Desktoptopia goes free and PC for version 1.5

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.

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Source: http://www.desktoptopia.com/

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Analysis / Opinion Desktops Software Freeware

My personal favorite desktop wallpaper app, the echo-named Desktoptopia, sent us a tip with a great announcement today: not only have they...

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Tony G.

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...

April 05 2008 at 8:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tim BrÃ¼ckmann

Great app, is there any way to save the shown desktop?

April 05 2008 at 3:07 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Tim BrÃ¼ckmann's comment

Brenig

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.

April 05 2008 at 2:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

MrMoustache

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?

April 04 2008 at 5:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to MrMoustache's comment

Bill Grant

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.

April 05 2008 at 1:18 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Matthew

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.

April 05 2008 at 11:27 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ben Garmisa

Same here, interesting concept, but seems to crash more often than it runs... I'd love to have something like this that works though...

April 04 2008 at 3:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Lee

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.

April 04 2008 at 1:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Lee's comment

Hal

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.

April 07 2008 at 3:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Brian

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.

April 04 2008 at 12:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

greg.cordell

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...

April 04 2008 at 11:22 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

James

What's an "Automato"?

XD

April 04 2008 at 10:53 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to James's comment

byaah

Sounds like some from of a tomato, hmmm...

April 04 2008 at 11:11 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

acidscan

it's an australian tomato

April 04 2008 at 11:18 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Pepijn Bruienne