Archive for January, 2013

App Tamer 1.3.2: Retina displays and background scrolling

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Version 1.3.2 of App Tamer is out, sporting high resolution graphics for all you lucky Retina Display owners. It also lets you scroll the windows of applications that are stopped in the background. This lets you read web pages while Safari is in the background, for example, even if you have App Tamer’s AutoStop feature set to stop it so it doesn’t use extra CPU time.

I’m also excited about an upcoming feature I’m working on for App Tamer 2.0. It lets you set a maximum amount of CPU to give an application – it doesn’t stop the app, but just slows it down if the app starts sucking down too much processing power. I’ve found it very useful in keeping Spotlight from taking over my machine while I’m working, and limiting churn from other applications that inevitably spike the CPU right when I’m trying to get something done. It’s still in need of a lot of integration – the feature works but there isn’t any real UI for it yet (it currently just limits Mail, mds and the Finder to no more than 10% CPU as a proof of concept). It’s very cool to watch it do its thing, though!

Tip: Automatically adding the date to filenames

Sunday, January 13th, 2013

From time to time I get requests to make Default Folder X automatically type the date or some other information into new filenames in Save dialogs. While this may be a good idea for a handful of people, the complexity and number of variations I’d have to support would result in a lot of additional settings in Default Folder X’s already crowded preferences.

Not only would it add complexity to Default Folder X, but there is already an easy solution to this – text macro utilities. I personally add the date to some filenames using Typinator, a “text expander” application from Ergonis Software. I just type “dt” and it automatically expands to the current date – and not just when I’m typing a name for a file in a Save As dialog – it’ll expand that shortcut wherever I type it on my Mac.

If you need this sort of shortcut when you’re saving files – or writing emails, filling in web forms, taking notes, etc – check out one of these tools (there are others – these are just a few of the major ones):

Typinator
TypeIt4Me
Keyboard Maestro
TextExpander

If you’ve got others you think should be added here, don’t hesitate to post a comment or give me a shout @stclairsoft

– Jon