The universe according to Apple.
It's no secret that Apple lives in its own little world. In fact, it prides itself on its closed ecosystem where it can control as much of its products as possible.
Such an approach can lead to a very cohesive, but directed, user experience, which isn't always a bad thing. Most would say, however, that Apple would be taking it too far if it started rewriting maps. Oh, but Apple has rewritten a map – a map of the stars.
One of the new wallpapers included in Mac OS 10.7 Lion features an image of the Andromeda galaxy with a few alterations.
David Kaplan, assistant professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, sent Boing Boing the above gif image illustrating the differences between Apple's wallpaper and real life.
He wrote in:
Apple has once again altered the Universe according to their whim. They moved/removed many stars, and got rid of a whole galaxy. This is M110, which is one of M31's [Andromeda's] satellites. The other big satellite, M32, is still there.
Interestingly, the M110 is also the model name for the original Samsung Galaxy. Hmm…
That image is no star chart, it's a desktop background.
This professor needs to get over himself.
Actually that would be the Andromeda Galaxy that will collide with our own Milky Way in 3 billion years or so. lol
M31 is Andromeda, it is also called NGC 224.
Correction: they will fight over the rights for the original picture since it's so related to their version of it :-D
Such an approach can lead to a very cohesive, but directed, user experience, which isn't always a bad thing."
I can only think of bad things coming from over-control.
User experience? It's like they're all sleeping with the same... ahem, you get the point.
Yep, it's just a cool background picture. Nobody's claiming it to be scientifically accurate, get over it!