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Apple I worth $200,000 gets tossed out for recycling
You're about to get a textbook lesson in why you should always, always check vintage gadgets before you toss them out. A woman discarding her late husband's electronics inadvertently gave a Milpitas recycling firm an ultra-rare Apple I computer that ultimately sold for $200,000. While the recycler's policy is to share half the revenue from these sales, the woman refused to offer her name or get a receipt -- she's missing out on a $100,000 check for trading in a piece of computing history. The company would recognize her on sight, but its only chance of rewarding the mystery donor right now is to get the word out and hope she returns. [Image credit: Emmanuel Dunand /AFP/Getty Images]
Apple I to hit Christie's auction block starting at $300,000
If you weren't able to scrounge up enough coin to snap up the last few Apple I computers to be auctioned off, another chance to score one -- and empty your bank account -- is headed your way. Starting today, Christie's will be auctioning a functional Apple I until July 9, with a starting bid of $300,000. If last month's record-breaking $671,400 sale of a similar rig is anything to go by, this machine may rake in more than its estimated $500,000 value. The owner of the Apple I, who picked it up over three decades ago in a swap, modified it with a keyboard, monitor and a tape deck for storage - in other words, just the motherboard is original. Those more interested in window shopping can ogle the classic hardware at Mountain View's Computer History Museum beginning tomorrow. [Image credit: Christie's Auction House]
Daily Update for June 21, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple 1 fails to sell at auction
Christie's auctioned off an original Apple 1 motherboard this week and the piece of Apple history failed to garner enough bids to reach its reserve price. According to an ABC News report, the Apple 1 had a top bid of £32,000 (US$51,155), which is well below the £50,000 ($80,000) reserve. The computer will now go back to the consignor, who will decide what to do with the machine. According to the auction description, the Apple I came from the estate of former Apple employee Joe Copson. It is numbered 01-0022 and is believed to be the 22nd model to be manufactured by Apple in 1976. The motherboard was originally sold without a case, keyboard or monitor, but the model featured in the auction included a third-party case designed to look like an Apple II. Approximately 200 models of the Apple 1 were sold between 1976 and 1977, and only 50 of those units are still in circulation. [Via The Mac Observer]
Daily Update for August 30, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Early Apple employee Daniel Kottke on the Apple I, more
Apple employee #12, Daniel Kottke, talked to Avi Solomon of Boing Boing about his time working at Apple. The interview has captivating stories about Kottke's life in the early 1970s tech scene. Besides a long discussion of the influence of psychedelics on technology, Kottke also talks about Wozniak's hardware genius and Jobs's flair for design, which was starting to develop when he was working on the Apple I. Kottke says, It was brilliant of Steve to find Rod Holt to make a switching power supply, which was a lightweight power supply with no big heavy transformers, and to put the plastic case on it. So you could actually take the Apple ][ under your arm and carry it somewhere. We never really advertised that but it was part of the appeal. And Steve never forgot that. You can read more about Kottke and his early Apple adventures in the Boing Boing interview.
Daily Update for June 18, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Two days in the desert with Apple's lost founder, Ron Wayne
"I have to ask you something," Ron Wayne begins, as we stand to leave his office, signaling the close of our day-long conversation. He takes a slightly dramatic pause, adding, "compared to other people, is my life really that interesting?" This isn't modesty; it's earnestness. Wayne is genuinely curious about what makes his 77 years on earth so fascinating to have warranted my traveling across the country in order to spend a few days in his presence. I answer, honestly, that it's his time with Apple that has made him such a figure of interest. "Oh," he responds. "So it's my brushes with famous people. I'm a footnote in someone else's story." Thirty-five years ago, Ronald G. Wayne helped co-found the Apple Computer Company with two men 20 years his junior, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak -- names that have since become synonymous with the personal computer revolution of the early 80s. For Wayne, however, it was a gig that lasted all of a dozen days, abruptly ending when he marched down to the Santa Clara County Registry Office to have himself stricken from the contract he'd authored. His is a name that pops up every few years or so, shrouded in mystery, the "forgotten" or "unknown" founder of one of the world's most successful companies – and perhaps more infamously, the man who once owned 10 percent of its stock, only to walk away from it all a mere $2,300 richer.%Gallery-141297%
Apple co-founder Ron Wayne's stash of early documents (eyes-on)
About a week ago, we traveled to the desert to spend two days with Ron Wayne. The 77-year-old Pahrump, Nevada resident has had a number of careers in his long life, working for Atari, a few slot machine companies, developing devices for use on the ocean floor and running a collectables shop in Northern California. In his semi-retired state, Wayne sells stamps and coins to supplement his checks from the government. He's no doubt best known, however, for his role in the founding of the Apple Computer company, alongside Steves Jobs and Wozniak, a role at which he spent a little more than a week. During our time in Pahrump, Wayne was kind enough to let us comb over a number of papers from his days with the nascent computer company. The documents, stashed in a USPS mailer kept by the door of his office, were a veritable treasure trove of information, including pages of pages of plans and pencils drawings of an Apple I enclosure Jobs asked Wayne to build -- his creation was ultimately rejected by Apple and lost to history as the company gained steam. Also stored in the envelope were a facsimile of the contract signed by Wayne, Woz and Jobs, which recently sold on auction for more than $1 million -- in fact, it was Wayne's original copy that hit the auction block. He had parted ways with it for far, far less some time ago. Wayne's Statement of Withdrawal is in the pile as well -- the document effectively ended his term with the company, filed for a $5 fee. Also inside are an Apple I operation manual, with the company's original logo, designed by Wayne himself and an Apple II order form. Check out all of the above in the gallery below.%Gallery-141277%
Apple-1 computer auctioned off for over $211,000; winner in the garage building a case for it
So, that Apple-1 we saw a while back was auctioned off today, for a winning bid of £133,250, or roughly $211,535 -- not bad, considering that the original sale price was (believe it or not!) $666.66. According to the Wall Street Journal, a spokesman for Christie's in London called it "a record for a personal computer sold at auction." Besides the machine itself (with its 8-bit 6502 microprocessor and 8K RAM), the lot included a letter from a certain "Steven Jobs" with his parents' return address. If you happen to be the person who won the auction, we know a guy with a copy of Apple-1 BASIC.
The cost of Apple's products, adjusted for inflation
A site called VoucherCodes recently tried to figure out if the $499 entry-level iPad really is as good a deal as many have claimed. They analyzed the cost of several of Apple's products, adjusted for inflation, and some of the results are pretty astonishing. The first Apple computer ever created, the Apple I, cost $666.66 in 1976. Adjusted to 2010 dollars, that Apple I would cost $2,540, which isn't too bad. But the Apple Lisa, Apple's first stab at creating a computer with a Graphical User Interface, cost $9,995 in 1983, or a staggering $21,745 in today's dollars. Sure, the GUI was a cool bit of innovation, over $20,000 for a personal computer? Comparing the iPad to previous Apple portables is even more interesting. Apple's first portable computer cost $6,500 in 1989 -- which would be almost $11,400 today -- while the $699 Newton from 1993 would cost nearly $1,050 in today's dollars. Most intriguing of all is that the first iPod, released for $399 in 2001, cost $488 in today's dollars. That's just $11 under the cost of the iPad, a device that has far more storage, processing power, and access to more features than the first iPod could even dream of only nine and a half years ago. Apple's handhelds are cheaper than ever, even when you bring inflation into the mix. Within my lifetime alone, computers have gone from luxury items and objects of curiosity, something people would have to save several months of paychecks in order to buy, to something people buy on a whim, for a week's pay, and carry around with them in their pockets. It's not surprising that the cost of computers has come down over time, but when charts like the one at VoucherCodes drive home just how much prices have dropped in terms of the real value of the US dollar, it's pretty amazing.
Vintage cassette tape holds Apple I BASIC, killer modem tune
Fair warning: this here post is nerdier than usual, and those who begin to feel nauseous at the mere mention of data-bending may want to refrain from continuing on. For you brave, hardened souls that are following through, feast your eyes on the "first piece of software ever sold by Apple." The Apple I BASIC cassette wasn't even included with all of the 200 Apple Is produced eons ago, but a few engineering souls have managed to extract the data and create an MP3 of the wave structure. Not surprisingly, the tone resembles that of a 1200 Baud connection, and if we should say so ourselves, would make for a wicked ringtone. Believe us, it gets even weirder in the read link, but you'll have to determine whether venturing down is something your brain can handle.[Via BoingBoing]
Apple I cake
Nitrozac and Snaggy, the minds behind the Joy of Tech, sure know how to celebrate a computer company's 30th birthday! In honor of Apple's 30th they baked an Apple I cake, and just like the real Apple I some assembly is required. Check out the directions to make your very own.They also drew a comic featuring this geekily delicious treat.