- Cult of Mac Today
- Posts
- Make your Mac monitor mesmeric
Make your Mac monitor mesmeric
How to turn your idle display into a hypnotic viewport.
Leander Kahney
June 27, 2025
If you’re ever stuck for something to watch on TV after fruitlessly channel surfing for hours, just turn on Apple TV screensavers.
Seriously, Apple TV’s screensavers are one of the device’s best features.
Apple TV offers hundreds of Aerial screensavers divided into four categories: Cityscape, Earth, Underwater and Landscape.
They show amazing, slow-motion, highly detailed aerial shots of flyovers or underwater swims, like the River Thames in London or the Eastern seaboard from space.
The imagery is almost always jaw-dropping, and the screensavers are utterly mesmeric.
My wife and I have spent a couple of evenings just watching them —I’m not joking!
(To see them, you need an Apple TV 4K, second generation or later. Go to Screen Saver > Aerials, and choose which themes you want to show or hide. Screensavers start automatically after a few idle minutes.)
Now these screensavers are also available on Mac. If you have a nice big display, it’s almost a shame not to have it show a California kelp forest or New York at night while it’s sitting idle.
Here’s how to do that, and the settings you need to get the most out of it.
Also in today’s newsletter:
You’ve long been able to upgrade your iPhone every year with Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program, but not your Mac. Upgraded is a service that allows you to do that, too. You can get a brand-new MacBook Air or Pro for a low monthly payment, with no big upfront cost. It’s not leasing; you own the machine. It looks like a great program.
The new arson-themed thriller Smoke just started streaming on Apple TV+ and is getting great reviews. It’s from the same team behind the sleeper hit Black Bird.
This weekend also sees the theatrical opening of F1: The Movie, the racing drama starring Brad Pitt that’s already reportedly enjoying big ticket sales. The smart money says see this movie in IMAX.
Today’s the day in Apple history that saw the downfall of Gil Amelio, a reputed turnaround artist who proved anything but. He did do one thing right, though — and it was very big!
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
A message from Upgraded
A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
Tweets of the day
alright this one's pretty good
— Parker Ortolani (@ParkerOrtolani)
1:45 PM • Jun 26, 2025
Siri works, it's not a product problem, it's a user problem.
I worked on it (many years ago) for years and I learned how to ask for things so that it actually works.
Post what doesn't work for you and I will comment with how you can phrase it to make it work.
If I can't make
— Luca (@jdluk87)
10:02 PM • Jun 25, 2025
Wallpaper of the day
New bird wallpaper:
— Yatimori (@Yatimori)
6:56 PM • Jun 26, 2025
One more thing ...
The reason Apple resonates with people is that there’s a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar, in that they both have a desire to express themselves.
Today’s poll
Have you spent an evening watching Apple TV screensavers? |
Results from yesterday’s poll: iPhone leaks and rumors -- love 'em or hate 'em?
Best reader comments
Subscribe to The Weekender — Get the week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.
Reply