Lab Tick

Have you ever been annoyed by your PowerBook's (or MacBook Pro's) backlit keyboard? You can not control it, you simply have to deal with the behaviour dictated by the ambient light sensor, which sometimes does not work really well. The idea of a backlit keyboard is awesome, but the implementation in Mac OS X has its flaws. Lab Tick aims to fix them.

Latest version (0.9.4) - only 1.2 MB, and it's free!

Be sure to read the included read me file.

Check out my new iPad app, Folio Case!

I accept donations for Lab Tick. Please ensure further Lab Tick development by donating.

Changes in 0.9.4 (2009-09-12):

• Introduced full 64-bit-support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Changes in 0.9.3 (2009-09-07):

• Introduced support for fast user switching.
• Reduced memory usage by eliminating several leaks.
• A number of minor bug fixes and improvements.
• Dropped support for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

Changes in 0.9.2 (2008-12-08):

• Fixed a power management issue which caused the backlight to not come back on after being idle.
• Added an option to permanently suppress the donation window for contributors.
• A number of minor bug fixes and improvements.

Changes in 0.9.1 (2008-10-16):

• Fixed an issue with the menu bar icon on Mac OS X 10.4
• Fixed an issue with the preferences icons on Mac OS X 10.4
• Fixed an issue with the update interval pop up box on Mac OS X 10.4

Changes in 0.9 (2008-10-13):

• Removed all localizations (may be re-added at a later time)
• New and improved application icon
• New and improved menu bar icons
• New and improved preferences
• Added the option for users to set their own update frequency
• Automatic update checks are now possible in regular interval
• Fixed a number of small bugs

Changes in 0.8.4 (2008-04-13):

• Fixed the welcome window so it will be displayed above other windows.
• Adjusted the updates to the illumination controller to reduce flicker.
• Added localization for the "About Lab Tick" window.
• Fixed some small localization issues.
• Improved handling of sleep/wake up events.
• Added a donation menu item.
• Added a donation window (don't worry, it won't bother you much).

Changes in 0.8.3 (2008-04-07):

• Added a welcome screen to let new users know how to access Lab Tick

Changes in 0.8.2 (2008-04-02):

• Added Italian localization (thanks to Gruppo Modulo)
• Improved power management to use less CPU cycles
• Reduced CPU usage, which should heavily benefit MacBook Air users
• Minor tweaks and bug fixes

Changes in 0.8.1 (2007-12-12):

• Fixed a memory leak that was introduced in version 0.8

Changes in 0.8 (2007-12-05):

• Power management can turn off the backlight after a user-specified idle time
• Fixed a bug that would not close the preferences window or the about window when cmd+w was pressed
• Fixed some small localization bugs
• Added localization for Growl messages

Changes in 0.7 (2007-11-22):

• Customizable global hotkeys are available now (check the preferences)
• Hotkey actions will be displayed as Growl notifications
• Fixed a bug where the menu would not open properly on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
• Removed incomplete localisations (Italian, Turkish, Portuguese - these will be added again at a later time)

Changes in 0.6.4 (2007-11-18):

• Updated menu bar icon for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) - courtesy of Zak MacDonald.
• Updated application icon (512x512) for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) - courtesy of Zak MacDonald.

Changes in 0.6.3 (2006-09-18):

• Added Turkish localization.

Changes in 0.6.2 (2006-09-03):

• Added French localization.

Changes in 0.6.1 (2006-09-02):

• Fixed bug: adding the application to the login items did not work.

Changes in 0.6 (2006-08-28):

• Changed the application to run as a menubar application without a Dock icon.
• Added automated update checks with Sparkle.
• Redesigned "About" window with updated credits.

Changes in 0.4 (2006-07-24):

• Added localization support.
• Added German localization.
• Added French localization.
• Added credits to the "About" window.
• Modified lock method to run within the same run loop as the main application without requiring an extra thread, thus making the lock mode many times as efficient as before in terms of CPU cycles consumed (about 0.20-0.30% on a PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz).

Changes in 0.3.2 (2006-07-20):

• Added an option to automatically launch Lab Tick at login.

Changes in 0.3 (2006-07-17):

• Introduced saving feature.
• Introduced preferences.
• User interface improvements.

Changes in 0.2.1 (2006-07-14):

• Included an icon file (thanks to Stefan Hartmann).
• Fixed a small crashing bug.
• Made the application terminate when the window is closed.

Changes in 0.2 (2006-07-06):

• Initial release.