Welcome to Macintosh

For over two decades, every time you turned on a Mac, you were greeted by a familiar sound. It’s appeared as a punchline in The Simpsons, in movies like WALL•E. It’s a sound some of us tried to hide from our parents as we turned on the computer in the middle of the night. It’s a sound that’s transcended technology; the sound that makes a Mac feel like a Mac. But no longer; the iconic Mac startup chime is going away.

But, while we all recognize the sound, we rarely think of who made it. On the eve of the boot beep's retirement, I talk to creator Jim Reekes about the most fun and iconic sounds he designed during his time at Apple. All the drama, the inspirations, and the hijinks that went into the creation of sounds you hear nearly every day.

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Be sure to listen to Breakmaster Cylinder's wonderful Let it Beep:

Music in this episode is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. Theme music is by Terique Greenfield. Editing by Rob McGinley Myers, Lacy Johnson, and Tish Stringer. Special thanks to John Lagomarsino.

If you have a music library on your computer, you probably use iTunes. It might not be by choice – there’s not much out there. But before iTunes, there was another app. An app that was beloved by many. An app that was quirky and strange and delightful. An app called Audion.

Today: a story about one of the Mac’s first big music players, and what it means to break with the mold of Silicon Valley and forge your own distinct, creative identity.

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Get an awesome sticker of the Audion Orb face!

Audion had some very experimental, and just truly bizarre "faces" you could use. Designers really took advantage of the transparent interfaces, for better or for worse (sometimes for worse).

In the members-only extra for this episode, Cabel & Steve play with Audion in a Mac OS 9 emulator. Hidden easter-eggs, karaoke mode, and more shenanigans from their rivalry with SoundJamMP.

Two cool dudes!

Music in this episode is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. Theme music is by Terique Greenfield. Editing by Tish Stringer and Rob McGinley Myers.

My emoji Pile of Poo bracelet.

Matt frantically translating to emoji.

Matt is crowned the emoji champion

Scenes from the first Emojicon — a conference all about emoji.

Season 3 of Welcome to Macintosh starts on August 18th, with new episodes coming out every other Friday. Take a listen to hear what's in store this season.

Kim Jong-Un with his iMac.

Apple's critics regularly complain about making its products too locked down, about how you have to go through the App Store to get software. But Apple's 'walled garden' looks positively open compared to Red Star OS, the leaked operating system of North Korea.

Welcome to Macintosh is produced by Mark Bramhill. Thanks to Kolin Pope and Josh Swartz for help editing today's episode. Music is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder.