Picture Switcher2.0.3

Name: Picture Switcher
Price: 30.00 $
Rating: 4 (5 reviews)

26 October 2007

Change your desktop picture through your menu.

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Overview

Picture Switcher is an application that will place a menu on the right side of your menu bar to switch desktop pictures. It gives you additional options beyond the built in system that greatly enhance your desktop experience.

Features:

Core Image - Core Image is used to create stunning effects on your pictures, as well as adding several new options when transitioning from one picture to another.
New placement - A new placement type has been added with Picture Switcher: 'Scale to Fill Screen'. This will scale your picture proportionally to fit the screen.
Settable Keyboard Shortcuts - Picture Switcher now allows you to set keyboard shortcuts for many of its options, including its new option that will immediately change the picture.
Applescript - Applescript support has been added, with full access to changing the picture and its options.

What's new in Picture Switcher

Version 2.0.3:

New Features

Added a new preference setting, "Display Images in Sub Folders" which will display all images, including those in sub folders, from the top-level folder in the picture menu from which the current image is selected.
Added a new preference setting, "Always Tile Small Images" which will tile images that are smaller than half the screen's width and height.
Added in the ability to create your own collections of images, rather than needing to have the images set out the way you want them in some sort of folder hierarchy. See the Picture Folders panel for creating / editing collections.
Added a new button in the preference pane which will allow you to clear the thumbnail image cache used by the Picture Viewer.
The orientation of an image is now properly recognized and used when displaying images. Note that you may need to clear the thumbnail image cache before thumbnails for these images are displayed properly in the Picture Viewer.
Added in a "No Transition" option to the transition menu, which will immediately change the picture rather than showing a transition while changing the picture.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that could cause Picture Switcher to crash when the desktop picture was changed very rapidly, or (rarely) when the computer was under heavy load.
Fixed a bug that could cause Picture Switcher to crash in some rare instances when the picture menu was updating.
Fixed a bug that could cause the background color to be reset to blue when changing the desktop picture from an outside source.
Fixed an issue that could cause Picture Switcher to cancel a logout / shutdown.
Fixed a bug where moving the sliders in the Effects / Transition Settings panels could lock up Picture Switcher's UI, needing a force quit to get out of it.
Fixed a bug where the crash reporter could pop up when no crash had actually occurred.
Fixed a bug with the "Check For Updates" feature where it could erroneously tell you that an update was already in progress.

12 Reviews of Picture Switcher

Nice, but $30 for a utility that changes my desktop picture? $30? Really? In the same price range, we've got workhorses like: GraphicConverter $35 Amadeus II $30 Audio Hijack Pro $30 Compositor $30 ViewIt $20 Is changing the desktop picture comparable in scope to any of the these shareware titles? Has the developer of Picture Switcher invested time and effort similar to that required to develop these workhorses? IMO $5-$8 is a fair price for a full-featured desktop picture utility, and I bet the higher volume of sales would end up being more profitable.

(1)

Djim38

16 May 2012

Version: 2.0.3

Doesn't work well with Mission Control ... The wallpaper still fit the screen and the "spaces" are not visible. Back to "Change Desktop" (freeware) compatible Mission Control !

(0)

since i'm a folder hierarchy organization kind of cat, picture switcher is still the best wallpaper switcher for me. while others require you to spend some time organizing your wallpapers inside the app itself (smart folders collections) or depend on an internet connection to fecth online wallpapers, picture switcher let you choose one more base folders from your hard drive and present them in the menubar and i mean, the full hierarchy, so you're not limited to a flat folder scheme. since i organize my wallpapers by mood or theme, this is very welcome. it also allows to choose a time interval from seconds to days (maybe even months, can't remember well right now) for your picture rotation, transition effects, image filtering effects (sepia, perspective, etc.), has a built-in image viewer with cute thumbnails, multi-monitor support and all configured through the menubar (no need to go into deep hidden preferences). more, it supports global hotkeys to change wallpaper on demand, change the time interval an other options. my only 4 wish list/bug fix requests which were never answered by the dev, since the latest update is from 2007 were: 1. new hotkey to change monitor selection (currently you can only change the focused monitor on the menubar) so you could change to the next wallpaper, on demand, on both monitors, without using the mouse. 2. refresh the menubar folder hierarchy automatically when adding/trashing images in finder/path finder. i think the only way is to disable and enable the added folder again or quit and relaunch picture switcher. 3. when wallpapers reside on an external drive and it's disconnected/ejected, when you connect it back, it should enable automatically the base folders you added. right now they stay disabled until you enable them again in 'folders' in the menubar. 4. correct a bug that when running an app which changes screen resolution (a game, for instance) and exiting, the wallpaper gets cut off when swithicng back to the default resolution (the bottom half remains with the last wallpaper and newly changed wallpapers only update on the top half of the screen. quitting and relaunching picture switcher fixes it).

It's nicely done and I'd go for it immediately were it not for its rather exorbitant price. I'd pay $15 for it but no more than that. Yeh, as others have opined, $30 is way too much for this. Just can't believe that the developer is getting many takers at that price. Maybe it"ll be offered as a MU Promo some time.

I'd have to agree with many other reviewers here that Picture Switcher is GROSSLY OVERPRICED at $30. It's just an app to change desktop pictures, after all. True, it's really nicely featured and works well but it's still JUST a desktop picture changer. I'd pay $10 for it but NOT any more than that. So, I can live happily without it....and I will.

30 $ are really a lot for a program (19.00 euros for me, not so much). For this program one exception can be done. In fact it is much stable and, if you like it, irreplaceable too. Finally a desktop not more static. There are for sure applications that are similar to this, but this is rock and the the CPU usege is insignificant 8/12%. I suggest it for who really loves the desktop, in terms of personal opinions. I use it with YouControlDesktop and Space with all its options (6 dedicated desktops). MacBook Pro 2.2, 4gb ram, Leopard.

It looks like a very interesting program to help speed up the desktop picture replacement. OMG $30 though for something that can be done fairly easily without this program? Gut check developer... is it really worth this price? 1/3 the cost of Apple's iLife / iWork?

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It think it is a great program. I am eager to use it but it fails to launch on my G5 2.3. Is there a program blocking it ?

Show comments (4)

Awesome! Only feature I'd ask for is the ability to see the picture you're setting as the background before setting it. Otherwise, it works great :) Mikal

Excellent, works on Panther (10.3.9).

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Picture Switcher2.0.3

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