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Apple Chromes Its Logo

Posted by pudge on from the everything-old-is-new-again dept.

Val42K writes "Personally, I like the original logo, but Apple has decided to changed their familiar logo in the latest release of the OS X operating system. It has the same shape but has a chrome finish, like the robots of Hajime Sorayama." Does it look anything like the image we're using for this story, the one on the outside of most Apple hardware and software boxes? What am I missing?

20 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Good job, Apple! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't let those teeny bugs get in the way of anything. What you need is a new logo! Something shiny and capable of distracting users. Just think:

    Frustrated Apple User: Dammit, my computer keeps crashing!
    Apple: Um.. but look at this! Shiny!
    FAU: WOW! THIS IS THE BEST LOGO EVAR!!
    A: Te-he!

    Remember, if you want marketing gloss, that's employee zero (Steve Jobs') number 1 job!

    Thunk Different!

    1. Re:Good job, Apple! by sg3000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > I bet when one guy redesigns the logo, the rest of the
      > company would stop working and just stare. :-)

      Then again, maybe it is true. We know that clearly it's true for Leander Kahney of Wired and at least 66 slashdotters.

      --
      Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
  2. And You Thought 10.2.8 Was Bad! by Farley+Mullet · · Score: 5, Funny

    This screenshot from the Wired article points to a disturbing problem with the 10.3 prereleases: move from 10.2.x to 10.3 and have your processor downgrade, your clock speed decrease by 600MHz, and your RAM decrease by 448 MB. Watch out!

    1. Re:And You Thought 10.2.8 Was Bad! by Second+Vampyre · · Score: 3, Funny

      If you look even closer, you might see this mentioned in the post you are replying to.

  3. Slashdot by turkmenistani · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm a Mac user. I like OS X. I like Apple, in general. And for what it's worth, I don't really think Apple making their logo shiny is really /. material.

    1. Re:Slashdot by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Informative

      It is not really a logo change. It is just a new color. First they had the rainbow apple. Which fit for the late 70s-80s, then they did the solid color aqua apple for the 90s to match their design scheme for the Fruit iMacs, and they changed color of the apple many times their without any real problem from red to gray to blue. Now its the 21st Century and their product line is becoming less fruit like and more metallic so the chrome apple will come out. and they will probably change their logo again in an other 10 years. If they decide to make their systems out of wood or wood looking material then they will make a wooden apple. Or maybe it the Macs will be made out of some sort of Hi-Tech fiber so the apple will be made out of cloth. It is still the same design just a different texture. I bet those people who get payed to redo the apple logos have the best job on earth. Select layer with the apple. Go down to the Function button in photoshop select pattern overlay, choose your patter and then bang your done. (Well I am over simplifying it a bit). It would be truly news worthy if they replaced the Apple Picture with something else like a picture of a Pie or something.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:Slashdot by Trurl's+Machine · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Funny thing you mention that, because I always thought that the Linux community is also a major obstacle Linux has to overcome if anyone wants to think seriously of mainstream acceptance of Linux on desktop. Obviously, Windows community - especially all those guys who mindlessly open EVERYTHING they got attached in mail - is a major obstacle to anyone who wants to claim that Windows can actually be a secure and stable platform. Let us not forget the Playstation community, a great obstacle for anyone who wants to say that console gamers are NOT just a bunch of teenagers with a severe case of attention disorder. Etc. etc.

      Communities are often a blessing, but they can also be a pain in the backside. It's normal. But you are not fair saying that:

      I'm convinced that Steve Jobs had done good to keep Apple alive, but done poorly with everything else

      A selection of some achievements, like (in no particular order): iPod, G5, iBook, mainstream acceptance of wireless technologies (something that still keeps x86 users in a computer equivalent of middle ages), mainstream acceptance of an Unix-based desktop system just proves you're wrong.

      And yes, they also update their logo. And yes, they also pull interesting public relations stunts (actually, I agree with you that the Virginia cluster boils down to pure PR). They are a major corporation fighting for survival in a market governed by brands. But does this make my iPod, iBook or iMac less functional?

    3. Re:Slashdot by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Insightful
      iPod. Wow. What a technological leap. There's how many other mp3 players out there, including quite a few that were out before the iPod ever hit the market, at a lower price? To be fair, they did innovate on that one. It costs more. It has firewire.
      Before iPod, pretty much all MP3 players had major limitations: most of them could barely store a CD's worth of MP3s; those that did better, by having a hard disk, were exceptionally large, you certainly didn't want to carry one around with you all the time. And, to be honest, even now it's hard to find something that's a could combination of portability and capacity. They exist - Dell's coming out with one (but you can't buy one yet), Sony keeps announcing boxes that never seem to hit the shops, I don't doubt they're there somewhere, but I can't find 'em.

      iPod is to MP3 players as the cassette tape was to tape recording. Philips didn't invent tape recording. They didn't invent tape, or the substances painted onto tape to give it a magnetic memory. They didn't invent little magnetic heads to read analogue data off those tapes and convert them into sound. People had all sorts of tape recorders before the cassette. What Philips did was package the technology into a usable format. Who wants to thread spools when they want to listen to music? Who wants to spend ten minutes in front of a computer selecting music in advance when they want to carry around music with them?

      I'm going to have to go with the "iPod was innovative" option.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    4. Re:Slashdot by sebi · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Doesn't really change the fact that Apple had neither the first small mp3 player, the first portable hard disk mp3 player, nor the first small AND hard disk mp3 player.

      See, I know that you are flame-baiting and doing a reasonably good job at it, but that statement simply is not true. The iPod was the first (and still might be the only--I don't follow the market) hard disk mp3 player you could comfortably fit in the front pockets of your pants. The same place where I used to carry my Walkman (I always used to buy the smallest ones I could find for that very reason). Sure, others come with belt-clips or you can put them in your rucksack, but belt-clips are just as stupid now as they where at the height of the Walkman era and putting a player out of immediate reach is something you wouldn't do unless you have to. Taking existing concepts and combining them to something new is innovation. You cannot argue against that. And this is exactly the form of innovation Apple excels at.

      Their wireless initiative consisted mainly of putting antennas into every machine they built and build. And they made sure that the operating system would support it. And--at the time it was introduced--they made it really cheap and easy. Any company might have been able to do it but Apple did. This reminds me of Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency." Two of the main characters debate about the merits of the cat-flap. One of them says that it is not a big deal. Anyone could have thought of that. The other one says that one person thought of it first and only afterwards it became obvious. I feel the same thing about Apple. They inspire "I wish I had thought of that." The iPod has become the synonym for mp3 player in exactly the same way the Walkman became the synonym for portable cassette players. The original Walkman might have had the added bonus of truly being the first product of it's kind, but that in itself does not matter. In a couple of years the average person will think that the iPod was the first.

      --
      Hank! White!
  4. Re:well... by danamania · · Score: 5, Funny

    And no jokes about how the site must be running on a Quadra cos... uhhh... it is. :)

  5. Laptops, logos, systems, what next? by SkiifGeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First there was the TiBook, and now the AlBook, then there was the brushed metal skinned software in OS X, then the sexy G5, now the logo.

    With the rumours of Panther being brushed metal heaven, is this a new corporate image, moving away from the lickable aqua (at least the iMac, eMac, and iBook range remain lickable) to a smooth, sharp image?

    The best way to check will be to see what Dell and Co will bring out in 12-18 months time, and look at the interface on MS Bonghorn when it comes out in 3 years time.

    --
    InfoSec that matters, when it counts.
  6. Re:Where did they change it? by Ma�djeurtam · · Score: 5, Informative

    This logo appeared in 7B74. 7B81, which was seeded today (or maybe yesterday) is rumoured to be the GM since it is the first version not to mention "(Pre-release)" in the 'About this Mac' box. We don't know yet if 7B81 has the new cracked logo or if it was changed.

    --
    Instant Karma's gonna get you, Gonna knock you right on the head (John Lennon, 1970)
  7. Re:well... by Graff · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One good thing about the Apple //e was that here was no way that you could permanently mess it up short of physically destroying it. The Apple //e didn't maintain any data between power down and power up so if you screwed it up all you have to do is power down, wait 10 seconds and then power it back up. Yes you could screw up some diskettes and they would never work right again but the Apple //e didn't need a diskette to work.

    So go ahead and mess up every Apple //e in school. I'm sure the administrator just powered them down and back up and they were fine. This is unlike the Commodore 64 which had a nasty bug where if you quickly toggled certain registers you could fry a chip on the motherboard and ruin the entire motherboard. I had a friend who ran a program which turned out to be a trojan horse of sorts and it did just this, toasting his Commodore.

    --
    Sapere aude!
  8. Um... Rumors... by emerrill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is only a rumor, not hard news last I know. There is no press release about it, there is not a single incarnation of the shiny logo on apples webpage (that I can find) the only indication of this is in the Boot and 'About This Mac' windows. Even the menu bar Apple is still the blue or grey one like /. uses.

    People should clarify reality and rumors.

    http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/26/1650 24 2&mode=thread

  9. Re: that would be correct by jensend · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Would a redesigned Debian logo get coverage on slashdot?
    You mean like this, this, and this? A lot of /. users' feelings about particular projects or companies gets invested in the logo as well, so while the logo changes of Apple and Debian may not be of particular interest for some of us, I see no reason why such news shouldn't be on slashdot.
  10. Is it just me... by ihtagik · · Score: 3, Funny

    Or is the Bling Bling fad being taken too far?

    What next, chromed out computer cases with ... never mind.

  11. Re:well... by outZider · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, no, no. That was the Commodore PET. The Commodore 64 never had that bug. Common misconception, since the 64 was the more popular of the bunch.

    --
    - oZ
    // i am here.
  12. Re:well... by babbage · · Score: 3, Funny
    I had a friend who ran a program which turned out to be a trojan horse of sorts and it did just this, toasting his Commodore.

    Yeah, but that was like 20 years ago at this point. Surely he can't still be bitter about it, can he?

    Man, some people can hold a grudge...

    --
    DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
  13. It's no big deal. by YouHaveSnail · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple has been using different versions of its logo for as long as I can remember. Even back when they used the 7-color "rainbow" logo, they also used simpler, monochromatic versions on promotional literature, documentation, some business cards, t-shirts, etc.

    It did seem significant to many of us when Apple dropped the rainbow logo in favor of a solid one. Apple was changing, and we were afraid that its spirit of playful innovation would be lost in the corporate shuffle. We were relieved to find over time that playful innovation remained despite the logo change, and that the new logo brought with it a number of products that the general public wanted to buy. I guess we'd forgotten that years before, when Apple dropped the Cupertino font in favor of Apple Garamond in its logo, the sky also hadn't fallen.

    The fact that Apple decided to put a version of its logo rendered in chrome in the about box of a product that hasn't even been released yet doesn't feel like a significant change. After all, there's a version of the logo rendered in shiny blue in my menu bar right now, and the G4-based iMacs have always had a shiny metalic Apple logo. It's a minor change that may or may not stick around for a while.

    The one thing you can bet on is that even if it sticks, this change is not permanent: Apple will change its logo anytime it feels it needs to freshen up its corporate image. All companies do this to some degree.

    If you ask me, the company that has the most fun with its logo is Google.

  14. OS X is getting FASTER each version by MarcQuadra · · Score: 3, Informative

    OS X has been getting faster and faster with each version. The reasoning is that the entire system is built with GCC, which has been getting better PowerPC optimization since Apple began contributing. Panther is built with gcc-3.3 (right now), which includes improved support for the PowerPC line, and DFA support for defining pipelines (better optimization/register usage).

    Also, the core of the OS was native to x86, so I'm sure they keep finding bits and pieces that are optimized for that architecture and rewriting them.

    Not to mention that the libraries are all very 'young' and Apple is dealing with a LOT of uncharted territory (for Apple, at least) with prelinking and UNIX in general.

    I'd expect the trend to continue for quite a while, GCC-3.4 should bring us even more optimization, and I'm sure Apple engineers have a LOT of stones left to turn over.

    --
    "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails