# I wonder where these Apple terms came from.



## PHARAOHk (Feb 22, 2003)

Why are some of the Apple lines called Macintosh? I am thinking there is some cool story. Also what does the i infront of everything mean. You know like ical and imovies etc.
(((k)))


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## JetwingX (Feb 22, 2003)

ok well theres the easy ansewer: a "macintosh" is a type of apple. 
or there is the complex apple logo secret meaning thingy: The guy who invented the first computer (or maybe it was the first personal computer [can't remember]) but he committed suicide by taking a bite out of an arsenic inlaced macintosh apple so thats why the apple logo has a bite taken out of it and why they named most of thier computers "Macintosh"

Now the "i" thing started with the iMac whitch was suposed to be short for Internet Macintosh but now steve has gone crazy and stuck "i" in front of everything

hope thats helpful


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## symphonix (Feb 22, 2003)

That sounds like a fascinating story, Jet. I will have to look into that!

I like the story behind the Apple Lisa. When Steve found out he was going to have a daughter with his new-ager girlfriend, he said something like "I don't want her to be called flower-sunchild or something like that. The world's hard enough without having to carry a weird name." So they agreed on Lisa.
The Lisa computer was named after his baby daughter.


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## edX (Feb 22, 2003)

i don't think the i even started with apple. it was just used to denote an internet related device. in short, i=internet. but like jet said, it's gotten way out of hand.


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## Stridder44 (Feb 22, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Jet _
> *The guy who invented the first computer (or maybe it was the first personal computer [can't remember]) but he committed suicide by taking a bite out of an arsenic inlaced macintosh apple so thats why the apple logo has a bite taken out of it and why they named most of thier computers "Macintosh" *



I'll never be able to look at the shiny Apple logo on my 17 inch iMac in the same way ever again...


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## Dusky (Feb 22, 2003)

> I'll never be able to look at the shiny Apple logo on my 17 inch iMac in the same way ever again..



Let me rid you of your plight, send me your iMac...


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## oldmac (Feb 22, 2003)

Don't know the origin of the Macintosh name, but the first iMac was indeed named that to denote how easy it is to get on the internet with it.


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## PHARAOHk (Feb 23, 2003)

I read an old interview with Jobs and he said that he worked in an apple orcherd and considered apples to be the perfect food. So he named his company... He also said they put the bite in there because it looked to much like an orange. I am much to lazy to find that article but yeah that first post was interesting. Maybe they thought of naming every model after a kind of apple? But I don't think granny smith and red delicious(only ones I can think of) make the greatest of computer names.

(((k)))


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## Gregita (Feb 23, 2003)

I have heard about Lisa, and about Steve Jobs working in an orchard, but I have never heard the story about the arsenic-laced apple. Interesting. 

I have always wondered, too, if Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had to pay the Beatles to use the name Apple. By the time the first Apple debuted, the Beatles' Apple Corp. partnership had been disolved, but they should have still owned the rights to the name. Does anyone know?

Has Apple paid Apple Corp. royalties all these years?


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## mac-blog (Feb 23, 2003)

I think it is funny that the real internet apps don't have an "i" at the beginning of their names (Mail, Safari and Sherlock).


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## sjb2016 (Feb 23, 2003)

Alan Turing is given much credit for creating the first electronic computers as a result of his, along with many others, attempts to crack the Enigma code used by the Nazis to transmit orders and the like during W.W.II.  He did committ suicide in the 1950's by ingesting a poison apple.  While there is little information about why he killed himself, it is believed by most that he could no longer take the persecution he sufferred for being gay.  Whether this is where Apple got it's name, I cannot say, but I figured I'd shed some light on the story.  Read the only biography of this fascinating and brilliant man,

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...102-7304385-7164122?v=glance&s=books&n=507846


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## adambyte (Feb 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Gregita _
> *Has Apple paid Apple Corp. royalties all these years? *



Ah, yes, let's not forget the Beatles' company.... When Apple computer came upon the scene, the two companies agreed that it would be okay, as long as Apple Computer didn't do anything having to do with music.

However, they started adding more sophisticated sound capabilities to Macs, somehow, Apple Computer got away with it. I forget if they settled that in court or whatever.... however, the programmers had a little fun with this one... they thought it was absurd that the two companies could possibly be confused with each other, so, when naming sound effects in the Mac, they made one funny statement- "So sue me".... aka "Sosumi"


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## Frennemo (Feb 23, 2003)

I always thought that the Apple logo is the "apple of knowledge", the forbidden fruit of knowledge as in the bible!

The suicide story might make more sense though...


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## MisterMe (Feb 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by PHARAOHk _
> *Why are some of the Apple lines called Macintosh? I am thinking there is some cool story. Also what does the i infront of everything mean. You know like ical and imovies etc.
> (((k))) *


"Macintosh" was the internal code name for Apple's inexpensive GUI-based computer during its development. At the time, Apple used the names of apple varieties for its internal code names. By the time the new computer was ready for sale, the code name had already been widely publicized. Apple kept the code name as the brand for the shipping product.


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## Decado (Feb 23, 2003)

Macintosh is both an apple-brand (as in apples you can digest) and got the MAC in it (Mouse Activated Computer).


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## Gregita (Feb 23, 2003)

Cool...Adambyte had an answer.  

Thank you.


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## Saitama (Feb 24, 2003)

According to Steven Levy in his book "Insanely Great" (pg 109), "...Macintosh was Jef Raskin's baby. He even named it. Raskin believed that bestowing a woman's name on a computer was a sexist act, ... The Macintosh apple was Raskin's favorite, and thus worthy of being a working code name... after some deft negotiating with the McDonald's fast-food chain on the status of trade names prefixed 'Mac," it became the computer's true name."


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## Izzy (Feb 24, 2003)

You gotta love it when there are so many theories going around for the company logo.  That just shows how fun and creative the Mac community is...I doubt Dell has any story about how they got their logo.  (I take that back, maybe there's some fascinating story about an intern knocking over a sign and tilting an "E").


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## binaryDigit (Feb 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Saitama _
> *According to Steven Levy in his book "Insanely Great" (pg 109), "...Macintosh was Jef Raskin's baby. He even named it. Raskin believed that bestowing a woman's name on a computer was a sexist act, ... The Macintosh apple was Raskin's favorite, and thus worthy of being a working code name... after some deft negotiating with the McDonald's fast-food chain on the status of trade names prefixed 'Mac," it became the computer's true name." *



Hmm, that's interesting about Raskin naming the Mac.  The "Macintosh" as we know it (gui based) was NOT the comptuer that Raskin had in mind and eventually led to his leaving Apple and creating what he had originally envisioned the Macintosh to be.  This computer was sold through Canon and was called the Cat.  It was significantly different than the original Mac (no gui for starters).


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## JetwingX (Feb 24, 2003)

hey i got more stories! (this time for the "i" thing)

"Steve Jobs returned to Apple as a consultant, then as interim CEO (or "iCEO", echoing the name of Apple's new ironically floppy-drive-less iMac consumer hardware)..."  thank you to Wikipedia for this little tid bit


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## porteous (Feb 25, 2003)

I've always understood that the Macintosh name came about because it was a type of apple, and obviously sounded right too.

The Newton is a variety of apple, too.... which makes one wonder whether there was ever a plan to use the names of various apples. 

I don't think we've ever seen an Apple Pippin - yet....


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## Decado (Feb 25, 2003)

Apple made a console called Pippin.


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## zwheeloc (Feb 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by mac-blog _
> *I think it is funny that the real internet apps don't have an "i" at the beginning of their names (Mail, Safari and Sherlock). *



But they all have an i in the name...

MaIl , SafarI and Sherlock (private i)   

 Zeff Wheelock


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## zwheeloc (Feb 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Decado _
> *Macintosh is both an apple-brand (as in apples you can digest) and got the MAC in it (Mouse Activated Computer). *



Actually, it is McIntosh that is the digestable fruit and Macintosh is the silcon based number cruncher.
 Zeff Wheelock


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## Decado (Feb 25, 2003)

Ooops! must have slept during my fruit-brands-lesson.


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## JetwingX (Feb 25, 2003)

guess you must have


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## MisterMe (Feb 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by porteous _
> *....
> 
> The Newton is a variety of apple, too.... which makes one wonder whether there was ever a plan to use the names of various apples.
> ...


No, the Newton is not a variety of apple, at least none that I am aware of. The Newton is named for Isaac Newton, the great English scientist and mathematician. The Newton/apple connection is according to legion that an apple fell on Newton's head which motivated him to develop his theory of gravitation. My understanding is that the apple hit Newton when he was 13, but that he developed his universal theory of gravitation when he was 23. But, I digress.


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## Decado (Feb 25, 2003)

The original Apple logo-thing (or favorite image), was of a young newton sitting with is back to a tree. i believe i saw it in john sculleys autobiography.


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## Rhino_G3 (Feb 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by MisterMe _
> *"Macintosh" was the internal code name for Apple's inexpensive GUI-based computer during its development. At the time, Apple used the names of apple varieties for its internal code names. By the time the new computer was ready for sale, the code name had already been widely publicized. Apple kept the code name as the brand for the shipping product. *



I wonder how often this actualy does occur?  Most recently the code name for 10.2 seemed to stick fairly quickly.


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## Rhino_G3 (Feb 25, 2003)

If anybody else is interested in the history of the apple logo I uploaded a few pages that I saved quite a while ago. It spans from the original apple logo to the current rounded, solid color apple logo.

http://www.alltel.net/~january/applelogo/data/index.html

Decado, you're correct.  the original apple logo looked like this....


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## mightyjlr (Feb 25, 2003)

wow.  that is a horrible logo for a computer company


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## Cat (Feb 25, 2003)

Hhmmm, imagine the Golden Delicious ("Thirtieth Anniversary Mac"), or the Granny Smith ("This mean-green-computing-machine is so easy to understand that even your granny can use it out-of-the-box!"), or the Pink Lady ("Most sexy computer ever!"), or the Fuji, the Elstar, or ... well, you get the idea!


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## Rhino_G3 (Feb 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by mightyjlr _
> *wow.  that is a horrible logo for a computer company *



That's exactly why they got rid of it! 

Well,  that and it didn't scale very well.


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## f_h_petrone (Feb 26, 2003)

And why is it that the real apple fruit type name is " Mackintosh" with a K an the computer is caled Macintosh without the K?

actually spelled as it is, the word "Macintosh" should be read as
"maSintosh" or something like that.....


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## zwheeloc (Feb 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by f_h_petrone _
> *And why is it that the real apple fruit type name is " Mackintosh" with a K an the computer is caled Macintosh without the K?
> 
> actually spelled as it is, the word "Macintosh" should be read as
> "maSintosh" or something like that..... *



Actually:

McIntosh = Fruit
Mackintosh = Lightweight jacket
Macintosh = Computer


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## binaryDigit (Feb 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by f_h_petrone _
> *And why is it that the real apple fruit type name is " Mackintosh" with a K an the computer is caled Macintosh without the K?
> 
> actually spelled as it is, the word "Macintosh" should be read as
> "maSintosh" or something like that..... *



Two general theories on why Macintosh vs McIntosh (the fruit).

1. Raskin can't spell.  He came up with the name, but misspelled it on all early memo's etc and the misspelling "took".

2. Avoiding trademark issues with the hifi company McIntosh (good stuff btw).

From way back, I do seem to remember talk of 2.  Perhaps its a combination of the two (i.e. a fortuante accident).

I know not of the fruit with a K (as in MackIntosh).  Also, as for pronunciation, here in the states, it's most definitely Macintosh with a hard K sound.  Similar to the word macaroni (the noodle).


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