Living Earth - Weather & Clock App Reviews

The addition of some sort of cosmic background is something Id been hoping for for some time. Not only does it portray Earth in a more realistic context, it also creates a less austere desktop image. Would it be possible to have a slightly "brighter" backdrop option (maybe hints of nebulae or solar rays), something that would allow OS Xs natural interface depth cues (shadows behind windows, etc.) to properly register? Also, have you considered using forecast.ios hyperlocal weather backend instead of whatever service youre currently using, which frankly isnt very accurate? Thank you.

The new update looks cluttered with the star backdrop—really don’t like it and hope developers will add an option to disable it and go back to plain black. The quality of the image overall, including nighttime lights and cloud images day and night, seems more garish than I remember from using the app previously as well (though that may not be a change in this latest version).

I have been a happy user for years, but the star background is not to my taste. When it updates it is very distracting. I personally prefer a black background, please add the option to disable the stars.

I do like the app, have for some time now. Even with the added star background. Unfortunately, after the update, it crashes after 5 min of being on… please fix :)

Love this for iOS and it’s great on Mac. Definitely worth the money. Love the new stars in the background — never used the screensaver before because it was too plain but now just go to screensaver for an enchanting trip! A nice reminder there’s a much bigger universe out there. For those who don’t like the stars — maybe developer could make it an option, but I think it’s really cool. Movement of stars could be a little smoother. Still waiting for the ability to run it as an app in addition to the menubar — I’d like an interactive globe in a full-size window where I could add overlay layers like one can on iOS with different types of weather data (and country lines would be useful too). The developer said this was coming soon but that was years ago...

Before the stars were added the globe rotated at a high framerate. But now with the added stars, it runs at 15fps. Please have an option to turn off the stars, thanks

This is an update to a previous review. The developer of this app recently sent me a new version that has an option to turn off stars in the background. My desktop now looks slick again and the app is back on my ‘Must haves for Mac’ list. Many thanks to the developer for making this change! PREVIOUS REVEIW: I really dislike this latest update. It has replaced the simple black background with stars and there is no way to turn it off. I think it makes the desktop look very tacky and cluttered. For now, I have stopped using this application until I can figure out how to install the older version. I wish I had read the upgrade notes. Think very carefully before upgrading as I just ruined one of my favorite apps.

I love this app more than words can express. I set it up to function as a dynamic screen saver revolving through my selected favorite cities. After a few months, suddenly one day a glitch — a flashing — toggling — between my system desktop and the Living Earth screensaver. Took the MacBook PRO into APPLE and the diagnosis was a corrupted OS, which required wiping the OS clean and reinstalling. The nightmare of attemping to put my MacBook the way I had it is a nosebleed of my original and detailed setup. So not only did I loose the Living Earth screensaver, I don’t know if I’ll ever get my MacBook back the way I had meticulously set it up. I will be happy to revise my ratings review to 5 stars if the developers would get to the bottom of why this happened to my MacBook and provide an update that can assure me and other users my current nightmare can be avoided. On the other hand, thank you for such an incredible app.

I love this app. I’d get it just to give myself a constant reminder of where I live, in the cosmos. The view of Earth amongst the stars takes my breath away. I love that the stars, clouds, and where the sun falls actually update in (basically) realtime. This app helps me keep my sense of wonder about the Earth. Also, I really enjoy it as a weather app! It stays small and out of my way, right in the menu bar, but keeps me informed of what the clouds outside my window are doing. And what sort of coat I might need. The drop-down looks great, and I can navigate the whole thing with my keyboard. I recomend this app to everyone. Teeny tiny nitpicks: when I first select a certain day for a certain location in the drop-down, it feels slow—it seems like maybe it downloads all the current weather info for all of my locations before it shows me that one (because future selections go quickly). Also, the visual of predicted temperature fluctuation looks nice, but I wish a similar line chart of precipitation probability were overlaid on it. The tiny percents at the top just don’t communicate as clearly. And finally, my only other (tiny) gripe: y’all’s blue icons that you use, for the settings gear & the back button & all that: I think you could do a lot better.

Simply the best and now the option to join the stellar sphere or watch earth. A finely understated and welcome part of my mac. Thanks

For the price I have to say that I am disappointed. Before purchasing, I read the rave reviews and thought it must be great, especially since it in an Editor’s Choice app. When the app refreshes in order to update the cloud formations, light movement, and the current weather, the screen goes awkwardly blank for a second. Unfortunately I mistakenly expected that the globe might rotate or that rotation might be a selection in preferences. I expected the app to be more sophisticated than it turned out to be. High expectations can easily lead to disappointment.

Love the cosmos background, but being able to see the moon (and sun) would be even cooler and add to the realizism of the experience.

Been using this app continuously for years. Long-time fan. I use it as my go-to display on all three of my devices simultaneously, which makes my desk look very cool. Wish I could post a pic here. I am very pleased with the developer’s responsiveness to our feedback here. The recent addition of the star field is impressive. Those aren’t just a bunch of random white dots, people ─ they represent the actual stars (and galaxies!) that you’d see behind the Earth from any given angle. (You can actually roll the Earth around on the screen in the iOS verison and use it to explore the universe.) It would be really nice if we could tweak the appearance a bit more than simply making the clouds brighter at night. Occasionnaly when the app loads up on the iOS version the atmosphereic refraction takes a moment to kick in, an the resultant “atmosphereless" Earth is really quite beautiful. If only there was an option to do this intentionally. A similar product on the PC platform, Earthview, allows you to fine-tune your view of the planet in nearly every conceivable way, with half a dozen different high-resoultion maps and endless customization options. It’s so flexible that I’ve been able to precisely match the appearance of Living Earth itself, granting a sublime sense of unity between my Synergy-connected Mac and work PC. It would be really lovely to have at least some of that functionality with Living Earth, which in all other ways is already the superior product. I agree with other posters here that the addition of the Moon (or even Sun!) within the new cosmos layout would be awesome, though I of course have no idea how difficult this might be to implement. Another item on my wish list would be the ability to conceal desktop icons, as many other desktop applications are able to do. Most importantly to me, however, is when is the desktop itself going to become animated like the screensaver? Animated desktops are starting to get big now that we have processors that can handle them, and we’ve been able to spin the globe on the iOS version of Living Earth for years. It would be great to replicate that with the OSX version, even if it’s non-interactive. I’ll pay extra for a new version, I don’t care how much. Just make it spin, baby!

This app does everything it claims to do. It’s well-designed, simple, and I love the integration with Weather Underground. My one complaint is that it seems to be a little underwhelming for the price of $6.99, especially considering the relative lack of customization. I was worried that it might not look that great as a desktop background on my retina display but my concerns were unfouded as it renders beautifully. I would have liked the ability to manually position the elements of the desktop background or perhaps change the clock to 24-hour time, but these are minor details. This app is simple and useful (which is exactly what it claims to be) and I expect to use it for a long while.

Dissapointed. Love it on iPad. Just “OK" on the Macbook. Globe rotates on the Ipad, simulating Earth’s rotation, but is static on the Macbook except in screensaver mode where it enlarges and reduces globe based on cities you set up. Nice app, but needs motion as it has on the iPad.

No 24-hour clock option???? How is this even possible?? In an app that costs $7 !!!!???? I feel like getting a refund.

New update screwed up the app on my mac and now does not show earth for some reason. Do not buy this app if you have 10.7. Waste of money and i hope they will fix this problem.

Super neat. Well put together. Nice to use. Looks and works great now. No longer causes kernel panics.

I bought this on my iPhone a few years ago, before I had a Mac, and always thought it would be cool to have the image as a desktop background. Finally got around to installng this on my Mac, and it’s awesome. It even already had the cities that I’d entered on my phone. I’m not sure what one of the recent reviewers was talking about saying that the globe doesn’t spin. There are three features of this app: An applet in your taskbar, a desktop background, and a screensaver. The applet in your taskbar pops open a window that allows you to spin the globe, just like you do on the phone; the screensaver has cool options to spin on its own, to cycle between the cities you’ve set up, or to cycle between random cities on the globe; all of this includes the nicely done animation you’d expect from this app. The only thing that doesn’t actively spin is the desktop background — but that’s because OSX only allows a static image as a background, not because there’s anything wrong with the app.

I like it for the most part, but I assumed that the user would be able to interact more with the animation.