Tech Throwback: The Apple 1

I like to take a look at where I’ve been to evaluate where Im going. Technology is cyclical after all… wait no its not. That said I still like all the feels that come rushing back like a flood of nostalgia every time I get my hand on the tech I grew up with. Im going to go back periodically and take a looking at the stuff that used to blow our hair back and get our minds rolling. Some of these device blew up and changed the world, some where ahead of their time and some just fell flat and became colossal failures. What do we have in store today? The Apple 1, lets talk about it.

The Apple 1

We all know the story, Jobs and Woz in the garage.  Yes, We know The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 at a price of US$666.66, because Wozniak “liked repeating digits” and because of a one-third markup on the $500 wholesale price. We know that the first unit produced was used in a high school math class, and donated to Liza Loop’s public access computer center.

There were only About 200 units were produced and all but 25 were sold during nine or ten months. We saw the movies made about it, like Jobs, Pirates of silicon valley, iGenius, Billion Dollar Hippy and my favorite Steve Jobs. There is very little we don’t know about the launch of the first real computer buy 2 genius college kids. But it is still fun to reminisce and marvel at the magic of it all.

The Apple I’s built-in computer terminal circuitry was distinctive. All one needed was a keyboard and a television set. Competing machines such as the Altair 8800 generally were programmed with front-mounted toggle switches and used indicator lights (red LEDs, most commonly) for output, and had to be extended with separate hardware to allow connection to a computer terminal or a teletypewriter machine.

Just 2 Guys and a Will

This little project launched a computer and tech revolution that is currently evolved in to the very device I’m typing this article with on the NYC subway. All our wildest dreams have come true in this best of all worlds to be living in and it started with 2 kids in a garage. Not to make a trillion dollars, not to launch a tech revolution but solely to push themselves and see what they could do in a world telling them they couldn’t.

The Final Thought

Now we are in a place where this now rare Apple 1 computer, one of only 200 originally built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak at fledgling Apple Computer in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1976, was sold at auction Tuesday for $375,000, auctioneer RR Auction and auction platform Invaluable said in a press release. The computer is 1 of only 16 of the originals known to still be fully functional, Invaluable CEO Rob Weisberg said. The companies did not identify the seller or the buyer but said the seller originally purchased the machine for $300 and had earlier tried to sell it to Wozniak for $10,000. fantastic, Thanks Steves.