Desktoptopia is a cure for the common desktop background

For about the longest time, the background on my Mac had been fairly dull--a Manhattan cityscape plucked from the selection at DesktopNexus. I want my desktop patterns to look good, but I'm not one to put a whole lot of thinking power into it; there are better ways to waste energy.

I have a pretty new desktop--'Within' by Vlad Studio

This morning, however, I switched when I read about Desktoptopia, a new Mac-only downloadable app that lets you easily discover aesthetically pleasing "designer desktop" backgrounds created by innovative digital artists (no generic landscapes here) and switch them up either automatically or manually with a very simple set of controls. Install the software, and you'll get a new little menu in your navigation bar to play around with it.

For further interaction, the drop-down menu also allows you to rate your current background--presumably, this will mean that higher-rated desktops will show up more frequently in the rotation--or visit the Web site of the designer who created it. You can additionally select exactly how much time you want to go in between desktop refreshes (mine's set to manual) or which categories you'd like the selection to come from (we're talking the likes of "photography," "typography," and "graphic design," not "beaches" and "sunsets"). Most of the available desktops are really quite lovely; a few border on the yawn-worthy "abstract displays of light" genre, but the majority are very fresh.

I do wish there were more social features to help build a community around the app and encourage both user and designer feedback--think of it as a Threadless for desktop backgrounds. Now that would be really cool. And it is, very tragically, $20 to go beyond the trial version. But doesn't the label "designer" usually come with a premium?

(Via Josh Spear)

[designgeek]

Thanks for the tip

these are awesome!

[designgeek]

Thanks for the tip

these are awesome!

[Dalkorian]

something here I don't understand

Try System Preferences -> Desktop and Screensaver -> Desktop. Right there at
the bottom of that screen is an option to change your desktop at desired
intervals, my machine automatically changes it's desktop every day. This comes
with OSX (10.4), without any third party programs.

So what is the point of this program again?

[designgeek]

The difference

You're mac will cycle thru desktops, but you have to have the on your machine.
This saves you the trouble of finding the good ones, which can be time
consuming.

[designgeek]

What's the point?

It looks like it's all about getting access to these designer desktops, and any
other feeds you add to the program.

[DarkHawke]

"Cool web apps for everyone"?

Yet the feature is about MAC-ONLY software. Yeah, there's a link to a generalized site at the start of the article, but Desktoptopia appears to cater to only 5% of the audience. Did I miss the link on their site to a Windows version, or did this article get posted to the wrong blog?

[maclease]

Icon container

Hey, can you show a bigger screenshot of your desktop? http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20070809/screengrab_350x233.jpg

It seems that you have an awesome container that lets you
scroll a list with your icons in the left part of your screen.

I am interested to get a software that can offer such a feature for a Windows desktop.