Quick Updates: Variety Wallpaper Changer, WebTorrent Desktop, Oomox, Telegram Purple, OBS Studio

Variety 0.6.2

Variety is a wallpaper changer that can automatically download wallpapers from various sources, like Flikr, Wallhaven, Bing Photo of the Day, Unslash, Desktoppr, NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, as well as a live wallpaper of the world sunlight map. It can also automatically fetch wallpapers recommended by other Variety users.

The app was updated recently with a new "safe mode" option, which can be used to avoid NSFW and sketchy images. This feature relies on user ratings, so it's not perfect, at least until more users rate the wallpapers.

The option can be found in the Variety preferences, on the General tab.

Also, the anonymous stats reporting feature, which was added in Variety 0.6.0, is now live (until now it didn't actually report anything). This can be turned off from the Variety options (Preferences > Sync and social > Usage statistics).

More about these changes, HERE.

To install the latest Variety in Ubuntu / Linux Mint and derivatives, you can use its official PPA. To add the PPA and install Variety, run the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install variety

For other Linux distributions, see the Variety installation page.

WebTorrent Desktop 0.10.0

WebTorrent Desktop is a simple, open source BitTorrent client that lets you stream torrents, either locally, or to AirPlay, Chromecast, and DLNA.

The app is available for Linux, Windows and Mac and it comes with a very basic user interface, which allows dropping torrent files or pasting magnet links to start streaming.

For more about WebTorrent desktop, check out our initial article: WebTorrent Desktop Is A New Streaming BitTorrent Client With Chromecast, AirPlay And DLNA Support

WebTorrent Desktop 0.10.0 was released recently, and it includes changes such as:

• drag'n'drop magent links is now supported;
• Linux: show badge count for completed torrent downloads (note: this doesn't seem to work with Unity Launcher under Ubuntu 16.04);
• Linux: Fix menubar not hiding after entering fullscreen;
• the user interface now uses React to improve rendering speed;
• updated Electron to 1.3.2, which should fix some bugs, including some startup crashes on Linux and Mac;
• more.

Download WebTorrent Desktop

Oomox 0.22

Oomox is a tool used to generate color variations of the popular Numix GTK2/3 theme. The app also supports recoloring icons.

More about OOmox in our initial article: Easily Create Your Own Numix-Based GTK Themes With Oomox

Oomox 0.22.0 (quickly followed by 0.22.1), released recently, includes 3 new Gnome-Colors themes, a new theme pack, called Popart, and various other improvements and bug fixes.

A complete changelog can be found HERE.

Ubuntu 16.04 and 15.10 / Linux Mint 18 users can install Oomox by using the main WebUpd8 PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt update
sudo apt install oomox

If you don't want to add the PPA, you can grab the deb from HERE.

Download Oomox

Telegram Purple 1.3.0

Telegram Purple is a Pidgin plugin which adds support for Telegram.

For more information, see our initial article: Add Telegram Support To Pidgin With Telegram Purple 

The plugin was updated to version 1.3.0, which brings channel / supergroup support, option to send code tags in markdown "backtick" format, and various fixes.

Ubuntu 16.04, 15.10, and 14.04 / Linux Mint 18 and 17.x users can install it by using the main WebUpd8 PPA. Add the PPA and install Telegram Purple using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install telegram-purple

Or grab the deb from HERE.

Download Telegram Purple

OBS Studio 0.15.4

OBS Studio is a free, open source app for video recording and live streaming (for e.g. Twitch.tv). 

In Linux, OBS allows recording a window or a monitor, on top of which you can add various overlays such as an image, text, webcam or media source and of course, audio input (microphone) and output (the game, a music player, etc.), with various options.

For more about OBS Studio, check out our initial article: How To Stream To Twitch From Linux Using OBS Studio

OBS Studio 0.15.3 (quickly followed by 0.15.4 as a hotfix release), released recently, includes changes such as:

• added a noise suppression audio filter;
• added "Luma Wipe" transition;
• added the ability to lock the preview;
• added all supported file types to VLC video source when browsing;
• added the ability to add URLs to VLC video source;
• added "Bind to IP" network option in advanced settings allowing users to specify which network adapter/address to stream from;
• Linux: Fixed a display issue with projectors on certain window managers;
• Linux: Fixed a bug where studio mode wouldn't display window captures in the program (output) view;
• more.

The stable OBS Studio PPA wasn't updated with the latest 0.15.4 version, and it currently provides version 0.15.1. To add the PPA and install OBS Studio (note: requires FFmpeg - on Ubuntu 14.04 / Linux Mint 17.x, you'll need a FFmpeg PPA - here's one) in Ubuntu 16.04 / 15.10 / 14.04 or Linux Mint 18 / 17.x, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install obs-studio

The latest OBS Studio 0.15.4 is available in its official unstable PPA (not recommended).

Download OBS Studio