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Former Apple engineer tells story of how he created iPhone’s famous ‘Tri-tone’ text alert

Published Aug 12th, 2013 6:45PM EDT
iPhone Tri-tone Alert History

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For the few years following Apple’s first-generation iPhone debut in 2007, it seemed almost impossible to avoid a chorus of “Tri-tone” iPhone text alerts at every turn. The tone still seems to pop up all the time in public, and while it’s easy to take something as simple as a ringtone for granted, it’s also quite interesting to get the back story on one of the iPhone’s two most famous tones. Former Apple engineer Kelly Jacklin recently published a piece on his site that gives the public its first ever look at exactly how the famous Tri-tone alert came to be. The tone’s development dates all the way back to before Apple’s 2000 acquisition of SoundJam MP (which would later become iTunes) when Jacklin was approached by one of SoundJam MP’s co-founders to create an audio alert that would let users know when a CD had finished burning. The rest, as they say, is history. Jacklin’s account, which is linked below, is a great read — and as an added bonus, he includes a sampling of several other tones he created that didn’t make the cut.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.