Apple Kills Start Up Chime in New MacBook Pro Models

Apple has been on a killing spree of sorts with its new MacBook Pro models. The physical Escape key and function keys are gone, the traditional USB A and mini DisplayPort/Thunderbolt 2 ports are gone, the SD Card slot and MagSafe are gone, and the iconic startup chime is missing, too. It’s sad to see—or hear—the startup chime go, but it seems Apple has a reason for axing the sound.

Apple drops the startup chime from new MacBook Pro models

When Apple introduced the Mac, startup times were slow enough that the chime was an important signal to let you know your computer was really on and booting up.

The new MacBook Pro models don’t have a traditional power button and instead turns on when you lift the lid. Playing the start up chime every time you lift the laptop lid would get old pretty quick, and considering how quickly our Macs start up, the chime doesn’t serve a useful purpose any more.

That’s well and good if you can see your MacBook Pro’s display, but not if you can’t use your eyes. Hopefully Apple is giving the visually impaired some way to quickly tell if their MacBook Pro turned on and has started the boot process.

The startup chime isn’t the only iconic feature to go away. Apple also ditched the glowing Apple logo from the laptop, which was probably necessary because of how thin the display housing is—a thinner lid means less space for extra stuff like glowing logos. It’s also possible the glowing logo let too much light leak through to the display, making a bright spot in its center.

Still, losing the start up chime is a little sad. I mentioned on this week’s The iOS Show I hope a developer makes an app that plays the start up chime when the lid has been closed for at least an hour. Someone get on that.

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