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π π₯ π A curated list of screensavers for Mac OS X
Mac OS X Screen Saver powered by a Web View
:computer: Console application for creating dynamic wallpapers for macOS Mojave and newer
Quick Overview
Aerial is a macOS screensaver that displays stunning Apple TV aerial videos. It allows users to enjoy high-quality, dynamic screensavers featuring breathtaking aerial footage from various locations around the world, bringing the beauty of Apple TV's aerial screensavers to Mac computers.
Pros
- High-quality, visually stunning aerial videos
- Easy installation and integration with macOS
- Customizable settings, including video selection and playback options
- Regular updates with new video content
Cons
- Requires a stable internet connection for optimal performance
- May consume more system resources compared to static screensavers
- Limited to macOS, not available for other operating systems
- Some users may experience occasional playback issues
Getting Started
- Download the latest version of Aerial from the releases page.
- Unzip the downloaded file.
- Double-click on the
Aerial.saverfile to install the screensaver. - Open System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Screen Saver.
- Select Aerial from the list of available screensavers.
- Click on "Screen Saver Options" to customize settings (optional).
Competitor Comparisons
π π₯ π A curated list of screensavers for Mac OS X
Pros of awesome-macos-screensavers
- Offers a curated list of various macOS screensavers, providing more options and variety
- Includes links to different types of screensavers, catering to diverse user preferences
- Regularly updated with new screensaver additions from the community
Cons of awesome-macos-screensavers
- Not a standalone screensaver application, requiring users to download and install individual screensavers
- May include outdated or unmaintained screensavers in the list
- Lacks a unified installation process or management interface for the listed screensavers
Code comparison
Aerial:
func playNextVideo() {
guard let player = player else { return }
if currentVideoIndex + 1 < playlist.count {
currentVideoIndex += 1
} else {
currentVideoIndex = 0
}
player.replaceCurrentItem(with: AVPlayerItem(url: playlist[currentVideoIndex]))
}
awesome-macos-screensavers:
## Aerial
> Apple TV Aerial Screensaver for Mac.
[](https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial)
Note: awesome-macos-screensavers is primarily a curated list in Markdown format, so the code comparison is limited to how it presents information about screensavers like Aerial.
Mac OS X Screen Saver powered by a Web View
Pros of webviewscreensaver
- More flexible: Can display any web content as a screensaver
- Easier to customize: Users can create their own screensavers using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Lightweight: Smaller file size and potentially lower resource usage
Cons of webviewscreensaver
- Less visually impressive out-of-the-box: Aerial comes with stunning Apple TV aerial videos
- Potentially less secure: Displaying web content may introduce security risks
- More technical setup: Requires some web development knowledge for custom screensavers
Code Comparison
Aerial (Objective-C):
- (void)loadView {
[super loadView];
self.view = [[AerialView alloc] initWithFrame:NSZeroRect];
}
webviewscreensaver (Swift):
override func loadView() {
view = WebView(frame: .zero)
if let webView = view as? WebView {
webView.mainFrame.load(URLRequest(url: URL(string: "https://example.com")!))
}
}
Both projects use similar approaches to load their respective views, but webviewscreensaver uses a WebView to display web content, while Aerial uses a custom AerialView for video playback.
:computer: Console application for creating dynamic wallpapers for macOS Mojave and newer
Pros of wallpapper
- Lightweight and focused solely on wallpaper generation
- Supports custom image sources and configurations
- Can be integrated into other projects or workflows easily
Cons of wallpapper
- Limited to static wallpaper generation, no video support
- Lacks the extensive feature set and polish of Aerial
- Smaller community and less frequent updates
Code Comparison
Aerial (Objective-C):
- (void)updateMenuBarTitle {
if (self.preferences.showOptionsInMenuBar) {
self.statusItem.button.title = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", self.preferences.timeString];
} else {
self.statusItem.button.title = @"";
}
}
wallpapper (Swift):
func generate(output: String) throws {
let image = try generateImage()
try image.pngWrite(to: URL(fileURLWithPath: output))
}
Both projects serve different purposes: Aerial is a comprehensive screensaver application with video playback capabilities, while wallpapper is a simpler tool for generating static wallpapers. Aerial offers a more polished user experience with a GUI and extensive customization options, whereas wallpapper provides a command-line interface for quick wallpaper generation. The code snippets highlight the different focus areas, with Aerial managing UI elements and wallpapper concentrating on image generation and output.
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Aerial - Apple TV Aerial Views Screen Saver
Aerial is a Mac screensaver (macOS 10.12 or later) based on the new Apple TV screensaver that displays the Aerial movies Apple shot over New York, San Francisco, Hawaii, China, etc. Starting with version 2.0.0, it also includes videos shared by Joshua Michaels & Hal Bergman!
Aerial is completely open source, so feel free to contribute to its development.
This repository is used solely for development.
Starting with version 2.3.0, Aerial can now display current weather information and forecasts to your location, thanks to OpenWeather.
We thank OpenWeather for their support of Open Source projects.
For downloads and instructions, please go to our new website, hosted on GitHub Page: https://aerialscreensaver.github.io
Windows user? Try OrangeJedi/Aerial
Linux user? Try graysky2/xscreensaver-aerial
About Aerial
Aerial was started in 2015 by John Coates (Twitter, Email)
Starting with version 1.4, Aerial is maintained by Guillaume Louel (Twitter). If you are looking to support the development of Aerial, feel free to donate using the following button :
Compatibility
- macOS Sierra (10.12) and above, natively compiled for Apple Silicon
Community
- Found a bug? Make sure you are running the latest version and please check our FAQ and troubleshooting page and our issues, as someone may already have reported it (a beta may be available with the fix you need). Feel free to open an issue, try to be as specific as possible.
- Have you fixed a bug? Or want to implement a feature? Check instructions on how to compile Aerial and more on contributing here.
- Can you translate videos names and their descriptions? Awesome! Read here for details on how to help us.
- Have a feature request? Open an issue. Tell us why it would be useful, and why you and others would want it.
- Join our Community Discord server for technical support, feature requests, and a fun time!
Multilingual Support
Aerial features overlay descriptions of the main geographical features displayed in the videos.
Video descriptions are available in many languages (Spanish, French, PolishΓ’ΒΒ¦ check the complete list here) and that is only possible thanks to the collaboration and interested work of many volunteers. To best serve the international community we've defined a translation workflow that allows any person, even with no technical background to help translate the descriptions.
If you want to collaborate, please read the details here.
License
Top Related Projects
π π₯ π A curated list of screensavers for Mac OS X
Mac OS X Screen Saver powered by a Web View
:computer: Console application for creating dynamic wallpapers for macOS Mojave and newer
Convert designs to code with AI
Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.
Try Visual Copilot