Steve Jobs

Rare Early Apple-1 Up For Auction

Long before the iPod, the iPad and the iPhone, Apple was just a few circuit boards and a dream. In July 1976, the Apple-1 went on sale priced at $666.66-- no sexy design, no white minimalist style, just pure geekery in a simple cardboard box. On November 23 Christie's London is auctioning off an early Apple-1 and all its original packaging in a lot estimated to fetch as much as £150,000. Part of the reason for the high price is that just a few examples of the computer survive today.

The one being sold at Christie's includes an Apple-1 motherboard, number 82, printed label to reverse, with a few slightly later additions including a 6502 microprocessor, labeled R6502P R6502-11 8145, printed circuit board with 4 rows A-D and columns 1-18, three capacitors, heatsink, cassette board connector, 8K bytes of RAM, keyboard interface, firmware in PROMS, low-profile sockets on all integrated circuits, video terminal, breadboard area with slightly later connector, with later soldering, wires and electrical tape to reverse, printed to obverse Apple Computer 1 Palo Alto. Ca. The 8K memory is just a tiny fraction of what even the smallest iPod is capable of; it could not even hold one song. There were just 200 of these made and the computer did not come with a monitor or keyboard. It did however have a typed and signed letter from Steve Jobs. Depending on how well this one sells you could find a lot of people digging into their attics and garages looking for old computers.

Tags: apple, apple-1, christies, computers, early computers, steve jobs

Oracle's Larry Ellison Is World's Highest Paid CEO

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

Oracle's Larry Ellison received a whopping $1.84 billion in compensation over the past decade, making him the world's highest paid CEO according to a new Wall Street Journal survey of public companies. The founder and chief executive of software maker Oracle Corp. beat out rival Barry Diller, chairman of IAC/InterActive, for the top spot; Diller received roughly $1.14 billion in compensation. Following Diller are Occidental Petroleum Corp. CEO Ray Irani at $857 million, Apple Inc.'s Steve Jobs with $749 million and, in fifth place, Capital One Financial Corp. CEO Richard Fairbank at $569 million. Ellison, the sixth richest person in the world with a personal fortune of $28 billion, is known for his passion for high-tech sailing yachts and owns a Woodside, California estate estimated to be worth $200 million. He's also said to have recently paid $10.5 million for Beechwood, the historic Astor family mansion in Newport, RI that was our estate of the day back in May 2007.

Tags: Apple, Barry Diller, billionaires, CEO, highest paying jobs, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, wealth

The Apple iPad is Here, Now We Brace for the Bling

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Gadgets

The Apple iPad has finally arrived and if history has taught us anything it's that now we brace for the flood of accessories, attachments, and bling that is sure to follow as Apple enthusiasts around the world embellish and personalize their beloved electronic gadgets. From the outside the iPad looks like a larger, wider version of the iPhone (see all the specs and functions described in detail on our sister site Engadget) which means there's little in the way of embellishable surfaces -- just the back and that singular front button. I'm guessing we'll be seeing some gold-plating and diamonds in the future, plus some interesting protective cases and of course engraving of all kinds.

If you're planning to get an iPad what accessories or personalizations will you be looking for? I'm gonna aim high and dream of a stylish but simple Louis Vuitton sleeve.

Gallery: The Most Luxe Apple Embellishments