TAT (The Astonishing Tribe) put out 3 live wallpapers to the Android Market on November 11th. They are all very different and very unique. Lets take a look.
Artemia: a soothing, yet spectacular undersea wallpaper
Artemia is the beautiful home of glowing creatures. Poke them to make them swim a bit faster or tap on the water to see bubbles. Try catching a glimpse of the largest creature in the ocean! Artemia changes dynamically throughout the day, and it even responds when you charge your Android device.
Artemia QR code or download directly from your Android phone
Artemia needs access to the accelerometer.
The world in Artemia will rotate when the device is tilted. Bubbles will appear when the device is shaken.
Blue Range: a fun, isometric and living landscape
This fun loving live wallpaper is full of animals with great personalities. Poke them and see what happens! You can affect land elevation and tilt trees and flowers by moving the phone. Watch darkness fall during the nighttime and don’t miss the cool sunbeam effect while charging your device…
Blue Range QR code or download directly from your Android phone
Blue Range needs access to the accelerometer.
The trees in Blue Range will lean with the device when tilted.
Retro Pixels: a game-like wallpaper with old school aesthetics
Explore a retro-style pixelated world. Flowers bloom when you receive text messages and calls, leaves fall when you shake the phone, and at night the moon rises. This wallpaper also has four hidden secrets. Will you be able to find them all? And can you really trust the duck?
Retro Pixels QR code or download directly from your Android phone
Retro Pixels needs access to sms/contact data and accelerometer.
The flowers in Retro Pixels will bloom when texts and calls are received. Leaves will fall off the tree when the device is shaken.
All three of these live wallpapers offer a new twist on interaction. I Have only found 2 of the secrets in Retro Pixels. Good luck with that one. If you are looking for some fun and unique live wallpapers I would suggest picking all three of these up. It couldn’t hurt after all they are FREE.
Now what about this “market experiment” business. Well we should take a look at TAT Home before I get into explaining that.
I got into a small twitter conversation with them this morning asking a couple questions that I wanted answers to.
Q: Since you are licensing it to operators, do we know who might have been licensed? Who will actually put this on a real phone?
A: Can’t tell you yet. but soon
Q: Why on earth would you take such a beautiful thing and make people buy a certain phone to enjoy it?
A: Why: nasty world of economics… 
Q: Why not do 2 different versions? Oem and a different end user one. Maybe a slimmed down version.
A: Let’s see how well the wallpapers go. That is our “market experiment”.
Not really the answers I was hoping for. Although the final answer does lead one to think that if things go well with the wall papers, they might just be considering a launch of TAT Home in some form to be available.
Heres what I see happening. We already have HTC Sense “Rosie”, Motoblur, Touch Wiz, Dell Ui, Rachel UI (Sony Ericsson), Vanilla Android and possibly more that I am missing. Do we as end users need more OEM/Carrier UI’s? We are finally starting to a get a slim grip on the fragmentation issues on Android. If more companies restrict their designs and amazing UI’s to OEM and carrier use we as consumers will enjoy the eye candy that they offer for a specific device but will be stranded waiting on updates to newer versions of Android. Very much like we are already struggling to get updates today.
Have we created a situation for these companies that the Android Market isn’t safe enough for them to launch something in? Do we have to many talented people working to help the masses that companies don’t think there is enough room for acceptable profit unless it is launched through an OEM/Carrier that pays them directly? I am almost at a loss for words when I see some of the amazing things that can be done, but won’t be released for the masses. If I have to buy a specific phone just to have something I like I’m sorry to say its not going to happen with me.
How do you guys feel about this?
Via tat.se
About the Author
I think TAT should reconsider, because they could be on every android phone.
Also what would happen when SPB 5 shell is released? Very stiff competition for TAT.
I think TAT should reconsider, because they could be on every android phone.
Also what would happen when SPB 5 shell is released? Very stiff competition for TAT.
none of these wallpapers work on my mytouch original.
i never understood tat. i asked them time and time again when can i have some of their ROMS or a phone with the ugi they developed and they said they do not sell their work but they sell their idea. how in the hell does a company make more money by selling an idea over a product?
There are some amazing pieces of software coming out for Android and this is just another example of what we can expect for our amazing Android powered devices. I wish they’d just release TAT Home already.
It looks like SPB may beat them to the game though.
http://androidspin.com/2010/11/18/full-3d-ui-coming-to-android-sorry-adw-i-might-just-switch/
found this on their website lol
Unfortunately like other kool apps and downloads I’ve been looking at I can’t get a link to the apk or search in the market for any of these wallpapers on my g1.
. I think its time for the nexus s to come out! Hoping for a black Friday release?! Maybe?! Please?! :/
100% agreed. That said, I would not be surprised if the carriers envy Apple’s answer. Which is: do what we say, and buy a new phone every year. They already have me on a long contract. What’s their incentive to upgrade the software, when the alternative is to sell me a new contract, and a new phone like Apple, and AT&T do? That is the real bogeyman, not the UIs, and not the “f” word. When someone offers to sell me an upgrade, like MS does? That’s when things will start to change! Google? (Sound of crickets)
Please excuse my mistakes. I can’t move the cursor here for some reason.
Thank yow.
Just like spb mobile shell 5.0 these guys wanna screw the end user. I paid 30 dollars for spb3.5, and now i have to buy a new phone for the upgrade. BULLSHIT. And its not working out for spb, because its been available to carriers and manufacturers for 8 months and no phones with it yet. Put it in the market at 10 bucks and ill buy tat home
Even if it was 20 bucks I think a lot of people would buy it. As long as it is executed correctly and well tested and advertised the specific models of devices it would work on. I think a lot of these company’s could make a killing in the market if they released their work to the people.
I’ve just tried all 3 wallpapers on my Streak and I must say they are nice. I’ve also got Artemia as my default on my N1 too.
[...] TAT originally helped to polish up the original UI on the T-Moble G1. I brought the story of their Live wallpapers and TAT Home for Android to you guys not to long ago and was really looking forward to TAT Home [...]
[...] to make a prettier and more useful UI for our beloved Android phones. It is not as overly visual as TAT or SPB Mobile Shell have been working on, but it is extremely clean and looks like a more realistic [...]
[...] to make a prettier and more useful UI for our beloved Android phones. It is not as overly visual as TAT or SPB Mobile Shell have been working on, but it is extremely clean and looks like a more realistic [...]