Backgrounds

By Jim Lynch on November 17th, 2008

Customizing the backgrounds on our gadgets is something we all like to do. But finding the right background can be tough and then even when we find it we’re bound to get sick of it at some point and want something different. Backgrounds from Thorsten Kalkbrenner lets you easily find new backgrounds for your iPhone 3G.

Backgrounds provides more than 1000 different backgrounds to choose from. You can browse by Popular, Recent or Category. The categories included are:

Nature
Guys
Artsy
Models
City
Water
Cute
Beaches
Messages
Retro
Other
Sunsets
Flowers
Patterns
Swirls
Cars
People
Buildings
Animals
Movies
Roads
Hearts
Trees
Stars
Halloween
Mountains
Sky and Clouds
Music
Boats and Planes
Night
Stripes
Space
Christmas
Explosion
Sports

All in all, there’s a pretty wide range of backgrounds to choose from. Some categories have more to browse than others though so don’t be disappointed if the selection varies. When you find one you like just click it to load it than click the Save button. From there you need to hit the Home button to close Backgrounds and then open your Settings. Click the Camera Roll selection to choose the background you downloaded.

I’m not sure why the background isn’t saved in the Wallpaper area of settings. It says on the app itself that you should click on Wallpaper but when I did I didn’t see the background I saved in there. Instead it was in Camera Roll. I was still able to choose it as my background but those instructions might confuse people.

It’s also clear that this app was done by a heterosexual male. Why? Well if you click models the only thing there seem to be female models. There are no men. A better distinction would be “Female Models” and then “Male Models.” There is a “Guys” category but it’s not pictures of men for the most part, it’s stuff that apparently the author of the app thinks that guys would like. Thorsten might want to add some pics of men somewhere for the gay men and females who download Backgrounds.

Those are minor nitpicks on my part, of course. Overall Backgrounds is a fantastic little app that provides a nice option for all iPhone 3G owners. When you get sick of your background, just fire up Backgrounds and find something new. Our thanks should go to the author for releasing this as a free app.

Note that you can also upload your own backgrounds to share with others. Don’t be stingy. If you have a nice background that you love it’s a great idea to let others experience it too.

Application: Backgrounds
Download Link: iTunes Store
Price: Free
The Good: Comes with a wide range of backgrounds for your iPhone 3G
The Bad: Saved backgrounds in the Camera Roll instead of Wallpapers.
Overall: A great app that makes changing backgrounds easy and convenient.
Score: 4 out of 5