Filed under: Odds and ends, TUAW Tips
This tip isn't Mac specific, but I thought I would share it anyway. No one wants to stare at their computer with a dull old Desktop background, but where can you get high quality free desktop backgrounds? Why, Flickr of course! This Flickr group, called Wallpapers (1024x768 minimum), has thousands of pictures that folks want you to download and display proudly on your Mac (or PC, if you must).Holding the Command key (aka the Apple key) and pressing Tab will cycle through your open applications. It's easier to Cmd-Tab if you are Copy (Cmd-C) and Pasting (Cmd-V) to and from various applications.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Shaaheen said 8:36PM on 11-07-2006
So you put a "WALLPAPER" on your desktop? Nice.
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Scott McNulty said 8:41PM on 11-07-2006
What's that sound? Oh, Shaaheen complaining about something free. Interesting.
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Dylan said 9:07PM on 11-07-2006
Does anyone else find it hard to use anything but the default desktop picture? Nothing else feels right to me.
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Brian said 9:21PM on 11-07-2006
I agree with the default desktop thing, I keep trying new ones and I always end up going back to it.
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Andrew said 9:59PM on 11-07-2006
I'm a huge fan of mandolux:
http://www.mandolux.com/
Awesome hi-res abstract photography and the desktops are designed to fit single/dual/triple(!!) widescreen monitors.
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Macskeeball said 10:13PM on 11-07-2006
I'm fond of http://www.caedes.net
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mike said 10:37PM on 11-07-2006
remember, you need a flickr account (they're free - use your yahoo ID if you have one) to click "all sizes" and download the big versions.
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Stephen said 11:03PM on 11-07-2006
I have a similar thing with the desktops, that I can't swithc, but it's that I found this one:
http://air1.com/Common/Thumbnail.aspx?s=1600&f=%2fextras%2fimages%2fwallpaper%2fSunset.jpg&
about a year ago and nothing else works. The bright coloring among other things just draws me to it.
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drewby said 11:11PM on 11-07-2006
I find that deviantart.com has some great content. just browse to the customization -> wallpapers section found here: http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/wallpaper/ .
if you've never browsed through deviantart before, its a great site with tons of user submitted art from wallpaper to prints to application skins to poetry.
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TheMacThinker said 11:33PM on 11-07-2006
Devianart wallpapers are actually very cool... You can download many of them, put them in a folder and set them to rotate after a fixed amount of time through system preferences...
---------
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Mark Studdock said 12:42AM on 11-08-2006
someone I know has desktops at http://www.differentlightsolutions.com/pages/backgrounds.html
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Chris Bell said 7:06AM on 11-08-2006
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/index.php?sort=date
That is another good one. It has various resolutions and generally high quality photos. It includes one of my own photos btw :) http://tinyurl.com/ymhdsv
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Mark said 9:05AM on 11-08-2006
http://pixelgirlpresents.com has never let me down when it's time to change up the desktop.
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Chris said 9:29AM on 11-08-2006
I recently started offering some of my photography as downloadable desktops here:
http://www.dirtroadphotography.com/desktops
Enjoy!
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Andy Lee said 10:40AM on 11-08-2006
I'm sure there are beautiful images at the sites everybody has mentioned, but I've never understood why the desktop image matters to so many people. My screen is always covered with application windows, so I almost never *see* the desktop, or when I do, the background image is fragmented by windows. This is a serious question -- do you folks really see a significant amount of your desktop image a significant amount of the time?
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sandy said 9:18PM on 11-13-2006
i agree with chris here. interfacelift is hands down the best. i do like the flickr group, but some of those shots while good aren't really suitable for desktops (too busy, etc). also it's damn hard to find higher resolution and widescreen stuff in that flickr pool
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