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Apple Businesses

Apple Chromes Its Logo 140

Posted by pudge 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?
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Apple Chromes Its Logo More

Apple Chromes Its Logo

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  • Uh Oh (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It looks like slashdot needs to update their Apple logo. And it wouldn't hurt to metal-ize the /. theme for apple.slashdot.org!

  • Krups (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by skinfitz ( 564041 )
    It reminds me of that /. poll [slashdot.org] - its all coming true!

  • Good job, Apple! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 28, 2003 @02:51AM (#7076190)
    Don't let those teeny bugs [slashdot.org] 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!
    • The following is obligatory:

      So when will Microsoft follow this tack? It would be nice to have AT LEAST the marketing gloss in a Windows OS.

      The preceding was brought to you by the "Insult Microsoft At Every Flimsy Opportunity" Foundation.

    • 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:

      I totally agree with your sarcastic remark. Because, you know, I bet when one guy redesigns the logo, the rest of the company would stop working and just stare.

    • Re:Good job, Apple! (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I have yet to have my current computer (g4) which ive had for a year and a half now crash even once. The last crash I had was on my old g3 is os 9.2.2.
      Maybe i dont install enough bullshit third party utilities or something

    • When my coworker said, "Oh look, they changed the apple," I thought to myself, "What, did they take another bite out of it?"

      That said, it does look funny, but it's grown on me.

    • Wow so all the people who are hired as a programmer and engineers have to stop and develop a logo. I bet that guy who is doing the logos hasn't write a single line of code in his life.
      But your point is taken for the sarcastically challenged. That Apple users tend to Marvel over the Appearance then the technical end. Although Apple is not perfect and there is pliantly of room for improvement. They come out with a darn good product compared to the others out there.

  • Steve, if you're reading this... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Please end this madness. It's fine the way it is. The chrome effect makes it look split and not wholesome.

    And stop with the "Brushed Metal" craze.

  • And You Thought 10.2.8 Was Bad! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Farley Mullet ( 604326 ) on Sunday September 28, 2003 @03:34AM (#7076256)

    This screenshot [akamai.net] 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!

  • Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)

    by turkmenistani ( 638203 ) on Sunday September 28, 2003 @03:44AM (#7076272)
    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.

    • Re:Slashdot (Score:2, Insightful)

      by transiit ( 33489 )
      I'm not a Mac user. I don't really care much for OS X. I used to like Apple (and defended them for years when the big argument was Apple vs. IBM), but I'm convinced that Steve Jobs had done good to keep Apple alive, but done poorly with everything else. And for what it's worth, it's crap like "They changed their logo!" (though, to a larger degree, the dissemination of propaganda ("They built a cluster in Virginia! It's so much better than everything else!" or "Some school in Japan is switching from linux to

      • Re:Slashdot (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Trurl's Machine ( 651488 ) on Sunday September 28, 2003 @02:37PM (#7079267) Journal
        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?
    • There are people in the public relations world who drool over the possibility of having the world sit around and chat about your logo redesign. This is news for nerds. Apple has had their ten minutes of fame, now it is time for open source to shine. Would a redesigned Debian logo get coverage on slashdot? It shouldn't. The avoidance of mass-commercialism led me to slashdot and now it is driving me away.

    • Re:Slashdot (Score:5, Informative)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Sunday September 28, 2003 @09:18AM (#7077022)
      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.
      • 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).

        My guess is that you're over simplifying a ton. based on what I've read about the Jobs-factor toward things like logos, case shape, case material, pamphlets, manuals, ink, paint, injection mold styles, etc.... this new logo is probably the 10,0

  • Picture (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "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?"

    Yeah, it looks like this:
    Picture [lightheadsw.com]
    • Wait, you didn't actually think the editor was going to RTFA like all 8 of the other readers that do, did you?

      They even get the chance to read it before it's slashdotted and they don't!
  • Panther can run on a 400 MHz G3 with 192 MB RAM [akamai.net]. I wonder how sluggish it is on such a machine. I also wonder who has a pre-release and decided to run it on such a machine.

    Hmmmm......
    • > I also wonder who has a pre-release and decided to run
      > it on such a machine.

      I posted a link to a picture on my site a few comments up not long ago. So far at least half of the hits from macs are from a version of Safari that's panther-only. There's plenty of people out who've got the dev version(s), bound to be some older iMacs in there.

      From all I've seen it's a little quicker than jaguar on all machines, and a great deal quicker on some.

    • Panther will feel faster on a 400MHz G3 than Jaguar did on a 600MHz G3. I'm currently typing this on a 500MHz iBook running Panther 7B68 and its noticeably faster in nearly every respect from networking to UI responsiveness. Panther is finally that truly polished release of Mac OS X that shows maturity is coming to the OS.

      As for the new Apple logo I really could not care any less. Although its probably a more newsworthy item than Dell cloning something else again.

    • Panther DP is as fast or faster than 10.2.6 (guess who avoided 10.2.8 through laziness and 56K :)) for everything I've used it for.

      I run a 450MHZ G3 Power Mac and I can't say I've ever noticed the OS being sluggish.

    • OS X is getting FASTER each version (Score:4, Informative)

      by MarcQuadra ( 129430 ) * on Monday September 29, 2003 @06:07AM (#7083304)
      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.
  • Am I the only one that thinks that the line going through it looks like a giant crack in the logo?

    It's a sign (better not be).

  • 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.

  • I'm using Panther (7B68) right now, and can't find the change they are talking about. Not in the "About this mac" window, not in the startup, not anywhere. Any why the hell is this news anyway?

  • Um... Rumors... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by emerrill ( 110518 ) on Sunday September 28, 2003 @09:47AM (#7077157)
    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

  • Is it just me... (Score:3, Funny)

    by ihtagik ( 318795 ) on Sunday September 28, 2003 @01:33PM (#7078798)
    Or is the Bling Bling fad being taken too far?

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

  • Trickery? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gerardrj ( 207690 ) * on Sunday September 28, 2003 @01:48PM (#7078916) Journal
    I keep wondering:
    Apple (well, Steve) hates leaks. He probably fumes over these rumor sites that get leaks from the developer releases of the OS. I've often wondered if Apple might trick the leakers in to giving away their identies.

    AFAIK the developer releases are only available (officially) by logging in to your developer account and downloading the disk images. Perhaps Apple will ship them also, but I just don't know.

    Isn't it possible for Apple to give a slightly different version of the OS to subsets of the developer base? The alterations don't need to be too big really: shifting the window operation buttons a few pixels, changing some text in a few common dialogs/windows, etc. After a few times of doing this and watching which "special" changes are leaked, Apple could terminate the contracts with the leakers.

    Could it be that this small logo change is one of those inconsequential changes thay would be used for such identification?
    • They could do that, in theory, but they don't. It really wouldn't be worth the effort. For one thing, they'd actually have to serve a different archive of the OS to each person downloading it instead of just one static file to everyone, and the effort of actually going through these minute UI changes to see which developer got the release with which UI element moved over a pixel to compare to a leaked screenshot somewhere would be a nontrivial problem.
    • That sound like lots and lots of work to me. They could just add an on-the-fly watermark to some graphics that are likely to appear in screenshots, like the about box, to identify the leaker.
      Perhaps that's what they have done?
  • A friend of a friend of my cousin knew this one chick who could suck the chrome right off an Apple logo.

    I swears it's true.

  • I confirmed this by moving my screen. Yes, there it is: A chrome Apple logo. I think people are just getting a bit too excited about something that has been in place for 1.5 years. Also, some Apple vendors use a mirrored logo as well.
  • Same shape, slightly distorted finish [justonemorething.com]... ;-)

  • It's no big deal. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by YouHaveSnail ( 202852 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @12:35AM (#7082417)
    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 [tele.net] 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 [google.com].
  • I received my new 20" Cinema display last wednesday to go with my new DP G5, the logo on this display back aand front has a 100% reflective surface, the same as a mirror.

    This is different from my 15" display and my 22" at work which has the grey graduated apple logo. The only other noticable difference is that it dosn't have the dark grey band around the edge of the frame.

    My new display has the model number A1038. I don't have access to another 20" model to verify if this an update to the standard displa
  • or for those who don't but are willing to click some links and read some pages, Macnyt [macnyt.dk] has made an attempt to provide a relatively complete history of the Apple logo [macnyt.dk].
  • It seems to me that the big difference is that the chrome apple will replace the big blue X in everything.

    I guess they are getting ready for when the go to version 11.
  • Really?

    God knows, it's time somebody based their company logo on this special lady [lysator.liu.se].

  • There's an image of the new logo in the article. It's a sad day indeed when the editors (sic) don't even read the articles.

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