Sunday, November 13, 2011

Magic Window

I been sighing for years to get a live wallpaper for my Mac. Just a slowly changing scene on my desktop. I didn't get why it didn't exist, given the supposed great power of the processors and sophistication of the system. But it seems it's finally here, at least the first attempt I know of.
I've long enjoyed Magic Window for the iPad, which shows long, beautiful time-lapse videos, where you can adjust the speed yourself. And now there's a Mac version too, use the App Store for Mac and search for Magic Window. I haven't heard of any Windows version.
It is pretty powerful, it runs in real HD, and can run two different shows on two different monitors at once.
It's nice, if you set it slow it does not distract from work, yet still presents you with a changed scene next time you notice, as the sun has gone lower or the weather has changed. And despite running two big monitors, it's not a huge resource hog, 5-10% processor use on my Mac Pro.
The first two scenes I tried, below. Notice I took the screenshot as the desktop was changing between two pics taken as the bridge was being pulled in.



(As I write now, the foreground plane has gone, but planes are passing by, being towed in the background. Fun.)


Most scenes are picturesque like the sunset. One of my faves is a sunset filmed from a mountain in Hawaii, during it you have clouds forming and disappearing *under* the camera viewpoint. This one seems to only be on the iPad though, and they have made it a for-pay scene (a buck). But most are real purty anyway, and a bunch are included.

6 comments:

TC [Girl] said...

That first one is yummy! :-P

TC [Girl] said...

Just made it my wallpaper. Now, I can pretend that I'm at the coast and not get COLD sitting out there looking out! :-D (I've been wanting to go to the coast for several months, now, so...thanks for this; it curbs the yearning! :0)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Most scenes are picturesque like the sunset. One of my faves is a sunset filmed from a mountain in Hawaii, during it you have clouds forming and disappearing *under* the camera viewpoint. This one seems to only be on the iPad though, and they have made it a for-pay scene (a buck). But most are real purty anyway, and a bunch are included.

TC [Girl] said...

Wanted to try to find an example on uboob. Thought you might enjoy this one. :-D

Marcelo Metayer said...

I've found this Windows software: DeskScapes, from Stardock. Anyway, I haven't tried yet.

http://dream.wincustomize.com/

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Thanks.
Doubtlessly this software group will grow rapidly now that machines can handle it.
Although I do admit that it's a little more distracting than I had thought it would be, even if one sets it to a slow change.