EarthDesk vs Palace

EarthDesk turns a computer desktop into an updating view of Earth from space, with near-real-time clouds, sun and moon depictions, and city lighting. It offers 12 map projections, including Mercator, Azimuthal, Equirectangular, and a globe with optional starfield. Maps can be centered using latitude and longitude, relative to the sun or moon, or on one of 10,000 locations; a data subscription adds other centering choices. On multiple displays, it can show a different map on each screen or span one map across them. Standard cloud imagery is global, 2-megapixel, and refreshed every six hours. The data subscription adds geo-located, parallax-corrected imagery from 23 satellites at 32-megapixel detail, refreshed every three hours, plus earthquake, tropical storm, and International Space Station information. The maker offers a free Mac or Windows trial before purchase. A single-user license starts at 24.99 USD once and covers two Mac or Windows computers. An upgrade costs 12.99 USD once and requires a previous license key; the data subscription costs $14.99 a year. Minimums are macOS 10.14, Windows 7, or tvOS 13.2.

Palace is a personal media manager and wallpaper engine for organizing and displaying wallpapers and other media. You can sort items into categories, albums, and favorites, then search by name or tag. Display choices include fill, fit, center, tile, stretch, or spanning multiple monitors, with adjustable background colors and effects. Automatic rotation can run sequentially or in shuffle mode, at intervals from five seconds to several hours, and can target individual displays. Palace supports GIFs, video files such as MP4 and WebM, GLSL shaders, and locally stored images; desktop video wallpapers require MPV. Online sources use public JSON files and must provide direct public media URLs, not private or password-protected files. Local media works offline, and ordinary use does not require an account. Palace says wallpapers, preferences, and settings stay on the device and personal images are not uploaded or accessed. The web hub supports browsing community sources, downloading wallpapers, and submitting source URLs. A Palace lifetime license costs $4 as a one-time purchase; Google Play costs $7.99, paid once for Android only.