Bokeh locks down your idle apps

I'll admit that when I first heard of the new utility from Elgebar Studios, Bokeh, my first thought was of Kenan Thompson's SNL exclamation ("Bokay?") and not the Japanese photography term (the control of out-of-focus areas) that presumably inspired the tool's name. Bokeh is a $17 utility from ~~one of~~ the guys behind iPod-music-sharing conduit Misu, and it's intended to do one thing: freeze your applications. No, really, it's a good thing.

Bokeh allows you to put applications into suspended animation and free up additional processing power for your crunchiest tasks (3D rendering, Photoshop filters, etc.) when you need it most. You can select a single app for focus, or suspend applications one at a time. It's not the sort of thing everyone would need but in a production environment where time is money, it might be worth the cash. You can download a Bokeh demo directly from the site.

Update: Ollie from Elgebar sent a quick note to clarify the benefits of Bokeh: When you select one app to focus on, Bokeh actually blurs the background and helps you isolate the task at hand. It's also highly scriptable, so you could include an automatic 'freezeout' before starting a rendering pass or other CPU-intensive task.

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Source: http://elgebar.com/bokeh.html

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I'll admit that when I first heard of the new utility from Elgebar Studios, Bokeh, my first thought was of Kenan Thompson's SNL exclamation...

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oshmady

ah, here it is, the Quicksilver "Process Manipulation" plugin - http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/plug-ins/process_manipulation_actions

May 11 2008 at 8:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

oshmady

for any Quicksilver fans out there, there is a plugin available that will let you do this for free ... suspend/resume/quit/force quit and maybe a few other actions you can run on apps, can't remember for sure

May 11 2008 at 8:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ollie Wagner

Hi. Check out Version 1.0.1. We've added dual display support as well
as have fixed a couple other bugs, and added Italian localization!

http://bokehapp.com

May 11 2008 at 11:10 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Simon Arch

Looks nice, BUT it doesn't seem to support dual monitors. I just tried it out and it only blurs the main screen. The other screen remains unblurred (though of course the app is paused).

May 09 2008 at 3:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

TranceMist

LOL. Someone put a GUI on ^Z

May 09 2008 at 1:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ecobore

Actually what is needed is an automatic App quitter!
I have sold so many people on Macs, but many of them (even quite experienced users,) are not used to quitting apps and simply close the window, leaving a huge number of apps running in the background. Mostly they never restart their machines either. I see this every time I visit their houses and look at their macs. Each time I remind them to quit apps, and always they forget! An app quitter that quits all but selected apps when no windows are open after a user definable time, would be an excellent utility.

May 09 2008 at 12:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to ecobore's comment

Jim

The point you raise is one thing that Windows has over Mac (IMO). OSX is a great OS that is well thought out in so many areas but that one and I'm guessing it's still like this due to compatibility reasons and to appease most longtime users.

As this utility I don't think such a utility really makes much of a difference to those users who don't realize their apps are still open. It's just a mindset along with a certain amount of computer know-how.

May 09 2008 at 6:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Wys

ecobore, there's an app named QuitApp++ that quits programs after a user-defined time. I think you'll want to check it out:

http://mactips-lib.net/m/software/qa/en/main.html

May 10 2008 at 10:05 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

helfire

It's amazing how much money people can make wrapping command line utilities that have been around for 30 years.

Look at iFreeMem, runs the command 'purge' for $21 bux!

This app for $17 will send halts and resumes to your apps.

I need to dig through old commands and charge money to run them!

May 09 2008 at 12:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

5 replies to helfire's comment

Gar

Freeze Frame is another option - I've had pretty good luck with it when I'm on a slow internet connection and want to make sure no apps are taking up any of the pipe.

May 09 2008 at 12:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tom

Or you can use the free Freeze Frame.
http://freeze-frame.en.softonic.com/mac

There's another app that does this, but I forgot what it was.

May 09 2008 at 12:07 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

3 replies to Tom's comment

Mikek

If you want your applications frozen why not just use Windows. :-)

May 09 2008 at 11:50 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Mikek's comment

eSystm

Zzzzzzz-Zing!

May 09 2008 at 2:40 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply