App Tamer 1.3.2: Retina displays and background scrolling

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!

Leave a Reply