On the New Mac Power Users Branding

The new Mac Power Users logo, a vertical battery with three wide bands, yellow, orange and red, from top to bottom. The title of the show is in white letters at the bottom, with the tagline "Fully Charged discussion." The Relay FM logo is visible in the top left corner, in a triangle shape.

This week’s episode of the Mac Power Users premiered with new music and a shiny new logo. While we kept the battery as the show logo, it is now orange and updated. Stephen and I dig the color orange, so this was an excellent addition and reflects our taste. I’m so happy to have Stephen as a co-host. This rebrand is the final bit of his adoption into the show and by the audience.

The prior music has a story behind it. I originally picked a royalty-free stinger that was part of the GarageBand sounds back when I wasn’t even sure if anybody would ever be interested in listening to the Mac Power Users. We tried to replace it a few times with new music, but it never seemed quite right. We once tried a new, short theme I played on my saxophone, and people hated that. So, we stayed with the original GarageBand music for all these years.

As we approach episode 750, the updated music is more modern and fits the show better. The opening music is the startup chime from a Power Mac 6100. The bumpers are a chime from the Quadra AV, and the ending chime is from the Mac LC II. Jim Metzendorf (Mac Power Users editor) worked on all these sounds to modernize them and make them better fit the show. JD Davis gets credit on the logo. I’m happy with how this all came out, and MacPower Users is now tooled up with logos, sounds, and hosts for a long time.

If you’d like to wear the new logo, we’ve got merch. You can buy tees, hats, and sweatshirts right now.

This Month in the MacSparky Labs

Here’s a list of the events that took place in the Labs in March:

  • 2024-03-29 – The Lab Report for March 29, 2024 (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-03-27 – Sparky’s Safari Plugins (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-03-26 – Exploring SoundSource (Levels 2-3)
  • 2024-03-22 – The Lab Report for March 22, 2024 (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-03-21 – March 2024 Deep Dive – Calendars, Revisited (Level 3)
  • 2024-03-20 – Transcripts Feature in Apple Podcasts (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-03-19 – Watch to Drafts Dictation Workflow (Levels 2-3)
  • 2024-03-18 – Meetup Summary – March 2024 (Podcast, Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-03-16 – Labs Meetup – March 2024 (Levels 2-3)
  • 2024-03-15 – The Lab Report for March 15, 2024 (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-03-13 – Local vs. Cloud Transcription Experiment (Levels 2-3)
  • 2024-03-12 – Sparky’s New Travel Charger (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-03-08 – The Lab Report for March 8, 2024 (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-03-07 – Video from February 2024 Deep Dive – The Case for Time Tracking (Level 3)
  • 2024-03-06 – Exploring Paletro (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-03-05 – Simple Scan from Greg Pierce (Levels 2-3)
  • 2024-03-04 – Sparky’s Vision Pro Check-In (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-03-02 – Log In with Your Email and Password on Memberful (Levels 1-3)
  • 2024-03-01 – The Lab Report for March 1, 2024 (Levels 1-3)

If you’d like to be a part of the MacSparky Labs, you can get more information and join right here.

Mac Power Users 737: Scoring a Movie, with David Metzger

David Metzger is a composer, arranger, and orchestrator with a celebrated career that has earned him Academy, Grammy, and Tony Awards. He joins Stephen and me on this episode of Mac Power Users to talk about how the music for some of the most beloved films and shows of our time is made.

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