The Spinning Pinwheel of Death (SPoD) is Mac OS X s version of Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSoD). Officially referred to as the “Spinning Wait Cursor” by Apple, the Pinwheel of Death occurs when the multicolored pinwheel mouse pointer that signifies an application has stopped responding to the system continues to spin without end.
In most cases, the Pinwheel of Death is trigger by an application-specific issue and can be resolved by force quitting the application responsible for the problem, although in more severe cases where the entire system locks up a hard reboot or even a complete system restore may be necessary.
The Pinwheel of Death may also be referred to as the spinning wheel, the Beach Ball of Death (BBoD), the spinning rainbow of death, the rainbow wheel or the spinning pizza.
