Kuvva Turns Desktop Wallpaper into an Art Gallery Experience

Kuvva is conceptually pretty awesome. It automatically changes your desktop wallpaper to images from their curated feed. The difference here is that clicking on notifications (or the appropriate menu item) will take you to a page on Kuvvas site where they host a small bio on the artist, along with other works theyve created. In terms of exposure and discovery, Kuvva is way better than other wallpaper sites.

One thing Id like to note is that the review for ver 1.3 by djcaston is inaccurate and unfair. I own a 15" retina MBP, and I would hardly call the app "useless". True, the wallpapers arent optimized for the retina Macs display. But if you review the download size options on Kuvvas site, artist submissions come in 4 pre-defined sizes, the largest of which is 2560x1600. While this comes up a little short to the rMBPs display (which clocks in at 2880x1800), both resolutions are pretty close to one another. So yes, Kuvva doesnt make use of every single pixel available on an rMBP, but the wallpapers still look great.

The only gripe I have with the app is that you can only set it to stream two feeds: Kuvvas "Popular" and "Featured Artist" streams. Kuvva allows users to create an optional account with the service, which allows users to "favorite" different wallpapers to build a personal collection of "bookmarked" works over time. However, since Kuvva doesnt have "favorites" as a stream option, it forces users to still have to download and manually set favorited wallpapers using the OSX wallpaper settings, which then defeats the point of having the app installed. I find this to be a glaring issue in regard to usability, and really hope to see it addressed in an update soon.

Otherwise, Kuvva is a great app/service thats totally worth having, regardless of your Macs screen resolution.

thechexican about Kuvva wallpapers