Although everyone knows that Apple Computer was named after the namesake fruit, Steve Jobs has never talked about where the name came from — until now (AFAIK).
It was named during one of his fruitarian diets, Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Jobs reveals.
On the naming of Apple, he said he was “on one of my fruitarian diets.” He said he had just come back from an apple farm, and thought the name sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating.”
AP: Jobs questioned authority all his life, book says
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
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Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
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37 responses to “Steve Jobs Finally Reveals Where The Name “Apple” Came From”
What about Newton, gravity, and the first Apple logo? I thought that was the reason..
Finally revealed?! I have known this for quite some time. Wozniak said along time ago the name originated from a trip Jobs had to an Apple farm.
That was the first logo, which was designed in 1976 by Ronald Wayne, the third co-founder of Apple. Jobs had it redesigned for the rainbow Apple logo a year later.
Steve Jobs will be remembered for ever …
Second.
….or, he named as an homage to the Beatles record label and has enough sense not to admit that publicly.
Must have really liked apples.
YEEEAAAA
Shinigami’s like apples.
http://www.motifake.com/57328
More fitting that it compares with the apple story of genesis of the old testament being the fruit of knowledge. Even of Steve may not have meant that.
2nd!!! LOL How f**king sad are you dude, and by the way you weren’t second your like 6th, so, umm. 6TH!!
he meant “i second that” the only sad part here is that you didn’t get that…
Steve Job’s company is the third Apple, first was in the Garden of Eden*, second was with Isaac Newton…lol!
*tho not as accurate as what was mentioned in the Bible, Book of Genesis.
That we all have about 32 bazillion other theories on why he chose the name Apple is just more proof of his genius. His instincts are just unassailable.
What about Apple Corp? The Beatles?
Where the name Apple came from dates as old as late 70s, funny you made it sound like you just uncovered it. BTW that Apple farm was in Oregon.
Of cause in Bible myth, it was an Apple that contained all of human knowledge.
Hence the bite out of the logo… I see that as embracing knowledge.
But then, that’s probably just my interpretation.
In the book “The Work of the Apple industrial design group” published in 1997 this is clearly stated! Chapter 1,2.
Its because apple is the common example of the first letter in the alphabet. If we can correlate the saying, take the lead and the rest will follow
Interesting fact: The Bible book of Genesis does not say “Apple” it just says “Fruit”. In ancient tradition the fruit was thought to be a pomegranate. The whole apple thing only arose in the middle ages when Northern Europeans didn’t know what pomegranates were.
Also the fruit was not said to contain “all of human knowledge”, but was from the “tree of the knowledge of good and bad”. It was a test of obedience: If they ate the forbidden fruit they would then be on their own to decide what is good and what is bad instead of relying on their creator to set the standards for them. Disaster thus ensued.
This was later copied and distorted by the ancient Greeks who turned the story into that of Pandora’s box.
Anyway according to Jobs himself, if the bite represents anything it’s that he ate a huge amount of apples when he was a fruitarian! :) I tried being a fruitarian once… I had a lot of headaches.
That’s correct. But I think people have concluded that it was most likely an apple, since you can take a bite out of an apple, without your mouth/teeth hurting of how hard it is to bite.
The fruit came from the tree of knowledge, of what’s good and bad. So since you can’t eat a tree, the only way Adam & Eve got their knowledge of good & bad was through the apple.
;)
Who?
the rainbow apple was the most expensive logo ever designed with no black between the colors it was a printers nightmare you go and figure how those little apples kept those plastic lines straight the re design saved the company millions
of course apple records had nothing to do with it.
/sarcasm
so if I were to start my own company.. I would have the diet of oranges.. Sounds tangy.
Pandora’s Box predates the Book of Genesis. Or not, depending on how fundamentalist you are
So he “FINALLY” revealed this 15 days after his death.
You guys bust out the ouija board to write this article or what?
I always thought the bight out of the apple was a homage to a code breaker at Bletchly who injected an apple with cyanide and took a bight. Apparently he was a homosexual in the days, second world war, when being outed ment jail.
I always thought the bight out of the apple was a homage to a code breaker at Bletchly who injected an apple with cyanide and took a bight. Apparently he was a homosexual in the days, second world war, when being outed ment jail.
Wasn’t this known?
Why don’t you and MacRumors just post the whole fucking book on your sites, eh?
My copy has been dispatched today by Amazon UK, I want to enjoy the book when it comes, not see it cannibalised by tech sites I come to for tech news.
Why don’t you and MacRumors just post the whole fucking book on your sites, eh?
My copy has been dispatched today by Amazon UK, I want to enjoy the book when it comes, not see it cannibalised by tech sites I come to for tech news.
are you retarded? it from his biography
Steve Wozniak talked about the naming of Apple in his own biography. It’s not like it was never talked about before.
So the bitten rainbow apple was not a reference to Alan Turing, genius who created logic engines that were precursors to modern computers and cracked a code during WWII and was later condemned to either imprisonment or forced castration due to his homosexuality so he committed suicide by taking a bite out of an apple laced with cyanide? I am beyond disappointed.
Good god, cult is right. Jobs did all for Jobs; he brought…or in actuality, helped to bring about…a lot of great technology. I will always remember him for his unnatural need to control…that and the huge screen of his image playing in the background of his too-human self talking down to the rest of us. Begin naming what he did for society in the name of others, and I’ll pay attention.
“The Macintosh project was begun in 1979 by Jef Raskin, an Apple employee who envisioned an easy-to-use, low-cost computer for the average consumer. He wanted to name the computer after his favorite type of apple, the McIntosh,[2] but the spelling was changed to “Macintosh” for legal reasons as the original was the same spelling as that used by McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., the audio equipment manufacturer.[3] Steve Jobs requested that McIntosh Laboratory give Apple a release for the name with its changed spelling so that Apple could use it, but the request was denied, forcing Apple to eventually buy the rights to use the name.[4] (A 1984 Byte Magazine article suggested Apple changed the spelling only after “early users” misspelled “McIntosh”.[5] However, Jef Raskin had adopted the Macintosh spelling by 1981,[6] when the Macintosh computer was still a single prototype machine in the lab. This explanation further clashes with the first explanation given above that the change was made for “legal reasons.”)”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh