Apple Awarded U.S. Trademark for Mac Startup Chime

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by longofest

I actually liked the mac chime from my old PowerMac 6100 better than the current one. It was higher and brighter than the current one.

http://froods.ca/~dschaub/Files/Startup/spwr.aiff

Wow, thanks for reminding me!- I agree, BTW!

[musique]

As I recall the last chord of "A Day in the Life" is an E major chord. The chord displayed in this post is G-flat (tuned to slightly higher than usual A 440). Also, the chord at the opening of "Hard Days Night" is an open set of guitar strings (E-A-D-G-B-E).

[pmbooks]

I KNEW I'd heard it before: Beethoven's Minuet in G flat major.

[SvenSvenson]

Originally Posted by dreamyguy

The same sound was used in a Pixar movie, WALL-E, when he recharged to 100%.

Yeah - Apple should sue those guys...

[Macula]

All black keys. For "The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes."

[milbournosphere]

the Apple power chord sounded best on my 2008-era iMac. Something about the speaker design gave it a nice soft, full sound to it. It sounded pretty good on my 1st-gen macbook pro as well. On my current Mac Pro, it sounds atrocious. Worst internal speaker(s?) EVER.

[John.B]

Originally Posted by musique

As I recall the last chord of "A Day in the Life" is an E major chord. The chord displayed in this post is G-flat (tuned to slightly higher than usual A 440).

I think it's tuned slightly lower.

Originally Posted by musique

Also, the chord at the opening of "Hard Days Night" is an open set of guitar strings (E-A-D-G-B-E).

A Canuck by the name of Jason Brown ran a Fourier Transform on that chord; here's a link to the paper he wrote for the curious: http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~brown/n-oct04-harddayjib.pdf

[milo]

I liked the early PPC chime, created by jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan.

[coolfactor]

Originally Posted by RoelJuun

And yet I'm still searching for a way to stop my Mac from making that annoying sound on start up.

Why are you shutting your Mac down? No need. Just put it to sleep.

And I think holding down the Option key during bootup silences the tone. haven't used that trick in several years, so I forget the exact key. You could always hold your hands over the speaker grills. haha

[tbrinkma]

Originally Posted by inkswamp

I sense an Apple-Pixar lawsuit coming up.



There ought to be a setting in a control panel to mute the startup sound. Why that has never materialized is beyond me.

Apple's standard for usability is whether the machine works the way you work or whether you have to work the way the computer requires you. I've long wanted a way to mute the startup sound. My iMac is in my bedroom and I often start it up at night when my wife is in there sleeping. If I forgot to mute it last time I shut down (i.e., the machine requiring me work its way), I accidentally wake her up.

Beyond that, I question the value of the startup sound beyond branding. I'm not sure what purpose it serves or why Apple has retained that one aspect of the Macs from the old days when they so readily jettisoned everything else.

Well, one purpose it serves is to let you know that pressing one of the various boot option keys will actually do something after that point. (You've got from the 'booong' to the 'loading wheel' to get the key(s) pressed, or you've missed the opportunity.)

And to let you know that it's actually in the process of booting. (The same function as the standard POST-codes on PCs.)

[John.B]

Originally Posted by coolfactor

Why are you shutting your Mac down? No need. Just put it to sleep.

And I think holding down the Option key during bootup silences the tone. haven't used that trick in several years, so I forget the exact key. You could always hold your hands over the speaker grills. haha

I think it used to be the Mute button (on a Mac keyboard, obviously) but I haven't tested this in a while, and I'm sure not since I upgraded to Mountain Lion.

[Gasu E.]

Originally Posted by thekev

This isn't a patent. McDonalds has a trademark on those stupid golden arches. They are not patented. Even the laws surrounding infringement and enforcement differ between the two.



I was thinking the same thing. Music/songs are typically covered by copyright. Perhaps the details preclude this kind of coverage. I don't know the laws around them well enough to know exactly what is covered. Perhaps someone who understands them will chime (hehe) in.

It's not music, it's a sound logo. Some other companies that have trademarked sound logos you may know are Intel, NBC, 20th Century Fox, McDonalds ("I'm lovin' it"), THX.

[thekev]

Originally Posted by Magali

Trademark attorney here. You are correct that songs and music are generally covered by copyright, and it is possible for something to be covered by both copyright and trademark, but when a sound or a song is being used in association with a product or a service in a way that allows you to identify its source (here, when your hear the chimes you know it's a Mac starting up), it can also function as a trademark. Most of the time a trademark is a word, logo or a slogan, but it can also be a sound, a scent, the design/look and feel of a store or restaurant (Apple stores would be a good example) or even the design of a product itself or product packaging (you can identify a Coke bottle by the shape of the bottle alone).

Thank you. I hadn't heard of its implementation in the form of a sound.

Originally Posted by Gasu E.

It's not music, it's a sound logo. Some other companies that have trademarked sound logos you may know are Intel, NBC, 20th Century Fox, McDonalds ("I'm lovin' it"), THX.

I understand the difference. I wasn't aware if there was any overlap in laws there.

[everything-i]

Originally Posted by thekev

I was thinking the same thing. Music/songs are typically covered by copyright. Perhaps the details preclude this kind of coverage. I don't know the laws around them well enough to know exactly what is covered. Perhaps someone who understands them will chime (hehe) in.

Collections of notes can be registered as trade marks, another example is the intel 4 note jingle which is instantly recongnisable. These sounds or jingles are associated with a trade entity like a product or company so are essentially no different to a logo and therefore eligible to be registered.

[XboxMySocks]

Originally Posted by inkswamp

I sense an Apple-Pixar lawsuit coming up.

Not sure if trolling or ignorant

[milo]

Trademarked sounds aren't just limited to musical ones, MGM has the lion roar (obviously only possible to be trademarked within the limited scope of movie logos), certain sirens, etc. Harley davidson tried to trademark the sound of their motorcycle engine, but gave up after a few years debating it in the courts.

Originally Posted by XboxMySocks

Not sure if trolling or ignorant

Hint: big smiley face generally means the user is joking.

[SuperBuck27]

Jim did some work for our company a few years back. He is a brilliant guy -- great product design mind. No doubt his skills were honed by trying to make Steve happy.

Congrats, Jim (and Apple). Great work. I continue to love the startup sound every time I fire up a Macintosh. It still brings a slight smile to my face...especially with the speaker quality of the MBP with Retina Display.

Cheers,

SB

[inkswamp]

Originally Posted by milo

Hint: big smiley face generally means the user is joking.

I forgot that sometimes the humor-impairment on this site can create confusion, so below is an annotated version of my post to help out.

[seveej]

Originally Posted by RoelJuun

And yet I'm still searching for a way to stop my Mac from making that annoying sound on start up.

I had sort of a freelance job for some years, and the organization furnished me with a laptop for being able to do that work (single digit hours per month). It was a "nice" Wintel laptop, a Fujitsu with an i5, good battery and not too heavy.

Funny thing was, every single time i started the machine, the fans would ramp up to 100% for the first 15 seconds (after which the machine was agreeable silent).

I much prefer a chime to that...

RGDS,

[di1in]

Originally Posted by SnowLeopard OSX

Pixar has very close ties with Apple since Steve Jobs was a majority stakeholder in Pixar prior to it being acquired by Disney. It's why you'll also notice the "Apple car" in the Pixar movie "Cars", as well there's also lots of references to Apple, Inc. in a lot of Pixar's short films.

It's a 'predictive programming' project being secretly run by Apple, to get people ready for the future of technology.

[manandvan]

Providers interested in measuring the outcomes of their patients are better providers. However, the field of behavioral health continues to struggle on how to measure the outcomes of treatment.



nose right