by Jason Snell
Downlink puts the Earth on your Mac desktop
Anthony Colangelo at Main Engine Cutoff:
While browsing the GOES Image Viewer a few months ago, I had an idea: with the data frequency that these new GOES satellites provide, I could build a Mac app that pulls the newest image every 20 minutes and sets it as your desktop background.
What resulted was a simple little menu bar app that gives you a near real-time view of Earth all day long. I’ve been using it for a few weeks as I’ve built it, and it is an absolute joy to have a window to Earth all day.
I’ve been using Downlink for the last week and it’s been a lot of fun to see live pictures of the Earth on my desktop. In the future I hope Anthony can add support for zooming in to specific areas and better multiple-monitor support. It’s free on the Mac App Store.