Apple held a media event in Los Angeles on Nov 6 called "Pro and Tell," where it unveiled a new MacBook Pro with a PROLED XDR display. Daring Fireball mentioned the details in its event coverage and discussed the state of the Macintosh platform.
Apple's support site published a document titled "About the Illuminated Apple Logo on MacBook Pro With PROLED XDR Display," detailing how to control the glowing Apple logo on the new MacBook Pro.
Glowing logo can be turned off via Terminal
According to the Apple support document, users who want the Apple logo to stay dark in all lighting conditions can turn off its illumination using Terminal. Terminal is in the Utilities folder of the Applications folder and can also be opened via Spotlight.
The document gives this command to turn it off:
sudo defaults write com.apple.CoreBrightness LEBacklightMode -int 0
To turn logo illumination back on, enter:
sudo defaults delete com.apple.CoreBrightness LEBacklightMode
Commentary: keeping the Terminal step may be the better call
In its commentary, Daring Fireball said Apple may eventually turn this into a graphical user interface (GUI) setting, but if it were up to him, he would leave it as is and let "people with no fun in their souls" use the Terminal command.
The commentary further argued that keeping the logo-off function as a defaults setting also helps emphasize that turning it off does not save meaningful battery life. If the feature were exposed as a GUI preference, it could spread as a "pro tip," much like the mistaken belief that quitting background apps saves power.
Millions of users firmly believe they should force-quit iOS apps, but reloading an app from a cold start actually consumes more energy.
Event context and platform focus
Daring Fireball's event coverage also noted that Los Angeles is not Apple's usual venue for media events; Apple typically holds two major annual events at its Apple Park campus. The report described the city's character in personal terms but offered no further technical details about the new MacBook Pro.
Known information so far centers on the PROLED XDR display and the Terminal control for the glowing logo. The source material did not mention specifics such as configurations, pricing or availability for the new MacBook Pro.