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Apple to Buy Window Sucking Effects from Pixar

2004.03.17

Users of Mac OS X have long enjoyed being able to "suck" windows to the dock when minimizing them. Experienced veterans know you can make the effect slower and more dramatic by holding the shift key as you click the minimize button.

Today Apple Computer has announced that it will be using patented iSuck™ technology developed by Pixar to further enhance the user experience.

According to a Pixar press release, Pixar's new technology, called "Tiggerizing" by the Pixar development team, will provide the users of OS X 1.4 a number of ways to minimize open windows and send them to the Dock. Enhancements which will be released in the next version of OS X, dubbed "Garfield," will include:

• Melt-0-Rama: The window appears to melt and then sloshes over to one side of the dock.
• Slush: The window turns white as it shrinks.
• Poofy: The window explodes into hundreds of tiny Tinkerbell® sparkles and coalesces into a lamp before clicking off.
• Incrediburgible: A super hero hamburger pops in from the side of the screen and eats the window.
• Scooters: Annoying, out-of-date two-wheeled non-motorized scooters gradually erase your window, sending fragments to the Dock.
• Frying Toasters: A giant toaster appears from the bottom of the screen and receives your window as if it were a giant Strawberry Pop-Tart Blowtorch.

Alan Beancounter of Pixar noted that co-CEO Steve Jobs was simply "Pickled Tink" over the announcement and considers it to be a really, really cute way to suck up to him at the next staff meeting.

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