Icons Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

OS X 10.7.3 includes new high-res pointer icons, rampant speculation ensues

by Chris Rawson (Feb 7th, 2012)

Soon after the 10.7.3 update to OS X Lion, people started finding subtle differences in the pointer icons for OS X (hat tip to Daring Fireball). Specifically, the link, grab, copy, and screenshot pointers have all been updated with slightly new iterations for the first time since OS X 10.2, ...

iPhone icon cupcakes look touchable, tasty

by Mike Schramm (Dec 29th, 2011)

We haven't posted a really good iPhone cake in quite a while now, so here we go: Reader Tim sends in this set of cupcakes that his girlfriend made him for his 21st birthday, and boy do they look good. There are a few things that, as Apple obsessive, we would call out in there, including the ...

Inside Susan Kare's 'iconic' sketchbooks

by Mike Schramm (Nov 23rd, 2011)

We've mentioned Susan Kare and her work on the site before, but it's a story that's always worth repeating: She's the woman behind some of Apple's most iconic, well, icon designs. Kare was working as a curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco when her friend Andy Hertzfeld asked her to ...

Three ways to change Lion's Finder window sidebar

by Mike Schramm (Sep 9th, 2011)

It took me a little while, but I finally last weekend updated to Lion, and so far ... I think I like it. I kind of miss my old Spaces feature, and I did turn off reverse scrolling right away, but it does seem to run better than Snow Leopard, and Mission Control is pretty sweet. Another thing ...

The hidden secrets inside Apple icons

by David Quilty (Jan 18th, 2011)

We all like our apps, right? We especially like some of those beautifully designed OS X icons that Apple has created through the years. But did you know that a few of those very same icons have some secret meanings that many people don't know about? Thanks to Electricpig, we can now understand the ...

Steve Jobs portrait made out of Apple products mosaic

by David Quilty (Jan 3rd, 2011)

As reported by MacStories and created for Italian magazine Panorama by Tsevis Visual Design, this picture of Apple CEO Steve Jobs is entirely made up of Apple's white products laid out to create a visually arresting portrait. The creative director of the magazine asked Tsevis for the "white on ...

Man eats iPhone 4 at New Year's Eve celebration

by Mike Schramm (Jan 3rd, 2011)

We admit, we tricked you a bit with that headline -- India's Krishna Kalyan actually ate a cake for New Year's Eve, which is not nearly as extraordinary (or painful) as actually chowing down on a Retina Display and an A4 processor. But it was a cake that looked remarkably like an iPhone 4 -- as you ...

Handmade icon pillows given as gifts for Christmas

by Mike Schramm (Dec 27th, 2010)

We've seen Apple app icon pillows before, but these are pretty excellent -- TUAW reader Dan G's girlfriend hand-sewed them for him for Christmas. That's the brand new iTunes icon on the right there (though I expected it to be a little more blue), and on the left is the Firefox icon. We won't tell ...

Original Mac OS icons available as limited-edition prints

by David Quilty (Dec 20th, 2010)

Long for the good old days of classic Mac icons like Clarus the Dogcow or Pan Hand? Lucky for you -- Susan Kare, the 1983 designer of the original Mac OS icons, is offering prints of the famed icons for Apple fanboys (and girls) everywhere. As reported by The Mac Observer, signed and numbered prints ...

Apple patents Cover Flow-like spiral interface

by Mike Schramm (Dec 16th, 2010)

Patently Apple has unearthed a new patent that shows off a Cover Flow-like interface for browsing icons or album covers, only instead of Cover Flow's linear layout, this one organizes content in a spiral. We've seen rotating menus in Apple's patents before, but this looks more involved. It's ...

Put your favorite apps on the fridge with app magnets

by Mike Schramm (Oct 11th, 2010)

These are great -- a company called Jailbreak Toys (name unrelated -- I think) has apparently been selling a set of "App Magnets," little square magnets that feature icons for Apple's official iPhone apps. How cool -- I'd love to have a Photos, Safari, or an App Store icon to pin things up on the ...

AppWall screensaver brings the App Wall to your Mac

by Mike Schramm (Jul 20th, 2010)

Even though I haven't actually seen it in person, I've been a big fan of Apple's App Wall at WWDC every year; they've hooked up a bunch of servers and Mac pros in order to create an animated set of App Store icons that shows real-time purchases in a very visual way. Now, I can have a little piece ...

Apple files official app icon trademarks

by Mike Schramm (Apr 29th, 2010)

Apple has filed trademark motions on a number of its official app icons, and none of them are new (though the trademarks for the iDisk app and the MobileMe gallery app threw me a bit, not having MobileMe myself). Apple appears to be shoring up its official iPad and iPhone app icon library, and ...

TUAW's Daily App: Powder

by Mike Schramm (Apr 22nd, 2010)

TUAW's Daily App spotlights one great App Store app, every single weekday. Powder probably isn't the most polished roguelike RPG experience on the App Store (Sword of Fargoal is generally considered to be among the best), but what it lacks in graphical quality, it makes up for in ease-of-use. The ...

SecondBar puts your menu bar on a second monitor

by TJ Luoma (Mar 31st, 2010)

The menu bar is a quintessential piece of the Mac "experience." On the left, it shows all of the menu items for the currently active application; on the right, it shows icons from various menu bar application programs: the date/time, WiFi status, MobileMe sync status, and many, many more. The ...