Monitor your laptop’s battery

SlimBatteryMonitor works as a startup item which reminds you off how much power you still have in your laptop’s battery. It sits right up in your menu bar and can be customized to appear only when the battery charge drops to a certain level. The little battery icon can also be customized to show a different color depending on the battery level that is left and you can choose between a rounded or square battery icon shape.

We were a little disappointed that SlimBatteryMonitor doesn’t allow you to maximize your battery usage depending on the work you are doing on your laptop. However to keep track of your battery power, SlimBatteryMonitor is an ideal companion to your Mac, especially if you travel around a lot.

64/32 Universal binary supports 32 bit PowerPC Macs as well as 32/64 bit Intel-based macsRepairs horizontal image text display on Mac OS X 10.6 and laterAdds arbitrary sliders to set warning panel and colour levelUses the Sparkle framework to automatically check for updates

Changes

• 64/32 Universal binary supports 32 bit PowerPC Macs as well as 32/64 bit Intel-based macsRepairs horizontal image text display on Mac OS X 10.6 and laterAdds arbitrary sliders to set warning panel and colour levelUses the Sparkle framework to automatically check for updates

SlimBatteryMonitor is a replacement power gauge for Apple’s Mac OS X that tracks both laptop batteries and many UPS batteries. Multiple-battery systems (e.g. older powerbooks) are supported as well. A graphical icon shows the power remaining, and can be accompanied by a text description (battery charge in percent, or time remaining). Colours can indicate whether the system is fully charged, charging or on battery.

Best of all, you can choose different display options for each battery state (fully charged, charging or on battery). You may wish to see the time remaining while on battery, for example, but show only the icon during charging, and hide SlimBatteryMonitor entirely when batteries are fully charged.

Agrees closely with Apple’s meter, as both are producing a gauge from the same raw data. SlimBatteryMonitor is a better choice because it presents the same information in a much more space efficient manner, allowing you to fit other menu bar items on the screen as well.

SlimBatteryMonitor operates as a background application, so it won’t use up a space in your dock. It is compatible with Apple Mac OS X 10.3 and up, and it is very easy to configure.