Colin Henein has released SlimBatteryMonitor v1.4, a replacement for the battery gauge Apple includes with its laptop computers. The free application is available for download from the Web site.
SlimBatteryMonitor takes less space in the menu bar than Apple’s gauge does, and can display information about your battery in color. You can choose different display options for each battery state — charged, charging or on battery — and operates as a background application, so it doesn’t occupy space in the Dock. It works with Mac OS X v10.3 or later.
Version 1.4 adds an even slimmer shape that incorporates textual info about percentage charge or time remaining. It also supports text-only display. What’s more, it’s packaged as a Universal binary, which means it runs natively on MacBooks and MacBook Pros.