Mac OS X Screensavers

After my old G3 Powerbook died I immediately went back to Build’s website to download their Grid based clock screensaver for my new MacBook Pro. Alas, they haven’t updated it to run on the Intel-based Macs. The screensaver is a novel visual representation of time which functioned as my office clock when I wasn’t at my desk. While I don’t mind Flurry, I wanted something visually appealing that also told tim. Here is what I’ve found.

FLIQLO turns my supercomputer laptop into a very sleek version of the alarm clock radio my parents had when I was a kid. You know the one, with the screenprinted numbers that flip over when the minute or hour changes. It wins points for simplicity and readability from across the room

Word Clock by Simon Heys displays the time in words instead of numbers. The linear mode feels just like a poster from Helvetica. The radial mode is a bit more interesting but not quite as polished. Word Clock can be customized to your every whim including adjustments for font, kerning and positioning on the screen.

Due3 is a simple digital clock with both date and time and an simple analog clock acting as a background. Uniquely, it keeps track of how long the screensaver has been running. You can preview the screensaver fullscreen on the Due3 website.

Dropclock is my also-ran. I uninstalled it because it wasn’t working properly on my machine. It was likely that the hefty processing requirements of the screensaver didn’t get along well with a couple of Adobe Creative Suite applications I had open. Unfortunately in my world that’s reality but if you aren’t running RAM-hungry apps a lot this might be the screensaver for you. It is certainly the most engrossing of the screensavers I demoed.