Fermata Review: Pause Your Mac Applications
Do you know how many applications your Mac is running right now? How many of them are taking up valuable processor time that could be used for another application? Usually you have to quit running certain apps to get more processor time for the ones that need it. Enter Fermata: a freeware utility that allows users to pause an application, thus freeing up that app’s processor time. Handy? Yes it is.
Download and Installation (4 out of 5)
Fermata is available at this website for free. It is very easy to download and install. After the download is complete all you have to do is open the mounted file and Fermata will be there on you desktop ready to use. You gotta love Macs!
Features (5 out of 5)
Fermata is a very simply utility for your Mac, so there is really nothing fancy looking about it nor does it have any fancy features. After you open it you will see a very simple window with a scroll down menu of all the applications that are currently running on your Mac (this menu can be refreshed with a button on the window, in case you open new apps or close old ones). All you have to do is select the application you want to pause and click on the Pause button. The application will appear to be frozen and there will be nothing you can do with it until you hit the Resume button on Fermata.
I tried this with a couple of my Mac’s most important applications: Microsoft Word and iPhoto. It paused them both and resumed them without a hitch. However, it did not show Vuze in the list of applications and I did have it running at that time. Maybe Vuze can’t be paused for some reason. I don’t know.
Fermata in Action
Usefulness (4 out of 5)
Fermata is a nice utility if you like to run a lot of applications at the same time, but you don’t always need them hogging your processors’ time. It’s nice to not have to keep closing and opening applications all day just to get the speed you want. For my daily work I found it a very useful bit of freeware. If you are like me, and have about five or six apps running at a time (and we all know we aren’t really using them!) you might find Fermata useful too.
Overall (4 out of 5)
I really like Fermata. I use it regularly now and it is very helpful in my day to day computer use (not something I can say about a lot of software). Go ahead and give it a try. It’s free and small enough that you’ll hardly notice it’s there.
