Aerial 3 Screen Saver for Mac Gains Redesigned UI, New Video Overlay and Storage Options, and More

[MacRumors]

Aerial, the popular open-source screen saver that lets you play Apple TV screen saver videos on Mac, has received an annual update that brings some notable new features and possibilities opened up by macOS Monterey.

First up, Aerial 3 brings full support for all the videos that tvOS 15 brought to Apple TV, including Grand Canyon and Patagonia, but also the latest Iceland and Scotland videos that Apple released a few weeks back.

In addition, Aerial 3 introduces an overhauled interface to simplify previously complex tasks. At the center of this redesign is a new "Now Playing" menu that lets users easily make playback selections based on location, favorites, times, scenes, and sources.

Staying on the topic of sources, thanks to improvements made by Apple in macOS Monterey, Aerial 3 also includes perhaps its most-awaited feature – the ability to store downloaded videos in a custom location, whether that's an internal drive, an external drive, or even a network-shared storage device. In the latter scenario, multiple users on the same machine can also share the same cache.

Meanwhile, there are several improvements to custom video overlays, including more options for weather forecasts (with support for wind and humidity), more formats for clocks and dates, and perhaps most notably, support for Apple Music and Spotify to show which track is playing in the background.

Lastly, among other improvements, this version adds support for vertical displays and the ability to slow down or speed up videos.

In conjunction with Aerial 3's release, Josh Michael and Hal Bergman, who gifted 20 videos to the project last year, have released over four hours of video filmed in Monterey, New York and around American Southwest for purchase. The production process was reworked so that the content fits with Apple's official aerials, making them slower-paced and longer so they feel just right.

You can download Aerial 3 for free from the Aerial webpage, or use the direct download option on Github.

Article Link: Aerial 3 Screen Saver for Mac Gains Redesigned UI, New Video Overlay and Storage Options, and More

 

[nathan_reilly]

I enjoy aerial but I prefer screen savers that let my GPU run cooler

 

[applicious84]

I haven't used a screen saver since screens stopped needing to be saved

 

[adamjackson]

I love Aerial and this is fantastic. I just sent a tip to the developer for their hard work since they are not charging for this great screen saver - https://ko-fi.com/glouel

 

[Blackstick]

Love these screensavers, they're so beautiful and relaxing.

 

[orbital~debris]

Nice, and great to have as an option, but this really should be official Apple and part of macOS.

 

[nathan_reilly]

I haven't used a screen saver since screens stopped needing to be saved

Some of us use older displays! One of my 30" apple cinema displays has some image burn if I leave it for 30 minutes or so, static. So a screensaver still works, in 2022! amazing

 

[blazerunner]

Some of us use older displays! One of my 30" apple cinema displays has some image burn if I leave it for 30 minutes or so, static. So a screensaver still works, in 2022! amazing

Some of us just like to see the world. The images are beautiful.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Just installed it on my 💻 and wow, love the screen savers. They are stunning.

 

[Marshall73]

Tried it out and it’s ace. I don’t use a screen saver though I just make the screen turn off. It is a cool way to check out all of the videos that are available.

 

[TSE]

I downloaded this and activated the beach one. Lo and behold, my wife went into the home office and noticed that the screen saver JUST SO HAPPENED to be of an aerial, interactive photo of Miami Beach the one and only afternoon my mistress and I were there sunbathing from a couple years back.

My wife is not happy. Thanks, Aerial.

 

[kalafalas]

Some of us use older displays! One of my 30" apple cinema displays has some image burn if I leave it for 30 minutes or so, static. So a screensaver still works, in 2022! amazing

I let my (also older) display turn completely off after 10 mins (but computer sleep never). Off is better than a screensaver!

 

[xmach]

What exactly is the new functionality in macOS 12 that allows Aerial to store cached data in custom locations?

 

[guzhogi]

Bring back Flying Toasters! Damn I miss After Dark! So many cool screensavers!

 

[JosephAW]

Still running the older My Desktop app that allows me to use my 1080 videos as wallpaper and is easy on the CPU on Mojave.

 

[cwizou]

What exactly is the new functionality in macOS 12 that allows Aerial to store cached data in custom locations?

Author of Aerial here, it's a long story but to make it short/simple, Apple used to block screen savers from accessing most locations.

They added the ability in Monterey for screen saver developers to "securely" ask for those, so that's the new feature I'm using to make this work.

 

[Moonjumper]

I haven't used a screen saver since screens stopped needing to be saved

I had stopped using them, but screensavers are one of the ways to deal with image retention on several iMac models. I have to keep using my iMac for longer because the issue devalues it, so have been using screen savers for the last few years.

 

[Xavier]

Nice! I just updated

 

[cjboffoli97]

Privacy statement warns that permitting this app to run on your Mac allows it to "...read sensitive information from webpages, including passwords, phone numbers, and credit cards.."

I just don't understand why I'd want to run a screensaver app with that kind of security risk.

 

[InuNacho]

Bring back Flying Toasters! Damn I miss After Dark! So many cool screensavers!

Have you checked out https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/?
Its full of 90s inspired screensavers that are pretty entertaining.

 

[cwizou]

Privacy statement warns that permitting this app to run on your Mac allows it to "...read sensitive information from webpages, including passwords, phone numbers, and credit cards.."

I just don't understand why I'd want to run a screensaver app with that kind of security risk.

I have no idea where you saw that, is that a third party app giving you this ?

The screen saver (nor any screen saver in macOS, this is by design by Apple and has been massively strenghtened since Catalina) has no access to any such thing.

 

[alexandr]

I downloaded this and activated the beach one. Lo and behold, my wife went into the home office and noticed that the screen saver JUST SO HAPPENED to be of an aerial, interactive photo of Miami Beach the one and only afternoon my mistress and I were there sunbathing from a couple years back.

My wife is not happy. Thanks, Aerial.

screenshot please!)))

 

[sw1tcher]

Bring back Flying Toasters! Damn I miss After Dark! So many cool screensavers!

Flying Toasters and Fish.

No need to have an actual fish tank with fish and deal with maintenance when you can just have the Fish screensaver run on a large display.

 

[Freeangel1]

FREE. thanks.

 

[EricRFMA]

Flying Toasters and Fish.

No need to have an actual fish tank with fish and deal with maintenance when you can just have the Fish screensaver run on a large display.

There is this: https://en.infinisys.co.jp/product/afterdarkclassicset/index.shtml It's close, but not quite the same.