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Keep Your Mac Awake (and More) with Amphetamine Ryan Cordell It's a small but frequent annoyance. I'm teaching class and I am projecting a resource using my Macbook—a writing prompt, perhaps, or an image we are discussing together—when my energy settings kick in, throwing the screen to a screensaver or going blank. In general, those energy savings are a very good thing, but when they interrupt a class or conference presentation, they can be annoying or even embarrassing, depending on what specifically appears in your computer's screensaver, etc. A few years ago Brian wrote about Caffeine, a small utility that allows you to temporarily override your computer's sleep settings to keep it awake. For many years, Caffeine has been one of the small utilities I could not live without; it was one of the first few applications I would install each time I got a new computer or refreshed an old one. I barely thought about Caffeine but used it many times each week, so that it felt like simply part of my Mac's interface. It still works well enough, but Caffeine hasn't been updated in quite a long time. Some users have reported problems with Caffeine under more recent versions of OS X, for which the app has not been updated. I haven't personally experienced problems with Caffeine yet, but I recently found an alternative that is up to date and includes a few advanced features that may prove useful. Amphetamine also lives in your menu bar, and can be activated with a simple right click. Alternatively, a left click brings up a menu of options, allowing you to set a designated time period for your Mac to stay away—there are standard intervals built in, or you can specify your own—or to keep it awake while a particular application is running—though not all applications are currently supported. Where Amphetamine most differs from Caffeine is in its customization features. Don't like the left click/right click behavior? You can reverse it. In addition, you can set certain triggers for Amphetamine, so that it activates automatically when you are connected to a particular wifi network, for instance, or when a particular application is running. You can also set a schedule, so that Amphetamine always activates during certain day/times. I've set the app up to activate during my teaching times this spring semester, so we will see how useful this proves to be. The good news is Amphetamine doesn't add too many features to Caffeine. It's still a simple, lightweight, one-click utility. What's more, it's completely free and free of advertisements. I find the app's name a bit glib, and would encourage its developers to consider rebranding, but it does seem like a worthy, Caffeine replacement or upgrade. Though keeping your Mac awake might seem a minor need, I find such applications essential to my work teaching and speaking, and I suspect many ProfHacker readers will also find the Amphetamine application useful. How about you? Do you use Caffeine or an alternative application to keep your computer awake while teaching or presenting? Can you recommend a good, similar app for Windows or Linux? Tell us what you use to keep your computer awake when needed in the comments. [Creative Commons licensed photo by Flickr user Maxime Bober.] RSS to Email Formatted