OS X Daily: 45+ Wallpapers from the National Geographic Photo Contest

45+ Wallpapers from the National Geographic Photo Contest
iTunes Match Release Date Nears for Public as iTunes 10.5.1 Beta 3 Appears for Devs
Hold Shift Key to Use Launchpad in Slow Motion

45+ Wallpapers from the National Geographic Photo Contest

Posted: 13 Nov 2011 08:31 PM PST

National Geographic wallpapers

The entries into the 2011 National Geographic Photo Contest make for some spectacular wallpapers, one of which was shown in a recent tip screenshot and requested. You can find them split between TheAtlantic and National Geographic:

NationalGeographic: National Geographic Contest Entries Wallpapers

TheAtlantic: National Geographic Photo Contest 2011

Most of the wallpapers are best on lower resolution displays of Macs and iOS because they almost all max out somewhere between 1247×831 and 1600×1200 resolution, with the higher res offerings coming from National Geographics wallpaper section. iOS, OS X, and Windows all do a decent job of scaling them up as long as you don’t push them too far. If you’re running a very high resolution, you may want to look elsewhere though.

iTunes Match Release Date Nears for Public as iTunes 10.5.1 Beta 3 Appears for Devs

Posted: 13 Nov 2011 11:46 AM PST

iTunes Match

The public release of iTunes Match seems to be approaching quickly as a third beta of iTunes 10.5.1 is made available to developers. The new beta focuses on iTunes Match and includes stability and performance improvements directly related to the iCloud service. Despite Apple missing their originally planned “end of October” release date for Match, 9to5mac notes that the iTunes beta updates are coming out faster, further indicating a public release is soon.

When iTunes Match is released to the public, a subscription will cost $24.99 each year and allow for up to 10 personal computers or iOS devices to access up to 25,000 songs of an iTunes library from anywhere through iCloud. On the software side, iTunes Match requires Mac OS X or Windows, iOS 5, the newest version of iTunes, and iCloud. The yearly fee is separate from the iCloud storage upgrades, and music purchased from iTunes does not count against the 25,000 song limit.

Users can prepare for the iTunes Match service by signing up for and configuring iCloud to work on their desktops and iOS hardware. Once the Match service is made public, using the music service will then just be a matter of downloading the latest version of iTunes and paying the fee through iTunes, and then enabling the service through iOS settings.

Below are the brief attachment notes for the latest beta via 9to5mac:

iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3 is now available. This update includes a number of important stability and performance improvements for iTunes Match. iTunes Match stores your music library in iCloud and allows you to enjoy your collection from anywhere, any time, on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, computer or Apple TV. In order to subscribe to iTunes Match, or continue using your existing subscription, please upgrade to iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3. Once upgraded, turn on iTunes Match on each of your computers and iOS devices. On your computer, choose Store > Turn on iTunes Match. On your iOS device, tap Settings > Music, then turn on iTunes Match. On your Apple TV, please turn off iTunes Match under Settings > General > iTunes Store. The songs on your computer should not be affected. As always, please backup regularly and do not delete the music you add to iCloud from your computer.

iTunes Match Beta 3

Hold Shift Key to Use Launchpad in Slow Motion

Posted: 13 Nov 2011 11:15 AM PST

Hold Shift for Slow Motion in Launchpad

Like most of the other transition effects in Mac OS X, you can hold down the shift key to force the animation to render in slow motion. In the case with Launchpad, this will cause the app icons to slowly rise out of the background, or for the Launchpad screens to very slowly switch between one another.

Trying this out for yourself is simple enough, just hold down the Shift key and open Launchpad either by clicking the dock icon or using a four-fingered trackpad pinch, the slow motion effect is obvious enough that you can’t miss it when it’s working.

Launchpad in Slow Motion

This is mostly an eye candy trick but it can be useful for taking screenshots of the transitions, and there’s probably some other purpose out there too.

If you were wondering, it doesn’t stack with the blur effect.