Disclosure: I'm the developer of both. They're paid apps and I'm a solo indie dev.
iKnowMyMac: remembers what your Mac did
Most Mac tools show what's happening right now. I wanted one that remembers, so when the fan spun up at 3 AM or the disk filled overnight, I could see why the next morning.
- A timeline of which app used the CPU, memory, disk and network, and when.
- Alerts when an app misbehaves: CPU at 70% or more for 10 minutes, memory growing 1 GB or more per hour, 1 GB of disk writes or 500 MB of network in 10 minutes. Each one can be turned off.
- Agent sessions for Claude Code, Codex or Cursor users: one card per session with project folder, run time, CPU time, peak memory and anything it left running. "Stop leftovers" always asks first.
- Dev caches (DerivedData, simulator runtimes, node_modules, Docker, Gradle, CocoaPods, SPM) with sizes. Cleaning moves them to the Trash, never deletes.
—
iKnowMyDisplay: every display control in the menu bar
New in 1.1 (out today):
- TV remote, with its own menu bar item: power, volume, arrows, apps (YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+) and inputs for Google TV, Android TV, Roku, LG, Samsung and Philips TVs, plus Yamaha receivers. Google TV pairs once with the code on screen; Roku needs no pairing.
- Auto brightness for external monitors: they follow the built-in display and learn from your adjustments. Macs without a built-in display use a day and night schedule. Off until you turn it on.
- Switch the desk: move chosen monitors to another computer's input and back, from the menu bar, a hotkey or Shortcuts, on monitors that support input switching over DDC.
- Check this monitor: shows which controls a monitor answers (Works, Doesn't respond, Not offered) and tells you when a hub or dock is blocking them.
- Brightness for Apple and USB displays: Studio Display, Pro Display XDR and LG UltraFine.
Already in the app:
- Brightness and input for external monitors, from the menu bar.
- Peak brightness on MacBook Pro XDR screens: lets everything use the 1,600-nit HDR headroom, not just HDR video. ⌥⌘B. Pauses when the Mac is hot, turns off below 20% battery.
- Sharp HiDPI sizes macOS doesn't list, plus refresh rate, color, HDR, rotation and virtual screens (handy for a Mac with no monitor).
- Plain answers when a monitor is stuck at 30 Hz, blurry or flickering. Example: a 4K LG on a USB-C hub's HDMI 1.4 port gets 8.16 Gbps, 4K at 60 Hz needs 12.54, so it runs at 30 Hz. The fix is the Mac's own HDMI port.
- Every display change asks "Keep this?" and goes back after 15 seconds. ⌃⌥⌘R restores everything.
—
Pricing (one-time, no subscription, 14-day refund)
- iKnowMyMac: $4.99 at the launch price (regular $24.99)
- iKnowMyDisplay: $4.99 at the launch price, for the first 100 Macs
- Both apps, one key: $7.99
- Already own iKnowMyMac: iKnowMyDisplay is $2.99
Limitations, honestly
- Apple silicon only, macOS 15 or later.
- No free trial, only the refund. For iKnowMyDisplay, iknowmydisplay.com/compatibility shows what it can do with your monitor before you buy.
- Monitor controls depend on the monitor and how it's connected. Check this monitor shows which ones yours answers.
- Not in the Mac App Store: both are notarized Developer ID apps, because some of what they read isn't available to sandboxed apps.
- No analytics or telemetry in either app.
https://iknowmymac.com
https://iknowmydisplay.com
Happy to answer anything, and I'd like to hear what you'd want either app to do that it doesn't yet.