There’s a magic to the early days of any tech that’s lost as it becomes more mainstream. The Mac is a great example of that: When it was still struggling to keep up with Microsoft and Windows, Mac OS was a sandbox of fun ideas that didn’t really help you get any work done, but made using your Mac all the more fun. This app brings back that magic, because all it does is make it rain on your Mac’s desktop. Literally.
The app, lo-rain, comes to us from developer lo.cafe, who first posted about their creation on Reddit. Their app is simple: Once downloaded, lo-rain adds digital rain to your Mac. That, in essence, is it. It’s not useful, but it is aesthetic, adding a very chill vibe to whatever it is you’re doing on your Mac.
The best part, though, is how customizable it is. You can control the rain’s intensity, speed, color, opacity, angle, fps, as well as how many raindrops appear per second. For me, I kept the default color, but bumped up the opacity, added more raindrops per second, and increased the fps to 60 to match my Mac’s refresh rate. You can also choose to have the rain splash when it hits either your dock or the bottom of your screen in real time. You’ll see splash effects on the dock by default, but by choosing this option, the app uses more CPU to render the effect as each raindrop hits the dock.
There’s also an option to add fireflies to the mix, if you’re into that. You can add up to 20 at a time, change their color (the default being yellow, of course), how high they fly, and how fast they go. If you’re looking for a “summer’s night” feel on your Mac, this isn’t a bad option to play around with.
Lo-rain isn’t some productivity app, or a utility that’ll change the way you use your Mac. It simply brings a rainstorm to your desktop. For $8, it’s a little steep, but, again, it’s doing something most apps these days aren’t: making a fun Mac app just for the sake of it. If you’re curious, but not committed to the high cost, give the 15-minute trial a shot. It’s plenty of time to tinker with all the lo.rain settings to find the right combination for your mood. Then, throw on a lo-fi playlist, and bask in the good vibes.
