Thursday, January 5, 2017

How to get gorgeous new Apple TV screensaver on your Mac

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One of the coolest features of the new Apple TV is its absolutely stunning new screensavers, which fly you through some of the most gorgeous locations in the world.
Apple hasn’t announced any plans to bring the screensavers over to the Mac yet, but they’re such a perfect fit that developer John Coates created a new Swift app that lets anyone get the beautiful backdrops on their desktop.
Here’s how to do it:
  1. Download Aerial from Github.
  2. Open the .zip file and double-click Aerial.saver to install.
  3. Go to System Preferences >> Desktop & Screen Saver >> Screen Saver
  4. Select Aerial
  5. Click Screen Saver Options to customize which scenes Aerial uses.
The app has a couple of nice extras, like Auto Load Latest Aerials to keep you up to date. There’s an option to play a different aerial on each display if you use multiple screens, and you can pick favorites to have only certain aerials play.
Via: GitHub

How to Start the Mac Screen Saver with a Keyboard Shortcut in OS X

Now, after you've installed the new Aerials screensaver, wouldn't it be nice to have a keyboard shortcut to start the screensaver. Though it's possible with hot corners, I prefer keyboard shortcuts.

Part 1: Create a Screen Saver Automator Service for OS X

  1. Launch Automator, found in the /Applications/ directory
  2. Choose to create a new “Service”
  3. Use the search box to find “Start Screen Saver” and drag that into the right side panel
  4. Change “Service receives” to “no input”
  5. Go to the File menu and choose “Save” naming it something obvious like “Start Screen Saver”
Now that you have created a service that starts the default screen saver, you need to assign a keystroke combination to initiate the service. Be sure to pick a keyboard shortcut that is unique and easy to remember.

Part 2: Set the “Start Screen Saver” Keystroke for Mac OS X

  1. Open System Preferences from the  Apple menu
  2. Choose the “Keyboard” preference panel then go to the “Shortcuts” tab
  3. Select “Services” from the left side menu
  4. Locate the newly created “Start Screen Saver” service you made, and click on the ‘add shortcut’ button to set your keyboard shortcut to use – in this example we used  Control + ⌘ Command + Option + ↓ , but you can set whatever you want
  5. Exit out of System Preferences and test out your new screen saver keystroke
You can try it out by hitting the set keyboard shortcut sequence, which will now initiate the screen saver immediately