can’t quote me.”
What will happen with that estimation in the future is anyone’s guess, but I don’t think it’ll be coming back. Apple’s been under increasing scrutiny about battery life estimates in macOS since the release of the new MacBook Pro. Users report wildly different actual battery life runtimes compared to estimations, which has led some of them to believe the new Macs are faulty. I don’t think that’s the only reason Apple made the change in 10.12.2, but I’m sure it contributed.
Anyway, back to iStat Menus. I love this app. iStat Menus provides you with more information than just battery life. iStat Menus lets you keep an eye on CPU and network usage, memory usage, tracks just about every sensor built into your Mac (including disk and fan speed, internal temperature), time and world clocks with detailed information like sun azimuth, altitude, and light map, and more. It’s also extensively customizable, so you can detail as much or as little information as you want.
iStat Menus is available for download as a 14-day free trial and costs $18 to register ($25 for a “family pack” so you can install it on multiple Macs). The developer supports the app very well and regularly updates it with new features, fixes and tweaks. Well worth the money, in my opinion. I install it on each new Mac I purchase.
