My personal favorite desktop wallpaper app, the echo-named Desktoptopia, sent us a tip with a great announcement today: not only have they released version 1.5, and not only have they released a PC version (for your work computer to use, I guess), but Desktoptopia is now a completely free app.Now, I don't know if this is new or not, but their FAQ page says that the reason they're now free is that some of the wallpapers that will show up on your desktop (the app periodically changes your wallpaper for you, as often as you'd like) are "beautiful desktops that reflect a brand." I haven't yet seen any obvious ones pop up in the old version, and I haven't started using the new version yet, but I guess there's a chance that you could have, say, a Wal-mart desktop show up. That would probably give me reason to uninstall the software right there, but of course that's up to you -- if you don't like it, you could always try Desktopia, or just do it yourself with Automator.
I haven't had that problem yet, though -- in my experience, Desktoptopia has provided some great wallpapers (with no brands I could notice) as regularly as I'd like with no fuss at all. If you want some change to come regularly to your desktop wallpaper, but don't want to go hunting around for the right pics, Desktoptopia is a great solution that is now completely free. Great to hear.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-04-2008 @ 10:13AM
Desktoptopia Team said...
Thanks for the link guys. I think we can guarantee no Walmart desktops! :)
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4-04-2008 @ 10:30AM
Pepijn Bruienne said...
Site appears to be down or non-responsive... tuaw'ed?
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4-04-2008 @ 11:07AM
Gavin said...
TUAWned!
Ouch, that was bad. I apologize.
But, no, I can't access it either.
4-05-2008 @ 6:03PM
The Desktoptopia Team said...
working great now!
4-04-2008 @ 10:53AM
James Madley said...
What's an "Automato"?
XD
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4-04-2008 @ 11:11AM
byaah said...
Sounds like some from of a tomato, hmmm...
4-04-2008 @ 11:18AM
acidscan said...
it's an australian tomato
4-04-2008 @ 11:22AM
greg.cordell said...
Got through to the site and d/l'ed fine, but I guess the servers are getting crushed, b/c it is about as unresponsive as you can get. Hopefully it will work a little later...
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4-04-2008 @ 12:05PM
Brian said...
They've used Disney adds for awhile, but you may not have noticed that they're actually ads. You can see them here: http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/10/31/rachel-weisz-as-snow-white-scarlett-johansson-as-cinderella/.
Also, I've upgraded my desktoptopia to 1.5 and it crashes my system preferences when I try to launch it from it's preference pane. And it also keeps asking me to upgrade (although I already did). The application is running, but so far I can't really tell if it's v. 1 or v. 1.5.
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4-04-2008 @ 3:38PM
Ben Garmisa said...
Same here, interesting concept, but seems to crash more often than it runs... I'd love to have something like this that works though...
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4-04-2008 @ 5:27PM
MrMoustache said...
Well, I can download OK, but no feeds are shown in the program. and I cant find any reference to them on the website. What am I missing? Is this due to the website problems?
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4-05-2008 @ 1:18AM
Bill Grant said...
I didn't see the feeds initially, but I did when I rebooted my Mac. Working fine now.
Sometimes I don't get a new wallpaper when I do a menu press, but it comes on the next try. Since it's a wallpaper and not a mission-critical app this doesn't bother me at all.
4-05-2008 @ 11:29AM
Matt said...
There are no feeds listed for me either. I tried restarting as well but still nothing. Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe it has something to do with their end but I don't know.
4-04-2008 @ 11:36PM
Leehblanc said...
Im thinking that "Beautiful desktops that reflect a brand" would indicate something more along the lines of a collage of classic Coca Cola posters than a Wal Mart storefront. That I could deal with. Of course, none of this means much to me. I am so excited to finally own a Mac that I put the Leopard background on on day 1 and haven't changed it since. I guess I looked longingly at if for so long that I fell in love with it.
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4-07-2008 @ 3:58PM
Hal said...
It also seems that users have the capability to "Reject" individual desktops using the Ratings feature in the drop menu. Looks like Desktoptopia gives you a good bit of control over what kinds of images you want to see.
4-05-2008 @ 3:08AM
Tim Brückmann said...
Great app, is there any way to save the shown desktop?
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4-05-2008 @ 2:48PM
Brenig said...
Go to the system prefs/desktop & screen saver/desktop. You'll see a tiny pic of the wallpaper. Just drag'n drop it where you want. You'll have a copy of the full size desktop pic.
4-06-2008 @ 1:48PM
token.alaskan said...
The sponsored part seems to be movie-related; there's a feed called "Films" that has a star next to it, and when you try to disable it gives an error "Films is a sponsored feed and cannot be disabled." It's currently empty, though.
@Brenig: that tip isn't working for me on Tiger...i suppose one could kill the Finder, hide the Dock and take a screenshot...
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