First-generation Apple iPhone Sells at Auction in US for $190,000

THE GUARDIAN: Device launched by Steve Jobs in 2007 with promise to ‘reinvent the phone’ sells for 300 times original price

Steve Jobs demonstrating the new iPhone at the Macworld conference in 2007, where he said Apple was about to ‘reinvent the phone’. Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP
A 2007 Apple iPhone has been sold at auction for $190,372.80 (£145,416) – 300 times its original sale price.

The 4GB model , originally bought for $599, was still in its factory wrapping and was in exceptional condition, the auction listing said. The auctioneer LCG Auctions described the device as a “popular high-end collectible” and “exceedingly rare”.

The auction attracted 28 bids in total after an initial bid of $10,000.

LCG Auctions sold another first-generation iPhone for $63,356 in February. Another firm, Wright Auctions, sold a first-generation iPhone for $40,320 in March. » | Hibaq Farah, UK technology correspondent | Monday, July 17, 2023

From the 60 Minutes Archive: Steve Jobs

On the 45th anniversary of the founding of Apple, a look back at the 2011 profile of Steve Jobs, which aired just weeks after his death.

Russian Memorial to Steve Jobs Dismantled after Apple CEO Comes Out as Gay

Monument of iPhone is taken down in St. Petersburg to comply with country's laws on gay propaganda

Read the Telegraph article here

Why It Still Matters That Apple CEO Tim Cook Announced He’s Gay

SFGATE: Apple CEO Tim Cook’s decision to tell the world he is gay feels a lot like his company’s much-anticipated product launches: The public already knows the news before the event, but the event is momentous nonetheless.

As Cook noted in an essay for Bloomberg Businessweek, he has been quite open about his sexuality with many people. But there’s a difference between friends and colleagues knowing you’re gay and telling the planet.

Just a few years ago, states were writing into constitutions that marriage was strictly between a man and a woman. Now the CEO of the world’s most valuable company can proclaim that he considers “being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”

“The world has advanced to the point that (sexuality) is a total nonissue,” said Gerald Storch, a former CEO of Toys R Us. “Ten years ago, CEOs might have kept it closer to the vest because of consumer backlash.” » | Thomas Lee | Friday, October 31, 2014

Tim Cook’s Coming Out: ‘This Will Resonate’

Read the New York Times article here | Thursday, October 30, 2014

Coming-out des Apple-Chefs: Tim Cook bricht das letzte Tabu

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Der Apple-CEO hat sich als schwul geoutet. Auch wenn seine Orientierung kein Geheimnis war, geht Tim Cook damit einen Schritt, den noch kein Top-Manager gewagt hat. Schwule werden in der US-Wirtschaft toleriert - aber nicht akzeptiert.

Tim Cook wuchs in Alabama auf, einem der konservativsten, lange rückständigsten US-Südstaaten. Trotzdem blieb er seiner Heimat verbunden, selbst nachdem er als Apple-Chef zu einem der mächtigsten Wirtschaftslenker aufstieg. Als ihm Alabama jetzt seine höchste Ehre antrug, die Einführung in die Alabama Academy of Honor, nahm er das gerne an.

Seine Dankesrede jedoch nutzte Cook für eine Abrechnung: Im Kapitol der Landeshauptstadt Montgomery rügte er Alabama am Montag für seine Unterdrückung von Minderheiten. Es sei empörend, dass Homosexualität dort immer noch als Kündigungsgrund gelte: "Wir können die Vergangenheit nicht ändern, aber wir können eine andere Zukunft erschaffen."

Der 53-Jährige sprach sich dabei selbst aus der Seele. Dass Cook schwul ist, war ein offenes Geheimnis, seit er 2011 das Erbe des Apple-Gründers Steve Jobs antrat: Cook marschierte in San Franciscos LGBT-Parade mit und rangierte seit Jahren ganz oben in der "Power 50"-Liste der US-Schwulenzeitschrift "Out". » | Von Marc Pitzke, New York | Freitag, Oktober 31. 2014

Politician: Ban Apple CEO Tim Cook from Russia because He Could Have ‘AIDS’ or ‘Ebola’

Vitaly Milonov

PINK NEWS: A homophobic lawmaker is now calling for a lifetime travel ban on Apple CEO Tim Cook, who came out publicly as gay on Thursday morning.

Vitaly Milonov, the politician behind St Petersburg’s anti-gay ‘propaganda’ law that has since been adopted federally by the Russian Parliament, suggested Mr Cook could bring “the Ebola virus, AIDS [and] gonorrhea” to Russia.

“What could he bring us? The Ebola virus, AIDS, gonorrhea? They all have unseemly ties over there,” Mr Milonov told the FlashNord website. “Ban him for life.” » | Scott Roberts | Thursday, October 30, 2014

La maison d'enfance de Steve Jobs classée monument historique

La maison d'enfance de Steve Jobs

L’AVENIR: Une ville californienne de la Silicon Valley a classé monument historique la maison d'enfance de Steve Jobs, qui y avait notamment créé dans son garage avec Steve Wozniak, les premiers ordinateurs estampillés Apple.

Les membres de la commission historique de Los Altos, près de San Francisco, ont voté à l'unanimité pour accorder ce statut à la maison de plain-pied, au style évoquant un ranch, et qui appartient aujourd'hui à la soeur de Steve Jobs, décédé en octobre 2011.

"Il s'agit de la maison d'enfance du fondateur d'Apple Steve Jobs", rappellent-ils dans un document justifiant leur décision. "Il s'agit aussi de l'endroit où Apple a été fondé et où les 50 à 100 premiers ordinateurs Apple ont été assemblés, autant d'événements qui représentent une importante contribution à l'histoire et à l'héritage culturel de la Californie et des Etats-Unis". » | mercredi 30 octobre 2013

Steve Jobs: Apple Founder a Sexist Bully, a Skinflint and a Liar Says Chrisann Brennan, Former Partner

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The ex-girlfriend of Steve Jobs says in her tell-all biography that he could behave even more appallingly than anyone ever supposed

He was the billionaire crown prince of Silicon Valley, hailed across the world as the ablest chief executive of his generation and a visionary model to young entrepreneurs aspiring to greatness.

Yet behind closed doors, Steve Jobs could be a sexist bully, a skinflint and a pathological liar who behaved appallingly, according to a forthcoming memoir by the first girlfriend of the Apple boss.

In a candid account of their on-off relationship through the 1970s, Chrisann Brennan, the mother of Jobs’s eldest child, depicts an “emotional vortex” of a man badly scarred by his childhood.

The Apple chief, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2011 at the age of 56, is repeatedly accused of wrongdoing in The Bite in the Apple, due to be published in the United States this month.

The memoir tells the full story of how one of the most accomplished captains of American industry often behaved like a spoilt brat. » | Jon Swaine, New York | Saturday, October 19, 2013

Steve Jobs Receiving Treatment At Cancer Clinic Where Patrick Swayze Was Patient
RADAR ONLINE: Steve Jobs - who is on another medical leave of absence from Apple, the company he co-founded and manages as its longtime CEO - is receiving treatment at a cancer clinic where Hollywood star Patrick Swayze was a patient in his final days.

RadarOnline.com has confirmed Jobs, 55, has been attending the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, California, where Swayze sought radical chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer before his death in September, 2009.

The skeletal-looking Apple boss was photographed outside the clinic in images set to be published in the next edition of The National Enquirer. >>> | Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Is Apple Losing Its Touch?
THE INDEPENDENT: Crunch time for technology giant as public love affair with brand turns sour

Apple, the £150bn technology giant, is this morning preparing to confront the biggest public relations crisis in its history, amid technical problems afflicting its latest iPhone and a warning that "an emerging pattern of hubris" could wreck the public's love affair with the company.

It emerged yesterday that senior engineers warned early in the development of the new iPhone 4 that its choice of aerial could lead to dropped calls and poor reception. But the company ignored their concerns and when customers first complained about the fault wrongly blamed the problem on a software glitch.

Today the company will hold an emergency press conference in an attempt to reassure customers – and Wall Street – that it has the problem under control.

On Wall Street, where Apple has been the darling of investors for almost a decade since it unleashed the iPod music player on the world, its shares have tumbled, while the company faces a future of increased scrutiny by competition watchdogs and intense competition from newly-emboldened rivals.

Apple has summoned media and industry players to its headquarters in Cupertino, California, in a mood that is a far cry from the launch event with founder Steve Jobs last month. Then, with typical hyperbole, he declared it “the biggest leap forward” since the launch of the original iPhone in 2007, and 1.7 million people snapped up the new device in just the first two days, making it the company’s most successful product launch ever.

But users immediately started complaining of dropped calls and independent consumer tests laid the blame at the door of the phone’s aerial, which is built into the case of the phone. Continue reading and comment >>> Stephen Foley in New York | Friday, July 16, 2010

Sick of the iPad's Smudgey Screen?

Israel Bans iPad Imports
THE TELEGRAPH: Israel has banned imports of Apple iPad, citing concerns the powerful gadget consumes too much capacity on wireless networks and could disrupt other devices.

Customs officials said they have already confiscated about 10 of the lightweight tablet computers since Israel announced the new regulations this week. The ban prevents anyone from bringing iPads into Israel until officials certify that they comply with local transmitter standards. >>> | Thursday, April 15, 2010

The Cool, New, Revolutionary Apple iPhone

Photo of the new Apple iPhone courtesy of Google Images

BBC: Apple's much-hyped iPhone finally goes on sale in the US today.

Some people have been queuing for days outside Apple and AT&T stores across the US to ensure they get hold of one of the devices.

Hundreds more are expected to start queuing during the day because stores will not start selling the iPhone until 1800 local time (2300 BST).

Apple said buyers visiting its stores would not be able to walk out with more than two iPhones each. Apple's iPhone makes it to stores (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Queues begin for Apple iPhone

Demonstration: The New Apple iPhone

YAHOO NEWS (UK):
Europeans claim they’ll resist iPhone hysteria

Mark Alexander