Runs on: Any notebook Macintosh (Macintosh Portable, PowerBooks, Duos)
Requires: System 7 or later
Registration fee: $10
MyBattery is the essential battery monitoring tool for Macintosh notebook owners! David Pogue of MacWorld loved its "super-cool fuel gauge." MyBattery features include:
• A variety of graphical displays of current battery voltage, such as bar graph, "gas gauge", and line plot (voltage vs time) displays.
• Accurately estimates how much battery life remaining - and it "learns" to adjust the estimate to be more accurate for your particular PowerBook.
• Multiple battery support.
• Indicators for AppleTalk, CPU Speed, and battery charger status.
• User-configurable menu bar displays.
• Color & grayscale support.
• Battery charger status (hi-charge, lo-charge, running off internal battery).
• Compatible with any portable Macintosh that supports the Power Manager (Macintosh Portable, all PowerBooks, Duo's, etc.).
• Compatible with System 6.0.8 or later (System 7.x friendly).
• Stand-alone application, for minimum conflicts and maximum RAM flexibility.
BatteryAmnesia (shareware)
Current version: 1.5.2 (26 August 1997)
Runs on: Any PowerBook with a NiCad or NiMH battery (Not PowerBook 100 or Portable)
Requires: System 7.0 or later
Registration fee: $10
NiCad and NiMH batteries, like the ones used in most PowerBooks, are subject to a "memory effect" that can diminish their ability to hold a charge. This effect can be cured by fully discharging your battery before recharging it.
BatteryAmnesia will quickly and efficiently discharge your battery, much faster and more thoroughly than the technique recommended by Apple in your PowerBook's manual. It provides both visual and audible status on how the discharge is proceeding.
Jeremy's Control Strip Modules (shareware)
Current version: 1.7.3 (7 December 1997)
Runs on: Any Macintosh (some modules are PowerBook only)
Requires: Apple's Control Strip software
Registration fee: $10
I've developed several control strip modules. Some of them are direct replacements for modules provided by Apple, but with more options and functionality. And some of them are unique. They are...
Jeremy's Clock CSM - Displays the current time. Via a popup menu, you can customize the appearance of the display.
Jeremy's Sound Volume CSM - A direct replacement for the Sound Volume module provided by Apple. The icon shows the current volume setting in both numeric and pictoral form, so you don't need to bring up the menu to determine the current volume.
Jeremy's Sleep CSM - A direct replacement for the Sleep Now module provided by Apple. Via the popup menu, you can select whether or not to bypass the dialog that appears when AppleTalk is active.
Jeremy's Battery Time CSM - Displays either the Apple remaining time estimate (available only on late-model PowerBooks), a historical estimate which "learns' your battery use, or the elapsed battery time.
Jeremy's CPU Speed CSM - Displays the current clock speed in MHz, or provides a "fast/slow" indicator with tortoise and hare icons. On supported models (Duos, 100-series with System 7.5) you can change CPU speed.
Jeremy's Battery CSM - Replaces Apple's Battery Monitor CSM with a higher resolution display that takes up less Control Strip space! Also can display hard drive status, modem status, CPU speed status, and remaining battery time.
Jeremy's Temperature CSM - Displays the internal temperature of your Duo or PowerBook 500 series.
Jeremy's Application CSM - Displays count of currently running applications and DA's, and lets you change foreground application.
Jeremy's AppleTalk CSM - Replaces Apple's AppleTalk module. Displays more information than Apple's module.
Jeremy's EnergyStrip CSM - Replaces the PowerBook or Energy Saver Control Panels, by letting you set energy saving features directly from the Control Strip.
WebChecker (shareware)
Current version: 1.0.1 (15 May 1997)
Runs on: Any Power Macintosh or 68K Macintosh with a 68030 or later
Requires: System 7 or later, Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Open Transport or Mac TCP/IP
Registration fee: $15
Do you have web pages you check frequently? WebChecker will help you!
WebChecker is a utility program designed to help you manage web pages you check frequently. It will check to see if a web page has been modified, and will notify you - or even automatically launch your favorite web browser - when it detects any changes.
WebChecker then monitors the web pages you visit with your browser, and marks them as "Visited" if they're part of WebChecker's list.
PowerSaver Tweak (shareware)
Current version: 1.1.1 (12 January 1997)
Runs on: PowerBook 500, 5300, 190, Duo 2300c, 1400, PC-based Power Macintoshes
Requires: System 7 or later
Registration fee: $10
PowerSaver Tweak is a utility for PowerBooks and Power Macintoshes that gives you more control over the power conservation settings than Apple's PowerBook control panel. It lets you configure the conservation settings for specific applications, allowing you to tailor the conservation to best meet your usage needs.
You can configure the screen dimming, drive spindown, and system sleep for up to 50 applications (unregistered copies allow 4). NOTE: PowerSaver Tweak requires some advanced Power Manager features, which is currently available only on newer Macintoshes.
Insomniac (shareware)
Current version: 1.1.1 (12 January 1997)
Runs on: Most PowerBook models, PC-based Power Macintoshes
Requires: System 6.0.8 or later
Registration fee: $10
Some Macintoshes have the ability to wake themselves up. This is very convenient, for automatically sending faxes or email in the middle of the night.
However, the "PowerBook" or "Portable" Control Panel provided by Apple only allows you to enter a single wakeup time. This prevents you from scheduling multiple wake-up sessions. For example, if you wanted to send your faxes at 1:00am, and then download some files at 2:00am, you'd have to stay up until 1:00am, and reset the wakeup timer manually.
Insomniac allows you to program up to fifty wakeup "events" (registered copies only). Therefore, you can have your Macintosh wake up several times during the night, or even program it to wake up once a night for weeks on end.
ClockSync II (shareware)
Current version: 1.1.1 (26 November 1997)
Runs on: Any Macintosh
Requires: System 6.0.7 or later (filesharing required)
Registration fee: $5 for 3-user license; larger licenses available.
If you have two or more Macintoshes, you probably notice that the clocks drift apart as time goes by. This can range from being a minor nuisance to a real pain, especially if you tend to do a lot of file synchronizing between the two Macintoshes. ClockSync synchronizes the clocks between two Macintoshes, by setting the clock of "servant" Macintoshes to be the same as the clock of a "master" Macintosh. While really helpful in large Macintosh networks, it's also a big help if you just have two!
ClockSync II is comprised of two components - the ClockSync II Master resides on the "Master" time server. The Servant component is run on any Macintosh on the same network to synchronize the clock to that of the Master.
Threshold (shareware)
Current version: 1.0.5b (15 May 1995)
Runs on: Macintosh Portable, any "100-series" PowerBook (100 to 180c)
Requires: System 7.0 or later
Registration fee: $10
As we PowerBook owners all know, the PowerBook is smart enough to warn you when your battery is getting low. Unfortunately, these warnings can be conservative, especially with external batteries.
Threshold changes all that! With Threshold, you can adjust the voltages at which the warnings occur. This allows you to alter the warnings so that they come up later than usual, giving you more productive battery time. In addition to the default Apple warnings, you can program up to three custom warning sets.
Threshold sports a concise graphical display. It shows an analog graph representing current battery voltage, with the current warning points illustrated. There is also a battery status indicator, an elapsed timer, and a sleep button. You can also easily adjust the warning thresholds via up & down arrows.
Of course, color and grayscale displays are supported.
CPUSpeedDisplay (freeware)
Current version: 1.1.1a (30 May 1996)
Runs on: Any notebook or PCI-based Macintosh
Requires: System 6.0.8 or later
Registration fee: None
CPUSpeedDisplay is a teeny application for any notebook or PCI-based Macintosh. It does what it says: it displays the current CPU speed in Megahertz. I wrote this utility to aid me in developing other utilities, and I thought it might be handy for others as well.
CSToggle (freeware)
Current version: 1.0.0a (15 May 1995)
Runs on: Any notebook Macintosh (Macintosh Portable, PowerBook, or PowerBook Duo)
Requires: System 6.0.8 or later
Registration fee: None
CSToggle is a teeny application that has one purpose in life - to toggle on and off the Control Strip display. If you run it while the Control Strip is showing, the Control Strip disappears. If you run it while the Control Strip is hiding, it re-appears. That's all!
You can somewhat hide the Control Strip by clicking on the end tab, but even if you do, a little tab still shows in the foreground, and can still eclipse items behind it. You can hide the entire Control Strip by going to the Control Strip control panel and choosing "Hide Control Strip", but this a bunch of extra steps. I normally keep CSToggle in my Apple Menu, so that it is always accessible.
If the Control Strip software isn't loaded (you haven't booted your computer with the Control Strip control panel present) then running this program will have no effect.
Where are they?
The latest versions of these programs are posted by me in the following places:
• World Wide Web - my web page at <http://members.aol.com/jbkezer/>.
• America Online - the Macintosh Utilities Forum (keyword: MUT, or use QuickFinder to search for JBKezer).
• CompuServe - The PowerBook software libraries in the Macintosh Forum (go: MACINTOSH).
• eWorld - In the BMUG software archives (keyword BMUG) and in the ZiffNet software libraries (keyword: ZIFFNET).
• Internet - The University of Michigan Macintosh archives. You can ftp to them at "mac.archive.umich.edu" or at "mirror.archive.umich.edu".
• PowerBook Army Atsushi Iijima's web page, at <http://www.net-army.com/powerbook/index.html>.
The utilities may be found on other online services, as gracious people spread them around.
More Information
If you desire more information about any of these programs, please contact me at:
• via Internet: jbkezer@kagi.com (preferred)
• via CompuServe: 72163,3502
• via the World Wide Web: http://members.aol.com/jbkezer/index.html
