I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of widgets — I like the concept just fine, I just don’t really have much use for most of the functions. One big exception is iSlayer’s iStat Pro. For the uninitiated, iStat Pro is a system-monitoring widget that shows you knowledge about your CPU, RAM and Network activity, the temperature and fan speed of your Mac, what processes are running, how lengthy your system has been up, info about your battery and how many times it has been “cycled” (meaning depleted/fully charged), the list goes on.

Today iSlayer released iStat Pro 4.5 which not only updated the UI and some of the standard features, but added some new features as well. From iSlayer’s blog:

• Updated network section with new
  details & controls for PPP/PPPoE connections
• Improved PPC temperature and fan support
• Improved Intel temperature support
• Improved S.M.A.R.T. drive temperature monitoring
• Fixed bugs with battery section and 10.5
• Clicking on a disc icon will now open the drive in finder
• New keyboard shortcuts (”g” - Update external IP, 1-8 - Change skin color)
• Added button to launch Activity Monitor
• Other various bug fixes
• Various UI tweaks

I particularly like the addition of the Activity Monitor launcher and the ability to launch a drive in Finder by clicking on its name.

iSlayer Pro 4.5 is available for Intel and PPC Macs running Tiger or Leopard and is donationware.