Icon Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

iCloud prompts a look back at "cloud" icons

by Kelly Hodgkins (Oct 17th, 2011)

Apple introduced iCloud earlier this year, and its announcement kicked off a renewed interest in the iconic cloud logo. Articles espousing the icon's Golden Ratio-based design and Apple's attention to detail followed shortly. Though Apple undoubtedly chose this icon for its precision design, ...

Hex introduces new Icon watch bands for the iPod nano

by Mike Schramm (Oct 7th, 2011)

With the addition of sixteen new clock faces, Apple pretty much put its official stamp on the idea of an iPod nano watch. Hex is ready to take advantage of the hype. The company has released a watch band for the nano called the Icon watch band (US$40), which gives you a polycarbonate way to ...

No Comment: Washington State borrows Bodega's icon, with a tweak

by Mike Schramm (Jul 16th, 2011)

Eagle-eyed reader Jeff spotted this icon in use over on the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries website, and it looked a little familiar to him, as a user of a certain unofficial Mac App Store app that has been around even before Apple's software distribution solution. Minus the ...

Apple granted a trademark for the word 280

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jul 6th, 2011)

Apple received a trademark for the word 280 and the icon for its iOS navigation app. The trademark application was filed in April 2010 and granted on June 28, 2011. "280", for those who are wondering, refers to Route 280 which runs next to Apple's campus at One Infinite Loop in Cupertino. The ...

The iCloud logo and the golden ratio

by Dave Caolo (Jun 24th, 2011)

Apple's commitment to thoughtful design is legendary, and here's another example. The iCloud logo uses the golden ratio. In short, the golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant that often occurs in nature. When applied to design, the results are considered aesthetically pleasing. ...

No Comment: Windows Phone Dictionary app icon seems eerily familiar

by Michael Rose (Jun 20th, 2011)

Who really thinks about designing a dictionary icon? They all look alike, after all, so what would be the point of creating a brand new one for your Windows Phone third-party app? Better just to pick up the one everyone likes so well and use that. Yes, as Craig Hockenberry pointed out this ...

Apple patent offers peek at E-Wallet icon... or does it?

by Steven Sande (Feb 22nd, 2011)

Patently Apple is running another of its excellent, exhaustively detailed listings of Apple's recently awarded patents. In the description of one of the awards, the site pointed out what they believe is an icon for an "E-Wallet" app, possibly pertaining to a Near Field Communications (NFC)-based ...

Artist creates real-life home icon

by Mike Schramm (Nov 3rd, 2010)

Artist Johannes P. Osterhoff (whom you may remember from his paintings using OS X elements) has been reusing Apple's interface elements again. His latest project is a real-life construction of the Home icon from OS X, which he's made into a wearable display. The doors and shutters are actually ...

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 ...

Fake Steve Jobs to be a TV show

by Mike Schramm (Mar 17th, 2010)

Dan Lyons, better known as blogger Fake Steve Jobs, has apparently signed a deal with Seinfeld writer Larry Charles to create a half-hour, single camera, satirical TV show about a Silicon Valley hotshot. As of now, Lyons is only writing the pilot script for the series, but since it's called "iCON," ...

Finder icon birthday cake will make your day

by Mike Schramm (Nov 22nd, 2009)

If there's one thing I like better than pie, it's cake. And if there's a best kind of cake, it's definitely one that's shaped in the form of something geeky. Which means the video above, which shows what seems to be a tasty confection in the form of Apple's Finder icon, hits the spot perfectly. ...

Spell it out with your Dock

by Robert Palmer (Jun 24th, 2009)

For your early-afternoon entertainment, I have the story of Mike Giepert, who happened one day to spell something clever with the icons in his dock. His website, in fact, has a whole raft of these sets, including those submitted by his readers, to spell everything from "vamp" to "agoraphobic." What ...

Emoji for iChat adds... emoji to iChat

by Mat Lu (Jun 18th, 2009)

With the release of iPhone OS 3.0, I was wondering if emoji icons still worked (they do), and then it finally dawned on me: why not iChat? A quick search turned up exactly what I was looking for: Emoji for iChat. This free downloadable icon pack basically adds the iPhone Emoji icons to iChat, ...

RetroMacCast interviews Rob Janoff

by Mike Schramm (May 25th, 2009)

The guys over at the RetroMacCast sent us a link to their latest episode, featuring an interview with none other than Rob Janoff, the designer of Apple's old rainbow Mac logo. The interview starts a little less than halfway into the show, and it's cool to hear a voice right out of Apple's past. ...

Mac 101: Learn more about your files at a glance

by Robert Palmer (May 18th, 2009)

Welcome to another edition of Mac 101, TUAW's series for beginners. Today, we show you how to get more bang for your desktop real-estate buck with Finder icon labels. Have you ever wanted to know how large a picture on your Desktop was, but didn't want to open it (or even just hit ⌘I to get info)? ...