7 Comments

  1. Uh, that isn’t the power-on button just for the Mac. Pretty much everything electronic uses that design now.

  2. dude you have no idea what you talking about it’s a green 1/0 if anything its more related to an xbox. In general ALOT of other electrical devices(see it more often on pc power supplies) USE 1/0 (binary on/off duh…)

    • With the circle around the 1/0 symbol, it really does looks a lot like the Xbox 360 power button. However, Mac has been using the 1/0 graphic on it’s power buttons from before the original Xbox was even released. It was surely on the original iBook laptops, which came out a couple years before the first Xbox.

      In spite of all of that, the 1/0 graphical symbol is not something to associate with just Macs or Xboxes, as it is a standardized symbol from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Specifically it is a Stand-by symbol according to IEC 5009, JTC1 010:

      To identify the switch or switch position by means of which part the equipment is switched on in order to bring it into the standby-by condition.

      Technically the symbol is not for On/Off and does not mean power—it means stand-by. It does not cut the main power like a true power switch or On/Off switch.

      However, many portable devices only have a stand-by switch, and other devices (like game consoles and desktop computers) have a stand-by button up front, while the actual power switch is hidden in back where it is never used. As such, most people associate the stand-by button with being the power button.

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