Filed under: Software, Universal Binary
EarthDesk 4.0
EarthDesk 4.0 has just been released, and it looks good. EarthDesk is a clever little app (for Mac and Windows) that puts a map of the Earth on your desktop. 'I can just put an image of the Earth on my desktop, so who cares,' you say. Oh, silly reader, EarthDesk does more than just put a static image on your desktop, rather it turns your desktop into a live snapshot of the Earth. That's right, it updates the image to show current conditions, and best of all you can set the update interval.This release also includes an overhauled UI and movement of the entire app into a preference pane. EarthDesk is a Universal Binary, requires OS X 10.4, QuickTime 6.5.2+, and costs $19.95 for a single user.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gilbert said 3:13PM on 1-22-2007
Don't purchase this software. Use OSXplanet found at http://www.gabrielotte.com/osxplanet/main.html
OSXplanet offers the same features as EarthDesk without any costs. The software is donationware though so if you enjoy the software, send a donation to the creator of OSXplanet.
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Moosegolfr said 9:00PM on 1-22-2007
Is it free for MacHeist users?
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u07ch said 3:09PM on 1-22-2007
OS/X Planet is free
http://www.gabrielotte.com/osxplanet/main.html
it does pretty much the same thing
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gillsans said 3:23PM on 1-22-2007
Anybody know about performance? Seems like this would slow my system down. Of course running Photoshop and iTunes slows my 1ghz Powerbook down to a crawl...
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St3phen said 6:16PM on 1-22-2007
OSX Planet and EarthDesk are based off the same OSS code. Why pay for EarthDesk? (Though I did donate to the developer of OSX Planet.)
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Trygve Inda said 6:49PM on 1-22-2007
St3phen: EarthDesk is NOT AT ALL based upon any OSS code. It was fully developed in-house although we do license the satellite maps and some code for calculation of the position of the moon. -Trygve Inda, President, Xeric Design, Ltd.
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Jeremy said 6:58PM on 1-22-2007
Tried both of them. Earthdesk looks a lot nicer, and is a lot more stable, and adding Yet Another Extra Icon to my menubar is optional.
What's truly obnoxious is the "NOT LICENSED" in the middle of the screen. I mean, there could at least be an evaluation period before you get two-inch tall letters across the picture.
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Raffi said 9:40PM on 1-22-2007
Unless they improved system resource usage, I'm not downloading. Last I used it, it was nice novelty, but not something I would dare keep running all the time.
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Sanjay Mehta said 11:12PM on 1-22-2007
I got this free during from MacAppADay. It's interesting (as is OSXplanet) but not really useful. I ran it for a day or so before removing it.
The only way I would run this permanently would be if it could display specific cities on the map and update the
current time at those locations in more or less real time.
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St3phen said 1:12PM on 2-01-2007
@Trygve Inda: My mistake. I was told by friends in the biz that it was, and saw that many of your specs are identical (or near-identical) to that of OSXplanet. Thus, I believed them.
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M said 1:15AM on 1-23-2007
I wish I could see it without those big letters. And i'm only willing to pay $3 for something like this. I'm sure a million other would too.
Is there an evaluation license key floating around?
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Jay said 4:36PM on 1-24-2007
Application is pretty but not worth $19.95. Also, why the hell isn't the uninstall simpler. I'm having a heck of a time removing this now that I've seen it. The web is littered with folks complaining about how hard it is to uninstall (but no good instructions for Mac newbies like me.)
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Trygve Inda said 5:51PM on 1-24-2007
There are specific uninstall instructions on our support pages. -Trygve Inda, Xeric Design
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Mark S said 4:35PM on 1-25-2007
I got version 3.5 from MacHeist and I really love staring at my desktop with this on there. It's not a free upgrade. However, if you got it from MacHeist it's available for a discounted $12.95. I was a bit disappointed by 4.0. Really the only difference seems to be that it is now a preference pane instead of a standalone application. I kind of wish I had just stuck with 3.5. Anyway, I like the application and I guess it's good to support future development. Maybe 4.1, or whatever the next version is, will have more new features.
It runs great on my iMac G5 and MacBook Pro. It doesn't use hardly any resources.
Sanjay, you might want to take a look at EarthBrowser. It is an actual application and not a desktop. But it does update the current temperature and time around the world in addition to many other things. It uses satellite images just like EarthDesk and is considerably more useful for a couple dollars more. It's available at http://www.earthbrowser.com
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DM said 6:10PM on 11-22-2007
It would have been nice if the download page had said it was to be paid for instead of reading 'shareware' on the site. Very obnoxious text makes me want to get rid of it asap.
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