Berkeley Grounds Flying Toasters

Berkeley Grounds Flying Toasters
DEVELOPER WON'T UPDATE AFTER DARK
By Macworld Staff

Those flying toasters and other marvels that raced across your monitor in Berkeley Systems' After Dark screen savers will soon make their final flight. Berkeley Systems (800/757-7707, http://www.berkeleysystems.com) has acknowledged that After Dark is incompatible with Mac OS 9 and says it has no plans to fix the problem. Users had reported system errors when running the After Dark control panel under the new OS. Berkeley says the screen saver works fine under Mac OS 8.6 and earlier OS versions.

Other developers of Mac-based screen savers have stepped into the breach. Ambrosia Software (716/325-1910, http://www.ambrosiasw.com) announced a promotion–good until December 31–under which After Dark users can upgrade to the company's Eclipse screen saver for $10. Other screen-saver developers include SoftStuff (888/763-0775, http://www.softstuff.com) and Chaotic Software (http://www.chaoticsoftware.com). The SETI@home screen saver (http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu) lets you preserve your screen while helping in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.