The world of the collector is very particular. In most cases they are more than willing to teach their efforts and share information about each of your precious items, but the idea of ??selling is not something that passes through their minds, unless they are in a critical situation or wish to face a far more ambitious. Apparently someone has reached that point, because Sotheby's auction in mid-June as much as Apple I computer running. The system includes cassette interface, diagrams and manuals, and can be yours ... provided you have between 120 and 180 thousand dollars.
Now we know that Apple is a company known to rewrite some rules, but this "behavior" did not begin with the "iDevices" today. It was July 1976, and these two men, both named Steve, had a computer that did not use no lights or keys to be programmed. If you want to know even the smallest detail of the Apple I computer history (or should we say "motherboard" Apple I), under any circumstances can not miss Ariel wrote the article on that system. It has been almost 36 years since the launch of this system to market, and its value as a collectible item has skyrocketed. Are believed to be about fifty Apple I systems in existence, and only six in operation around the globe. In 2010, a unit with serial number 82 was sold for over $ 200,000 at auction at Christie's, in the presence of Woz himself, who added the prized item autographed letter.
Within a few days will be auctioned another Apple I computer, with the difference that this time will be Sotheby's who is responsible for the operation. The condition of the computer is functional, but also has a cassette interface, three manuals (interface, operation and Apple BASIC) and an advertisement which shows both the computer and the cassette interface. The document with the official description of the lot talking about an estimate on the price located between 120 000 and 180 thousand dollars, some experts believe that within reason given the status of the computer and the amount of extras that come with it. Still, this contribution is relative. The Apple I was sold by Christie's were not original parts of the system, but included a letter signed by the time Steve Jobs, which completely changed the conditions of sale.
The computer will not be alone, because in another batch any interested party may make an offer on a memo handwritten by the same supervisor Jobs for Stephen Bristow, during his brief stint at Atari. The price of the memo has an estimated value ranging from ten to fifteen thousand dollars, but again, that's relative. Sotheby's was responsible for selling the original contract marked the creation of Apple, signed by Jobs, Wozniak and Ron Wayne, who encouraged Jobs to found his own company. It was thought that the contract does not meet more than $ 150,000, when in fact the bidding ended at 1.6 million. With this reference, I honestly can not say exactly at what price will sell the Apple I, if it is sold. We'll find out next June 15.
An eBay user called aaps69 sold in the auction page of the first prototype iPad by $ 10,200. This tablet has two load ports (one on the bottom and one on the side) and uses the software used by Apple to test the performance of their devices, SwitchBoard.
The bidding started at $ 4,800, 10 times more than it costs the simplest model of the new iPad from Apple. However, throughout the day the price was rising to reach $ 10,200 in which closed sale. On the product, is "a functional representation" of one of the prototypes tested before Apple shipped the first ipad, according secures your vendor. For this reason, your hardware is unique because it has two connectors, but so is its software, it includes SwitchBoard, the test program of the company.
However, the ipad has been restored (Apple dismantles these prototypes with obzjetivo that can not be used), although the seller could not fix the screen, which responds only occasionally.
However, the prototype, whose identification number is intact despite not appear in photographs, with the beta version of ipad OS 3.2. Also, the seller said he had to include a new battery.
In the list of strange gadgets on which we are already working (and ranging from Mickey Mouse ears for the iPad to the monkey - and unhelpful - Little Printer through the first 3D chocolate printer) now includes the surprising camera that writes what he photographs.
The prototype has been dubbed Descriptive Camera and is a project by Matt Richardson signed, as FastCompany points. The kick-off of the camera was the lack of descriptive data on the images: photos are filled with metadata, but they show things like camera model, the place or time. There is no real description of what is happening, something that explains what the image contains.
"The Descriptive Camera works very similarly to that of a regular camera," explains its director in his official site. "You aim the target and press the button to capture the image. However, instead of producing an image, the prototype gives a text description of the scene, "he adds.
Human help
To achieve these results, Descriptive Camera used as the basic point of Amazon Mechanical Turk API, which covers with human labor that where technology fails. In a collaborative way, a group of people connected to the network cover the descriptions of those images that people upload to the Internet (it costs $ 1.25 for description). This makes printing is not instantaneous, but the waiting time is not very high.
The results did, however, are surprising and funny, "art", as explained in FastCompany. "It's a blur of a dilapidated building. It seems to be coming down and need repairs, "is an example of one of these curious descriptive photographs.
The largest auction site in the United States is certainly a center of sales of all types, including the strangest imaginable. Among them, an object appeared today that more than one collector or fan of Apple computers will want to have in your home. This is a prototype of the Macintosh 128k running drive known as Twiggy appeared at auction for the staggering price of $ 100,000.
For those not distracted entiedan the is the eccentricity of this computer, it is difficult to find a similar one mainly because this model is not never sold with this type of drive. Instead, motivated by the unreliability of the format, the company decided a few months after its release by switching to 3.5-inch disks that store up to 400 kb.
This model is the first Macintosh to market with this brand, just after the Lisa personal computer. It was released under the name of Apple Macintosh in 1984, promoting itself with the recognized trade superbowl based on the book of Orwell directed by Ridley Scott. This computer all-in-one was a big gamble for the company, built by Motorola processor had strong sales for several years. When Apple launched the model of 512 kb that became labeled as the Macintosh 128K.
According to the author of the auction, despite having previously appeared only evidence of this computer had been plates and shells which revealed its existence. This was the first time that this internal model comes out and is put on sale.
The auction includes:
■ The prototype of the Macintosh 128k with Twiggy disk drive 5.25-inch
■ Macintosh Keyboard prototype working (tested in traditional models).
■ Keyboard, mouse and power cord officials running Macintosh 128k.
The computer works, but can not boot. The reason for this is that this model had the operating system on a disk that should be inserted at start, then you could withdraw. As you can imagine, having a copy of the Twiggy disk system would be a rarity even greater. In this way the computer, as seen in the images can not exceed the screen that asks you insert a disc.
The user making the sale is called wozniac with long history and good reputation of the company selling antiques on the block, but so far had been T-shirts, manuals and some peripherals. For the strangeness of this sale was suspected that it was really Steve Wozniak although this possibility is highly unlikely, even if it were not for the detail of the sale and the seller's reputation hesitate publication.
Today more than ever we can see the games market for smartphones and tablets is growing. Developers are discovering the potential of developing computer games and also outside the consoles, and can now see games that offer a great gaming experience with impressive graphics such as: GTA 3 and Shadowgun thanks to the implementation of quad-core processor for mobile devices such as the Nvidia's Tegra 3. But unfortunately, there is one drawback hinders the game experience and is: (let's face it) touch screen. During the game, controlling traffic through the touch screen is very limited (especially on small screens) and most frustrating time. Although a number of third-party claim to solve this problem and offer physical controllers experience a much better game, but until today had not seen a company that makes smart phones and tablets Took up the challenge and decided to market itself to such controllers. But now, it is possible that this is going to change because the report received by the site AnandTech says that Apple itself is indeed working on developing games for physically visit Apple's iPhone and the iPad.
Play with the tablet
Of reporting (which is basically an extended review of the new iPad ) said one of the authors (on the Android system supports game controllers while the system is Apple's iOS not) that "I know Apple's internal project designed to bring internal beef market, but whether he will the light of day we'll see. as smart phones and tablets compare the performance of the current generation of game consoles, I feel that the problem with the controls must be patient and give us an answer. " Cattle is estimated to get on the iPad device and will provide hardware buttons and allow a more comfortable grip of the tablet or iPhone, and along with it may be that Apple will open a store dedicated to games.
We must note that we have no reason to doubt the report of AnandTech, but as we know, the position of Apple over the years (the launch of iPhone first five years ago to the present) was touch screens are the best and the users do not need anything other than their fingers to control their devices . Apple was not ready to accept another alternative, the watering of cattle from Apple will play an admission of her touch screens are not always the best option and sometimes it should be replaced. On the other hand Recall that for quite some time Slmcsiri iPhone and the iPad is an external keyboard that connects to them via the BlueTooth Apple sells herself as an external accessory for devices, so that the position of Apple issue not so clear yet. Also, as you can guess from the company itself was not received any response regarding this publication. And logically, if the iPhone and iPad users buy external hardware devices, Apple certainly would prefer to buy products that it markets.
Meanwhile, we doubt the possibility that Apple indeed will market its own controller that, although perhaps Apple is working on a project like this and perhaps has already developed a kind of prototype, but between this and bring the product to market has a pretty big difference for such a move could create strategic change quite radically for Apple. We of course will continue to update you on the event More news will come, and in the meantime, tell us a comment, what do you think: Is the future of smartphones and tablets as a substitute for a portable gaming console?
