If you've ever made a presentation (or shown a friend that hilarious YouTube clip you found) on your laptop, you've probably played the fun little game of trying to give the trackpad a nudge just often enough to keep the screen from dimming in the middle of it. You can edit your Energy Saver preferences before you start ... or you can use a new program called Jolt (no relation to the cola) to temporarily disable the Energy Saver settings.
Jolt places a small lightning bolt icon in your menubar. When you click it, it lights up to let you know you're safe from the mildly embarrassing mid-presentation screen dim. The full version of Jolt allows for variable timer settings ranging from 3 minutes to forever. The full version will set you back a whole $5, half of which is donated to charity (visit the Jolt page for a list of charities and a free trial).
[via MacUser]
Update: For clarification, only the full version of Jolt costs $5, Jolt Lite is available for free (but only offers one timer setting). Caffeine, which we've mentioned before, is also available for free.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-24-2008 @ 8:40PM
thejesse2442 said...
you can also use the application Caffeine for this same problem.
Reply
1-24-2008 @ 8:51PM
Peter Kieltyka said...
If you'd like a free version of a similar utility, that does not change your energy preferences, instead just sends a small tick to your CPU so it doesn't go to sleep go here:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20699/doze
Cheers,
Peter
Reply
1-24-2008 @ 9:18PM
Emory Dunn said...
You can also use Caffeine, it does litterally exactly the same thing, puts and icon in your menu bar the only catch: it's free!
http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/
Reply
1-24-2008 @ 9:44PM
Chris said...
Excellent little program. Works as advertised, does a great job, no frills, and FREE! Another vote here for Caffeine.
3-15-2008 @ 5:18PM
Tom said...
TUAW has covered Caffeine before:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/04/19/keep-your-mac-awake-with-caffeine/
1-24-2008 @ 9:23PM
Mat Lu said...
I like the free Jiggler for this.
Reply
1-24-2008 @ 9:37PM
x999x said...
Cool little app, but why isn't it free? I think the one thing I absolutely hate since "switching" is paying for software to replace my PC's freeware/open source apps since the move.
/vent off
Sorry, I just had to when I saw a price tag, lol. What's next, a program to remind you to empty your trash bin for 14.99 and 9.99 to existing customers?
Reply
1-24-2008 @ 10:07PM
Tom said...
See the other comments: At least 3 alternatives exist, all are free. TUAW must benefit from posting Jolt somehow, perhaps a cut of the profits?
1-24-2008 @ 11:01PM
Aurooba said...
I don't know about that....i switched over last year in December and the only software I had on my computer that I had paid for was Nero, the actual OS and Norton. Everything else was freeware/open source, and I've found equal or for the most part, better alternatives to them for the Mac OS. Like Caffeine, it does the same exact thing, not less not more, and it's free! At the moment everything except for the iLife suite and software that came with my Mac is free, and I'm loving it! good sites for mac freeware:
http://osx.iusethis.com/
http://www.opensourcemac.org/ --awesome site, got me started
http://www.macosxapps.com/
1-24-2008 @ 10:46PM
msykes said...
Jolt is free. You can pay the $5 for an upgraded version if you want, but the basic app (Jolt Lite) costs nothing.
The post was wrong when it referred to this as a free trial.
Reply
1-24-2008 @ 11:17PM
Ian said...
Like Caffeine, it does the same exact thing, not less not more, and it's free!
Utter Crap! Caffeine stops your monitor from dimming whilst the 'Zzz' is crossed out. Jolt allows you to specify a time-limit to this behaviour. Something which I would appreciate since, whenever I activate Caffeine, I always forget to disable it.
I personally don't think it's worth a fiver but get your facts straight (maybe read a little eh?) before posting crap.
Reply
1-25-2008 @ 12:25AM
Chris said...
I really like Caffeine, however the advantage of Jolt is indeed the time limit setting. I have also found myself forgetting to turn Caffeine off.
1-24-2008 @ 11:42PM
D said...
...or you could plan ahead and perform the horribly arduous task of OPENING ENERGY SAVER. The horror!!!
I really like the MacOS open source community, and I think they produce some wonderful applications. But I guess I'm completely missing the point on why you need to install something - that lord knows what else it might affect - to perform a simple task that is only one click away.
Are we, as Mac users, really just that lazy?
Reply
1-25-2008 @ 12:34AM
Chris said...
The convenience of clicking a little icon in the menu bar to not have the screen dim for 5 minutes in order to watch a quick YouTube video is great and well worth the install of a little free app like this.
1-25-2008 @ 3:34AM
dantemustdie said...
Am I the only one that when they saw this article, the first thing that came into my head from looking at the picture was it had something to do with Metroid?
I know this isn't a game blog, but still, thats Metroid for sure.
Or macroid. Or something.
Reply
1-29-2008 @ 10:52AM
Michael C. said...
I thought that as well. It seems to be the icon for the Screw Attack, I think (I may be mistaken on that; it's been a while since I've played a Metroid game).
1-25-2008 @ 4:37AM
Bryan Hansen said...
Bryan here, I developed Jolt as a side project. First off, thanks guys for contributing your ideas and opinions.
When I decided to create Jolt, I did first looked 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, yes shameless ego here, but 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. 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 it 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.
For the record:
Peter Kieltyka, This does not change your energy preferences at all
Emory Dunn - "You can also use Caffeine, it does litterally exactly the same thing"
NOPE! That why I wrote it, Ian, Chris, thanks for being someone who recognizes the difference!
Tom - "TUAW must benefit from posting Jolt somehow, perhaps a cut of the profits?"
Absolutely not, they're just nice enough to give me some publicity
Mat Lu - Jiggler actually moves your mouse, which for this purpose is a hack and doesn't look so nice when watching a movie or giving a presentation
dantemustdie - metroid is freakin' hard! (but it was not a design influence)
Sorry for the long post :)
Bryan
Reply
1-25-2008 @ 6:20AM
Tomas Franzén said...
Hi,
I'm the developer of Caffeine. It's been years since I first released 1.0, and since then I've done some smaller changes without releasing another version. So, no, it's not a coincidence that I released this new version right after Jolt. I saw it and thought, "what the heck, might as well release my update". :-)
It's good to see alternatives. Makes sure users don't get stuck with one app.
Tomas
Reply
1-25-2008 @ 1:52PM
Bryan Hansen said...
Tom,
Glad you chimed in here and that we can fuel each other's ideas for these little apps. Good luck with your software.
Bryan
1-25-2008 @ 9:23AM
Artr said...
too much colour in the menubar icon
prefer caffiene
Reply