Easter has many traditions, one of which is hiding eggs. In the tech world, but also outside it, this principle is also applied to hide small fun jokes and messages in a program, website, game or software. These ‘Easter eggs’ are mainly popular with software developers, but also with films, books, amusement parks and shops you sometimes find them.
The intention of Easter Eggs is for the user or viewer to look for fun references, messages and jokes. One of the most famous easter eggs is the Pixar ‘beach ball’, which returns in many Disney films and Pixar productions. Apple has also hidden various jokes and messages in its software.
Apple easter eggs
Apple is an avid user of Easter eggs, you can find the hidden gadgets on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Just like real Easter eggs, these are hidden and have to be looked for. Some easter eggs are clear and immediately visible, others you really have to know where to look. We have listed the best ones for you especially for Easter. Have you discovered any new ones? Then share them with us via the comments.
References to Steve Jobs
Although Steve Jobs was absolutely not a fan of Easter eggs, Apple added more and more references to him in the software after his death. The most striking is the glasses icon used for reading list in Safari. The round lenses and frame are immediately recognizable as ‘Steve Jobs’ glasses’.
But there are more references to him. For example, as a user on the Mac you can choose your own profile photo. But you can also choose from pre-installed avatars, one of the options is a classic vinyl LP. On the LP you will see a red circle with the text “Magic, Revolution, Boom! Unbelievable, Made in California”. These are the words Steve Jobs used most during his Apple keynotes.
In older versions of OS For example, the old text editor logo showed some memorable quotes.
Think Different
The note and book emoji appear from a distance to have a few random lines, but it is real text. This text is by Rob Siltanen and was used for Apple’s Think Different campaign. If you zoom in (very carefully) you can read part of the following text:
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
In previous versions of macOS (OS famous speech by Steve Jobs which he uttered at Stanford University in 2005, can be found in the package contents of the Pages app. There has been a hidden text file in here for years. This could be accessed via /Applications/Pages.app/Contents/Resources/, unfortunately the file is no longer available in the current software version.
Historical events in Terminal
Terminal allows you to activate a lot of hidden effects, functions and messages. Some are fun, others useful and informative. For example, you can open an overview of historical events with the command below. Open Terminal via Apps ▸ Utilities. Copy the command below and paste it into an empty window. Press enter to execute the command.
$cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.history
Hidden message in Mail icon
Zoom in on the Mail icon on your Mac. If you look closely, you’ll see the message “Hello from Cupertino,” “Hello from California,” or “Apple Park, California 95014.” Apple’s home location.
Attention to detail
Apple has a great eye for detail. Not only do their products look slick, but so does their software. For example, the icon of the Clock app actually shows the time to the nearest second. This is also the case with the Maps icon, which is simply the exact location where the current Apple Park (headquarters) is located in Cupertino.
Even more app icons have hidden messages, so the waves of the Dictaphone app are anything but random. If you say ‘Apple’ in the Dictaphone app you will see exactly the same sequence.
Their detail goes even further. For example, the power button on the flashlight icon in the control panel actually slides back and forth when switching the flashlight on and off, and the airplane icon in airplane mode flies from left to right when switching it on and off.
Finally, it is worthwhile to view cities in 3D, as some attractions and sights come to life. For example, the London Eye really rotates and the clock on Big Ben actually shows the current time.
Sosumi sound
A well-known notification sound on the Mac is Sosumi. Not very special you might think, but there is quite a story behind it. In the past, Apple has had some lawsuits with Apple Corps, the Beatles’ record label. The lawsuits mainly related to copyright and trademarks. In 1991, the sound was added to Macintosh System 7 OS. Sosumi is pronounced ‘So sue me’, translated: ‘So sue me’, a small sneer at Apple Corps.
Clarus the Dogcow
Clarus the Dogcow is a fictional animal originally created as a mascot for Apple Computer in the 1980s. The name “Dogcow” is a portmanteau of “dog” and “cow”, which describes the animal’s distinctive features – it has the head of a dog and the body of a cow.
Clarus the Dogcow was primarily used in Apple’s printing system, where it was depicted next to the text “Moof!” to indicate the location of the left and right margins on the page. The character was also popular among developers for his unique appearance and personality, eventually becoming a cult favorite among Mac users.
Clarus was banned from macOS, but since Ventura it can be admired in all its glory again. How? Open a blank document in Pages or a Text Editor and enter the key combination command⌘ + shift⇧ + P out.
Slow down the minimize effect
Until macOS 10.12 Sierra, it was possible by default to minimize and maximize windows in a delayed manner. All you had to do for this was the shift⇧ press and hold when minimizing or maximizing a window. Since High Sierra, this effect has been disabled by default by Apple, but using macOS terminal you can reactivate the slow motion effect if you wish.
![⚙️ Activate the hidden suck effect for macOS Dock [Mac]](https://i0.wp.com/i.ytimg.com/vi/Rl1M48Lthls/maxresdefault.jpg?w=720?zoom=2)
Nod to Windows problems
Windows has a reputation that PCs show a blue screen a little too often, also called the Blue Screen of Death. When the blue screen appears, something is wrong with your computer and you often need to troubleshoot an unknown problem. In a nod to this problem, Apple shows the blue screen on the Windows icons in their software. For example, if you want to connect to a Windows PC in Finder, you will see a computer with a Blue Screen of Death.
Star Wars and Lord of the Rings
Terminal lets you watch a unique reconstruction of a Star Wars episode in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) art. Unfortunately, this can no longer be viewed on a Mac with Big Sur or newer. You can, however, request the Lord of the Rings timeline, so that you know exactly what happened in the books and films.
Star Wars commando
$telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
Lord of the rings timeline
$cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.lotr
Always 9:41 AM
Have you ever noticed that the time on Apple’s products is almost always 9:41 am? Just take a look at Apple’s website and the fact is confirmed. But why 9:41 am? During the presentation of the first iPhone, the first photos of the latest smartphone would appear approximately 40 minutes after the start of the presentation (which started at 9:00 AM). To convince the audience, they made sure that the time in these photos corresponded to the time in the room.
Taking into account some leeway, they chose 9:42 AM for the presentation of the first iPhone. And it turned out exactly that way. Then, for no real reason, they adjusted that “default” time to 9:41 am. Since then, you’ve almost always seen that time in images of iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Podcasts
Did you know that ‘Podcast’ is a combination of the words ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’? This term was not coined by Apple itself, but by journalist Ben Hammersley. He was the first to use the word and then everyone, including Apple, embraced it. The logo and icon for the Podcasts app is also a subtle reference to this merger. For example, the i stands for iPod and also resembles a broadcast mast, which also means ‘broadcast’ can be found in it.
Laugh with Siri
Siri is not only useful for looking up certain things or changing settings. The personal assistant is also very nice to just have a nice chat with or to beat boredom. You can make the voice assistant say or ask funny things. In the overview below you will find more than 50 fun, funny and surprising commands and questions that you can ask.