Say goodbye to Apple’s legendary MacBook startup sound

published 31 October 2016

While there's plenty of excitement around Apple's new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, its famous startup chime has quietly been killed off.

In case you didn't know, as most people including us didn't, that sound was an F-sharp major note. Yup, something as simple as the right note has been indelibly associated with Apple startups for decades. And now there is silence.

New MacBook Pro 2016: everything you could possibly want to know

The change was first spotted by tech site Pingie which noticed the lack of sound mentioned in a specific FAQ page - good eyes guys. It has since been confirmed that the sound is indeed missing from startup on new MacBook Pro models.

So what does this mean for other MacBooks? Will Apple kill the iconic startup chime in its older laptops with an update or will it simply mean all future laptops don't do it? This is all still unclear right now.

What is certain is that this means powering up the new MacBook Pro in a quiet meeting or classroom won't alert everyone with that loud sound that can't be shut off. On the flip side its real use, as a means of letting the user know there are no diagnostic issues, will be gone too.

The sound was actually adapted since it first appeared and it was the iMac G3 which developed that synthesizer noise we know today. Check it out below if you've forgotten it and be reminded of how well you actually know it. Then be ready to, potentially, say goodbye to it forever.

This is the new Apple MacBook Pro with OLED Touch ID

via pingie

Luke is a former freelance writer for T3 with over two decades of experience covering tech, science and health. Among many others Luke wrote about health tech, software and apps, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and plenty more. In his free time, Luke used to climb mountains, swim outside and contort his body into silly positions while breathing as calmly as possible.