The iconic Apple logo, designed by graphic designer Rob Janoff, debuted in 1977. The original version had six colors—with the green stripe on top to signify the leaf—but it changed to a single color in 1998 when Steve Jobs returned to the company and the first iMac was introduced. There were other slight changes over the years, such as the polished metal look in 2007, but Apple changes what it does with the logo just rarely enough that it is fun when it happens. Apple did two different things with its logo this week. First, Apple released a new intro sequence for its Apple TV service, in which the Apple logo and the letters “tv” sort of spin with a series of colors. It’s tough to describe, but it is interesting, and you can see the five-second version on YouTube, plus you will now see it before every Apple TV show. Hartley Charlton of MacRumors reports that there is also a one-second version for trailers and a 12-second version for movies. Armando Tinoco of Deadline reports that the music for the new log was created by Oscar winner Finneas O’Connell (brother of Billie Eilish), and Chris Willman of Variety interviewed Finneas to discuss what “might become his most widely heard piece of music, as well as his shortest.” At first, I assumed that the visuals were created using a graphics program on a computer, but this interesting video from Ad Age shows that it was actually created using translucent glass and practical effects. Very cool. Time will tell how this new version stacks up to other memorable short intros such as the ones from 20th Century Fox, HBO, and even Netflix. Second, as noted by Juli Clover of MacRumors, Apple is now using a version of the Apple logo for its Apple One service that features different slices of color, presumably to symbolize the different services that make up Apple One. I enjoy it when Apple does something fun with its logo, but my favorite remains the old six-color version. Even though Apple retired that version in 1998, Apple still uses it every once in a while. For example, a few months ago, during Apple’s WWDC developer conference, Apple sold limited-edition T-shirts featuring retro versions of its logos. I had one of those purchased for me, and I love wearing it. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Brett Burney and I are releasing a special edition of the In the News podcast today. It features an interview with Stephen Embry of TechLaw Crossroads. Stephen has an incredible knowledge of all things legal tech, and this is a great conversation that I think you will enjoy. You should check it out.
- A few days ago, I discussed Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter results. Jason Snell of Six Colors took the broader view and looked at Apple’s entire 2025 fiscal year and put it in the context of the past 25 years. Spoiler alert: the company is doing better now than it was in 1999 when that monochrome Apple logo was brand new. His chart showing Apple revenue by product line is always particularly interesting because it shows, quite dramatically, how important the iPhone is to Apple as well as the growing importance of Services revenue.
- John Voorhees of MacStories describes Apple’s 26.1 updates, which came out this week.
- As a result of the U.S. government shutdown, this is a horrible time to fly. But when you next do so on Delta, you can now take advantage of the upgraded version of a boarding pass in the iPhone’s Wallet app. As noted by Joe Rossignol of MacRumors, the boarding pass updates flight details such as the gate, you now get Live Activities to keep track of the flight on the lock screen—which would be a very useful feature as 10% of flights are currently being cancelled—and there is one-tap access to Apple Maps for airport directions and the Find My app for baggage tracking.
- As I noted when it came out, although the latest-and-greatest Apple Watch is the Series 11, it is very similar to the Series 10. And the Series 10 is a fantastic model that I love using every day. I mention this because Amazon has a sale on the Apple Watch Series 10, selling it for only $279.99, a whopping 30% discount over the original $399.00 price. This would make a great holiday present for someone, or a nice gift for yourself. I absolutely recommend getting the Series 10 over the Series 11 with those savings.
- Glenn Fleishman of Six Colors discusses the fine art of coming up with names for Apple Home scenes.
- As a lawyer who has worked with electronic documents for decades, I’m certainly familiar with the TIFF format. John Buck tells a great story about tracking down the guy who came up with the TIFF format, Steve Carlsen.
- Dan Moren of Six Colors notes that you can now browse the App Store’s apps for any Apple device on the web. Unfortunately, you can only read about the apps; you cannot press a button to have an app downloaded the next time you use your device.
- Six years ago this week, Apple launched its video streaming service, originally called Apple TV+ but now just called Apple TV. I said at the time that I was looking forward to the new show For All Mankind. It is now one of my all-time favorite shows, and I cannot wait for the next season to come out.
- Jeremy Kay of Screen Daily published a fascinating interview with Apple VP Eddy Cue and the co-heads of Apple TV, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg. There are lots of interesting tidbits in that article. Here is one in which Eddy Cue explained Apple’s original goal with the service: “I felt there was an opening. It seemed like everyone was trying to move towards a ton of content. My experiences always said that if you do a lot, it’s nearly impossible to be great or to do great things. At Apple, we do a few things that hopefully we think are great, and it takes everything we’ve got.” After starting with four shows, there are now so many great shows on the service that I don’t have enough time to see everything that I want to see.
- I’m a big fan of the restaurant scene here in New Orleans, and it was great to see restaurants in this city added to the famous Michelin Guide this week. But I’d like to go on the record as saying that there are some curious omissions from that list, including one of my favorite restaurants in this city: Commander’s Palace. You won’t go wrong by dining at any of the restaurants honored this week by Michelin, but please remember that is just the tip of the sno-ball.
- And finally, a new show debuts on Apple TV today. It is called Pluribus, and it was created by Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad and many other great shows. The early buzz on this show is fantastic and it may be the next hit show on Apple TV. But I’ve avoided reading any reviews because my understanding is that they are almost all going to contain spoilers about what is a unique premise for a show. But I did watch this trailer, which seems to have only the lightest of spoilers, so it is probably safe for you to watch this to get a sense of whether you want to start watching the show tonight. [UPDATE: I just watched episode 1 before going to sleep Thursday night, and all I can say is … WOW. I really want to watch Episodes 2
and 3immediately, all of which were just released [UPDATE: strike that, only the first two were released], but I don’t want to stay up all night. However, I know what I will be doing Friday night.]
