Several times a year I find myself wondering why my Mac is working so slowly, or why some applications seem to eat up all of my memory. Today I’m going to look at an app for OS X that helps you clean up the mess you gather over time – Magican (FREE, download).
Overview
Magican is a system optimization tool for Mac OS X used to keep your Mac running smoothly. The developer claims that it will optimize the system in all different ways, such as cleaning your hard drive from unnecessary logs and cache files, deleting unused language packages, monitoring system status in real time – showing CPU usage and disk info, listing installed software for further operation, etc etc. All through just a few clicks.
In short, Magican is your Mac’s doctor.
Starting the app
The first time you start the app, the main windows pops up and gives you a few options and clickable tabs which provides all sorts of information about your Mac. You have an overview of your hardware, stats about the temperature sensors, disk space, network status and more. And most importantly, there’s a big, shiny scan button.
Usability
Magican is very easy to use. By clicking the scan button, the app begins working its magic (pun intended) and in a few minutes, you have an overview over how much unnecessary information the app can delete from your hard drive to make space. After that, you can easily choose which categories of information you would like to erase and then, BOOM, you’ve cleaned you Mac. For me this took about 4 minutes and 37 seconds (or something), and I now have 4.9 GB more space on my hard drive. Magic.
Apart from cleaning your hard drive, the thing I like the most with Magican is the tiny system monitor window. It floats on top of everything in the corner of your screen, and gives you the most important information about your Mac (such as temperature of CPU, currently used memory, and current up and down speed for your Macs network card). This makes it easy to keep track of things, either just for fun, or when something seems to be wrong with the system.
Verdict
Rating: 4/5[rating:4]
At first glance, Magician is very informative and goes deep into stats and information, but it is truly a very simple app. Anyone who has used their Mac for at least a few months should download Magican and see for themselves that it does make a difference. I can not think of any statistic or information about my Mac’s health that Magican can’t provide. And for the cost of NOTHING, this is an app worth testing out.
If you are a developer, keep in mind that Magican scans log and cache files for your system, so if you are not so keen about losing those files – think twice before letting Magican go full speed.
My rating for Magican (FREE, download) is 4 out of 5. It is not the most beautiful app I have ever used, but it is certainly one of the more usable. And, it’s free! Go get it.
Pros:
- It is very simple
- Definitely does what it says
- It’s FREE!
Cons:
- The app CAN delete log and cache files, so user concerned about that should be careful