MenuMeters is a set of CPU, memory disk and network monitoring tools for the Mac OS X from Raging Menace. It is under the GNU General Public License, making it free for all.

What sets it apart from other monitors that uses the menubar is that most of those monitors use the NSStatusItem API while MenuMeters uses SystemUIServer plugins (Menu Extras), meaning they can be re-ordered using command-drag and remember their positions in the menubar across log-ins and restarts.

Other notable features of the MenuMeter is that the CPU meter can display system load, either as a total percentage or broken out as user and system time. It is hotplug aware, and will show activity on FireWire and USB disks as they are mounted. The Memory Meter can display current memory usage as either a pie chart, thermometer, history graph, or as used/free totals. You can even optionally display a paging indicator light. While the Net Meter can display network throughput as arrows, bytes per second, and/or as a graph.

You will need MacOS X 10.2 (Jaguar), MacOS X 10.3 (Panther), or MacOS X 10.4 (Tiger) or PowerPC or Intel based Macintosh (Universal Binary) to install this monitor. And if you are installing over an older version of MenuMeters make sure to logout and login after installation in order to load the new version.

Download: [MenuMeters]

William Restemeyer, the brains behind Resteware, is a very big fan of Unreal Tournament 2004 and this enthusiasm has lead him to make utilities for the game like UT2004Grabber V.2 and UT2004Sync V.2. UT2004Grabber V.2 allows you to download maps on your LAN and play Unreal Tournament even if you're offline. It automatically copies maps, textures, static meshes, music, sounds from your cache into your copy of Unreal Tournament 2004.

Features:

• No longer requires your (local) copy of UT 2004 to be in your /Applications folder.
• It cleans out your cache after it has copied new objects into your game.
• Now reports its progress in a window as it's running.
• Minor bug fixes.
  

And to compliment UT2004Grabber, he also gives us UT2004Sync V.2. This utility quickly syncs up everything you've downloaded to your main game.

Features:

• No longer requires Unreal Tournament 2004 to be in your /Applications folder.
• Now reports its progress in a window as it runs.
• Minor bug fixes.
  

Both of these utilities are now Universal Binaries. All you need is a Mac running Unreal Tournament 2004 with Mac OS X.

Download: [UT2004Grabber V.2]
Download: [UT2004Sync V.2]

Flip4Mac WMV, the collection of QuickTime components that allow Mac users to play, import, and export Windows Media files, has just been upgraded to Beta v2.1.0.29. New in the latest release are:

• Universal binary support for Intel Macs
• Playback optimizations for Intel Macs
• Significant export optimizations for PowerPC Macs
• Multi language audio support in player
• Overlay when importing WMV content in trial mode
• Support for web authors to disable "save as" feature in embedded stream

A few improvements and fixes were also squeezed into v2.1.0.29. Support for MMS servers and live streams is one of those improved for this new version. Fixes include DCT blocking issue (progressive deterioration with increasing distance from previous keyframe) and encode errors when the audio bit rate is set higher than the video bit rate.

Since this is not yet the final release, there are still some things that are yet to see its inclusion in the Flip4Mac app. Among them are the updated user guide and the fix for 2-pass VBR green shift issue.

If this app strikes your fancy, feel free to download it below (it's compatible with mac Intel and Power PC OS X v10.3.9, 10.4 or later and QuickTime v6.5, 7.0 or later). After test driving it, help make the final issue better by filling up the feedback form here.

Download: [Flip4Mac WMV Beta v2.1.0.29]