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EarthDesk
EarthDesk 5.8.5
Your rating: Now say why...

(149) 4.087248322147651

A striking animated image of the Earth for your Desktop.   Shareware ($24.95)
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  • Download Now
    25.8 MB
  • Visit Developer's Site
    Xeric Design, Ltd.
EarthDesk replaces your static desktop picture with a rendered image of Earth showing correct sun, moon and city illumination.

With an internet connection, EarthDesk displays real-time global cloud cover, allowing users to track hurricanes and typhoons, or simply admire our beautiful planet. User options allow you to adjust the overall transparency of the cloud layer.
  • Eleven different projections.
  • Political, enhanced satellite and natural maps.
  • Zoom from 50% to 400%.
  • City lights appear at night.
  • Atlas contains 10,000 cities.
EarthDesk gives you
What's New
Version 5.8.5:
  • Fixes a visual glitch in the Living Earth map by removing a static line in the Pacific near South America..
Requirements
PPC / Intel, Mac OS X 10.5 or later



MacUpdate - EarthDesk




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EarthDesk User Discussion (Write a Review)
ver. 5.x:
(149)
Your rating: Now say why...
Overall:
(163)

sort: smiles | time
burypromote

+104

Sgginc reviewed on 19 May 2012
Of all the screen savers I have this is the only one I use.
I like to watch the clouds/storms.
The rendition of the earth and clouds are beautiful.
There are a lot of options to choose from on how you want the map/clouds displayed.
Well worth the price (including the $9.95/yr) for me.
[Version 5.8.5]


burypromote

+69
Buzzard commented on 23 Feb 2012
Current version is broken in OSX 108 Mountain Lion
[Version 5.8.3]

1 Reply

burypromote
+2
Xeric Design, Ltd. (developer) replied on 26 Feb 2012
A fix should be available soon... long before the OS is publicly available.
burypromote
+2

+7
SegN3rd commented on 30 Jan 2012
Regardless of who you agree with, I think it is inappropriate for the developer to keep complaining to customers about the cost of bandwidth. Whatever concerns you have about bandwidth are between you and your bandwidth provider. We don't have anything to do with that.

The deal you have with us is to provide a certain program for a certain price. Many people have taken the opinion that you have taken that price and are now suddenly refusing to provide the service unless we pay more money. Although you have pointed out a loophole that makes it legal for you to do this, personally I am not especially eager to give my money to developers who take the money and find a loophole.
[Version 5.8.3]

1 Reply

burypromote
+3
Xeric Design, Ltd. (developer) replied on 31 Jan 2012
We strive to deliver the best product for our customers. The fact is that we can't guarantee a third party service. It is the same for any app that relies on internet-based data such as banking, weather or news feeds.

Our original cloud data provider is now charging $36/yr. We've been able to double that detail level (well beyond what we ever offered in the past) for $9.95/yr as an optional service.

We have also increased the detail level of the free cloud service as much as possible... a far better solution than simply ending the service entirely.

We plan to keep improving both free and paid services.
burypromote
+3

+6

Jumpjim reviewed on 26 Jan 2012
Has a BIG issue with memory usage in 5.8.2. Having installed iStat menus to keep an eye on my newly installed memory usage I noticed Earthdesk gradually increases its usage over time. Having been away for 5 days I find it is using 1.7Gb memory! No wonder my machine was slowing down... I emailed Xeric as I thought it was retaining coud images and got the following response... "It is not the clouds files (though we will double check that), but rather
the image data for the maps. We have fixed this for a future release.

It might be released with EarthDesk 6, but is more likely to be sooner."

Nice! We might have to pay extra to fix a major bug in the program having already paid for it, AND paid extra for high-res clouds.. Not impressed :(
[Version 5.8.2]

1 Reply

burypromote
+2
Xeric Design, Ltd. (developer) replied on 27 Jan 2012
On my test system it is about 400mb or Real/Private 16mb Shared and 700mb Virtual which is fairly normal. Your system may be preventing files from being released (perhaps a virus checker or similar software is holding EarthDesk's files open so they can't be purged).

The change in v6 will be how the VM system works and will use less memory, but this doesn't seem to be the root cause in your case. I sent you an email to ask about details from Activity Monitor, but have not heard back. Please contact us.
burypromote
+1

+15

Ok14me21 reviewed on 06 Jan 2012
I LOVE EarhDesk.
Today I bought High res cloud images.
Now I am in the heaven of clouds ;-)
[Version 5.8.2]


burypromote
+1

+35

Wile-E. reviewed on 31 Oct 2011
Outstanding app. I resisted a bit to pay for the High res cloud images but decided to this morning and I do not regret it. The imaging is exceptional.

I have never experienced any problems with EarthDesk and appreciate the care that has gone in to its design. There are quite a few configurable options but they are not overwhelming in the manner of some apps that try to offer too much.

Easy-peasey to set up and has been rock solid throughout.

I can't comment on Xeric's support because I have had no need to ever contact them.
[Version 5.8.1]


burypromote
+3

+27

Antoinesynopsis reviewed on 31 Oct 2011
I'm happy to see that the cloud definition is now acceptable. These last week, the cloud quality decreased for people who didn't pay the high res but it is now very good.
[Version 5.8.1]


burypromote
+1

+1
Katie Carter commented on 31 Oct 2011
Is 24.95 a one-time payment, or are there any recurring fees involved? I mean if I'm a paid user, shall I have to pay for those hi-res clouds annually as well?
[Version 5.8.1]

2 Replies

burypromote
-1
Xeric Design, Ltd. (developer) replied on 31 Oct 2011
24.95 is payment for the app which includes standard clouds. If you want very high-res clouds (up to 18 times more data), then you'll need a cloud access key which is 9.95 per year.

If we gave everyone the high-res clouds in 5.8.1 (which are double the data level of 5.8), then we'd have to find a way to pay for 2 terabytes of bandwidth every day... that is something we simply can't do for free.

You are welcome to try out the app before deciding to purchase it. There is a button with will provide a demo of the high-res clouds.
burypromote

-27
BigJohnson replied on 31 Oct 2011
"cloud access key"

ROFLMAO!
burypromote
-3
Xeric Design, Ltd. (developer) commented on 25 Oct 2011
We understand some people are disappointed in the recent changes that have required us to charge for high-resolution cloud data. It was not a happy change for us either. Since early September we have done nothing except work on building a suitable infrastructure to deliver this data.

For paid users, we are working on the possibility of doubling the resolution currently distributed. Internal testing is looking good so far and these very high resolution images look fantastic.

For free users, we are looking at ways to increase the resolution somewhat, perhaps at the expense of update frequency.

We welcome your comments here and on our EarthDesk facebook page.
[Version 5.8]

2 Replies

burypromote

Renzotavanti replied on 26 Oct 2011
Egregi signori, credo che chiedere una fee appena 40 giorni dopo averci venduto il software, anche se a prezzo scontato, sia molto scorretto.

Utilizzeremo gratuitamente le mappe ad alta risoluzione dal sito della NASA.
burypromote
-2
Xeric Design, Ltd. (developer) replied on 27 Oct 2011
Renzotavanti: Yes, NASA maps are free, but they are static. The cloud images change many times a day and while the data may be free, the bandwidth to deliver them is not free. Our image provider (which had supplied them for free since 2005) simply stopped a few days prior to the bundle sale... and had we done nothing, there would have been no clouds at all.
burypromote
-1

-1

L.b.j. reviewed on 24 Oct 2011
It is one thing not be able to deliver high res cloud pictures for free. But I can see no reason the pictures of the earth it selves are in an ugly resolution. Sorry, but that's a no-go.
[Version 5.8]

2 Replies

burypromote
+1

+4
Liquid043 replied on 24 Oct 2011
From where I stand this is unacceptable, you buy an app because of it's function, and when you buy you expect that you can have those options and not at a suddenly higher cost. Even more since earth desk purpose is to look good on your desktop. Cloud are not free anymore? Not my problem, I paid for an app, I expect to be able to use this app like before, it's not like it's a fee for an upgrade, it's a fee for no downgrade.... If I buy a car that comes with spair tires at a given time, if the tire price rise, it's not my problem they were part of the package.... Do not charge me for a price rise, it was up to you to not sale something you can't provide on long term....

My 2 cents...
burypromote
+1
Xeric Design, Ltd. (developer) replied on 24 Oct 2011
The Earth images have not changed at all and are still at the same resolution they have always been. Only the clouds have changed.

We do not own the cloud data which is why our license agreement has always stated: "Cloud images are not provided by a source under the control of Xeric Design, Ltd. Image content, accuracy, availability and timeliness are not guaranteed."

If the service were to stop entirely, we are not going to launch our own satellites to replace it.
burypromote

+7
Jc had trouble on 20 Jan 2010
Hi,

I tried the latest version of EarthDesk. How can I remove the milky white in the bottom of map? I've tried the instruction from your website. But deleting the file at ~/Library/Application Support/EarthDesk/Clouds doesn't help at all. I'm currently using 10.6. Thanks.
[Version 5.2.0]

3 Replies

burypromote
+5
Xeric Design, Ltd. (developer) replied on 20 Jan 2010
Can you please contact our support so we can get a screen capture of this? I have looked at the cloud servers and the images are currently ok (sometimes one or more of the satellites transmits a corrupt image). It is working here for me.

Thank you,

Trygve Inda
President, Xeric Design
burypromote
+1

+12
Vectorpanda replied on 21 Jul 2010
milky white at the bottom of the map? is there actually graphics corruption, or are you talking about antarctica? lol
burypromote

nross83 replied on 07 Sep 2011
I'm seeing this as well on OS X 10.6. The clouds image appears to get corrupted and pixelated at the bottom of the map. The workaround is to delete the jpg at ~/Library/Application Support/EarthDesk/Clouds and then force an update in EarthDesk.
burypromote

+7
dcannis had trouble on 24 Jul 2009
With the latest versions (5.0.1)when I stopped Earthdesk the background turn with the map still loaded.

MacBook Pro unibody 15" Intel Core 2 Duo 2,40 GHz
[Version 5.0.1]


burypromote

+6
LoosyGoosy had trouble on 09 Jul 2009
With the latest versions (5 and 5.0.1) I've noticed that sometimes the background will either turn black or white with the map partially loaded.
[Version 5.0.1]

1 Reply

burypromote
Xeric Design, Ltd. (developer) replied on 11 Jul 2009
Can you please contact us to supply more details about your hardware and some samples of what you are seeing?


mac update promo rated on 21 May 2012

[Version 5.8.5]




Pmu8158 rated on 19 May 2012

[Version 5.8.5]




captainbatman rated on 15 May 2012

[Version 5.8.4]




Ondralex34 rated on 14 May 2012

[Version 5.8.4]




Jazzg4@gmail.com-Utep rated on 27 Apr 2012

[Version 5.8.4]



-9

Drdavidwright rated on 23 Apr 2012

[Version 5.8.4]




Peter67 rated on 14 Apr 2012

[Version 5.8.4]




Sprave Roland rated on 09 Apr 2012

[Version 5.8.4]




Mr.aziz rated on 06 Apr 2012

[Version 5.8.4]




ichi.0821 rated on 03 Apr 2012

[Version 5.8.4]


Downloads:144,370
Version Downloads:1,107
Type:Utilities : Wallpaper
License:Shareware
Date:19 May 2012
Platform:PPC / Intel
Price: $24.95
Overall (Version 5.x):
Features:
Ease of Use:
Value:
Stability:
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EarthDesk replaces your static desktop picture with a rendered image of Earth showing correct sun, moon and city illumination.

With an internet connection, EarthDesk displays real-time global cloud cover, allowing users to track hurricanes and typhoons, or simply admire our beautiful planet. User options allow you to adjust the overall transparency of the cloud layer.
  • Eleven different projections.
  • Political, enhanced satellite and natural maps.
  • Zoom from 50% to 400%.
  • City lights appear at night.
  • Atlas contains 10,000 cities.
EarthDesk gives you numerous options for configuring the map images placed on your desktop.

EarthDesk fully supports multiple displays and uses very little processor resources, running silently in the background. Universal Binary too!
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