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Apple Awarded U.S. Trademark for Mac Startup Chime

Many years ago at work, I had the misfortune to hear the BAD startup chime—the failure chime. It sounded similar to the “good” chime, but all out of key and kind of nauseous!

Happily, after I switched to Mac myself, I have never heard the bad chime :)

(And I think we had another Mac at work that made a car crash sound as the “bad startup” sound.)

EDIT: found most of the good AND bad chimes in one video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwTonDClPQE

I like the 4th one—kind of like pan flutes. (Maybe it’s even the same we have now, but higher?)

All the Performa ones sound menacing!

TAM is pretty cool.

The Mac II and LC sounds... what the heck?!

The “bad” sounds are at the end (starting with the 2nd LC chime I think). I don’t hear the “nauseous” one I recall.
 
Until now?......(amazed!)

:eek:

an iconic sound, really! So much better than the Windows one

:):apple:
 
myrtlebee said:
Oh, the pain in my ass when I turn on my MBA first thing in the morning and it's so loud it disturbs my family because I forgot to lower the volume before shutting it down the previous night. One of the very few things I have to fault about my precious.
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I think plugging in headphones before startup would also work just in case you forget to mute it before the last shutdown!!
 
I always thought the startup chime is terrible. This strange synth sound always feels like 90s to me.
This chord played on a piano or rhodes one or two octaves higher, maybe rolled, would feel a bit more timeless. No big swoosh or anything, just a subtle piano sound.
 
I understand why people might wish to mute it, but there's a reason why it's there.

How will you know whats wrong with the machine if it won't boot up, and you can't hear the code sound. (there are various that specify exactly where the fault is to be located). It simplifies troubleshooting a whole lot.
 
SnowLeopard OSX said:
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 :D there's also lots of references to Apple, Inc. in a lot of Pixar's short films.
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Pretty sure the OP was kidding.
Jonathan Ive lent his design talent to Eve the robot, who made that sound in the movie. True story.
 
My favorite "chime" is, and will always be, the Hawaiian Death Chimes. :D

On a more musical note (no pun intended), what is the "8" under the treble clef in the picture?

Edit: Googled my own question. Apparently the 8 means it's meant to be played one octave lower. Learn something new every day! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clef
 
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iVoid said:
I didn't even know you could trademark a sound. Seems more copyright territory to me.

I hope the Simpson's creators have trademarked 'Doh!' :)
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NBC trademarked the three note sequence they use decades ago.
 
apple_iBoy said:
Pretty sure the OP was kidding.
Jonathan Ive lent his design talent to Eve the robot, who made that sound in the movie. True story.
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I guess I should have mentioned I was referring to this post (forgot to quote directly, haha):

inkswamp said:
I sense an Apple-Pixar lawsuit coming up. :D
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Also that's a pretty interesting fact, I didn't know that. I'm a huge Pixar fan, so I'll definitely have to look into that! Although Eve always seemed to have a very Apple-esque design to her, so it wouldn't really surprise me.
 
840quadra said:
There is a great (but loooong) interview with Jim Reekes regarding his early time at apple, and the origins of the Startup chime. It is a long watch, but some good old Apple history Lore. http://youtu.be/QkTwNerh1G8 Clearly the current chime, in the octive used on the Quadra 840AV was the best :)
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There it is. That's one of my favorite apple videos. How something so minor can be such a big deal to the guy whose job it is to create it & get it right.
 
Post

The chime is a great diagnostic tool, its known as POST (Power On Self Test) and its a hardware power check. It's the machines self check to ensure power is flowing through a minimal system configuration (minimum system in a mac is made up of a power supply- logic board - at least on RAM chip and a speaker all connected in series). It allows technicians to be able to isolate faulty components that aren't part of that chain which are causing the machine not to POST.

"Bad" POST sounds people are referring to are known as startup beeps (numbers range from one to five or more in some systems). These are mainly caused by RAM or logic board failures rather than power issues and are beeps rather than a chime.

For the user it's just a nice noise to let you know things are ok, if you don't like it then just mute your mac before shutdown!

:apple:
 
thekev said:
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.
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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).
 
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