What I long for is to have a serene glass-house in the country side where I can spend the rest of my sunset years in this world. To wake up basking in natural light as the sun prickles my skin, to gaze at the night sky religiously and smile as they sprinkle my eyes with their glittering lights, and to hear nature’s sounds as they lull me to sleep—chimes tinkling at the brush of the gentle wind, the ocean waves crashing on the shore, and the constant calling out of the fireflies. Oh how I would love nature to swallow all my frailty as I return the soft embrace of tranquility and oh how I wish to fulfill my dream of growing old and happy while looking out a window full of lush beauty and overwhelming calmness.

As I still have a number of years to fill before my skin starts to wrinkle and my hair loses color, I resort to traveling and taking photographs of scenic places. Whenever time permits me, I snatch a couple of minutes just breathing the air of that specific place that contains so much grace as if every inhale is a proof that I am indeed there. A photograph captures so much but in times when I feel like I need a spiritual boost, looking straight into the sunset keeps my mood at bay. The hustle and bustle of city living had made me resort to an application to balance my inner peace. Watch the shifting of the clouds with me as I tell you all about the .

Our busy lives seems to be taking over the already little appreciation we have on our God-given virgin surroundings. Albeit saddening, the fact that mobile applications are replacing what should be perceived first-hand is not such a bad idea, come to think of it. The luxury of traveling is not in the hands of every one and in order to compensate for the lack of financial capacity and/or time, they can experience the majestic wonders of our planet by the use of wonderfully-made applications just like the Magic Window – Live Pictures.

The is brought to us through the efforts of Jetson Creative LLC. It’s basically a live wallpaper with more features to boot. Working with your device’s real time, the app integrates its display so as to correspond with the current time. Each theme has sound effects alongside it for a full sense of “being there”. With customizable features, iOS device users are sure to have a blast—or should I say a composed fit of excitement—with the Magic Window. It’s compatible with the iPhone (3GS/4/4S), iPod Touch (3rd/4th generation), and the iPad.

Magic Window: Open Sesame!

The app is continuously updated by its developers, making sure that every theme will run smoothly. With it’s current version, 3.3, improvements have been done to its numerous features that I’ll run through later and some other themes which are available for free or you can avail it through the in-app purchases. If you have money to spare, buying their popular themes is definitely worth every penny. Although this doesn’t mean that I’m downgrading their free themes, please don’t get me wrong, because they are just as superb. Needless to say, if you download the Magic Window application, you can definitely get more than what you’ve bargained for.

Jaw-dropping Features

Again, the app is not just a live wallpaper. They are a collection of crisp panoramic photographs of various locales; skyline, beaches, mountain tops, bird’s eye view of a city, busy traffic, and many more. True to its title, the application serves as a window to dissonant and far out places. Now, let’s enumerate the app’s features and indulge in the “instant vacation” we can get from it.

• Acts as the ultimate application to be your companion when you feel like unwinding after a stressful day. If you’re using an iPad, you can opt to put it atop your bedside table and let it lull you to sleep with its soothing sounds and peaceful scenes. In other words, it’s your pseudo-digital photo frame.
• No need to worry about draining your battery because you can safely use the app even though you have your device plugged in.
• There are 18 available scenes to choose from, enough to make you feel like you have been there yourself. Take pleasure in having your mini-vacation through the app’s high definition time-lapse photographs which are meticulously put together by the developers to complete the “experience”.
• Works in both landscape and portrait orientations, perfect for all sorts of docks.
• It supports external display via iPhone and iPad owner’s HDMA or VGA accessory cables. Users can now utilize the Magic Window through AirPlay upon connection to with a compatible Apple TV. With this feature, it doesn’t matter if you’re in the office or at home. As long as you have the application, there’s always a way to make yourself at peace.
• 1920×1080 resolution support. Expect no pixelized images.
• Touch-time control – Since the app uses time-lapse, you can opt to see the sunrise or even the sunset in three minutes just be sliding your fingers left to right. Jump through photos if you’re not up for the usual wait of about two hours for the sun to completely hide behind the horizon. There is a speed bar on the bottom of the screen with every scene so you can adjust the motion of the photographs.
• Night-mode features – Includes a sleep timer, alarm clock, and even a flashlight! Activating this feature will dim your screen to make for a more tranquil feel and so as to relax your eyes. Tweak the settings if you want to sleep while gazing at the crashing waves in Hawaii and wake up looking at the vibrant Tokyo!
• Weather Forecast – Powered by GPS, the app will update its weather Live Weather Conditions relative to your location and even give you a daily or hourly weather forecast.

Harrie The Awe-strucked

Describing the Magic Window – Live Pictures application is easy. I only need one word: FANTASTIC! Oh my, all the feels! It’s a bit far off from my dream of having my own quiet space away from the noise of the city but it’ll do for the meantime. It’s great for some end-of-day reflection before you go to sleep especially if you look at the scenes while listening to your favorite mellow song. Yes, you can get a bit emo with my suggestion but who cares if you bawl out on your room, right? It’s a great form of release.

Going back to the Magic Window, all the included scenes are photographed by world famous time-lapse shutterbugs namely Mike McCabe, Chad Richard, Hal Bergman, Jose Manuel Segura Alvarez, Sean Stiegemeier, and Ben Wiggins. They can give you their word that all the scenes you’ll see are real and they’re not computer-generated.

Although the application has so much in store for its users, you must take note of your memory space because it can take up so much. But I assure you that the initial 18 scenes might be enough for a whole month. If you’re not the type to get easily bored, then there’ll be no need to download more.

initial download costs $1.99 while the individual in-app purchases are worth $0.99. If you have the space and the money, then go for the master collection for $7.99!

Watch the video below to learn more about the app: