Sleeper 3.5 review
DownloadSleeper is an energy-saving control panel that will dim your screen, spin down the hard disk(s), and power off Energy Star compliant monitors.
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Sleeper is an energy-saving control panel that will dim your screen, spin down the hard disk(s), and power off Energy Star compliant monitors.
Sleeper can also password-protect your screen and shut down or put your Mac to sleep after a period of inactivity.
Why use Sleeper instead of Energy Saver?
If you have a newer Macintosh, Apple already includes a power-saving control panel called Energy Saver on your system. There are a number of reasons why it makes sense to use Sleeper instead:
* Sleeper works more reliably and consistently than Energy Saver.
* It offers more precise control and numerous customization options.
* Sleeper supports all SCSI and IDE drives, not just those supplied by Apple.
* It provides a screen saver and password protection, which Energy Saver lacks.
Here are some key features of "Sleeper":
Hard disk sleep
Energy Star monitor support
Password screen locking
A very frugal screen saver
Timed sleep and shutdown
Configurable hotkey options
Support for the Sleep command in the Finder's Special menu
Kaleidoscope and Mac OS 9 compatibility
PowerMac-native support for both IDE and SCSI disks
Support for multiple IDE and SCSI buses
Full SCSI Manager 4.3 compliance
Balloon help.
What's New:
Sleeper now saves multiple configuration settings and will automatically switch between configurations when running a PowerBook from battery or ac adapter. Configurations can also be changed manually from the Control Strip.
Buttons have been added to allow keyboard entry of any desired delay (1-999 minutes) for the screen saver, disk sleep, password activation, monitor power-down, sleep, and shutdown.
Sleeper now supports desktop LCD displays, such as the Apple Studio and Apple Cinema displays.
There are now options to control processor cycling.
Sleep capabilities in 7450-based G4 PowerMacs (G4/733 and above) are now properly recognized.
Sleeper now unmounts servers before going to sleep, avoiding Mac OS 9's warning about "losing network services" if the computer is put to sleep.
On PowerBooks, the Finder's Sleep command is now intercepted by Sleeper, just as it is on desktop Macs.
The "flash keyboard LED's when attention is required" feature now works with USB keyboards.
When Sleeper was installed, Disk First Aid would sometimes stop scanning a drive, complaining that the disk was in use. This has been fixed.
A conflict between Sleeper and Iomega Zip and Jaz drivers has been fixed. The problem could cause the Finder to freeze after waking up from sleep on some Macintoshes.
The expert options (cmd-option-click on the Help button) now include a switch that prevents Sleeper from changing the backlight brightness of LCD screens.
Sleep and wake-up are now more reliable on the PowerMac G4 and iMac DV.
A conflict has been fixed between Sleeper's passwords and Orange PC.
Sleeper no longer leaves the backlight turned off on PowerBooks if they crash or are restarted while the screen is dimmed.
Problems waking from sleep under OS 9 have been corrected.
The clocks on G4 PowerMacs no longer lose time when they're asleep.
Sleeper now supports ORB drives.
Sleeper will put machines to sleep even if the monitor is still powered up and undimmed.
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