14 DAY TRIAL // Developer St. Clair Software is excited to announce the release of App Tamer, a system utility which "tames" applications that are chewing up excessive CPU time and battery life.
According to St. Clair Software, App Tamer is a program that fixes an annoying problem in OS X.
“Some applications, like web browsers and older apps, continue running tasks or animating ads even when they're idle,” the company explains.
"That uses valuable CPU time, which leaves you with:
- Less CPU time for the application you're using - Reduced battery run-time - Increased heat"
Using App Tamer, Mac owners can “find the culprits and get them under control.” It boasts an intuitive, Mac-ish user interface and is extremely simple to use.
Users just launch App Tamer, click on Details, sort their running applications by average CPU usage, and click the checkbox next to apps that need to be “tamed.”
“It pauses apps in the background to prevent them from chewing up CPU time (and battery life),” Jon, of St. Clair Software relates.
“I know, I know – you’ve probably seen some utilities that do this already," he adds.
"BUT – here’s the cool part – App Tamer stops and starts applications automatically. You don’t have to distract yourself by manually stopping and starting applications – it just magically works,” Jon is proud to say in a September blog post announcing that App Tamer was almost finished.
Since App Tamer will automatically pause those applications whenever you're not using them, the software can effectively reduce their CPU use to zero.
The windows of paused applications are dimmed, making it even more obvious that all your computer focuses on is the app you’re currently using.
Once you click on a paused app’s window or icon in the dock, it automatically restarts just the way it was.
Some applications, however, may not get along with App Tamer, such as iTunes (pausing will stop any playing track), or IM clients like Adium (pausing will take you offline).
Rest assured, App Tamer has warnings for these kinds of things so it’s not very likely you’ll mess something up.
Additionally, App Tamer's preferences let you tune its behavior to your needs, and there's even an App Tamer menu in the menubar for fast changes and quick view of each app’s status.
Addressing those using a MacBook, St. Clair Software claims that “Recovering even a small percentage of your CPU time can translate into significant battery savings.”
“Stopping an application that's consuming 5% of your CPU can translate into 20 or 30 minutes of additional battery runtime,” the company reveals.
Softpedia readers can download App Tamer using the link below. A trial version is available with no limitations to the program's feature set.