The rare Apple I we noted was going to go on the block about a month ago has sold on eBay for nearly $18,000, a couple of grand over what guesstimates had it valued at $14,000 – $16,000.
And that’s without knowing whether it actually works: in the eBay description, seller Monroe Postman notes:
“I do not know if it is functional and I do not intend to power it up. If a trace on the board were to burn up due to a shorted component, it would radically decrease its value as an historical artifact and as, in my mind, a work of art (signed by the artist!). A few of the chips were missing when I purchased it and they have been replaced with the proper ones, although dated a year or two later, in some cases.”
If the buyer wants to come forward and talk about the purchase, CoM is all ears.
Thanks to eagle-eyed reader Bob who alerted us in the comments.
Here’s some pictures of the rare Apple I that will be up for auction on eBay early next week. Hit the jump for more.
As reported earlier, the historic machine will be up for auction shortly, likely next week. The owner, Monroe Postman, hasn’t announced the date of the auction.
Postman picked up the Apple I at an estate sale around 1980. He doesn’t remember the details, including how much he paid.
Reader Jay Floyd was cruising L.A.’s Sunset Strip on Thursday afternoon when he spotted Steve Wozniak fleeing some video paparazzi on his Segway. See the photo above — you’ll need a microscope to spot Woz, who’s behind the dark blue SUV.
Says Jay: “He was crossing Crescent Heights at Sunset Blvd, and went whizzing down the strip on the sidewalk. Some videographer paparazzi popped out to take pics.”
The video paparazzi must have been from TMZ.com, which has obsessed over Woz since he dated comedian Kathy Griffin and burned up the dancefloor on Dancing With the Stars.
But as with any great tabloid story, there’s a sex angle. Woz was either on a Segway date with a sexy blonde, or chasing afer her.
Explains Jay: “If you look ahead of him, there was some way-too-pretty blonde woman on another Seqway. Not sure who that was.”
So who is the mystery Segway bombshell? Unfortunately, Jay didn’t have a gigantic zoom lens to snap her mug.
“I only had my iPhone so I couldn’t zoom,” he says. “A bit ironic, I suppose.”
Full pic after jump. Plus useless fuzzy pic of mystery blond.
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computers and one of the most recognized engineering geeks in the world, joined the Board of Directors of TechForEducators.com – a Sausalito, CA-based purveyor of goods and services designed to improve the performance of educators – the company announced Wednesday.
“Woz inspired a generation of technologists – including myself,” explained Matt Spergel, President of TechForEducators.com. “The Apple II was an engineering tour de force and an amazing learning tool. We are deeply honored to have Steve contributing his infectious optimism and creativity to our company.”
Wozniak has a strong record of support for children and education, having been a founding sponsor of the Tech Museum of Innovation and the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. He also “adopted” the Los Gatos School District, near Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, CA, providing students and teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment.
In partnership with the Kids In Need Foundation, TechForEducators.com provides exceptional value to education: for every $1 a customer spends on product at TechForEducators.com, $1.25 worth of free school supplies is also provided to impoverished students. The company carries quality products at competitive prices, all with a money-back guarantee.
“TechForEducators.com represents the best in trying to do good things for our students and teachers,” Wozniak said. “I’m looking forward to the great things they have planned for education.”
What gadgets and software applications do you use on a day-to-day basis?
Steve Wozniak: I have such a crowded life and crowded schedule. When people send me a link with a gadget, I’ll look at it and buy it if it looks interesting, but I don’t have time to check out everything I’d like to.
I do have a Nixie Tube watch… The biggest benefit in my life comes from my Segway, which I use everywhere I am. If I’m going to San Antonio, for example, I’ll load it in the car and just go everywhere with it. The other crucial thing is my Verizon wireless card, which I have to have because hotel Wi-Fi is just so unreliable.
What are you using to manage your email?
Steve Wozniak: Eudora….The reason I do is, it has an incredible feature that every single mail client should have.
Any feature in the menu list, any action there, can be added as a button. I changed it so I have a vertical menu bar, so I can have tons and tons of pre-made buttons saved right where I want them up top, and I learn where those place are. You can script actions to the buttons, too, so I can quickly copy messages to my assistants. There are scripts I wrote for joke lists so I can forward a message, remove the brackets and formatting, and make sure all the original attachments are included, to a pre-defined “joke” group. Apple’s Mail app just isn’t scriptable enough to really handle my mail buttons.
Some of the buttons will re-direct mail with quote marks, or not. I’ve got another script that will actually customize a mail forward, like my own version of mail merge. So even if something’s going out to 400 people, I can set it to single out certain people and take away all the forwarding markings, so it looks like I singled out someone to send them mail. Which is, I hope, a nice little moment for them.
BasiCMYK is a talented photographer and self-described geek who was lucky enough to get one of the 300 limited edition PodBrix Young Woz and Jobs playsets when they were issued not long after the iPhone’s debut in 2007.
He’s also apparently a big Steve Wozniak fan, allowing in the description of the accompanying photo that “every time there’s a Stevenote I secretely hope The Woz will pop up on the screen.”
Something tells me there’s no limited edition Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer Lego knock-off playsets lurking out there anywhere.
I blame the fact that Pete Mortensen was not here liveblogging it tonight for Cult of Mac.
“I gave it a good try,” Wozniak said after being voted off the show. Few ever expected the burly billionaire engineer to win the contest, least of all Wozniak himself.
Despite having criticized the program’s scoring system in the past couple of weeks, in the end, he said performing on the program made him feel like “the luckiest person in the world.”
In an unpredictable turn of events on Woz’s tumultuous “Dancing With The Stars” gig, his partner Karina Smirnoff has asked him to walk (not fox trot or tango) her down the aisle at her upcoming wedding.
The dancer will wed former DWTS co-star, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who was paired with Denise Richards. Richards and Chmerkovsiy were eliminated unexpectedly on last week’s show.
Smirnoff says of Woz:
“He’s a little out of his element but has the biggest personality you’ll ever meet. He’s super funny and super charming.”
Awww. Let’s hope the pair makes it out of tonight’s show — it’s largely thought his internet fan base is keeping Woz in the running in what has been described as not so much dirty dancing but stinky.
Steve Wozniak has a slight fracture in his foot but has vowed to press on with the Dancing With the Stars competition.
“I didn’t want to worry anyone unduly.” Wozniak mentioned on his blog this morning. He had been feeling pain in his foot and after having an X-Ray and an MRI it was revealed that he has a foot fracture.
Karina Smirnoff, his professional dance partner accompanied “The Woz” to Cedars-Sinai hospital, worried that she had lost her partner, but Wozniak was given a removable cast and the okay to dance as long as he is very careful and wears the cast faithfully when not rehearsing or performing.
In an e-mail to his Facebook Support Group, Wozniak said he told his doctors he is determined to continue with Dancing With The Stars because he “loves being part of such a good and important thing.”
If you were, like one of our readers, too busy watching “Chuck” last night or you live outside the U.S., you can still vote for Woz on Dancing with the Stars. Polls are open until noon EST.
Check out his moves to the aptly-chosen “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet“ then go to the ABC website, register and you’ll be able to cast all 13 of your votes (yes, the hack Woz predicted works) as I did this morning from Milan.
Woz’s dancing was hilarious. The kids stayed up specially to watch him and we laughed our heads off. Especially when he first came out on his Segway and went into a dance pose.
Woz had some great moves, saluting his slinky partner, twisting his meaty hips and dropping to his knees. For a big guy, he had surprising energy.
We were expecting a cringe-worthy disaster, but he comported himself superbly. It was a genuine a hoot. Can’t wait till next week.
Steve Wozniak is hoping to get the geek vote for his fancy footwork on Dancing with the Stars.
He will be tripping the light (?) fantastic tonight with partner Karina Smirnoff on the ABC show (8/7c), where he’s up against “Jackass” Steve-O, former Go-Go Belinda Carlisle and actress Denise Richards, among others.
Here are the numbers to vote:
Steve Wozniak & Karina Smirnoff
phone number: 800-86834-10 or 800-VOTE4-10
text in code:  3410
To vote online, check out the official site (poll page goes up when the show goes live).
You can also follow the Votes for Woz movement via the dedicated twitter stream or Facebook group.
Dancers are judged by professionals but the folks at home decide whether the couple moves forward in the competition.
Phone lines, text votes (AT&T customers only) and online polls will open at the top of each performance show so viewers can vote for their favorites.
Phone and text lines stay open for 30 minutes after the end of the show. Online voting will remain open until noon (Eastern Time) the next day. (Wonder if that means Woz fans outside the US can vote for him or it will be blocked…Update: you can vote online — 13 times — until noon EST the day after the show is broadcast, from anywhere, as long as you register.)
Wozniak adds: “You can vote up to 13 times with your cell phone. Actually, you can only vote as many times as there are contestants, which will likely be either 11, 12 or 13 this Monday, but extra votes surely don’t hurt.” He also spoke of an iPhone app to vote in the iTunes store, but a quick search didn’t turn it up…
Now, I know what you’re thinking: There’s an Apple II conference? And they do it *every year*?
Yup. There is. And they do. And they have been for the last 19 years. They call it KansasFest.
Come this July (21st – 26th), it will be 20 years, and the organizers are celebrating the anniversary with some special speakers and, they hope, lots and lots and LOTS of Apple IIs and associated stuff.
Just in time for getting a little bit of the backstory before the 25th Anniversary of Mac kicks into high gear, Computer Shopper has a great look back at the very early years of Apple Computers by Editor in Chief Emeritus Stan Veit. We’re talking early enough that Steve Jobs was willing to give away 10% of the company for $10,000, according to Veit.
The long article is well worth a read for Veit’s inside take on the two young, “long haired hippies and their friends” who eventually revolutionized the world. It’s not an especially flattering portrait of Jobs, though it’s had plenty of company on that score over the years. The article does contain some great early pics of Jobs and Woz and some of the earliest Apple gear.
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computers and one of the most recognized engineering geeks in the world, joined the Board of Directors of 
Woz’s dancing was hilarious. The kids stayed up specially to watch him and we laughed our heads off. Especially when he first came out on his Segway and went into a dance pose.
Just in time for getting a little bit of the backstory before the 25th Anniversary of Mac kicks into high gear, Computer Shopper has a 
