sspai Roundup Highlights Vitals, Tapbar, Hoardware, VMPal and DroidDeck

Vitals is a macOS system-monitoring tool that collects CPU, memory, disk, network, GPU and battery metrics in one place. It offers a standalone window and a menu-bar mode. Its overview uses cards and dashboards for six hardware categories, and users can click any card to see detailed consumption. Unlike macOS Activity Monitor, Vitals groups related processes under applications and uses ring charts to show how much memory, CPU and power each app consumes. The app can connect to AI tools such as Claude, Codex and Cursor through MCP, allowing them to read system metrics, inspect app resource use, check development servers, background processes and open ports, and help troubleshoot slowdowns in natural language. Vitals can keep CPU, memory, GPU, network, disk, temperature, battery and power readings in the menu bar, highlight high load in red, and provides abnormal-app alerts, fan-speed monitoring and 30-day history. It is sold on its official website for $15 as a one-time purchase.

Tapbar is an Android app that uses accessibility permissions to turn the status bar into an interactive area. It lets users define up to four regions and assign single-tap, double-tap, triple-tap and long-press actions, with customizable location and size. Actions can open an app, a system action or an app shortcut. The roundup gives examples such as tapping the time to open the clock, tapping the battery area to open battery statistics, double-tapping the time to open date and time settings, triple-tapping it to open a to-do app, and using the punch-hole area to open the camera, selfie mode or video recording. Tapbar also supports an app blacklist to prevent accidental triggers and can disable itself in landscape mode. It is open source, free and available through F-Droid.

Hoardware, an app for iOS, macOS and iPadOS, is an archive for Apple hardware collectors. Created by independent developer Aaron Perris, it puts device ownership and firmware status in one library. Device and firmware information comes from the community database AppleDB, and the collection syncs through iCloud without a separate account. Users can add devices by searching AppleDB's catalog, which covers iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod, Apple Watch, Apple TV, HomePod, AirPods, AirTag and Beats. Device details can include model identifier, official name, chip, color, serial number, notes and custom fields such as condition, purchase price and storage location. The Software section records installed OS version and build, compares released and beta versions, and offers update reminders for newer devices. A system coverage view summarizes iPhone, iPad and iPod touch collections and OS generations. Collections and groups can separate daily devices, collectibles and lab units, while a wishlist tracks models the user wants. Data can be exported as text, JSON, PDF or images, backed up and restored, or shared as a read-only web link. Hoardware is free on the App Store, requires iOS or iPadOS 17.0 and macOS 14.0 or later, and supports visionOS; the developer has not introduced a paid plan.

VMPal is a macOS virtualization app positioned as an alternative to Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. It uses a one-time license, is currently in beta with full features available without payment, and can import Parallels-format virtual machine images. When creating a VM, users select an operating system and VMPal downloads the appropriate image from official sources, then users set a username and password and wait for the default template to boot. Version v0.67 supports macOS, Windows and many Linux distributions, and the app can import virtual machines previously created in Parallels Desktop. New VMs can be configured with hardware settings, and GPU acceleration is enabled by default. The roundup says an Ubuntu virtual machine ran smoothly, and the control window can grant camera, sound, location, network and external device access. Windows virtual machines do not support Parallels coherence mode and run in separate windows. VMPal's key feature is AI management and control: after enabling AI agent options in settings, an AI tool such as Antigravity can connect through an MCP server to operate the virtual machine, which the roundup says could serve as a Grok Bot alternative. VMPal is free during beta; a personal license costs $34.50 per device and unlocks all features with one year of free updates.

DroidDeck is an open-source project on GitHub for Android devices. According to the roundup, it builds a Linux environment inside Android, runs the Steam Linux client in a big-screen mode, and activates the Jupiter UI designed for Steam Deck. It can also load the Proton translation environment to run Windows games. The entry focuses on bringing SteamOS and PC games to Android devices.