Above: These incredible collections are free for all usersâŚnot just Apple users.
I apologize in advance for this long introduction. Itâs long because this post kicks off a new series of articles designed to assist serious iPhone customers in making their decision regarding which of Appleâs newest iPhones they should purchase.
For most readers, this introduction is completely unnecessary. You should skip it and just head on down to the âAbout the Incredible Wallpapersâ section.
Anyone whoâs considering getting one of the new iPhonesâŚread on.
Appleâs comprehensive new iPhone lineup truly has something for everyone. But with great ideas come the potential for great misunderstandings too. Which is why I tried to create a comprehensive, one-stop shop (if you will) to answer any and all questions about Appleâs newest iPhone lineup. For reasons that will become obvious once youâre into this series, it also includes Appleâs newest Watch 4 too.
This post kicks off the brand new series:
âiPhone XS, XS Max or XRâŚwhich iPhone should I get?â My Research & Tipsâ
I began what should have been a relatively short post about the new iPhone announcements on the day of Appleâs live event, September 12th. Thanks to one iPhone-loving nephew of mine I remembered to attend the eventâŚwell, not really attend but view it via the live-stream Apple transmits.
In my own predictable fashion of getting completely immersed in a topic, Iâve continued working almost nonstop on this one post! Itâs transformed from a short overview into the actual working document Iâm using to pick my first iPhone upgrade (because I joined the iPhone Upgrade Program last year with my purchase of the iPhone X.)
Below: 2 Beautiful Mac Wallpapers Iâd Not Seen Before
About 2 weeks ago I ended up sharing my original post with 2 family members who were kind enough to proofread it for me. That was no small undertaking!
I was thinking they would suggest major cuts. Maybe they didnât because I said, âplease donât tell me to get rid of half of this!â because I really do believe that all this information is importantâŚat least itâs important to me in making my decisionâŚtherefore it must be important to at least a smaller subset of Apple iPhone customers.
I was very pleasantly surprised when neither suggested that (thereby ignoring my warning completely, which frankly, is a common occurrence in our household!) I was even more pleased when my 20-something, Android loving and âwell writtenâ son said that he thought it was a good article and he wouldnât cut a thing. In reality, he did suggest one cut. I discovered this as I read through his notes, which conveniently was after he left, bound for his out-of-state home. My typically âcut-heavyâ husband also agreed!
Both of them did suggest one thing however. It was the same thing too. They suggested that I split up the massive amount of content into many smaller posts.
That is a great suggestion! Itâs one that youâre getting to benefit from, beginning with this post. Because this post kicks off my new series.
About the Incredible (and almost complete) Collections of Apple Wallpapers
Without a doubt, Apple has had some of the most incredible and intricate wallpapers of any computing device known. Unlike Windows computers which many times maintain the same sets of graphics for many years running, Apple doesnât keep theirs around. As soon as a new operating system is launched old wallpapers seemed to be âdeep-sixedâ.
So many times Iâve seen something that reminded me of one of the old ones that I used to use and which Iâve randomly searched for in vain time and time again.
There are about as many ways to download images as there are devices themselves. Since vsatips is primarily about Apple mobile devices, I wanted to make sure that those users know how to download these wallpapers in the best way possible. So a little further down the page Iâve written a quick tutorial on exactly that.
If you want to know why I bothered to go to all that trouble there are two reasons primarily. The first is that it actually is a little tricky. While you can easily download them or take screenshots of them, that doesnât guarantee that you get the best resolution. The second reason is because personally Iâve always harbored strong feelings and attachments to some of my oldest wallpapers.
The iOS wallpapers are some of my all-time favorites. After all, who do you know that isnât married to their cell phones these days? We all got into that habit pretty early. So if that old adage, familiarity breeds contempt were really true (which Iâve always contended is not the case,) we wouldnât all have such a fondness for those things which harbor the greatest nostalgia in usâŚi.e favorite old iPhone wallpapers.
I only bring this up because the creator of this amazing collection isnât a retired baby boomer at all, but rather someone you might think would have been one of the most unlikely to have done so.
The collection creatorâs name is Evgenii Bogun. Heâs an 18-year-old art and design student in Moscow! He goes by the Reddit handle of nucleam.
According to the Cult of Mac author Luke Dormehl, who actually managed to track him down and interview himâŚ
Bogun told Cult of Mac that he only got his first Apple products in 2013, but said that he wanted to produce a comprehensive archive of older wallpapers due to the fact that, âApple has [the] best wallpapers among other companies, and people generally have some memories associated with wallpapers they had at a time.â Â
The images have been compiled from a variety of sources, including wallpaper packs already online to ones downloaded from older systems directly. The collection isnât quite complete.
âThere are some wallpapers Iâd like to have,â Bogun said. Heâs missing a few from iOS 6, and some of the classic versions of Mac OS (as it was styled before the current macOS) wallpapers are also absent. âReaders can support albums by sending wallpapers that are not in the album or in better quality,â he said.
It just so happens that we still have a relatively early model iMac. Itâs still setup and it runs. In case youâre wonderingâŚno one really uses it anymore but Iâve always loved that computerâŚit was our very first Mac. I kept it in part because itâs worth nothing to anyone else today and scrapping it just seems wrong!
Also, I had the idea that I could use it to learn about how Macs are builtâŚwhich I tried to do somewhat when I upgraded the memory. But it turns out that iMacs arenât great for that purpose. I think itâs because itâs form factor makes it impossible to see inside the machine. iMacs are basically composed of a few circuit boards which sort-of slide out of this slot.
I bring this up because our old iMac could prove to be invaluable as a wallpaper resource. I examined each wallpaper collection carefully and thoroughly enjoyed myself in the process. Seeing so many old wallpapers brought back many happy memories!
But I also noticed that this collection is missing some very old favorites of my families.
How Legal Are These Collections?
Itâs unclear what the actual legal status of any Apple wallpaper collection offered for download to the public is. In the strictest sense, Apple could say that users donât have the right to freely distribute content they create. However, itâs a practice thatâs gone on for decades, and to my knowledge Apple has never made any attempt to curtail it.
In my opinion (imo,) Apple benefits from this free publicity and for all I know these images are considered âin the public domainâ in some instances because of their age, or in others because of the ways theyâve been redistributed for years and years.
But what the true legalities are is in question. So, I recommend that anyone whoâs interested in downloading some or all of these wallpapers, do so sooner rather than later. You never know if or when they might disappear completely, and once they are in your possession they are essentially yours to do with what you will!
How to Contribute to Evgenii Bogunâs Effort
Providing better resolution wallpapers or missing wallpapers is one important way you can support the creator. However, you can also support the wallpaper collectionâs creator, whoâs also know as Reddit user nucleam, by making a Paypal donation. Youâll see the notice below immediately upon entering each collection.
In addition to operating system wallpapers these collections also include Apple graphics for many of their special campaigns, such as the one below.
Tips to Download Archival Wallpapers
Part 1 | Viewing the wallpapers in a browser on mobile ios devices is tricky (this probably also pertains to people who are on most mobile devices!)
There are as many different ways of capturing web images as there different types of devices. Since vsatips is primarily a site about Apple mobile devices I want to make sure that users of ios devices know the absolute best way of downloading images using ios devices.
If you want to download these images in the highest resolutions possible using a mobile device such as an iPad or a cellphone follow these steps.
First, note the words in the blue box towards the bottom of the first screen youâll arrive it, depicted in the screenshot below. It says:
No wallpapers will be displayed for you in mobile view because Google Photos wants you to download the Google Photos app and to view the wallpapers using their app. But itâs much easier to download the wallpapers from within the Safari browser. Also, unless you actually use Google Photos youâd be downloading an app that you really wonât use again.
Google Photos is aggressiveâŚI didnât realize how aggressive until I started working on this with perhaps my 4th iPad.  I wasnât even shown the above âOpen Appâ message.  It just opened the Google Photos app!
If that happens to you the fastest thing to do (rather than trying to figure out how to change some G. Photos Settings for example) is to delete the Google Photos app!  I had to do that on two iPadâs in order to even get to the place where I could initiate Desktop ViewâŚwhich is my next top below.
Below: Â Mac OS Wallpaper Gallery of Some of My Favorite Wallpapers
Tip to Bypass Google Photos App & Make Wallpapers Visible to Mobile Devices
You need to switch to Desktop View in order to view or download any wallpapers. This method will also assure that you download the images in the highest resolution possible too.
Refer once again to the screenshot further up above. The purple arrow demonstrates how to switch to Desktop View. You do so by tapping on the Share Icon (the little box with the arrow in the upper right corner) and scrolling the display that opens until you see the menu item âRequest Desktop View.â Tap on that and your display will shift to Desktop View.
You should see something similar to the screenshot shown below.
Note that now you can see all the wallpapers, despite the fact that youâre using a mobile device.
You can download the images now just as if you were using a computer!
Part 2 | Actually downloading a wallpaper
The next step is to tap on any wallpaper. It will open in a second dedicated screen that looks like the one below. In the top right hand corner youâll see a three dot menu. Tapping on it will open a menu which finally has the âDownloadâ command.
When you tap on the word Download youâll be taken to the third and final screen. Below is an example of that screenâŚitâs the third and final screen. Itâs also the actual download screen.
If you follow the instructions on the screenshot and long press anywhere in that screenshot and eventually the words âSave Imageâ should appear. You may need to try long pressing several times, because itâs finicky on ios devices.
If long pressing just wonât work for you thereâs a second way to save the image. It involves using the Share Icon again. Tap on the Share Icon in the upper right hand corner and scroll through the bottom loose of commands until you find the âSave Imageâ oneâŚsee below.
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Gorgeous Free Non-Apple Wallpapers
UnSplash is a Great Site to Get Free Beautiful & Contemporary Images for Use as Wallpapers
As a blogger Iâm always on the lookout for free images to use on my websites. A year or two ago Unsplash entered the scene. Itâs completely changed this task from an effort-based one into a pleasurable one because their images are gorgeous!
The way it works is this. Amazing photographers from all around the world submit their favorite images to Unsplash AND make them freely available for use by the public under Creative Commons laws. Then the general public can come and search their database for the images they needâŚand no user account is required!
Unsplash reminds you that itâs not necessary to credit individual photographers, but itâs always appreciated, and they provide you with a fast and easy way to do so. So whenever I download images from there, I always attach a small text file with the photographerâs name.
Below: A Sampling of the Wallpapers Youâll Find at UnSplash
Links to Additional Information
Iâve compiled a list of several other websites that reported the news of this great new archive in July 2018 when the news broke, for anyone whoâs interested  in seeking out more in-depth information.
There are also links to a few other sites which offer different archives. The ones from iDownloadBlog and 512Pixel are of particular interest imo. Theyâve commissioned an artist to re-render various Mac OS wallpapers so they can be used on iPhones.
CNETâSÂ Â Get all the wallpapers for all the versions of iOS and MacOS in history
512Pixelâs  Every Default macOS Wallpaper â in Glorious 5K Resolution
MacRumorâs  Archive Offers Up All Past Mac and iOS Wallpapers
iDownloadBlogâs  MacOS Wallpaper for iPhone
iDownloadBlogâs  artist renderings of Mac OS Mojave for iPhones
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Apple is set to host a keynote on October 30 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
New iPad announcements are expected. Macs and iPads are expected to take up most of the stage time but hopefully predictions of new AirPods, AirPower and an iPad mini will come true too.
9 to 5 Macâs New iPad Pro Rendered
Below:  9 to  5 Macâs Artist Rendering of the Expected New iPad Pro
Please leave any comments a little further down the pageâŚby my bio.
Iâm an affiliate with Amazon & Apple iTunes.
 Incredible Free Apple Wallpaper Collections | From Mac OS & ios Above: These incredible collections are free for all users...not just Apple users. Introduction I apologize in advance for this long introduction.