Yo ho ho! Apple flies pirate flag to celebrate its 40th birthday

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I assume engineers don't get an accompanying bottle of rum.
Photo: Tommy W Farley/Twitter

In case you didn’t know, Apple turns 40 today. To celebrate, the company is giving a wink to longtime fans with a cheeky nod to its past.

A pirate flag flying outside Apple’s campus at 1 Infinite Loop is a reference to the “Jolly Roger” pirate flag flown by the original Macintosh team when it was developing Apple’s (arguably) most iconic computer back in the heady days of the early ’80s.

The original Apple pirate flag was painted by graphic designer Susan Kare, who also designed the icons for the first Mac. The flag was flown over Apple’s Bandley 3 office.

Today, Apple is no longer an underdog in the same way it was decades ago, but it’s nice to see the company reference its past for this significant birthday.

Under Tim Cook’s leadership, Apple has seemed way happier to do tributes like this. Steve Jobs made a point of not being sentimental about Apple’s past. Shortly after Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he gave away the company’s entire historical archive — comprising records dating back to the mid-1980s — for exactly that reason.

In recent years, however, Apple has done far more of this kind of thing. Another example is the celebrations for the Macintosh’s 30th birthday back in 2014.

I think it’s a pretty neat touch. What do you think? Leave your comments below. And happy birthday, Apple!

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