Lisa

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on Lisa:

Today in Apple history: Apple launches ill-fated Lisa project

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Take a sneak peek at upcoming Apple Lisa documentary
The Lisa became one of Apple's first flops.
Photo: Auction Team Breker

July 30, 1979: Today in Apple history: Apple launches ill-fated Lisa computer project July 30, 1979: Apple engineers begin work on the Lisa computer, the company’s first machine to come with a graphical user interface and mouse.

Incorporating technology Steve Jobs saw at Xerox PARC, the Lisa looks like a surefire hit for Apple. Things don’t turn out exactly like that, however.

Dubai fan has one of the most impressive Apple collections you’ll find

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Jimmy Grewal Apple collection
75 computers, a bunch of Newton MessagePads, and more.
Photo: Jimmy Grewal

A large white room filled with row upon row of just about every Apple computer you can imagine, all in pristine condition. On the walls are framed copies of Apple’s black-and-white “Think Different” ads. Sunlight streams through the large windows, giving everything a warm glow.

Is this heaven? The world’s greatest Apple Store? Nope, it’s Dubai, actually. Home to Jimmy Grewal, a collector of vintage Apple computers and one of the most impressive collections you’re likely to find anywhere.

Take a sneak peek at upcoming Apple Lisa documentary

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Take a sneak peek at upcoming Apple Lisa documentary
The Lisa was a crucial machine in Apple's history.
Photo: Auction Team Breker

A forthcoming documentary will tell the story of the Apple Lisa, quite possibly the most important “flop” in the company’s history.

Before Macintosh: The Apple Lisa is planned for release in early 2020. With that date approaching, computer historian and director David Greelish shared some early scenes and the poster with Cult of Mac. Check them out below.

Apple Lisa documentary will tell the story of Cupertino’s most important ‘flop’

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Apple prototypes
In retrospect, the Lisa was pretty darn important for Apple.
Photo: CNBC

A new documentary called Before Macintosh: The Apple Lisa promises to tell the story of one of Apple’s most important flops.

Directed by computer historian (and Apple collector) David Greelish, the movie will feature interviews with key players in the machine’s development. It also will place the Lisa in its proper context — as one of the most influential computers of all time.

Handwritten Steve Jobs document fails to sell at auction

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Jobs document
A section of the Steve Jobs Apple-1 spec sheet, with two Polaroids.
Photo: Bonhams

A vintage handwritten spec sheet in which Steve Jobs called the Apple-1 motherboard a “great deal” has failed to sell at auction.

The document, written in the mid-1970s, was up for auction as part of Bonham’s “History of Science and Technology, Including Space History” collection. Its asking price was $60,000. However, the bidding “only” reached up to $28,000, thereby failing to meet its reserve. A couple of historical Apple items did sell, but for less than expected.

5 most expensive Apple computers of all time

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One of the first arguments that springs up in the many debates of Mac versus PC is cost. Traditionally, Apple computers come with premium price tags, which are almost always well-deserved. But there are a handful of Apple machines that were priced well above what you would normally expect to pay, even for Cupertino’s latest computer.

In today’s video, we take a look at the five most expensive Macs of all time — and tell you how much they would cost today with their price tags adjusted for inflation. You might think the new Retina 5K iMac is outrageously expensive, but compared to some of Apple’s older machines, it’s not that pricey.

Apple Lisa expected to fetch a whopping $42K at auction

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Hello, Lisa!
Hello, Lisa -- goodbye, savings (Credit: Jonathan Zufi)
Photo: Jonathan Zufi

Remember that original Apple Lisa computer you’ve got in the basement, boxed next to your old VHS player and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots toys? It may be time to dust it off and take it an auction house.

That’s based on the news that a Lisa 1 (a.k.a. Apple’s first computer to come with a graphical interface and a mouse) is expected to fetch $42,000 when it goes under the hammer in Germany late next month.

Vintage Apple Auction News: Twiggy Mac Sells for 33K, No Sale For Apple 1 & Lisa 1

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Vintage Apple at Auction
Another Apple 1 and a Twiggy Macintosh were recently up for auction

UPDATE: Cult of Mac has learned that the Apple 1 did sell after the auction closed. Read more here.
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Markets rise and markets fall – that’s true for stocks, real estate, tulips, etc. That’s also true with vintage computers – though even in a down market there’s still some money to be made.

At an auction in Germany held on Saturday November 16, a working Apple 1 – from the first batch of 50 units made – did not receive any bids. Nor did a restored Lisa 1, with dual Twiggy floppy disk drives. But a prototype Twiggy Mac, one of only two known working units, sold for €25,000 ($33,725), quite possibly the highest price ever paid for a vintage Macintosh.

Woz: I Don’t Hate The Jobs Movie, But Steve Wasn’t The Saint You Think He Was

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jobsmovie

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak famously slammed the one-minute teaser for Ashton Kutcher’s Steve Jobs biopic and its script back in January, but that doesn’t mean he has a hatred for JOBS before he’s even seen it. In fact, Woz says he’s open to it as long as it’s entertaining and inspirational, and accurately portrays what really happened during the early days of Apple.

But he’s concerned the movie will depict Steve Jobs as a saint who was immune to failure.

Project Genesis: A New Tale Of The Beginning. Did Mac Create Man?

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Mac-Project-Genesis-Film.jpg
Project Genesis: A New Tale Of The Beginning

What if the history books have it wrong? What if the tool is the master of its maker? Did Mac create Man?

Project Genesis, a short film about a world populated only by old Apple computers, has arrived. The computers have issues. And they have spoken:

We have always looked at our world with a single point of view: with resignation, limiting ourselves to survive. We were wrong! From this moment on, everything changes: new unexpected ways open up in front of us, the world we knew now becomes more accessible, simple, within everyone’s range.

With “Project Genesis” we open the door to our dreams: now we only have to start living, as we truly mean it

Cue the spotlights. Cue the fanfare. Today on Cult of Mac, we present the International Premiere of this groundbreaking short film by Italian director Alessio Fava. It was worth the wait:

Steve Jobs’s Ex-Girlfriend & Mother Of Lisa To Publish Memoir In 2013

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Steve Jobs with his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs.
Steve Jobs with his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs.

In a timed announcement made exactly on the one year anniversary of Steve Jobs’s death, Chrisann Brennan — Steve Jobs’s highschool sweetheart and the mother of American journalist and writer Lisa Brennan-Jobs, for whom the Apple Lisa was named — has said that she will be publishing a memoir next year.

The Crazy Adventures Of A Vintage Mac Collector [Interview]

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Rare Apple items: Twiggy 128k Mac, green-screen Lisa, Apple buttons, and clear Mac SE.

What does it take to be a vintage Mac collector?

A love of all things Apple and an encyclopedic knowledge of the many successful, unsuccessful and downright notorious products Cupertino has released over the years are a given. But the job can be more perilous than you’d imagine.

Just ask Adam Goolevitch. Known as “wozniac” on eBay, Adam is one of the premier vintage Mac collectors around. In just he last couple of months, some of Googlevitch’s rarest finds — including a 128k Mac with a 5.25” Twiggy floppy disk drive and a Macintosh SE with a clear outer case — have hit the web and sparked a flurry of interest.

But collecting these Macs isn’t always easy. From almost losing a finger to a PowerMac G4 Cube to mistakenly being investigated by the police under the suspicion of dealing drugs instead of Macs, Googlevitch has some wild stories to tell that prove that being a vintage Mac collector isn’t necessarily for the faint of heart.

Cult of Mac sat down with Adam to hear some of his adventures and also get the scoop on the rarest machines in his collection.

We’re Over Half Sold Out Of Our Apple-Inspired Lisa Tee, Get Yours Now!

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Just a heads up: we’re running low on sizes of Cult of Mac’s vintage Apple-inspired In Love With Lisa graphic tee, and once we sell out, we’ll likely be out forever — so stop dilly dallying!

Our new is tee made in the beautiful USA, is crafted from 100% super-soft cotton, and ships worldwide. Tees come in men’s and women’s sizes too, so grab one for yourself or for your GF Lisa before we sell out over at MightTees.com.

Steve Jobs Would Have Worn Cult of Mac’s New Tee Under His Turtleneck

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Here’s an obvious fact: Steve Jobs loved computers. And since Steve also liked to make a fashion statement, it only makes sense that he would have ordered at least 50 of Cult of Mac’s new Lisa-inspired graphic tee.

Who’s Lisa? Why she was only one of Apple’s most iconic computing failures. Maybe her stratospheric 10k price tag was to blame. It obviously wasn’t her boxy good-looks that did her in.

But we loved her, and now you can too. We partnered with Seattle indie brand Might Tees to bring Lisa’s vintage appeal back to life on our new In Love With Lisa graphic tee.

Our new tee is finely crafted right here in the beautiful USA, ships worldwide, and is available right now over at MightTees.com.

A 20-Something Steve Jobs Created The Inspiration Behind Cult Of Mac’s New Graphic Tee

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Before taking the reigns of the team building the Apple Macintosh, Steve Jobs poured his heart into another lesser known machine: Apple’s Lisa.

Don’t remember Lisa? You’re not alone. Her $10,000 price tag secured her place as one of Apple’s most epic failures, and Steve’s next project, the Macintosh, got all the fame and glory.

But we loved Lisa’s vintagy good-looks and double disk drives! So we partnered with Seattle indie brand Might Tees to bring her boxy appeal back on our new In Love With Lisa graphic tee.

This new tee is finely crafted right here in the beautiful USA, ships worldwide, and is available right now over at MightTees.com – get one!

Remind Your Friends Of Apple’s Good Ol’ Days With Cult Of Mac’s New Graphic Tee

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Apple’s Lisa – now there was a proper computing machine. But, though she was one of Steve Job’s most sexy creations, she was also one of Apple’s biggest commercial failures due to her astronomic $10,000 price tag (10k!). We fancied her though, as any true Apple fan would, so put her cutting-edge, dual-floppy good-looks on a tee you’ll be proud to wear over your torso.

Cult of Mac’s new In Love With Lisa tee is perfect for you or the Apple fan in your life (bonus if that fan’s name is Lisa!). Remind the world of a time when Apple computers were big, boxy, and downright uncouth!

Our new tee is crafted from 100% super-soft cotton, ships worldwide, and is available right now. We’re already half sold out, grab yours now over at MightTees.com.

Read the Original Brochure for Apple’s Groundbreaking Lisa

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People from the 1980s using the Apple Lisa.

We’ve got a special one for you, folks. My dear friend and colleague Bill Scott found a delightful treasure while riffling through his archive a few weeks ago: the original brochure for the Lisa, Apple’s very first graphical user interface computer with a mouse. Bill worked at Hovey-Kelley Design when the firm created the first mouse (his beautiful sketches can be seen at the New Yorker).

Dating from early 1983, the brochure is a fascinating window into how Apple was thinking about the future of computers almost 30 years ago. It has hilariously florid discussions of how revolutionary the mouse is (“The mouse and the natural movement of your own hand. They’re all you need to control Lisa.”), overly obvious explanations (“The keyboard is just for typing.”), and the occasional fashion anachronism (see the vest and lavender bow above). Though it would be a few years yet until Apple became an industrial design powerhouse, it’s interesting to note how advanced the company’s graphic design already was — at least by the standards of the pre-Mac, dots-and-teal squiggles era.

It’s an enormous document, so I’ve uploaded it to Scribd, where you can read it online or download it for offline reading. Definitely worth your while if you bleed brushed aluminum.

Next Up For Auction: An Apple Lisa 1

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Another rare item from Cupertino, an Apple Lisa 1, hit the auction block this week.  The successor to the Apple II and the predecessor to the Macintosh, the Lisa originally shipped back in 1983.  Born of the pioneering work done at Xerox PARC and refined by Apple, it was the world’s first commercially available computer with a Graphical User Interface.

The first Lisa used two proprietary 5.25″ floppy disk drives known as “Twiggy” drives.  These were problematic and unreliable, and were replaced in 1984 with the Lisa 2 and a 400k 3.5″ floppy drive.  Most original Lisas were updated to the 3.5″ disk package, so very few Lisa 1 systems survive today.

As of this writing, current price on eBay is $15,000 after 4 bids, with 4 days left to go.  Check back late next Tuesday for the results. Following the recent Apple 1 sale, looks like another possible record in the making!

[via MacNN] [9to5mac]