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Overview
Sleeper is an energy-saving control panel for the
Mac which will dim your screen, spin down the hard
disk, and power off Energy Star compliant monitors.
Simply select your desired sleep times in the control
panel and let Sleeper take care of the rest. Preferences
can also be set to have Sleeper password-protect your
screen and shut down or put your Mac to sleep after
a period of inactivity. In addition, a hotkey can be
used to put your Macintosh to sleep on demand.
Sleeper gives you many options for customizing its
behavior to precisely fit your needs. To
see more screen snapshots showing all of Sleeper's
settings, click here.
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.
The chart below summarizes these and other differences
between Sleeper and Energy Saver. Note that Sleeper
will also coexist intelligently with Energy Saver if
you want to "mix and match" features from both utilities.
* Because Sleeper can work without help from Energy
Saver or the Mac's built-in power management code,
it works even when Energy Saver doesn't. Sleeper supports
all Macs, from the MacPlus to the latest PowerMacs,
iMacs, and iBooks. It also works in many circumstances
where Energy Saver fails for mysterious reasons, so
if your new iMac or Power Mac crashes when put to sleep
or fails to sleep at all, Sleeper may be the answer.
Feature comparison table: Sleeper vs. Energy Saver
3.0
| |
|
Sleeper |
|
Energy Saver 3.0 |
 |
| Supported
Macintosh Models |
Any Macintosh
or Compatible
(Mac Plus through PowerMac G4, including
iMac, PowerBook, iBook) |
Newer Macintoshes
Only
(PCI PowerMac, PowerMac G3/G4, iMac, PowerBook,
iBook) |
|
| Disk Sleep |
Any IDE or SCSI
drive |
Apple-supplied
drives |
| settings (desktop) |
1-999 minutes |
30-60 minutes |
| settings (laptop) |
1-999 minutes |
1-15 minutes |
|
| Screen Saver |
Dim screen 0-100% |
None |
| settings |
1-999 minutes |
- |
|
| Password
Protection |
At startup
At screen saver wakeup
At monitor power-up
After prescribed delay |
None |
| settings |
1-999 minutes |
- |
|
| Monitor Power-Down |
Suspend
Power-off
LCD backlight power-off |
Power-off
LCD backlight power-off |
| settings (desktop) |
1-999 minutes |
5-60 minutes
|
| settings (laptop) |
1-999 minutes |
1-15 minutes
|
|
| CPU Power-Down |
Sleep
Shutdown |
Sleep
Shutdown (desktop only) |
| settings (desktop) |
1-999 minutes |
30-60 minutes |
| settings (laptop) |
1-999 minutes |
1-15 minutes |
|
| Multiple
Configurations |
Up to 32 user-defined
configurations with switching via control
panel or control strip module (auto-switching
for battery/ac on laptops) |
Separate settings
for battery and AC (laptops only) |
|
| Technical
Support |
Knowledgeable and
prompt technical support for registered users |
Apple Support,
whose first recommendation is always "Reinstall
your system software," whether you need to
or not |
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Quick access via the Sleeper Control Strip module
Once you've set Sleeper up, you can access its features
quickly and change configurations directly from the control
strip:
Already have a screen saver?
If you already have a screen saver, you can continue
to use it and have Sleeper handle the disk drives and
other power management duties. Sleeper cooperates with
existing screen savers such as After Dark, including
activating them when Sleeper's hotkey is pressed.
What you get...
Sleeper only requires 100K of RAM to provide all
its capabilities. These features include:
- 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
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