This free application is a simple, great idea. It can act as and infinity switch to stop your Mac from going to sleep. Or you can use its timer to add a wake time of up to 99 minutes to your setting in Energy Saver. You can activate a simple black screensaver with a timer readout. It has no bugs I can find! But I wish it had help for newbies.
This app is useful if you have a process running that you do not interrupted by your Mac going to sleep. For example, if you have some whopping huge file downloading from the Internet, you can crank up Caffe and tell it to keep your Mac awake long enough to allow the full download. Meanwhile, you can walk away and caffeinate yourself.
Setting the timer is easy once you get the hang of the rotating dial interface metaphor. Hold down the Left mouse button and drag up or down to change the timer setting. The default timer increments are 3 minutes. You can hold the shift key to use 1 minute increments. The timer can be set to anywhere from 1 to 99 minutes. Once you turn ON the timer it will add that time period to your usual Mac wake time setting.
NOTE: The timer setting in Caffe is NOT the total Mac wake time. The timer adds time to what you have already selected in the Energy Saver system preferences. For example, if Energy Saver is set to put your Mac to sleep after 1 minute of inactivity, add that one minute to the timer setting you chose in Caffe for the total time your Mac will stay awake. If you have Energy Saver set to a higher wake timing, add that to your Caffe setting.
Version 1.0.0 has no help, so the dial metaphor can be confusing if you haven't encountered it before. But it's easy to use and the provided double-arrow action icon gives you a clue of how to use it.
Also, version 1.0.0 has a couple menu headers in Italian. 'Archivo' is simply for activating the screen saver. The 'Modifica' menu isn't active. It's just the Edit menu that's standard on OS X.
As always, if you're walking away from your computer and you're in an environment with other people around, it is important to LOCK your computer interface to keep other people out! That means activating the native OS X screensaver set to require a password in order to use the Mac. The screensaver in Caffe will NOT lock your computer! Use the native Mac screensaver instead. Don't forget!