It’s Halloween, the day things traditionally come back from the dead, so it’s apt to hear rumblings Apple could be about to bring a dearly-departed MacBook feature from the great beyond.
The light-up Apple logo on the rear of the MacBook display lid could be resurrected in future versions of the macOS notebook range, according to a new patent filing.
The logo was replaced by a mirrored alternative in around 2015 with the launch of the 12-inch MacBook and gradually phased out thereafter. However, a new patent filing emerged last week that suggests it could be on the way back.
In the patent published last week, entitled “Electronic Devices With Backlit Partial Mirror Structures”, Apple reveals it is working on a solution that would enable illumination from within the MacBook to pass through a partially transparent mirror.
Effectively, it would be a hybrid of the lit-up Apple logo – which MacRumors recalls was the Powerbook G3 in 1999 – and the new mirrored logos we see on the current crop. In the patent filed in May 2022 and spotted by Patently Apple, the company writes:
“An electronic device such as a laptop computer or other device may have a housing. Components such as a display and keyboard may be mounted in the housing. The rear of the housing may be provided with a logo. The logo or other structures in the device may be provided with a backlit partially reflective mirror. The mirror may provide the logo or other structures with a shiny appearance while blocking interior components from view. At the same time, the partial transparency of the mirror allows backlight illumination from within the device to pass through the mirror.
“One or more thin-film layers may be configured to provide the partially reflective mirror with desired visible light reflection spectrum, a desired visible light transmission spectrum, and a desired visible light absorption spectrum. The reflectivity of the mirror may be configured so that the mirror serves as a one-way mirror for the logo or other structure. The mirror may have a neutral color such as light gray or may have a non-neutral color such as gold.”
Would you like to see the MacBook’s light up logo return? Let us know @trustedreviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
