Apple's famous spinning wait cursor, officially named the 'spinning pinwheel of death', was allegedly inspired by a hypnotic toy sitting on the desk of an early executive's…

A closer look

Apple's famous spinning wait cursor, officially named the 'spinning pinwheel of death', was allegedly inspired by a hypnotic toy sitting on the desk of an early executive's assistant; however, a darker slice of Apple lore involves the 'Sosumi' alert sound created by Jim Reekes for the Macintosh operating system in 1991, made because The Beatles' record label, Apple Corps, had sued the tech company for trademark infringement regarding music production capabilities, demanding they stay out of the music business, so Reekes cheekily named his new system chime 'Sosumi', phonetically translating to 'So sue me', but successfully convinced the corporate lawyers it was just a traditional Japanese word with no hidden meaning, resulting in a legendary act of passive-aggressive software engineering that somehow sneaked past highly paid legal teams