this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2024
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TechTakes

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Bro really tried to sell his subscribers a "50$ a year" subscription to a "wallpaper" app.

Interesting points about the "app":

  • the app has premium and free wallpapers
  • the free wallpapers are only available in sd quality and if you want hd youd have to subscribe
  • in order to unlock the sd quality you have to watch two 30 second ads.
  • theres a wallpaper called "orange" thats just the color orange
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[–] [email protected] 79 points 2 months ago (4 children)

A wallpaper app? What is this, 2008?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

And there's people in the comments being like "its only $5 for my favorite wallpaper app" which I just shake my head and laugh at. What kind of idiot eats this shit up? There's nothing better you can spend $5 than a shitty jpeg?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

nothing better you can spend $5 than a shitty jpeg?

Two words: Star Citizen.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Granted, it's probably my favourite wallpaper app too and I only learned about it yesterday. It's also my least favourite for the same reason. I've never used it, or any wallpaper app, or even knew they are a thing so it wins by default.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

my phone tries extra fucking hard to sell me on its built in wallpaper app which has data-scraping permissions out to here also

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

every fucking time I swipe wrong on the cheapdroid used for work things, the $vendor crapware "GLOBAL SEARCH" shitware app permission prompt comes up

and it's always a bloody effortful nuisance to click no on it. I legit can't tell if it's rejecting the clicks, or just trying so damn hard to spin up that it's eating all cycles. malware fucking everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

honestly, samesies

I'm kinda taken aback at how many people are popping in saying they have such things. at almost all usage times I can barely see my bloody wallpaper, too much else going on/present

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I always have my windows tiled or maximized so I just keep an epty black desktop background.

My wallpaper is white and subtly stripe patterned and it was in a surprisingly good condition when I moved in.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

mine’s xsetroot -solid black so I don’t get a flash of the 80s in the moments before emacs loads and tiles its windows across my displays

it used to be a color I stole from the Amiga’s boot ROM for diagnostic purposes (I was going to do something like the Amiga’s diagnostics for my setup, where you could tell roughly what was broken by the color of the screen) and really I should revisit that one day

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

My wallpaper is the january page of a frieren themed calendar. From 2021. I only remembered what it was today after learning about all this

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

indeed. I have ... a photo of the family? It's fine and cool?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

My dad has a photo of a family photo, and I think it rocks.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

I have a wallpaper of the Internet Explorer anime mascot Inori Aizawa. No I will not explain.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

I was on interfacelift back then. Good site for beautiful backgrounds. Only background app I use is Wallpaper Engine

[–] tyler 78 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Way more than that.

  • requires crazy permissions like user location
  • wallpapers are in a publicly accessible s3 bucket
  • profit split for wallpaper creators is 50/50 which is worse than most app store splits
  • most of the creators actually seem to be current MKBHD employees
  • app is either built from a template or an old app that they bought

Source: https://youtu.be/prZ7ZfdFrNs

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

wallpapers are in a publicly accessible s3 bucket

How are we still doing this, how

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Cuz iz ez, am lazy

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maybe I’m scarred but I have a reflexive distrust for any usage of “pumped” or “super excited” in a commercial context. No matter the subject.

marques brownlee tweets: “And now - I'm so pumped to be launching this app! People have asked where I get wallpapers FOREVER, so this is the answer, now and forever: PANELS!”

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago (1 children)

pumped: artificially inflated

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

And remember kids, pump always comes before the dump

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

remember kids, if you take on responsibilities like renting out a studio space, and hiring employees, those costs are only going to go up, regardless of whether or not you continue to make the sort of revenue you've historically made from video views, which leads to having to rely more on merch sales, and patreon, and "other" revenue streams just to keep everyone paid. i mean, who knew, right?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I rarely watch his videos, but that's because when I have, he clearly has direct financial entanglements and conflicts with the same major brands he's discussing or "reviewing".

For a channel his size and reach, I can't imagine those aren't enough to cover his overhead, unless he's made some really terrible business decisions.

This is, of course, entirely speculation and based off of calculations pulled from my brown star, so maybe I'm wrong about that.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I use subscription services to get the best letters of the alphabet.

For example, I use WinnrWinnrChicknDinnr to get access to the letter W (upper AND lower case!) for only $69 a month!

No idea why they needed my SSN, but look I'm not some pleb that uses free letters.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Elmo in shambles.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Psh, I only use the Flushvalve Pro Vowel Pack. You can't beat them in terms of value for your money.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago

Ok but is the orange wallpaper better in HD?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago

Now that's a big L.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Nice to see everyone sharing their favorite wallpaper apps so here's mine: https://www.google.com/search?q=anime++imagesize%3A1920x1200&udm=2

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

needs moar AI

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'll just stick with Wallpaper Engine, thanks.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wallpaper engine runs on phones?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Only Android.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

For $12 per month, Panels provides a range of high-definition wallpapers for phones, a hefty price tag for something that has always been freely available online.

Meanwhile, the bottled water industry... (⁠・⁠_⁠・)

ತ⁠_⁠ತ

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Bro if your gonna buy a wallpaper app just get Wallpaper Engine on Steam, it's like less than $5

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Hey wait a minute Wallpaper Engine is just Windows Active Desktop with extra steps!

(Never forgive Microsoft for killing Active Desktop)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

DOE remember Push Technology

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

ppl paid more for a single NFT

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I'll give my money to Variety ta

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've been using Clarity on iOS and macOS for wallpapers. Costs $5 a year. Wallpapers are high quality. My only complaint is the macOS version has less selection and features compared to the iOS version.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Respectfully, I'm honestly confused by this why are you paying any amount of money for wallpapers? I've never had an issue finding high quality images for my devices, phone or desktop. What exactly is the service doing that makes paying $5 the easier option?

[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's so cheap that I haven't given it much critical thought. For me I suppose it's mainly convenience. The iOS version has some shortcuts and widgets I find convenient for discovering new wallpapers. The Mac version is a little menubar app. I change my wallpapers frequently and I don't necessarily want to open a website everytime to do that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Well, paying $5 so you don't have to open a website sounds like a waste to me, even if $5 is a small amount to you. But it's your money, so you do you I guess. Thanks for the clarification.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I really want to go through your finances and see how many subscriptions you don't need I can reroute to my bank account.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

wallhaven.CC Free, automatically sizes the wallpaper for your device. No ads

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Can't the OSs resize the image by itself? IIRC Windows 9x could already do that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

thanks for that unrequested ad

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

😅 Sorry, my intention was to compare the value compared to the value of a Panels subscription