I guess it was about a year ago Sugarmate discontinued their app that let you display your Dexcom feed in the Mac menu bar. I’d been using it for years and really missed being able to just glance up and check on things while working on my laptop. I looked around a bit but there didn’t seem to be anything to fill the gap, so eventually gave up. BUT, oh frabjous day, calloo callay, I just stumbled across a replacement. It’s called Luka, and it’s on the Mac App store. Same as Sugarmate: feeds off your Dexcom Share account, displays your number and direction arrow on the menu bar. Yay!
I’m loving Luka Mini, after keeping an browser window with Sugarmate open for a year or so. I had to upgrade my computer to use it, so it’s cost me several thousand dollars. (Well, if you insist, it was time to upgrade anyway.)
The only problem I’m having is that it won’t open in the menu bar after a restart. I have to trash it, download it again, and open it anew. A minor nuisance, though. I think a pull-down one-hour trendline might be helpful too. But I appreciate its simplicity.
The version I have has a setting for Launch at Login, which I’ve set it to, but I haven’t had to do a restart since I got it.
Yup, set to open at login, which it does, it just doesn’t show in the toolbar.
Just noticed that a newer version was made available four days ago. Now if you click on the icon, you can see a three-hour trendline. Very handy. But I hope they don’t over-clutter it.
Yeah the simplicity is part of the attraction. With Sugarmate there was an expanded view that I actually liked better than the Dexcom app. Haven’t looked to see if Luka has something like that.
TY! TY! TY! I have been missing seeing it up there! I did put the Dexcom widget on my desktop but it’s always covered by windows. I instinctly kept looking for it in the menu bar, because I had it there for so many years (when it was Glucowatch, before Sugarmate bought it)
Wow, I didn’t know it as Glucowatch. Must have cottoned on to it after it changed hands. Would that be the same firm that tried to market a wristwatch-style CGM back in the early 00s? As featured in the Jodie Foster movie Panic Room, always high on the list of Movies With Plots that Hinge on T1, or as I fondly refer to them, “That guy’s gonna need a shot!” movies? We had a discussion of that device on TUD a while back. I always thought it was made up but several people weighed in who’d actually experienced using the prototype. Some kind of electrostatic thing that was supposed to measure BG through the skin using electrode contact pins of some kind. Reputed to be too irritating for anyone to endure for more than a couple hours. The Jodie Foster character’s daughter wears one, and it’s a key plot point for letting the audience know some kind of crisis is developing without revealing what it is.
well I’m old and been doing this for 55 yrs so perhaps my memory is not 100%
But it was gluco-something…I’ll try to confirm!
I think what @squidsdc is referring to is GlucoseBar. I’ve had it on my Mac for quite some time, but it’s 16 years old. It’s simple and discreet, shows BG number, an arrow, amount of change, and a color dot in the menu bar at the top of the screen (I think this can be changed in Apple Settings), though it can be set to Zen mode (just a colored dot in the menu bar showing whether you’re low, in range, or high). if you click on it, it opens up a graph showing 3, 6, or 12 hours an upper limit (settable), a lower limit (settable); times on lower axis; three buttons for Zen mode, settings, or “Close” which closes the app. It connects to Dexcom Share, Nightscout, or a simulator. The Mac app store has several of these available, GlucoseBar and Luka look very similar.
As seen in the pic from my old computer it is actually called GlucoGram and was eventually purchased by Sugarmate. Glucose Bar is a new one for me-never heard of it!
I’m pretty sure I found out about it from Dr Stephen Ponder. And from a quick google search:
GlucoGram is a macOS application developed by Chris Merz, which was specifically highlighted by Dr. Ponder for facilitating “frequent glancing” at Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) data, a key component of the Sugar Surfing approach.
