Bidding for the extremely rare “Celebration Apple I” being auctioned by CharityBuzz closed today and while the lot failed to break the record for the most amount paid for an Apple I computer, the winning bid nearly topped $1 million dollars.

Online bids for an original Apple-1 computer, reportedly built by Steve Jobs, have passed $500,000.

The so-called “Celebration” Apple-1 comes with period correct power supply, original Apple-1 ACI cassette board, Apple-1 BASIC cassettes, original marketing material, and the most complete documentation set of the known Apple-1 boards. Only around 60 Apple-1 units are thought to still exist today.

Apple fans in the Big Apple are misty eyed this week as a beloved repair shop gets ready to close its doors for good.

Tekseve, with a true genius bar of technicians unmatched by any modern Apple Store, has been forced out of its Manhattan location after nearly 30 years because of high rents and retail competition. Its collection of rare old Macs that were on display will be auctioned off next Tuesday.

Starting next week, Apple will roll out major changes to the App Store that will effect how — and how much — you’ll pay for some of your favorite apps.

In a rare interview ahead of next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple VP of Marketing Phil Schiller talked about the company’s “renewed focus and energy” on the App Store. He also outlined key changes that will be unveiled during Apple’s WWDC keynote on June 13 in San Francisco.

Among the many changes coming to the App Store are search ads for apps, better revenue-sharing for developers, and new incentives for app makers to switch to subscription-based models.

Mainland China is Apple’s second biggest market, and will one day be its first. Apple is making a big push on the mainland, opening new stores and investing in home-grown companies. Why the interest? Because China is the new Japan — it’s where the future is happening. All this week we take a look at the cutting-edge apps that define mobile life on the mainland.

SHANGHAI CITY, China — Imagine a website where the all the millions of “made in China” products are at your fingertips . Taobao delivers just that, and the app has completely revolutionized online shopping here in China.

If you’re an Apple fan, eBay is a great place to pick up rare bits of Cupertino paraphernalia — whether it’s a vintage Apple jacket of the kind Drake wore at last year’s WWDC, or Steve Jobs’ high school yearbook.

Well, if you’re on the lookout for an even rarer Apple collector’s item — and have more than $4,999 to spend — you may want to check out an auction for an apparent iPhone 6 prototype, running Apple’s in-house debugging software called SwitchBoard, and boasting a red lightning dock port.

Bidding for Tim Cook’s latest Charity Buzz lunch auction has finally closed, and unless you were willing to part with some huge stacks of money, you had absolutely no chance of winning. 

Cook’s latest auction didn’t shatter his previous record of $610,000 raised for the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, but it got pretty close.

Starting a collection of Apple’s past is relatively easy and often affordable. But once you get started and a pricey, rare object presents itself, will you be able to control yourself?

Here’s a list that will test whether you have the fever and an intense desire to hold personal computing history in your hands. It may also test your fiscal fitness.

You still have time to raise some scratch if you want to put in a bid on Charitybuzz’s annual auctioning-off of lunch with Tim Cook. The bidding is just barely into sextuple digits with a little under 10 days to go.

In addition to an epic meal time with the Apple CEO for a winner and their plus-one, the prize package also includes VIP passes to an Apple keynote. And of course, your donation will go to Cook’s favorite charity.

If you’ve ever wanted to lay your eyes on an original ultra-rare Apple-1 computer — and don’t happen to have a spare six-figures of disposable income lying around — now’s your chance.

That’s because Detroit’s Henry Ford Museum is showing off one of a handful of fully-operation Apple-1 mainboards as a celebration of how far computing (and Apple) has come over the past few decades. You’ll have to be quick, though, as the breakthrough computer is only on display from now until the end of the month.