Missing from the New MacBook Pro: Apple's Iconic Startup Chime

Progress often comes at a cost, and with the new MacBook Pro, that price happens to be nostalgia. As Gizmodo reports, Apple’s new laptop is missing a small feature that’s become a big part of the tech company’s brand: its melodic startup chime.

The new generation of MacBook Pros (that can be ordered with or without an emoji bar) will boot up silently. Apple made no official announcement, but computer blog Pingie discovered the news while browsing tech notes for the new laptop. They noticed there was no mention of the familiar chime—and after giving the computer a spin, they confirmed it was gone.

Brand loyalists might remember that the chime was first introduced in 1991, when Apple released a new computer line called the Macintosh Quadra. According to The Guardian, the noise signified that the machines had completed their diagnostic tests and were about to boot up. (Musically inclined users might also remember that the original startup chime was a C major chord; it was changed to an F sharp chord when the first iMacs were released in 1998.)

Technology has advanced greatly since the 1990s, and there’s likely no need for the startup chime now. Some people might even rejoice over this news, since few things are more distracting (or embarrassing) than booting up a Mac computer in a silent boardroom or lecture hall.

Still, owners of the new MacBook Pro might want to take a brief moment of silence for the bygone noise. In a few short years it will likely go extinct, joining the crackles, bleeps, and whirrs of other tech noises of yesteryear that your kids will probably never hear.

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