TL;DR
MKBHD is shutting down the Panels app at the end of this month, citing issues with finding the right development team fit.
You can no longer buy collections, and you must download existing wallpapers before the app is removed.
Users will receive automatic pro-rated refunds for active subscriptions, and the app code is promised to be open-sourced after shutdown.
I spent $50 a year on wallpapers once as a monthly subscription. It was to support an independent artist that hand painted video game scenes I enjoyed, produced 1-3 new paintings per month, granted access to his back catalog, and the deliverable was high quality scans I could download and use at my leisure.
Since he is an artist, and you could feel that each painting took weeks to complete, I felt justified.
Never had a desire to pay for an app with generic wallpapers though, or to financially support someone who generates my annual salary per sponsorship deal.
It kills me because I feel like culturally we’ve really adjusted to this idea of individually patronizing the arts … if only our whole economy weren’t centered around squeezing out every last drop of disposable income from us.
My socialism sensors are tingling
full proprietary circle
open-source never dies
Lol good riddance. I cannot stand that smug twat.
How fast was that fucker driving again? in a residential area, with “watch out for the kids” signs if I remember correctly.
Edit: 96 in a 35 mph zone
In a sponsored shill video that also got him roasted. He must have been in 96mph hurry to destroy his youtube career.
I unsubscribed. But he gained new subscribers. Nobody else cared.
I wish YouTube had the block channels option.
And nothing of value will be lost.
Genuine question: who bought this?
I’d figure people who think watching ads is entertainment which is basically what his video are would be the group to buy a wallpaper subscription. And he has a lot of subscribers so likely figured there would be enough suckers out of millions to make something that barely cost anything to make to see how many would bite.
It was used exclusively by his viewers who had formed parasocial relationships.
Literally, no one else.
Never heard of it. Why do you need an app to download wallpapers in the first place?
It’s been around for like 2 years now I believe. There was a bit of hype about it when it first came out since he’s a popular influencer but it didn’t get many to actually sign up for the $50 a year subscription. I do know people did the on time purchases of some individual wallpapers though. As to why, I think he is too into the Apple ecosystem of everything being a subscription that he forgets that most people can’t afford nonsense.
$50/yr for wallpapers?!?! That’s some asshat seeing the enshitification train and thinking, “Man I gotta get on THAT!”
$50/yr?!?!
For WALLPAPERS?!?!
It was split with the artists of said wallpapers, and was also kind of a gallery app thing IIRC.
But hey, as a Finnish saying goes, “It isn’t the one who asks who is stupid, but the one who pays.”amusing thing is that when it came out someone ripped all the wallpapers from the app and put them online for free. most of it was AI slop anyways.
Haha yeah they were in like a Google cloud folder the app would call to to retrieve them. They were available for free the same day it released
It had some popular YouTuber’s name on it, that’s enough for some to buy anything
I can only imagine with his audience size what his team looks like right now. I’m sure they aren’t content with standard YT revenue and are always looking for ways to turn his massive fame into more dollars. They cover a lot of silly expensive high end shit like Rivians and Apple Vision. It’s not crazy to think that they could milk the rich fools for a buck. Believe it or not there are people who think to themselves “Hm, interesting. $50? Okay, that’s nothing, I’ll check it out.”
I could see it being a good way to support artists, if that’s where the money is going.
Not for this one but hey Muzei is nice. You get new wallpapers daily (or whichever frequency you might wanna set) on anything interesting you. By default it’s art, but you can get additional plugins about whatever scratches your itch. I’m fine with it downloading daily landscapes from Bing (but without Bing getting to check at anything in my phone).
It’s really weird how getting old nowadays means “I know how to do this shit FOR FREE” for so many computer related things. Give me 1h and I’ll handpick 60+ images to rotate as wallpapers.
Wallhaven?
Tapet is also good for dynamically created wallpapers.I bought it a long time ago way before the current AI hype cycle.
I totally forgot about this app because, well, it seemed pretty forgettable.
I’m also not in the target demo since I currently have my wallpaper set to whatever my phone wants to rotate in and out every hour from my Photos app.
Not much to this for most people unless you did buy any of the wallpapers made by artists on there when it had its inital hype. If you did, best to download and back those up ASAP
I remember when it first launched, people managed to get the wallpapers for free somehow. Managed to get them too and they were nothing really special and of course some were AI-ish.
If anyone is looking for a great wallpaper app that supports a good company, Wallaroo from Icon Factory is absolutely fantastic and supports good devs that have made great software for a long time.
