Sometimes I have the privilege of helping out a new Mac user who switched from Windows. Invariably, their Mac’s desktops are cluttered with folders and files and that’s how they navigate the Mac’s file system.

Double-click, double-click, double-click, ad nauseum. It’s almost as if new Mac users don’t know about Column View in the Finder. Just as common is the desktop photo or image. Nearly every new Mac user customizes the image, adds a photo. Why? For the most part, the Mac’s Finder obscures the desktop.

What got me started on this observation was Friday afternoon. A couple of hours was devoted to helping a few new Mac users with some “file and folder” navigation issues; not a strong point of many Windows users, former Windows users, and new Mac users.

Whatever you think of the Mac’s Finder, Column View is the way to be efficient and orderly. Back to the Finder. Each of the three office workers I helped out on Friday had a nifty Mac utility called Pic-a-POD. This crazy tool downloads a photo a day from different web sites and sets your desktop picture to match.

Pic-a-POD will also randomly change the picture or photo at various intervals. In other words, the desktop photo can change throughout the day. Cool, huh? But what’s the point? Most Mac users can’t see the desktop because the Finder covers it up. How attractive are photos you can’t see?

Granted, the photos downloaded by Pic-a-POD are superb. The picture of the day comes from sites such as National Geographic, Astronomy, Earth Science, and Wikipedia (go figure).

You can schedule Pic-a-POD to download according to a daily schedule, then set the desktop picture to match one of the downloads. The scheduled downloads update automatically each day, and Pic-a-POD can change the desktop picture periodically.

Is this a solution looking for a problem?

In case you find there’s a shortage of desktop pictures on your Mac, Pic-a-POD also downloads pictures from any selected date. What a great way to load up your Mac with desktop pictures you can’t see.

If that’s the case, and it usually is, Pic-a-POD mini to the rescue. The mini utility stays open on your Mac so you can browse through all your downloaded pictures. There’s even a scheme designer.

I know what you’re saying to yourself. ”Desktop pictures are nice to look at, and it’s a convenient way to customize my Mac.” Yes, the Mac is not as customizable as Windows, but the desktop pictures are mostly hidden so why bother?

Inquiring minds want to know, hence, the Pic-a-Pod Survey Page. Maybe the developer is trying to figure out why anyone would use such a utility.

Pic-a-Pod is available for both Mac and Windows, so if you’re using a new Intel-based Mac and running Windows, too, you can have daily downloads of beautiful pictures that you won’t be able to see because they’re stuck behind the Finder or a few dozen folders and files.

I would rather see a utility that would download all the pictures from Secrets-in-Lace or Met-Art instead (warning - links not for office viewing), especially if they could be saved as screen saver pictures.

Check out the daily list of our 9 Word mini-Reviews at NoodleMac, and Kate's daily in-depth Mac software reviews at PixoBebo.

• Article by Wil Gomez • Published on Monday, October 8, 2007
• Category: Opinion • 18 Reader comment(s) • Email This • Digg This • Shop Now

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Readers Talk Back:

BCS says:

Universe>Physical Objects>Galaxies>Milky Way>Solar Systems>Sol>Earth>Animals>Humans>Me is delighted that

Universe>Physical Objects>Galaxies>Milky Way>Solar Systems>Sol>Earth>Animals>Humans>You agree that

Universe>Physical Objects>Galaxies>Milky Way>Solar Systems>Sol>Earth>Animals>Humans should always be forced into a hierarchial drill-down to access their files. It just keeps

Universe>Physical Objects>Galaxies>Milky Way>Solar Systems>Sol>Earth>Animals>Humans so much more organized!

— Posted on Mon Nov 26 at 6:55 pm by BCS

willy wanker says:

I don’t know how many fans are in my new iMac but it sure is a quiet beast. NO noise. NO sound, except when I put in a CD and that’s almost imperceptible. The iMac is ultra quiet.

— Posted on Wed Oct 24 at 9:57 am by willy wanker

Zal says:

Thanks,
Are there any overheating issues ?
Because of such a small space behind the screen, to have all the parts and also the fans…
BTW, does anybody know how many fans there are inside ?
I’m curious because my 3.5 year old computer makes terrible noise from the first day I got it.
It makes me sick. The noise is from one of the three fans.
iMac is silent, from what I know. I’m amazed how Apple managed to do that ?

— Posted on Wed Oct 24 at 5:38 am by Zal

Zal's Buddy says:

If you’re a photographer, Zal, you’ll love the iMac. The basic recommendations are always the same. Get as much RAM and as large a hard drive as you can afford.

By the way, any comparison of a Dell Inspiron vs. an iMac is really more of a comparison between Mac OS X and Windows. Go with the Mac. You won’t regret it.

Remember, people are switching TO the Mac from Windows. Not the other way around.

— Posted on Tue Oct 23 at 6:55 pm by Zal's Buddy

Zal says:

Hello,

I’m glad I found this site, very pleased with information and the style. Is it a blog, btw ?
Hardly had time to check..
I posted the same thing on an expired discussion from July, didn’t notice.
I’m not a iMac user yet, but thinking about switching from being a PC user since 1995.
My most activities on a computer these days is Photography - uploading, processing, adjusting, uploading again to sites like PBase, Smugmug, RubyLane...almost on a professional level.
I guess, the iMac is the Right Choice ?
Can’t afford the 24”, will go probably for the 20”.
Any recommendations for the upgrade before ordering ? RAM ? HardDrive ?

Wanted to ask this question: I saw on PCMag.com reviews about iMac and Dell’s Inspiron computers.
Which is better for what I do ? I know your answers, but WHY ?
Anybody who switched recently for the same reason?
Thanks!

— Posted on Tue Oct 23 at 3:20 pm by Zal

John Francini says:

Hmmm.

What’s wrong with LIST view? It’s been around since System 7.5 or so. It does break the spatial Finder metaphor somewhat, but nowhere near as violently as Column View does.

And the Dock was designed to be movable. I want it on the side, AND hidden, because it otherwise pops up when I do manual window resizes, or look for that tiny bit of Desktop showing to bring the Finder frontmost. (Yes, I know about Alt-Tab, but old habits die hard.)

Again: if people decide to keep their Desktop messy—or their physical office—that’s _their_ call, not yours. Neither “neat” nor “messy” is intrinsically better—it’s merely different.

And Apple is, or at least was, all about being able to Think Different.

— Posted on Tue Oct 09 at 7:19 am by John Francini

Art says:

I find it interesting to see how people ‘keep house’ on their Macs. My parents have pictures that obscure the mouse pointer. And the messiest desktop I’ve ever seen.

I’ve also chuckled to myself at the ‘switchers’ who can’t quite make the full switch to the Macintosh way. I’ve seen Applications on the desktop (not just the alias), Dock on either side, instead of the bottom, and every window in LIST view, and the icon size set so small that you can’t make out any detail or read the filenames.

And speaking of the Dock, only 8 or 10 things will be in there. Anything else will have to be searched for.

It bewilders me how people organize their space and worklife. But that just keeps life interesting. I’m somewhere between feng shui and spinning rims. I like to change it up a bit as far as color on the desktop and screensavers.

— Posted on Tue Oct 09 at 6:41 am by Art

socrates says:

Scott nails it. The desktop photo feature sounds great, but in practice is more distracting than anything worthwhile. My desktop is messy sometimes, cleaner other times, but I have to choose the background photo carefully, otherwise it’s more difficult to find files unless using column view.

BTW, column view is the second best thing to happen to the Mac’s finder. #1 is the user configurable tool bar.

— Posted on Mon Oct 08 at 9:05 pm by socrates

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