The few remaining uses of the name “Macintosh”

https://tidbits.com/2020/01/10/the-one-remaining-use-of-the-word-macintosh/

by fanf2 • 7 years ago

116 113 7 years ago

I really like that "Think Different" is still printed next to the specs.

comboy• 7 years ago

Yeah, and the meaning is still the same. A reminder that you don't have to follow a huge monopoly that lost touch with customers some time ago..

bipson• 7 years ago

Was the irony intended?

BlueTemplar6• 7 years ago

Even funnier is that with the open sourcing of PowerPC (and therefore steadily declining prices, soon in hobbyist range?), the IBM architecture might soon be one of those that "Think Different !" (And I'm willing to bet that we won't see a PowerPC Macintosh for a while...)

kalleboo2• 7 years ago

I wonder if that's still there to keep the trademark "active"

kjhweriuyiou• 7 years ago

"Think Different" always makes me think of this picture:

https://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Think_cc51f2_2807418.jpg

ngcc_hk3• 7 years ago

At that time I was still a bit anti communist but pro China. Hence this is the first campaign with Tibet issues made me pause. I am. Anti both as ypthey are the same. Hence the think different would trigger very different thought if launched today.

antiterra• 7 years ago

Perhaps this use is to prevent trademark abandonment issues? I don’t think it’d be great for Apple if, e.g. Monoprice were to come out with a Macintosh computer.

prox• 7 years ago

I think that is it. As long as you use it actively it remains a strong trademark against infringement.

acheron• 7 years ago

This is a decent possibility, yeah. Other companies keep old trademarks active that way too.

"Standard Oil" in the US is one still used like that. It was split up between different companies for different states, and the current companies still use "Standard"/"Esso"/etc trademarks in obscure places to keep them active even though it's not part of their regular branding. I believe Chevron has a single gas station in each state named "Standard" although everything else looks like a Chevron station. Exxon sometimes labels their diesel pumps "Esso Diesel". At one point BP owned it in some states; I think they sold marine fuel on Lake Erie as "SOHIO" (Standard Oil of Ohio) still despite rebranding SOHIO stations in the late 80s everywhere else in the state. (This was several years ago that I remember seeing this, some things may have changed since then.)

(Outside of the US I think ExxonMobil owns it everywhere, and still regularly brands stations as Esso.)

thomasfedb• 7 years ago

Was half expecting thing to be about Mackintosh coats

tudorw• 7 years ago

or some fancy chairs maybe :)

DiabloD3• 7 years ago

or apples

reportgunner2• 7 years ago

but your reaction to the word “Macintosh.” If you didn’t blink at it, you’ve probably been using Macs for over two decades

No I have never used a mac and I know what macintosh is.

Where is the interesting part of the article ?

AmericanChopper• 7 years ago

I’ve been using Macs for a long time, one of my first computers was a Macintosh. My first reaction to that question was “nah, I don’t think I’m using a Macintosh. I’m pretty sure I’m using a Mac”.

cytzol• 7 years ago

No I have never used a mac and I know what macintosh is.

You're affirming the consequent! The author isn't saying "Only people who have been using Macs for two decades won't blink at this".

reportgunner2• 7 years ago

That is a fair point !

I should have written that I haven't blinked while not being a mac user.

sevencolors• 7 years ago

What’s your internal drive called?

I've stopped renaming it because it's hidden away in the Finder and Desktop ️

mafro• 7 years ago

This thing has a hard drive in it??

gambiting3• 7 years ago

I know, it should be an actual crime that Apple sells brand new iMacs in 2020 for a small fortune and by default they come with a shitty 5400rpm drive. It's insane. Those machines have very decent specs but everything feels 2011-slow purely because the system is running off something that belongs in a museum.

saagarjha2• 7 years ago

(They're for education users who couldn't care less.)

zozbot234• 7 years ago

The drive itself is not the issue. You can run Linux on a spinning drive and it will still be quick and snappy, because your free RAM will be used for caching file data. I don't know why Windows and Mac aren't doing this properly.

sfgweilr4f3• 7 years ago

Apple must have a warehouse full of this old inventory they need to clear first.

tonyedgecombe• 7 years ago

The iMac is well overdue a significant update.

Shinchy• 7 years ago

Here in the UK Macintosh is still genericized as a rain coat.

S_A_P• 7 years ago

It took me a long time to figure that out as a kid. Listening to Beatles songs with lyrics like “the man in the Mac said you gotta go back” or “the banker never wears a Mac “ I had no idea what that was.

fredley3• 7 years ago

Often referred to as a 'Plastic Mac' (extra confusing during the early noughties era).

See also: 'Mac in a Sac': https://www.macinasac.com/

quakeguy• 7 years ago

Also the dirty Mac comes to mind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dirty_Mac

selimthegrim• 7 years ago

Isn’t that mackintosh spelled with a k?

Fnoord• 7 years ago

McIntosh [1] is a type of Apple. At [1] you can also read about McIntosh ("McIntosh Laboratories") the hi-fi brand [2]. My father was an audiophile, and had various McIntosh hardware (pre-amplifier, tuner, oscilloscope, ...). Apple named the Mac after the Apple but deliberately misspelled it as "Macintosh" to avoid confusion with the hi-fi brand. As I grew up with the hardware from McIntosh (Laboratories), that'll for me always be real McIntosh. Even though the real one is the apple genus.

..and then there's "Big Mac". I'm not sure where that got its name from, nor if it has anything to do with McIntosh (labs or apple). It was innovated before the Mac was invented though.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McIntosh_(apple)

[2] https://www.mcintoshlabs.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McIntosh_Laboratory

vzidex• 7 years ago

For the Big Mac, I'm guessing it went

Big McDonald -> Big Mc -> Big Mac

adrianmonk2• 7 years ago

That's Mackintosh with a "k", isn't it? At least, wikipedia says (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackintosh) this is the standard spelling of it. Although it also says its inventor was a Charles Macintosh (no "k").

ekianjo4• 7 years ago

Even the case-less hard drive icon in the Quick Look preview window incorrectly uses an image of a spinning disk to represent an SSD.

Its called a symbol. What else would you do, put a piece of plastic called SSD instead?

fredley3• 7 years ago

Also I don't know why they put a save icon in that list /s

BlueTemplar6• 7 years ago

Silicon, SSD are transistor-based storage. :P

ekianjo4• 7 years ago

For the end user a SSD drive is just a black box made of plastic - and that's if they have ever seen it.

jnty• 7 years ago

Just wait until they see the Windows save symbol!

Izkata• 7 years ago

Yeeeaaars ago I remember seeing someone honestly ask "why do you click on a little TV to save a document?"

bluedino2• 7 years ago

OWC has custom icons for their SSD's

https://eshop.macsales.com/support/custom-drive-icons

blackearl• 7 years ago

At that point it's just a picture. I like the old symbols, even if they're antiquated now. Maybe when I remember the humble beginnings, using floppies, there's some nostalgia

ksec• 7 years ago

Yes. It is about as incorrect as the 3.5" Floppy used in Save Icon which most haven't seen one for the past 20 years.

And Child would ask their mum and dad why have they 3D Printed the Save Icon. ( And this is not a Joke )

astura• 7 years ago

And this is not a Joke

Yes it is

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/24/16505912/floppy-disk-3d-...

toyg4• 7 years ago

Nowadays, you could probably make an SSD that looks like an old 3’’ floppy. Might get a bit hot (because of very little airflow and thermal paste) but it could carry plenty of chips/terabytes, in all that space. Add a protected USB-C socket, and at the other end a flexible dock-attachment (like the Nintendo Switch) that looks like an old drive, and you’d have a very retro-looking removable-storage system you can point the kids at.

throwawaymath2• 7 years ago

Apple has icons for SSDs. They are shown in the article right after this:

So what should Apple do? Customized icons for different types of drives would be a good start. Time Machine drives get custom icons automatically, as do many other types of storage devices that were more common in the past, so surely Apple could design different icons for SSDs and Fusion Drives, and then display them appropriately based on the type of drive.

Apple could repurpose one of the existing SSD icons pretty easily.

CrazyStat2• 7 years ago

so surely Apple could design different icons for SSDs and Fusion Drives,

That doesn't sound like Apple has icons for SSDs already.

Hamuko• 7 years ago

Well, why not? If you're going to be skeuomorphic (which the current icon is), why not be accurate about it?

You can also take it to the extreme and make sure that it's noticebale as an SSD. For example like this: https://dribbble.com/shots/123884-HDRV-Solid-State

adrianmonk2• 7 years ago

Indeed it is a symbol. Does the author have the same objection about other icons? Let's talk about some of the icons in the System Preferences window (https://help.apple.com/assets/5DB8A4A0094622D56C6D1279/5DB8A...)

The Date & Time icon is an analog clock with a paper calendar icon on top of it. Does the author think this is "incorrect" because the computer does not actually have a tiny analog clock inside of it? It does have another type of clock based on a newer technology.

The Energy Saver icon is a light bulb with a standard base screw-in socket. The computer doesn't have one of those inside it either. And the computer's energy usage isn't primarily from lighting. But the icon is an LED bulb, and we understand those as a way of saving energy.

The Screen Time icon is an hourglass. Is this incorrect because the computer does not internally use an actual hourglass to judge whether your session is too long? Nevertheless, the idea comes across OK because you can use an hourglass for similar purposes.

saagarjha2• 7 years ago

The Energy Saver icon is a light bulb with a standard base screw-in socket. The computer doesn't have one of those inside it either. And the computer's energy usage isn't primarily from lighting. But the icon is an LED bulb, and we understand those as a way of saving energy.

Interestingly, this used to be a normal lightbulb, then evolved into a CFL and is an LED bulb today.

fredley3• 7 years ago

Doesn't mention in the article that the 'reason' the name Macintosh was chosen was that it's simply after a variety of Apple (McIntosh).

Lio• 7 years ago

...and they changed the spelling so that they didn't clash with the American hifi manufacturer of the same name.

whoopdedo• 7 years ago

They already had to go through one trademark lawsuit, they didn't want another.

asplake• 7 years ago

McIntosh is the 65th most common surname in Scotland. Couldn’t help myself, had to look it up! https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics...

ekianjo4• 7 years ago

Your link says 68th.

madcaptenor• 7 years ago

I always thought it would be good if they named all their computers after varieties of apples.

irrational• 7 years ago

Those old pink iMacs could've been Pink Ladies.

troymc• 7 years ago

"Apple names some of its most opaque holding companies after kinds of apples." --- see https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-subsidiaries-are-named...

ngcc_hk3• 7 years ago

Can’t. Apple is beatle and no beatle in apple music until very lately.

brian-armstrong• 7 years ago

Getting rid of the spinny disk icon in favor of some smoother, less detailed "SSD" icon seems likely but terribly offensive. The spinny disk icon has terrific character.

systemtest• 7 years ago

My internal drive is named Macintosh HD and I will always keep it like that. Feels like a part of history to me.

cubix• 7 years ago

I hadn’t thought about it consciously before, but when I hear “Macintosh” a beige box from the 80’s or 90’s comes to mind, and with “Mac” I’m thinking post-millennial aluminum and glass. So, it’s sort of a temporal indicator for the product line.

ArcMex• 7 years ago

When I encounter the word "Macintosh", I think of the movie Blank Cheque.

ngcc_hk3• 7 years ago

This is the site or the book hooked me to internet.

bookofjoe7• 7 years ago

Think outside the computer space: the Macintosh blade has been my blade of choice for laryngoscopy since the first day of my anesthesiology residency in 1977. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laryngoscopy#Laryngoscope_blad...

tpfour5• 7 years ago

Hey, this is an unrelated question but I've been looking for MDs turned SWEs and vice versa. I assume since you are here that you understand the life of a SWE. Do you have any thoughts about jumping from SWE to medicine?

bagacrap4• 7 years ago

I'm not a doctor but I've dated enough med students to tell you that the value proposition of being an MD is far overrated. You have no more earning potential than a typical SWE, or less if you're not one of the top earning specialities. But the top earners don't hit their potential for a LONG time, and work insane hours. Probably most doctors are lucky to be broke, ie just finished paying off student loans, by 40, assuming a normal med school timeline. It makes more sense economically and sanity-wise to switch to law.

bookofjoe7• 7 years ago

As an attending anesthesiologist in a teaching hospital (University of Virginia Medical Center) for 15 years, I had occasion to interact with only one (1) software engineer who decided to change careers, attend med school, and then become an anesthesiologist. He was super-smart but oddly enough not an exceptional anesthesiology resident, though highly competent by the time he finished training with us and went on to a career in academic medicine, where he was a superb teacher.

The reason he had difficulty as a resident from time to time is that he was reluctant to do things unless there was a logical reason to do so. In medicine, and especially anesthesiology, where five minutes of respiratory obstruction/anoxia can lead to permanent brain damage or death right on the OR table, there are times when you do what works and has been shown by experience to work WITHOUT reasoning about the absolute best thing to do. Sometimes the correct action is not logical.

donatj• 7 years ago

Mac browsers user agent strings contain “Macintosh”.

I know this because I develop a library for parsing them and just days ago someone filed an issue telling me that “Macintosh” was old timey and I should be transliterating to “Mac”. I did not accept the change.

kiddico• 7 years ago

I don't know if that's the most accurate description of their reasoning, though I agree with your decision.

"Could we perhaps rename the Macintosh platform to simply Mac? It hasn't been branded as Macintosh since 1998, and I'd like to avoid having to "translate" this to Mac for newer users that simply don't know what a Macintosh is."

bytematic• 7 years ago

Spelt a little different but McIntosh audio makes the most beautiful audio equipment

The few remaining uses of the name “Macintosh”

Related Stories