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Simple Screen Saver Solutions for your iMac
By David Barton, iMac2Day

Recently we have received many email messages from readers wanting to know what screen saver options are available for the iMac. There are several freeware and shareware screensavers available for your iMac. If you are not familiar with freeware, it is software that is totally free to you and may copy it freely, give it to your friends, and/or put it on any CD-ROMs etc, but the author retains the rights. Shareware is software that you can download and use, but if you like and continue to use you must register it and pay for the software. Commercial software must be purchased up front and can not be distributed.

A screensaver's major function is to eliminates the potential for phosphor screen burn-in, which is not really a problem any more with most monitors, nevertheless people just ìlikeî screensavers. Some screen savers provide additional features like security for your system via password entry, the ability to add additional scenes or the ability to use custom QuickTime movies.

The screen savers featured here are very simple applications or control panels and can be set-up by anyone. The first screen saver that I want to share with you is the newest of all the three featured. "She comes in colors!" is the title of a saver inspired by the new iMac colors. Geek Culture has created a cool screen saver to celebrate the release of such yummy hardware. You can watch the five new flavored iMacs float around you screen.

"She comes in Colors!" is very easy to install. Simply download the screen saver then open your System Folder and drop the "She comes in colors!" file into your computer's Control Panels folder. Restart your computer and your ready to go. You can further adjust the preferences by opening the "She comes in Colors!" Control Panel. You can turn the screen saver on/off, select the time before the screen saver becomes active, and which corner will be the Sleep Now corner.

This is a good option if you budget is tight. The five wonderfully flavored iMacs floating around your screen is neat. However, with only one scene it can get old after a while.

"She comes in colors" is Freeware.

Screen Gear Pro is a screen saver and simple presentation tool. Screen Gear takes a folder of images, movies and sound files and turns them into a slide show fading one file into the next while playing narration, music or both. It's easy to install and use. Double click the "Screen Gear" application and dismiss the about dialog (Only present on unregistered versions of Screen Gear Pro). Next select the folder that you want to view from the "Select File..." option of the "File" menu. Finally select "Start" from the "File" menu. Then check the "Start Screen when you start your Mac" box in the "General" section of the "Set Preferences..." menu. That is it. You can download any number of movies and or pictures from the internet, or use your own pictures and movies.

Screen Gear Pro is shareware and costs $15

NOVA by Chaotic Software and packs many features. Nova is easy to install as well. All you have to do once you have downloaded NOVA is run the installer. Then restart your computer. Launch the "NOVA Settings" application to custom configure NOVA. You can have NOVA choose the scenes randomly or you can pick a specific scene to be displayed. You can also select which scenes NOVA will randomly pick from. There is also a option to select "Sleep Now" and "Sleep Never" corners of you desktop. You have the ability to control what will wake up NOVA. Security is also built into NOVA. You have the ability to set two system passwords to: (1) protect the NOVA settings and (2) NOVA will prompt you for a password when wakes up. You can also have NOVA log failed password attempts.

NOVA is ShareWare and costs $20

After Dark Deluxe, a commercial screensaver by Berkeley Systems. It is packed with over 85 different screen savers. After Dark (AD) is simple to install. Put the CD in and double click the "Double-Click Me to Install" icon. One more click to install the full package and the restart. Once you have rebooted look at the top left corner of the screen and click on the Apple menu. There you will now see a "After Dark 4.0". Click that to customize the AD preference. AD also offers password protection and a EcoLogic feature that can shut down the monitor and/or computer after a specified time. When you make the EcoLogic feature active it also calculates the estimated annual savings. Another great feature is the ability to see a demo of each of the displays from the control panel. AD also offers "Sleep Now" and "Sleep Never" corners.

AD is my favorite of the screen saver options. You have the ability to create custom "Randomizers". When you create a randomizer you select which display AD will randomly show. Another fun feature of AD is some of the displays are interactive games. If I ever catch up with all the jobs I do I could play "You Bet Your Head" till the cows come home. Some of these screen savers are not only useful, but are also entertaining.

After Dark Deluxe is a commercial application and retails for $34.95 from Outpost.Com.

The screensavers featured here are not the only ones available for your iMac, but reflect three basic levels of screen saver options. Listed below are several other available options. Please remember to support the authors of the shareware and register the software if you are going to benefit from their hard work.

BlackWatch - simple innocuous screen saver with password protection & Y2K countdown - 87k
Desktop Screen Saver - uses your desktop pictures for a slide show screen saver - 1.3M
DarkSide - application based screensaver
MacDim - innocuous screensaver that uses almost no memory or system resources
CyberStretch - interactive screen saver gives exercises reducing repetitive stress injuries
Ambrosia Eclipse - screen saver application shows picturess or movies of your choice.
Objectiv StartThing - screen-saver that will launch applications
St. Clair AutoLaunch Pro - professional solution for making Macromedia Director screen savers

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