I get a kick out of those desktops that constantly change the display to show various pictures and scenes located on the hard drive. While it is interesting to see the latest vacation photos, or kid grinning like a fool, most of us probably want something slightly classier. Earthdesk looks like a typical wallpaper of the Earth in both day and night mode, but as you work throughout the day, you'll notice something — the Earth moves across your screen, with continents going in and out of darkness. The accurate shading of day and night also causes cities around the world to light up.

Earthdesk uses geographic and time zone stats to display real-time global cloud cover (at three hour intervals), allowing you to track hurricanes or see smoke created by major fires. If you are more interested in seeing the big blue marble from a different view, you can switch the map projections to show political, enhanced satellite, and natural maps.

Windows users can span the map across multiple monitor screens, but those using a Mac get an added bonus; you can display multiple maps across multiple screens, meaning you can track that hurricane to see if it is going to hit your political enemies. Earthdesk will only set you back $24.00, and might be a good gift idea for the budding geographer.

Xeric Design via Cool Hunting