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Show HN: I reverse engineered macOS to allow custom Lock Screen wallpapers

(cindori.com)
79 points cindori | 2 comments | 15 Sep 25 08:28 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

Hi HN, I'm Oskar, a solo indie Mac developer from Sweden. For those in the Mac community, you might know me from my other apps like Sensei and Trim Enabler.

For years, I've been frustrated by the lack of customisation of macOS. In particular the Lock Screen which supports animated wallpapers, but only ones provided by Apple. There's never been a way to add your own personal videos.

I decided to figure out how to solve this, and the result is Backdrop 2.0. Backdrop is my Live Wallpaper app for Mac, it can play video wallpapers on your desktop. And now it can play on your Lock Screen too.

The core technical challenge, as you can imagine, came from trying to do something that Apple otherwise does not allow. However, through extensive reverse engineering of the macOS wallpaper system, I figured out a way to provide Backdrop wallpapers to the system in a way that allows them to play on the lock screen, and even appear in a custom section in System Settings.

I'm here all day to answer any questions—especially about the reverse engineering process, the challenges of integrating with macOS, or the experience of being an indie Mac developer.

Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

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TuringNYC ◴[15 Sep 25 14:42 UTC] No.45250276[source]▶
Hi Oskar - I'd love to propose a product idea to you, i'd love to buy something like this or the Mac if it were available. I had this on my linux laptop (https://man.archlinux.org/man/xtrlock.1.en) but it is surprisingly difficult to find for Macs -- something that locks the computer but still allows you to see the screen. This would be ideal for log windows, dashboards, etc.

Separately, if there is something like this already from a reputable MacOS appstore ecosystem i'd appreciate knowing about it from anyone.

replies(1): >>45251523 #
1. jasonpeacock ◴[15 Sep 25 16:17 UTC] No.45251523[source]▶
What you're asking for is called "kiosk" mode.

Here's a random app I found: https://www.mackiosk.com/

replies(1): >>45256494 #
2. c22 ◴[16 Sep 25 00:09 UTC] No.45256494[source]▶
I don't think this is quite the same thing as a kiosk setup, though depending on your specific goals you may find a kiosk-based solution to be an acceptable alternative.