The Date & Time icon is an analog clock with a paper calendar icon on top of it. Does the author think this is "incorrect" because the computer does not actually have a tiny analog clock inside of it? It does have another type of clock based on a newer technology.
The Energy Saver icon is a light bulb with a standard base screw-in socket. The computer doesn't have one of those inside it either. And the computer's energy usage isn't primarily from lighting. But the icon is an LED bulb, and we understand those as a way of saving energy.
The Screen Time icon is an hourglass. Is this incorrect because the computer does not internally use an actual hourglass to judge whether your session is too long? Nevertheless, the idea comes across OK because you can use an hourglass for similar purposes.
> The Energy Saver icon is a light bulb with a standard base screw-in socket. The computer doesn't have one of those inside it either. And the computer's energy usage isn't primarily from lighting. But the icon is an LED bulb, and we understand those as a way of saving energy.
Interestingly, this used to be a normal lightbulb, then evolved into a CFL and is an LED bulb today.
At that point it's just a picture. I like the old symbols, even if they're antiquated now. Maybe when I remember the humble beginnings, using floppies, there's some nostalgia
Apple has icons for SSDs. They are shown in the article right after this:
> So what should Apple do? Customized icons for different types of drives would be a good start. Time Machine drives get custom icons automatically, as do many other types of storage devices that were more common in the past, so surely Apple could design different icons for SSDs and Fusion Drives, and then display them appropriately based on the type of drive.
Apple could repurpose one of the existing SSD icons pretty easily.
Which one of those is supposed to be an SSD icon? Top row we have, from left to right, generic external drive, an optical disk drive, time machine, icloud, shared (network) drive, CD. Bottom row we have three types of floppy disks, a Sony MemoryStick, a CompactFlash, and and SD card.
Does not matter. Most people have not seen a floppy disk for 15 years at least, but they still understand what it means when they see it ("save as..."). Familiarity.
Nowadays, you could probably make an SSD that looks like an old 3’’ floppy. Might get a bit hot (because of very little airflow and thermal paste) but it could carry plenty of chips/terabytes, in all that space. Add a protected USB-C socket, and at the other end a flexible dock-attachment (like the Nintendo Switch) that looks like an old drive, and you’d have a very retro-looking removable-storage system you can point the kids at.
Its called a symbol. What else would you do, put a piece of plastic called SSD instead?