I don't usually review applications that are in beta. But since the developer asked me to review their program and sent the NFR code with the request I figured I'd check it out. PowerManager is a must-have application, but it's not one I would use all the time as there are a few things missing. But others of you may find it to your liking.
PowerManager is actually a System Preference pane. So to open it you must open System Prefs. Or if you set your options correctly you can just open it via it's own menubar menu.
There are three functions for PowerManager: an alarm clock (which uses iTunes), Waking your computer, and putting your computer to Sleep. The Basic Info Tab gives you the option to create schedules for each one or multiples of each.
This little application is nice but I felt it was lacking in a few areas. If these things would have been implemented the application would have recieved 2-3 more apples:
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iTunes opens and comes to the front upon alarm activation. If there were at least an option to keep iTunes hidden it would work much better instead of iTunes interupting you while you are working in Word or Photoshop.
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There is no option for Turning On the computer. I have been searching for an application to do this ever since I switched to X. I loved that feature in classic where I could schedule my computer to turn itself on so that it would be on and ready for me when I walked in the door from work.
 Besides the two things I mention above PM is a good solid app (just remember it's still a beta). So go on over to thier website and pick up this must have application.
UPDATE: With the upgrade to Panther this application no longer works. The developer of this product has been contacted many times with no response. So it seems that this (and all other products by this developer) is no longer being developed until further notice. So until it is compatable with all versions of X it will have to go from 2 apples down to 1.
UPDATE #2: With the reemergence of Sanity software from oblivion, this program is no longer in beta and has a name change for the Panther and Tiger versions. They are now PowerController, while previous versions are still called PowerManager. The Panther version does run again, and it seems a little more smoothly. So, I'm upgrading this to 3 apples.
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