A while ago, I went to the Apple Store to buy a Solo Loop bracelet for the Apple Watch. I wanted it white, but that color wasn’t in the catalog at the time, so I took the closest thing that was available at the time, the one Apple calls “star white”.
I did it a bit reluctantly, because more than just white, it’s a very dull gray. It’s a minor problem, but it can be more annoying for those who make an online purchase based on a color name that later does not correspond to reality. “Star White” evokes a particularly intense and resplendent white, it is difficult to imagine that we will see it later in this very light grayish tone.
ambiguous exoticism
Something similar happens with another Apple color, ocher, in a product like the leather strap. It looks like a bit of a light brown skin color, but in real life it’s more of an orange one.
The new MacBook Air M2 also arrives in starry white, but the change in material means that in its casing it appears, at least on Apple’s website, as a rather different tone, closer to champagne than white or Grey. No more confusion.
And there are examples where the same color, with the same name, has noth ing directly to do from one device to another. The iPhone 12 and 13, for example, are offered in green, so-called “green”, simply, without exotic surnames. They are made from the same material (no pro here), however, the tones of one and the other are very different.
Special mention here to the “space gray” concept that Apple launched in 2013. It has been called so on many products of all ranges in recent years, referring to colors that often had little to do with each other.
“Midnight”, which one would expect to refer to as a deep black with some lightness in the shimmer (or something like that), is a deep navy tone with rather dark purple highlights. There is a long list of enigmatic colors in the current Apple catalog. Some examples:
- nectarine
- Grated lemon
- Mineral green
- shale pink
- Abyss
- Brilliant green
- white star
- blue haze
- Midnight
- Peony
- Pink oxford
- Anthracite
- mystical marine
- black cherry
- wisteria
Bombastic, bombastic name colors aren’t something Apple invented, we’ve seen them for a long time in fashion or in cars, but yeah add confusion when purchasing their productsespecially for those who have to do it online, without being able to see them physically before deciding, in cases where the same name refers to different colors, or where the shades are more than subjective.
Using pantone identifiers would already be a solution. Or at least sacrifice exoticism and mysticism (what the hell does the color “abyss” mean?) in exchange for more descriptive names.
In infinite loop
This is one of this week’s episodes of Infinite Loop, the daily podcast of Appleswill, broadcast from Monday to Friday at 7:00 a.m. (Spanish peninsula time), in which we talk about Apple and its competition seen through the prism of the Cupertino company. This is a ten-minute podcast, presented by Javier Lacort
And these are the other episodes of this week, you can listen to them in full from this page.
#659: A complaint from every beta
Which improvements do not improve the above or do not work satisfactorily? In this episode, one for each beta version: watchOS 9, iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura.
#660: 6.1 inches
What is the ideal size of a smartphone? What does each size imply?
#661: After the hurricane
Some thoughts on Apple TV+’s spectacular new miniseries, chronicling the days of Hurricane Katrina from inside a New Orleans hospital.
#663: Papers, please
A fantastic game with almost ten years of life that so far has not reached iOS. One-time purchase, no ads, no in-app purchases and very good quality.
Subscribe to the infinite loop
You can listen to Infinite Loop from any podcast manager:
Or by directly searching for “Infinite Loop” in your favorite client. Each new episode is released daily at the following times:
- Europe (peninsular time): 7:00 a.m.
- Europe (Canarian time): 6:00 a.m.
- Mexico: 0.00h
- Argentina: 3h00
- Colombia: 1h00
- Chile: 3h00
- United States (east coast): 1h00
- United States (West Coast): 10:00 p.m.
We will hear from you next Monday. Thank you for accompanying us.
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