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Lab Tick 0.9.4

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(4) 3.5

Gives total control of laptop backlit keyboard. Free

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1.2 MB
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Alexander Repty

Lab Tick allows you to turn on your PowerBook, MacBook or MacBook Pro's illuminated keyboard in the daylight.

What's New

Version 0.9.4:

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

Requirements

PPC / Intel
Mac OS X 10.5 or later.
PowerBook or MacBook (Pro/Air) with a backlit keyboard.

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Lab Tick User Discussion (Write a Review)

ver. 0.x:

(4)

Your rating: Now say why...

Overall:

(4)

sort: smiles | time

-27

An.onymous reviewed on 29 Nov 2011

LT 0.9.4 has been working well on my Powerbook duocore with all versions of Snow Leopard from 10.6.3.
Does it also work on Lion, where the same annoying problem of the keyboard lighting is still met ?

[Version 0.9.4]

David Clark reviewed on 10 Feb 2011

DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP.

This app does resolve rather nicely a short coming of mac OS and it even functions quite nicely so I was very happy with it.

Then I turned off my brand new macbook pro and I realised my error. Shutdown time went from almost instant to around 10s and start up when from ~20s to over a minute!!

You may say its hardly the end of the world but since this app replaces a small inconvenience with a larger one it is NOT WORTH IT.

Feel free to take a chance yourself, it may not affect you but since the problems remained after I removed the app, and googled it to death be careful.

I even emailed the creator (a week ago) to allow him/her the opportunity to assist me before writing this review but I have had no response.

Please help me fix the damage your app has done to my wonderful computer and I will gladly update the review.

[Version 0.9.4]

Moocan commented on 29 Jun 2010

Does not work anymore for me on Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 with last security Update. When active Lab Tick give me a strange Apple Menu which one come back normal when existing Lab Tick.

[Version 0.9.4]

+30

accountclosed commented on 25 Sep 2009

I couldn't get LabTick to save its "Start at Login" pref, emailed the developer, had a nice exchange, offered to help troubleshoot. This nice fellow sent me a debug build which crashed the app. That's the last I heard from him, despite three emails following up. I sent a small donation anyway, but jeesh-when someone's trying to help you out, have the courtesy to reply! As far as I know, the bug hasn't been resolved.

[Version 0.9.4]

yellowbuzzes commented on 19 Jun 2009

This program has been wonderful for a 70 year old Mac enthusiast with a 17" MacBook Pro and has trouble seeing the keys; the author should get an award from the visually-impaired folks!

[Version 0.9.2]

+56

Paladino reviewed on 20 Jan 2009

V.0.9.2 works beautifully on my 17"MBP Core2 Duo w/OS 10.5.4, whereas in v.0.9.1 keyboard illumination would intermittently flicker and cut out.
Far superior(more stable, more reliable) to MBP's own keyboard light sensing system which sucks,IMHO. A definitely big improvement over Apple's system.

[Version 0.9.2]

+17

asmeurer commented on 07 Nov 2008

I'm not sure if this app can do what I want it to do. I would like to keep the automatic enabling and disabling of the backlight, but I want to raise the minimum threshold of ambient light required to turn it on. The way it is now, I cant see the keys very well on my early 2008 MBP because the letters are so similar in color to the keys themselves. I would like for the back light to come on in lighter situations than it currently does.

If this program cannot actually do this, could you add it as a feature?

[Version 0.9.1]

b0ws3r commented on 14 Aug 2008

This is buggy when set to turn the backlighting off in low light conditions. I have told it to over ride the built in settings for keyboard backlighting, but even so, the backlighting on my keyboard strobes on and off when I tell lab tick to turn off the backlighting in low light conditions. Only having it set to be on or quitting the app stops it from happening. A nice idea, but it doesn't work the way it is supposed to.

MacBook Pro 15"
2.2/4GB/120, LED backlit screen.

[Version 0.8.4]

1 Reply

+322

MacUpdate Admin commented on 14 Aug 2008

From the Readme included in the download:

"...if you have any questions, suggestions or bug reports for Lab Tick, please feel free to email me at alexander.repty AT mac DOT com with full details on your ideas or experiences. I appreciate your feedback."

+148

Zo219 commented on 12 Apr 2008

And this little app uses up an excess of processor cycles why?

[Version 0.8.3]

dajnj commented on 09 Nov 2007

Great app. The developer will probably make a better one, but here is a menu icon that looks better on the semitransparent Leopard (10.5) menu:
http://www.seinan-gu.ac.jp/~djohnson/LabTickRegularStatusBarImage

To replace the menu icon, go to the Lab Tick application and control click it and choose "show package contents." Then drop the icon in Contents/Resources replacing the one there. Quit and restart Lab Tick.

[Version 0.6.3]

Everyones.uh.critic had trouble on 29 Sep 2010

I've googled this issue like crazy but haven't found a true fix for it yet. Maybe someone can help me. I'm on Snow Leopard 10.6.4

The backlight of my Macbook keyboard flickers BAD after about 10-20 seconds of this application running. It's really apparent in the dark. The backlight level goes from totally off to full brightness repeatedly until I quit the app. Other times the backlight flicker is fairly severe and annoying but not overly drastic from completely off to full brightness.

I tried reinstalling the app once or twice to see if that would resolve the problem because I LOVED THE APP SO MUCH, but that didn't help. I've spent lots of time searching for another app that will do the same thing but haven't found anything. Maybe I should've spent that time emailing the developer. Hmmm. Any suggestions to stop this crazy flickering? And yes, I've messed with the sliders and settings of the app. It didn't help at all.

[Version 0.9.4]

-1

xypher had trouble on 07 Jan 2009

Why does this disable the functionality of my MBP keyboard backlight? When I press F10 I see a cross sign going through it no matter what I do. Fiddling with the app doesn't help. Seems the old version was better.

[Version 0.9.2]

-2

-16

SiliconAddict had trouble on 25 Jul 2007

Problems on my newly reimaged C2D MBP 2.33Ghz @ 10.4.10.

The backlight just turns off after a few seconds. When I select labtick from the menubar it turns back on without needing to touch the slider (FYI the slider is at 100%.)

[Version 0.6.3]

1 Reply

Alexander Repty (developer) replied on 20 Nov 2007

Have you checked the box labeled "Prevent Mac OS X from automatically adjusting the illumination" in Lab Tick's preferences? That should fix it, if it doesn't get back to me.

Cheers,
Alex