First, let's warm up on the company logo. As we know, at the very beginning of its journey, the Apple logo depicted Isaac Newton sitting under a tree waiting for that same apple to fall. However, with the release of the Apple II computer, the company had a different, simpler logo - an image of a bitten apple, painted in the colors of the rainbow. Subsequently, this symbol took root as the company’s permanent logo, over time only losing its multicolored variegation and becoming monochrome. The second logo, which existed from 1976 to 1998, raised the most questions among conspiracy theorists. First of all, the image of a bitten apple clearly implies biblical associations: after all, the first person in human history to bite an apple was Eve. Having eaten the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, she committed a sin for which God expelled her along with Adam from the Garden of Eden. The rainbow also has many occult connotations, which are mostly associated with sin. However, there is another theory that one of our readers suggested to us and which we cannot help but mention.

In 1954, under mysterious circumstances scientist and inventor Alan Turing, who is remembered for being the first to create an “automatic computing device” and come up with the theory of artificial intelligence in 1947, has died. In the early fifties, it turned out that Turing was a homosexual, and in those days, non-traditional sexual orientation was a criminal offense. In March 1953 there was trial, at which Turing was accused of sodomy. He was given a choice of two sentences - either imprisonment or suppression of libido with estrogen injections. The scientist chose the second. Of course, all these circumstances could not but affect Turing’s reputation: after this loud scandal the scientist was fired from the cipher analysis bureau and the University of Manchester. Until 1954, the inventor lived as a recluse, and on June 8 of that year he was found dead at home. It is noteworthy that next to the corpse lay a bitten apple, which, as it later turned out, was saturated with cyanide. It is still unknown what it was: either he deliberately committed suicide, or he was poisoned, or he accidentally injected a dangerous chemical into the apple (as Turing’s mother later admitted, he often handled chemicals carelessly).

In this regard, Apple’s logo in the form of a bitten apple can be seen as the fact that the vain Jobs thus wanted to demonstrate that he was taking over the baton of invention and innovation from the deceased genius. In the end, everything turned out this way: perhaps few people over the past decades have been able to make such a significant contribution to the development of technology as Steve Jobs and his company. However, the suggestion of a connection between Turing's death and the Apple logo is still speculation. Some observers are also trying to bring in the rainbow palette of the logo: they say that the use of the colors of the gay flag in the company symbol is a reference to Turign’s homosexuality. However, just a quick glance at Wikipedia is enough to see that this flag was created in 1978, that is, two years later than the colorful riot of colors that was captured in the company’s logo.

Many people obsessed with finding global conspiracies are desperately trying to attribute Apple's proximity to various secret societies who supposedly exercise behind-the-scenes control of this world. Before analyzing this, it would first be logical to try to prove the very fact of the existence of such societies or their absence. But our site has a slightly different focus, so we won’t do that. Let us only note that American Freemasonry, for example, operates completely openly and has recently even begun to allow ordinary visitors into the Grand Lodge of New York. However, if Apple has ties to similar organizations, then they are not particularly advertised. At least, American corporations that have any connection with the Rockefeller or Rothschild clans like to send each other various secret signs that are incomprehensible to mere mortals. Regarding Apple, conspiracy theorists were able to find only one such sign that could arouse at least some interest. It's about about the logo App Store, which in its structure and appearance resembles the emblem of the same Masons:

Meanwhile, the conversation about this did not start by chance. The fact is that even the mentioned Wikipedia openly reports that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak openly admits that he is an active member of the Masonic lodge. He joined this organization in 1980, following his wife Alice, who around the same time became a member of the Order eastern star" - one of the few lodges that accepted women. Wozniak stated that he quickly grew to the third degree of initiation, since he was distinguished by a high degree of diligence and diligence. However, like other representatives of the “Brotherhood of Freemasons,” he did not provide details about his activities as a Freemason. Interestingly, a few months after being initiated into the order, Woz gets into a plane crash, as a result of which he temporarily loses his memory.

By the way, another interesting story related to occult symbolism is connected with Steve Wozniak. It is known that it was he who came up with the idea of ​​selling the Apple I computer at a price of $666.66. Answering a question about the motivation for such a decision, he said that he chose such an amount only because he always liked the consistency identical numbers. However, he states that at that time he was not even aware that 666 is the “number of the beast.” However, it seems strange that a well-read 21-year-old young man could not know about this.

By the way, concluding the topic of the Freemasons, we cannot help but note that Isaac Newton, with whom we began the article, openly admitted that he belonged to them. At the same time, Apple’s attention to his personality was not limited to the appearance of the scientist in the first company logo. Apple fans will remember that in the late eighties, the Newton pocket computer began to be developed, which went on sale in the early nineties.

However, according to some conspiracy theorists and religious fanatics, Apple still has ties with occult and godless organizations, but it influences the mass consciousness not by demonstrating some hidden messages, but by marketing positioning at a new level. Many of us have already heard and read that Apple is increasingly perceived as a kind of religion. We remember many magazine covers and just images on the Internet, where Steve Jobs is presented in the image of Moses, Muhammad, Christ, or the Lord God himself. This often looks like irony, but the excessively frequent appearance of the head of the company in the guise of the supreme deity of a certain religion sometimes suggests a deliberate imposition of such a perception.

In the voiced by us documentary film The BBC television company “Secrets of Superbrands” says that as a result of studies of the human brain, it was found that when promoting its products, Apple appeals to those parts of the human brain that are responsible for the perception of religion. A fan of a company who sees images of its products in front of him reacts to them in exactly the same way as a deeply religious person reacts to icons and other religious objects.

And Apple’s top managers themselves seem to be deliberately adding fuel to this fire by periodically voicing controversial statements. For example, during the presentation of the iPad, Steve Jobs quoted a Wall Street Journal article to the whole world:

"IN last time there was so much fuss about the flat tablet when the commandments were written on it.”

And during the premiere of the newest iPhone 4S, Tim Cook quoted one of the journalists’ review of the MacBook Air laptop:

"After many years hopes and quests, I finally found nirvana in this laptop"

The question arises: how can one avoid painting Jobs as Moses or Cook as Buddha? However, it doesn't stop there. An experience comparable to a religious one can be felt
and when visiting Apple stores. The aforementioned film noted that Apple Stores often closely resemble churches. The wooden tables with the company's products look almost identical to the altars in Catholic churches, and if you climb to the second floor along the famous glass steps, you get the feeling that you are climbing a staircase to heaven. Apparently, Ron Hubbard was right when he said: “If you want to become a rich man, you need to invent your own religion.” And if conspiracy theorists are to be believed, then the job of Apple's ideological department is to help the projections of products and the image of the main leader push religion out of our brains in order to find a replacement for it in the secular world. The only thing that conspiracy theorists do not explain is how this religion will continue to exist and operate if its main prophet and god has died.

We would also like to end this article with a disclaimer: if in our material we refer to someone’s arguments and assumptions, this does not mean that the editors of AppleInsider.ru completely agree with them. This entire series of articles is just an attempt to compile all the mysteries and secrets that are associated with Apple. And of course, we cannot vouch for the reliability of any of the hypotheses presented in it.

The price of the Apple brand remains consistently above $180 billion, and no one else has yet reached it. And the company’s logo, an apple bitten on the right, remains one of the most recognizable in all developed countries.

Many naively believe that the symbol of the manufacturer of the most popular smartphones in the world contains a hint of the original sin of Adam and Eve. According to the Bible, they took a bite from the apple of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Eden, the Garden of Eden, and for this they were expelled from there.

Others see the Apple logo as a nod to physicist Isaac Newton. According to legend, he discovered the law universal gravity when an apple fell on his head. The company sign that she had at the very beginning of her journey also speaks to this. However, this does not explain the missing piece on the right.

There is another theory, which the company has not yet officially confirmed or refuted. She says that the Apple logo became a tribute to Alan Turing, whom Steve Jobs respected to the core.

The Apple logo was created in honor of scientist Alan Turing

Few people know about Steve Jobs's love for Alan Turing's contribution to science, but the English scientist was indeed a real idol of the ever-living soul of Apple.

Most likely, you have not even heard this name, but this brilliant scientist in the scientific community is considered the father of not only mathematics, but also artificial intelligence.

In 1954 Turing committed suicide by biting an apple, which he himself pumped with cyanide - this is the official version of the cause of his death.

Some believe that the mathematician was actually poisoned, but this does not seem plausible, because at that time the scientist was not considered great because of his unconventional sexual orientation.

It was Alan's unconventional inclinations that became the reason for the mystery that hangs over the Apple logo. Steve Jobs honored the scientist's memory with a symbolically bitten apple, which he even painted in the rainbow colors of global tolerance, but could not reveal his tribute to the world for business reasons.

Jobs understood perfectly well that he did not want to create a local company that would work only for the United States and a couple of nearby countries. He planned to lead a global manufacturer and enter other promising markets that may not be as tolerant as the American one.

For example, China is still considered one of the most desirable markets in the world, and in this country non-traditional sexual relationships are against. Russia, eastern Europe and other countries with their own views on life in this matter also cannot be written off.

It was precisely because of the fear that Apple would be misunderstood that in 1998 the company changed the logo to a less provocative one, and in 1999 it came to the current neutral version, which still remains without a piece.

Jobs' idol is coolly portrayed in the movie "The Imitation Game"

Alan was born in India in 1912. Like all geniuses, he was an unconventional child. Since childhood, he had only mathematics in his head, but his parents tried to develop him comprehensively, so they moved to the UK and sent him to a liberal arts school.

At 13, Turing baffled teachers by solving complex problems in his head in mathematics that he had never even been taught. At school he was considered almost the worst student, and in his description after graduation, the director sarcastically emphasized:

“He will definitely become a real problem in the community.”

At 23, Alan had already defended his doctoral dissertation in mathematics, and later developed the theory of logical computing machines, which would become a mandatory part of curriculum cybernetics.

The further fate of the mathematician is dramatically shown in the film “The Imitation Game,” which won the main award at the Toronto Film Festival in 2014.

Played the main role Benedict Cumberbatch , whom you definitely know from his extraordinary image of Holmes in the TV series “Sherlock” and his superhero role in “Doctor Strange.”

The film turned out to be quite plausible from a historical point of view, and you can still watch it if only because of the sweet smile of Keira Knightley, who played Joan Clark.

The film tells about several lines of Turing's life, which begin in 1939. This year, together with other specialists, he was brought in to decipher messages from the Enigma machine, which the Nazis used to coordinate the actions of the navy and air force.

Then Alan was overcome with real excitement. At midnight, the code word needed for decoding changed, so he had only a day to solve the problem.

A year later, the mathematician drew attention to the weather information that was in the messages, and she helped create a tool for deciphering them.

In 1943, Turing and his team also cracked a more complex version of Enigma and gained access to the full flow of German information, which helped bring victory in the war closer by a couple of years and save millions of lives. For this he was awarded an order.

In 1951 Alan took part in the creation of one of the first computers in the world. This is probably what Steve Jobs compared himself to in 1976 when the Apple I hit the market.

Alan wasn't accepted so he killed himself

Turing was an advocate for gay people for many years. At that time in Great Britain many scientists and representatives high society countries also shared it.

In most cases, society simply turned a blind eye to this. In order not to fall under the cruel ax of justice, then you just had to not tell everyone about your preferences and hide your orientation.

In 1952, Alan's apartment was robbed by one of his lover's friends. Then, during the investigation of the crime, the mathematician’s orientation was not only revealed, he openly admitted his sexuality.

However, there was enough evidence even without this. During the investigation, police seized Turing's correspondence with huge number lovers over the past few years.

Of course, everyone quickly forgot about the robber, and Great Britain watched the trial of Alan and did not believe that the brilliant scientist who changed the course of the bloody war in favor of the Allies could be convicted only for his personal views.

But the judge was adamant. He suggested to Turing two punishments to choose from: chemical castration or 2 years in prison. Alan chose the former and was given a special injection that would make him impotent for the rest of his life.

Turing was immediately fired from government service and banned from teaching at the university. The scientist instantly lost how good name, and means of subsistence.

Two years later, due to the lack of hormones on the body, mathematics was already visible female breast, he had a terrible complex, almost never left the house, and eventually committed suicide by biting off an apple pumped with potassium cyanide. His body was found on June 8, 1954.

Jobs paid tribute to Turing 30 years before society

Alan Turing's good name was restored decades later. Working on and actually creating your first computer quickly rewritten on Professor Norbert Wiener, and the unconventional mathematician was relegated to the background and consigned to oblivion.

Many believe that Steve Jobs also paid tribute to the scientist when he approved the Apple logo in 1977.

The British government admitted its mistake in 2009. The country's minister, Gordon Brown, recognized Turing as the most vocal victim of homophobia in history and asked for his forgiveness posthumously. Jobs may have preceded him by 30 years.

How it really happened is unknown. There is a single clue that both disproves the theory and makes it important. Stephen Fry, a famous British actor, comedian and LGBT rights activist, once personally asked Steve Jobs if all this was true?

He replied: “No, but it would be better if it were true!”

So why is the Apple logo a bitten apple? What is this, a thorough study by marketers or someone’s joke? To find out, we need to go back to basics.

Where did it all start?

Apple's first logo was quite unusual: it depicted Isaac Newton sitting next to a tree. There was also an apple here, it hung on an apple tree, and was surrounded by a kind of halo. So it is not surprising that the company soon wanted to change its logo. The then popular designer Rob Yanov took on this task and took the task entrusted to him very seriously.

Yanov began collaborating with young Jobs. He said that it is necessary to change the symbol in any case, because it will help attract people's attention. During lengthy discussions, it was decided that the symbol of the company would be an apple. It should be monochrome, and its right side should be bitten. Jobs was enthusiastic about the idea, but insisted that the apple be colorful. It took Yanov a lot of work to dissuade the young genius from this idea. He argued his point simply: in order to make such an Apple logo , you need a lot of printing ink, which is very expensive.

But Jobs was unshakable, he was convinced that he was right. He believed that the colorful symbol would have a positive impact on the popularity of the company, the start of which was, to put it mildly, not very successful. As a result, the founder of the company won, and the colored apple was the symbol of Apple until 1998, when the apple finally became black and white.

Why is the apple bitten?

And now a few words about who exactly “bite” the apple. Most believe that it is a symbol of the tree of knowledge, which prompted Newton to discover it. But there is another version: Jobs was simply playing with words, associating “bite” with “byte” (in other words, bite and byte).

The third version tells that Yanov cut out a piece of fruit, because it very much resembled a tomato. But this is all secondary, since the most popular explanation, which is talked about by all the media on the planet, says that the bitten fruit is a Turing apple. For those who don’t know, he is a pioneer in the field of computers, whose work is of great importance, since all research into artificial intelligence was (and is) based on him.

"Turing's bitten apple"

Turing became famous for being one of the first to design and create a computer. Things were going well for him until his apartment was robbed. As it turned out, the robber was an acquaintance of Turing's lover. Next was the trial, where Alan had two options:

1. Go to prison for two years (homosexuality was not welcomed in those days).
2. Agree to castration.

The man was inclined towards the second option, but in June 1954 he committed suicide by biting an apple containing potassium cyanide. When he was discovered, there was a bitten apple lying next to him.

Conclusion

This is the story Apple logo. Of course, after Jobs' death, there is no one to tell about what really happened. Nevertheless, the logo fulfilled its direct responsibility perfectly - it has firmly settled in people’s memory. It is used in films, in Internet jokes, and we ourselves, after biting into an apple, often jokingly remark: “Oh, look, Apple!”

The famous bitten apple is a simple and laconic icon that symbolically crowns the complex structure of the giant Apple corporation, the name of which is familiar to everyone. It is quite natural that it gives rise to a lot of interpretations and acquires meanings. It is seen as both the biblical apple of discord and Turing’s apple, which the scientist bit into and passed away. Any interpretations have the right to life, but what is interesting, first of all, are the meanings that the creators purposefully intended.

Such a simple sign as an apple really provides many reasons for creating additional meanings, but the starting point should be considered the very first Apple logo, which was created by artist Ron Wayne. It was a monochrome miniature depicting Isaac Newton sitting under a tree with an apple above him. According to legend, the scientist was prompted to create the foundations of the theory of gravity, becoming one of the symbols of insight.

The logo was accepted, but Steve Jobs immediately realized that a modern company needed a more modern logo. Therefore, it was decided to discard all unnecessary things and make the sign as simple as possible. A year later, it was created by designer Rob Yanov - it was already a bitten apple painted in all the colors of the rainbow.

Why did the apple become bitten?

Since the shape of the logo was simple, it could be confused with other fruits, or even not immediately understand what image was applied to the company’s products. A bite made the sign more unambiguous, and also really created an attractive hint of the forbidden fruit, which is known to be sweet. But still, a practical approach is paramount in this case.

There is also an unconfirmed version that the apple became bitten, since the sign of the whole was already occupied.

Sometimes an apple is just an apple

A huge army of fans and opponents of Apple have created many legends about the history of its origin and the meanings inherent in the logo. The most common one says that the logo, painted in all the colors of the rainbow, has something to do with the LGBT community. Apple, although it supports the rights of sexual minorities, did not include such a meaning in the logo. The multi-colored logo simply noted that the company produces multi-colored monitors.

The company's logo remained in color until 1998.

Moreover, the logo itself appeared long before the LGBT community began to use the rainbow as a symbol.

Video on the topic

Sources:

• Walter Isaacson, "Steve Jobs", 2011

Tip 2: Why does the Apple logo show a bitten apple?

Apple's logo is simple. So simple that it has given rise to a lot of guesses, versions and entire legends about its semantic basis. It’s time to write a detective novel about this. And this is just further confirmation of the common truth that everything ingenious is simple. Jobs, with his company's logo, came out on top here too.

Steven Paul Jobs has passed away.

He was brilliant, hardworking, simple and left early.

No matter who we are in this world, we will all leave here, each in his own time. Neither money, nor fame, nor faith, nor anything has power over death.

Do you know why Steve Jobs chose a bitten apple for the Apple logo?

There are many options, as well as legends. I came across an article where the author tried to find the truth in this matter. Many have talked about Newton's apple, the forbidden fruit, but there are more interesting legends.

So the legends:

1. There is an assumption that the sign depicted on the Apple logo is nothing more than a “symbol of sin”, which Adam accepted from the hands of Eve in the Garden of Eden, having learned the taste and sweetness of vice.

2. The second, most common designation, says that a bitten apple is the fruit of knowledge, and each person, “biting” science, learns something new and keeps a little for himself.

3. Option is one of the most intriguing:

The Apple logo is associated with the death of the man who first created an “automatic computing device” in 1947 and came up with the theory of artificial intelligence - Alan Turing. This brilliant scientist, who is called "Da Vinci" computer world", committed suicide in 1954 by biting into an apple doped with cyanide. The one-bite fruit was found on his bedside table the morning after his death.

Background to Turing's death: "In 1952, Turing's apartment was robbed, and during the investigation the police found out that the theft was committed by a friend of his lover. The scandal received wide publicity, and on March 30, 1953, a trial was held at which Turing was accused of sodomy. On he was offered two sentences - either imprisonment or suppression of libido with estrogen injections. The scientist chose the second.

The consequences of the trial were disastrous - Alan Turing was fired from the cipher analysis bureau and the University of Manchester. He was later given back the opportunity to teach. The scientist lived in seclusion until 1954, playing his favorite game “ Desert Island", which consisted in obtaining all kinds of chemicals from popular products. On June 8, 1954, Alan Matheson Turing was found dead in his home. Death was due to cyanide poisoning. An apple soaked in cyanide lay nearby on the night table."

4. I like this option the most. Like everything brilliant in life, it is simple! In fact, Steve Jobs was just eating an apple... and told his co-workers that if they didn’t come up with a company name within 24 hours, he would call it APPLE.
Today, of course, it’s clear that they didn’t come up with anything interesting back then :)

This is the symbolism and background behind the creation of the Apple logo.