Tomorrow is Steve Jobs’ 55th birthday. Many happy returns Steve.

Steve Jobs was born February 24, 1955.

To celebrate his birthday, we’re replaying Jobs’ great 2005 commencement speech to Stanford University’s graduating class.
Delivered just a year after being treated for cancer, Jobs is uncharacteristically open about life and death. If you’re interested in learning more about when Steve Jobs was born, check out this detailed look at his life and legacy.

Jobs tells three simple stories from his life, and they all include some some great advice. He advises to trust your gut, follow your heart and do what you love.

It’s a great speech. The video is 15 minutes long. If you haven’t seen it, you should.

The video and full transcript of the speech after the jump.

After Super Bowl Sunday… Monday morning. A single artery slightly to the left of my pineal gland pumps gin-infused headache into my frontal lobe in simultaneity with the overhead clock’s incessant tick.

How to write about Apple products when the aftermath of last night’s alcohol-soaked football madness makes me incapable of doing anything but watch that staccato timepiece twitch towards some impossibly far-off time: to when my fingers can type their way out of their tremens; to when my mouth isn’t ash-dry as the taste of the Colts’ humiliating defeat, when I can spill out words of a new Apple product or rumor as readily as I am — here, now, in hangover hell — to vomit up my spleen?

Tic. Tic. To the feeds. And suddenly, a way out of my nauseous, neuralgic writer’s block. A clock, just like the one torturing me, but created from the casing of an old iBook G4, with the pendulum of an Apple mouse flowing into upwards into churning horological guts.

An Etsy find, sure, and already sold out… but this I can write about. Now if only the feeds would spit out some Apple-inspired hangover cure, or a video from the Woz about why the New Orleans Saints suck. Perhaps then I’d somehow find a way to make my way through the day.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI898pp6rxI

Matt, whose website describes him as a “normal dude that likes to talk about Apple and technology in general,” made this “what-if” trip down memory lane — an alternate reality version of what the Apple website might have looked like from the pre-Internet days.

The farther back you go, the more fun it is, check out the “See Our Ads in Byte Magazine” button and a photo of Jobs & Woz that looks snapped in the founding garage.

For a longer trip down pseudo-memory lane,  check out his slideshow here.

Thanks to reader Thomas for the tip!

You might have missed Welcome to Macintosh when it debuted at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco earlier this year, and you may have chosen to save $15 by not picking it up on iTunes, but no need to fret : the indie documentary that intimately examines the history of Apple will be airing next Monday.

The documentary, which features interviews from Andry Hertzfeld, Guy Kawasaki, Jim Reekes and Ron Wayne, will air on CNBC on January 4th, 2010 at 9:30PM ET. Woz isn’t in it, but he liked it, describing it as “on the mark” and the best indepent film regarding Apple that he has seen. He also said how much he appreciated how “unbelievable” it was to see people “say that great of things about me.”

Ars Technica also liked Welcome to Macintosh: “”If you liked Pirates of Silicon Valley or read Revolution in the Valley, then this film is for you.”

So gentlemen, set your Tivos, then let me know if it’s worth the rent: we don’t exactly get CNBC over here in Germany.

[via TUAW, image via Thomas Marban]

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8FnACj25xM

Those purveyors of Apple-themed, auto-tuned hip-hop, the Pantless Riders, are back, two years after their first Mac or PC rap with a spoof of The Lonely Island’s I’m On A Boat.

Accompanied by the body-suit wearin’ P.C. Pain, the Pantless Riders’ message is the same as that of their last dropped beats — Macs rule — but it speaks more deeply to me, if only because I can’t help but laugh every time they surf through the stars on the facce of an iPhone or an iPod Nano, or Wozniak’s name gurgled through the servo-controlled voice box of a robot castrati.

[via Gizmodo]

With all the discussion of the New York Times’s bizarre decision to run a column that states as received wisdom that the iPhone’s poor network performance in the United States is Apple’s fault and not AT&T’s, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the track record of reporter Randall Stross with regard to Steve Jobs.

So I visited his website, and I remembered where I’d seen his name — on the cover of a book I read in high school that made a tech prognosis so spectacularly wrong that it’s occasionally used as a case study against proclaiming whether a particular technology is a winner or loser. That book? Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing. And its central premise was that Steve would never produce another tech industry hit. Seriously.

There’s another Apple 1 on the eBay auction block, this one comes with enough collateral to stand as its own museum exhibit.

The starting bid is $50,000, the auction is on for another two days.

The owner, who wished to remain anonymous, told us how this Apple artifact got there.

CoM: How did you get your hands on an Apple 1?

Anonymous Owner: I came to own the Apple 1 through a very convoluted story, but in short I found a guy in Minnesota who bought it from the original owner in 1990 and, eventually, he sold it to me.

CoM: What made you decide to sell it?

AO: It is killing me to sell it but I’m on very hard times and I’ve sold everything else of value. I want to keep this magnificent piece of history forever. There is no price I would willingly put on this item…but I have kids and of course that takes priority.

CoM: How did you decide the price?

AO: I set the opening price because a) an Apple 1 has sold for as much as $43k and b) if I have to sell my most prized possession and I sold it for an inadequate amount I’d have to take my life.
So, really, the price is all about saving lives. lol.

CoM: In the selling info, you say that Woz looked at it and said that it probably wouldn’t boot because the first batches of Apple 1s used a brand of chip they later replaced because they blew out easily.

How did you meet Woz?

There are only thought to be about 50 Apple 1s still in the wild, this is the second one up for auction on eBay in a month.

The last one sold for about $18,000, several thousand over its estimated value, to an anonymous computer collector who also tipped us off about the sale of this 1976 progenitor of the personal computer. The starting bid is $50,000.

So why is  this Apple 1 , which the seller states won’t boot up,  priced at 177% more than the other one?

It’s pretty much a capsule history of early Apple: the wise person who first bought it for Electric City Radio Supply in Montana kept everything — the invoice, the box (which shows the return address as Steve Jobs’ parents house), a cassette with BASIC,  the operation manual and a typed letter on ring binder paper from Steve Jobs answering questions about it, including how to hook up a keyboard. Even  if you don’t have the cash, the photos are worth checking out.

We wrote to the seller, more when we hear back.

Hit the jump for the letter signed “Steven Jobs” on notebook paper and more details…

On October 3, a collector bought a rare Apple 1 on eBay for $18,000. The computer, one of about 50 thought to be still in existence, had an estimated value of $14,000 – $16,000.

Back in July 1976, the Apple I sold for $666.66; there were 200 of them hand made by Steve Wozniak. Sold in a kit,  it came with 4KB standard memory,  you could bump up to 8KB or 48KB with expansion cards. You had to add your own case, keyboard and display. (If you’d like to see one, check out the Smithsonian.)

The seller of this Apple 1, Monroe Postman, wasn’t even sure if it would still work.

So, who would pay $18,000 for an Apple I?

A  self-defined “PC person,” who believes that today’s Macs are overpriced. The collector, who wishes to remain anonymous for now, may one day launch a computer museum.

And perhaps trade that PC for a modern Mac.

Interview by Leander Kahney.

CoM: Why did you buy it?

I have been collecting vintage computers for number of years. Obviously, original Apple I is a dream for any serious computer collector and for me, this dream came through.

I have 150+ vintage computers in my collection, which I try to maintain in working order. Occasionally, I take some to local middle and high schools to show to the students. I have an exact working Apple I replica, which is always a hit. Students love playing Lunar Lander.

CoM: What are you going to do with it?

One of those days, I am planning to open a real “museum” for public and the Apple I will take one of the central places.

CoM: What does your spouse/significant other think of it?

Even though my wife is in the computer business herself, she does not pay much attention to my hobby. Obviously, $18K raised her brow, but she understood it in the end.

More pics, full interview after the jump.

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.