You’re watching a YouTube video and the screen suddenly dims or switches off completely. Or maybe you’re just reading a lengthy webpage or staring at the Chess board trying to figure out a move when Energy Saver decides to kick in and do its thing. Isn’t it frustrating? Don’t you just wish your Mac would stop being a prissy nanny and cut you some slack already?
Well, it seems your prayers have been heard. Bryan Hansen has just released Jolt, a utility that allows you to effectively ground your Mac for a pre-specified amount of time and stop Energy Saver from kicking in and trying to play the hero. As soon as you launch it, it reserves a tiny little seat for itself onto the menu bar and jumps into action with a single click.
The free version allows you to have just a single preset of five minutes, while the $5 paid version is flexible enough to take on five different time presets any day of the week. (Is it just me or does Bryan have an obsession with the number 5?) Bryan also promises to donate $2.50 from each sale to charities.
I guess now you can show Energy Saver who’s the boss around these parts. Don’t be too harsh on it, though. It’s a good friend of the battery and trust me: you don’t want to upset that guy.
Check out Caffeine. I have been using it for a while, and it is one of the better apps I have found for this task. Click on, click off, and very lightweight.
http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/
I also vote for Caffeine. Looks like there's a new version out today with some interface tweaks.
Or Jiggler, been around for ages, works, and is free.
Caffeine is great as it doesn't have to move the mouse in order to keep the screen from dimming.
I like the idea of Jolt however because with Caffeine, I tend to leave it on, stopping my screen from dimming at all.
I use Caffeine all the time when I am making presentations or working at home, and not worried about my lappie going to sleep. It is a simple menu-item that you click to either enable or disable system sleep. Simple, clean, free.
Bryan here, I developed Jolt as a side project.
When I decided to create Jolt, I did first look at the options available, and while some offered most of the features, I really wanted something that:
1. I only had to click once
2. Could have different timing durations
3. would turn off automatically, so that if I got up from the computer and forgot to turn it off that I wouldn't drain the battery (and also one less step is nice)
4. Could be easily set to start at login
5. Has a nice icon, I just didn't like the big X through the icon of Caffeine
Some thoughts:
Energy saver can definitely do this, but its a pain (especially when you already started playing the video). On my laptop I usually want it to quickly start saving power, but when I don't its annoying to change. (just to watch a 3 min video,) Jolt lets you temporarily delay this for just a little while.
I've seen a lot of people compare this to Caffeine which is totally fair. I almost settled for using it before I wrote Jolt, after all free is better than $5, right? Well try 20-30 hours of coding/design... but thats why I love mac dev, I can see something thats not quite what I want and improve upon it. Plus, interestingly enough two days after this app gets some publicity Caffeine comes out with a little update that adds "launch at login" and improves the icon. Hmm... Hmm... :) (You Caffeine users might have to thank me for getting your free app improved)
I love free software too, but I also think getting a reward for having a decent idea isn't too much to ask. In addition, being in the tech world, it can seem like its all about money one way or another (people making bank OR expecting everything to be free) Giving 50% to these charities is my way of expressing there's more to it than that.
Glad some people like it, cool if others aren't into it.
Bryan