4 ms·

Science is bringing historic Apple varieties back to life

51 points by sohkamyung 3y ago

apetresc 3y ago
Odd choice to capitalize "Apple" in the title there. I thought they were resurrecting Newtons or Lisas or something.
- zooweemama 3y ago
  clickbait?
- gpvos 3y ago
  That was done by HN's autocorrect, not the author, see the other thread about this.
  - kzrdude 3y ago
    Inside the first hour(?) the user can correct the title again by using edit.
    - gpvos 3y ago
      They decided not to, see again the other thread.
FirmwareBurner 3y ago
Why did 'Apple' had to be capitalized in the title in this case? It's not in German and it's about the fruit, not the computer company. Thanks to that I was expecting something about Appel retro Computers.
- zooweemama 3y ago
  same here!
- droopyEyelids 3y ago
  Probably the user submitted it on a Mac that auto "corrected" the capitalization
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    As it should be, they came first. Hope they sue the fruit for infringing the trademark of the old famous computer company.
    - type0 3y ago
      They already do "Apple growers in Switzerland fighting Apple Inc. in court" https://www.newser.com/story/336785/swiss-apple-growers-not-thrilled-with-apple.html https://www.newser.com/story/336785/swiss-apple-growers-not-...
  - sohkamyung 3y ago
    You have to ask Dang. I submitted the story with "apple" and HN capitalized it. I left it like that to see the comments about capitalization. :-) P.S. I submitted it on a Win 11 machine running Firefox.
    - ale42 3y ago
      With a physical keyboard and no autocomplete, I guess ;-)
      - below43 3y ago
        Mechanical keyboard. This is the way.
  - lainga 3y ago
    Reminds me of gofmt insisting "Id" should always be "ID" and in the process totally dunking on Freud
    - MichaelZuo 3y ago
- hellotheretoday 3y ago
  They’re remaking the newton AND the IIc. With science!
- drooopy 3y ago
  Hopefully they'll bring back the ones with a replaceable battery and upgradeable storage and ram.
- tpmx 3y ago
  Because HN applies various adjustments to submitted post titles - without notifying the poster. A more honest approach would be to have a two-phase submission process, where the submittee is allowed to fix any mistakes made by the algo.
  - CharlesW 3y ago
    FYI, you can fix poor automatic changes by choosing “Edit” after submission.
    - tpmx 3y ago
      FYI, that is not how humans work.
      - CharlesW 3y ago
        I'm a human, and that's how it worked. I was unsatisfied with a poor automatic change, clicked "Edit" because I'm stubborn that way, saw that it worked, and then shared the solution so that other contributors could do the same. My apologies for any offense.
        tpmx 3y ago
        It's great that you're both smart and stubborn! Here are some UX basics in case you really want understand the topic: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-basics-study-guide/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-basics-study-guide/
chasing 3y ago
Oh, man. I'd love to get a new 4th gen iPod.
- graypegg 3y ago
  I know you're just joking, but I would love if Apple actually did something like that as a small run thing. I'd even accept some horrible DRM and lock down. Let me sync like 1000 songs or something onto it from Apple Music. It's stupid but I would buy that purely because it'd make me smile using it.
zeristor 3y ago
When Doctor Hogg went to Hereford Through ever-bigger displays, Victorian England studied its apples. https://applesandpeople.org.uk/stories/hereford/ https://applesandpeople.org.uk/stories/hereford/ Apples originated in Kazakhstan, there are supposed to be forests of Apple trees there, although I think they're now in fairly poor health. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-last-wild-apple-forests-almaty-kazakhstan https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-last-wild-apple-fore...
o0banky0o 3y ago
Never heard of the bloody ploughman, but its neat. from wiki: "The story is that a gamekeeper shot dead a ploughman caught stealing apples from the Megginch Estate. When his body was returned to his wife, she found stolen apples in his pockets and threw them onto a rubbish heap. One of the resulting seedlings bore apples of a deep, blood red. This tree gave rise to the cultivar that was named after the unfortunate ploughman."
quercusa 3y ago
This guy chases down lost apples on old farmsteads: https://www.carolinacountry.com/departments/departments/feature-story/on-the-hunt-for-old-timey-apples https://www.carolinacountry.com/departments/departments/feat... https://applesearch.org/ https://applesearch.org/
tuatoru 3y ago
When I was a child, my mother would get cases of Cox's Orange Pippin freighted over from an orchard region. I think late summer/fall. Far and away the best dessert (eating) apple I've tasted, and the texture was great too. But they were susceptible to sunburn and leaf marks, they bruised easily (needed careful handling) and the skin wrinkled quickly in retail temperatures and atmospheres. When supermarkets took off, varieties like that died. It's going to be hard to bring any of them back in any meaningful sense.
mtnGoat 3y ago
I guess I just don’t see the excitement here. Drop a seed in the ground get a new variety. Not sure the purpose of trying to preserve every apple varietal, if they were good, they’d of been grafted and promoted. All modern apple orchards are clones/grafts these days.

51 points by sohkamyung 3y ago

apetresc 3y ago

Odd choice to capitalize "Apple" in the title there. I thought they were resurrecting Newtons or Lisas or something.

zooweemama 3y ago
clickbait?
gpvos 3y ago
That was done by HN's autocorrect, not the author, see the other thread about this.
- kzrdude 3y ago
  Inside the first hour(?) the user can correct the title again by using edit.
  - gpvos 3y ago
    They decided not to, see again the other thread.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

Why did 'Apple' had to be capitalized in the title in this case? It's not in German and it's about the fruit, not the computer company. Thanks to that I was expecting something about Appel retro Computers.

zooweemama 3y ago
same here!
droopyEyelids 3y ago
Probably the user submitted it on a Mac that auto "corrected" the capitalization
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  As it should be, they came first. Hope they sue the fruit for infringing the trademark of the old famous computer company.
  - type0 3y ago
    They already do "Apple growers in Switzerland fighting Apple Inc. in court" https://www.newser.com/story/336785/swiss-apple-growers-not-thrilled-with-apple.html https://www.newser.com/story/336785/swiss-apple-growers-not-...
- sohkamyung 3y ago
  You have to ask Dang. I submitted the story with "apple" and HN capitalized it. I left it like that to see the comments about capitalization. :-) P.S. I submitted it on a Win 11 machine running Firefox.
  - ale42 3y ago
    With a physical keyboard and no autocomplete, I guess ;-)
    - below43 3y ago
      Mechanical keyboard. This is the way.
- lainga 3y ago
  Reminds me of gofmt insisting "Id" should always be "ID" and in the process totally dunking on Freud
  - MichaelZuo 3y ago
hellotheretoday 3y ago
They’re remaking the newton AND the IIc. With science!
drooopy 3y ago
Hopefully they'll bring back the ones with a replaceable battery and upgradeable storage and ram.
tpmx 3y ago
Because HN applies various adjustments to submitted post titles - without notifying the poster. A more honest approach would be to have a two-phase submission process, where the submittee is allowed to fix any mistakes made by the algo.
- CharlesW 3y ago
  FYI, you can fix poor automatic changes by choosing “Edit” after submission.
  - tpmx 3y ago
    FYI, that is not how humans work.
    - CharlesW 3y ago
      I'm a human, and that's how it worked. I was unsatisfied with a poor automatic change, clicked "Edit" because I'm stubborn that way, saw that it worked, and then shared the solution so that other contributors could do the same. My apologies for any offense.
      - tpmx 3y ago
        It's great that you're both smart and stubborn! Here are some UX basics in case you really want understand the topic: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-basics-study-guide/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-basics-study-guide/

chasing 3y ago

Oh, man. I'd love to get a new 4th gen iPod.

graypegg 3y ago
I know you're just joking, but I would love if Apple actually did something like that as a small run thing. I'd even accept some horrible DRM and lock down. Let me sync like 1000 songs or something onto it from Apple Music. It's stupid but I would buy that purely because it'd make me smile using it.

zeristor 3y ago

When Doctor Hogg went to Hereford Through ever-bigger displays, Victorian England studied its apples. https://applesandpeople.org.uk/stories/hereford/ https://applesandpeople.org.uk/stories/hereford/ Apples originated in Kazakhstan, there are supposed to be forests of Apple trees there, although I think they're now in fairly poor health. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-last-wild-apple-forests-almaty-kazakhstan https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-last-wild-apple-fore...

o0banky0o 3y ago

Never heard of the bloody ploughman, but its neat. from wiki: "The story is that a gamekeeper shot dead a ploughman caught stealing apples from the Megginch Estate. When his body was returned to his wife, she found stolen apples in his pockets and threw them onto a rubbish heap. One of the resulting seedlings bore apples of a deep, blood red. This tree gave rise to the cultivar that was named after the unfortunate ploughman."

quercusa 3y ago

This guy chases down lost apples on old farmsteads: https://www.carolinacountry.com/departments/departments/feature-story/on-the-hunt-for-old-timey-apples https://www.carolinacountry.com/departments/departments/feat... https://applesearch.org/ https://applesearch.org/

tuatoru 3y ago

When I was a child, my mother would get cases of Cox's Orange Pippin freighted over from an orchard region. I think late summer/fall. Far and away the best dessert (eating) apple I've tasted, and the texture was great too. But they were susceptible to sunburn and leaf marks, they bruised easily (needed careful handling) and the skin wrinkled quickly in retail temperatures and atmospheres. When supermarkets took off, varieties like that died. It's going to be hard to bring any of them back in any meaningful sense.

mtnGoat 3y ago

I guess I just don’t see the excitement here. Drop a seed in the ground get a new variety. Not sure the purpose of trying to preserve every apple varietal, if they were good, they’d of been grafted and promoted. All modern apple orchards are clones/grafts these days.