5 Most Expensive Apple Products Ever

An Apple product can make you go gaga. It makes the owner feel holding something which defines geek and glamour. The feel, of course is good, but the price, will definitely make you think twice. If you thought iPhone is very expensive, read on to know some Apple products which cost mind blowing sum.

#5 Apple I Computer 

The first brainchild of Jobs and Wozniak, originally had a price tag of $666.66. If you own any of the 200 Apple I computers now, then you are a rich guy. The antique computing device can fetch you as much as 500 times its original price.

An auction by Christie’s sold Apple I for more than $212,000 in November 2010, the item included a signed letter by Jobs.

Sotheby’s, an auction house, put a working Apple I for auction in June this year, expecting a bidding of $150,000. But the devise was sold for $374,500, about 500 times its original price. Winner was an anonymous telephone bidder.  

#4 Founding Documents

 The founding documents of Apple Inc were sold to a sum which could equal as much as 8,000 iPhones.

The founding documents were signed by co-founders Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne on April 1, 1976. The three page agreement laid foundation to the Apple Computer Co. At that time there were no soothsayers to guess what fortune it can make or how big it can be. Jobs and Wozniak owned each 45 percent and Wayne, the remaining 10 percent. However Wayne pulled himself off the contract, forfeiting his ownership.

At Sotheby’s auction house, the initial bidding for the document began at $ 70,000 and was expected to reach $100,000 to $150,000. The house was in surprise when the document was sold to a sum of $1.6 million, about ten times the estimated price. Eduardo Cisneros, a media and entertainment mogul piped in the winning bid.

The simple company which had humble beginning at a garage has made inroads in to tech innovation, and in to human psyche.

#3 Silk screened logo by Andy Warhol

Getting your hands on any piece of art by Warhol is an expensive desire, and with Apple logo it could be whopping $26,000.

The art piece is a silk screen color print from the mid-1980s, part of Andy Warhol’s “ADS” portfolio, depicting Apple’s classic rainbow logo, it had Warhol’s sign in the corner.

The silk screen artwork was commissioned by former Apple executive Del Yocam, according to auction house O’Gallerie. And it was sold to an anonymous bidder for $26,000 in May 2009. If you think only devices can be expensive; then think again. 

#4 First trade sign

This is the first banner which is used to identify the company and promote it during trade shows at the time of its start-up era, in 1976. Eventually, this wood-framed, Plexiglas, 8 by 4 inch long sign board was placed at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters. However Jobs ordered a replacement sign board, and threw the old one in a dumpster.

M. Thomas Liggett Jr, grabbed the sign board, which was just lying in a dumpster for more than 30 years. Guess what, he sold it for incredible $18,000 in 2008. Literally found fortune from dustbin!

#5 Steve Wozniak's toolbox 

 

If you think tool box come cheap, then read on to know how expensive it could be.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak used a tool box while building Apple I and Apple II in late 1970s. And it was a norm in that era; all the Apple engineers used these blue tool boxes to carry on with their work with computers.

When Wozniak stopped using his tool box, he left it lying in some dumpsters at company’s headquarters.

When it was auctioned, the toolbox was empty, with just a self adhesive label of Wozniak’s full name; it was sold to whopping $7000 in 2009. Yes a tool box can be this expensive, even if it’s empty.

    

Apple to launch iPad HD instead of iPad 3 and iPad 2S

Sources reported last week that the snapshots of the Apple’s iPad 3 have been appeared online and the Cupertino-based IT company is scheduling to launch two new tablets, the first will be the iPad 3 and the another one will be the iPad Mini, which is rumored to have a 7.85-inch touch-display.

Now latest reports from various reliable sources including CNET, Apple Insider and Mashable expect that neither iPad 3 nor iPad 2S will be introduced by Apple Inc., it’s time to speculate the ‘iPad HD’.

There are lots of rumors circulating on the web, indicating that the upcoming tablet from Apple will be the iPad HD. However, TechCrunch newly reported that Apple will hold an event on March 7 for the launch of its new tablet PC but it appears that it won’t be iPad 2S or the iPad 3.

iPad HD

If the company is planning to unveil its new iPad HD tablet, then we can anticipate it to bring HD 8-MP camera, quad-core CPU, incredible HD Retina Display with 2048 × 1536p resolution.

Gizmodo, the leading tech-news publishing website also published news about it and said that several third-party sources have detailed us about the Apple’s next iPad and it might be possible that it will be called as iPad HD. However, all the details concerning new iPad release are far from real but it is coming from several trusted sources.

The images of the upcoming iPad HD have also been leaked this week from Fix-iPhones, the leading iOS devices repair lab. According to the image, it shows that the iPad HD will have a very similar look like the iPad 2.

9to5Mac also detailed about the pricing details of the iPad HD and it seems like it will bring similar price tags like iPad 2. The 16GB WI-Fi only edition will be priced around 399 GBP and 16GB WI-Fi + 3G edition will cost you at 499 GBP.

iPad3 with 'Retina Display' Coming in March

Apple is holding an event in March where the company will introduce its latest iPad 3. The next generation iPad will have faster chips and better graphics, Xinhua reported quoting the technology news site AllThingsD. The report states, “Sources say the company has chosen the first week in March to debut the successor to the iPad 2, and will do so at one of its trademark special events. The event will be held in San Francisco, presumably at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple’s preferred location for big announcements like these”.

iPad3

The new tablet, which will probably be named iPad 3, will feature a Retina Display or something close to it. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S have Retina Display. As the human eye can only see around 300 pixels per inch, the screen of these smartphones have 326 pixels per inch, making texts and images look more similar to a high quality printed version.

The AllThingsD report adds, the device will be similar in form factor to the iPad 2, but will be running a much faster chip, sporting an improved graphics processing unit, and featuring a 2048×1536 Retina Display. The Apple spoke person has not commented anything about the timing of the event and the availability of this new device in stores.

It expected that the device will follow the same schedule as that of the iPad 2, which was available in stores about a week after the event. All Indian Apple fans can hope that iPad3 will be released soon in India.

Will Apple Launch iPad3 in March?

The rumor about Apple’s iPad3 has started again, even though Apple has not commented any statements regarding the launch. It is said that iPad 3 will be coming this March and has already started ramping up the production, with features like high-definition retina display, latest quad-core processor and will also have LTE (long term evolution) network support, reports Bloomberg.

Apple iPad3

According to Digitimes, Apple will ship iPad 3 in March and then iPad 4 in October. iPad 3 will come with a QXGA (Quantum Extended Graphics Array) display with 1536x2048 pixels of resolution and a longer battery life. iPad 4 will be upgraded with hardware specifications and will have integrated apps to compete with Android and Windows tablets.

The iPad 3 is expected to bring up big time revenue for Apple in the upcoming year. Apple will also be cutting the price of iPad 2 to compete with other tablet makers like Samsung, Toshiba, Acer, HP and Motorola.

ToutApp: Apple App to Summarizes Your Gmail Activities

ToutApp is the answer to all your questions regarding your mails for the entire year. ToutApp has launched a free app that will keep an eye and account on your number of mails sent, received, and even the rate at which they were replied to, for your Gmail account. This app creates a summary of your email for whole of the year. It shows the frequently used emails and also busiest email month, day of the week and also hour.

Toutut Application

ToutApp also monitors the outbound emails with similar contents, which is very helpful professionally for entrepreneurs, investors, and various companies. It keeps record of repetitive emails and copy-and-pasted emails by keepings them in drafts, which can be modified or personalized with a few clicks. All these records are generally shown graphically and are hence quite helpful to keep an eye on your frequently used emails by friends and followers. It allows users to overwrite in the templates by auto-filling the name, company or location. The users can also use CC and BCC or even auto-attach files to a draft.

Interesting side of the ToutApp is that the records can be tracked both for views and clickthroughs, so the user can know when the mail recipient has opened it and is planning a response. By all this, the emailing process can become quicker and accessing the email analytics across your business becomes more comfortable.

Apples Demand from Developers: 10 Essential Rules

As any good designer in App Development will tell you, great implementation of an impressive feature is only the beginning. But for an iPhone app that has to get approved by Apple, presentation that goes hand in hand with logic, purpose, and structure of the app is vital.

10 principles of designing good apps that could prove handy will gain your app an entry into the list apps approved by Apple are as follows:

1. Idea-mapping

You're not going to get anywhere until you have a clear idea for yourself of what you aim to make, so map your ideas, and set a clear purpose for this app.

2. Ergonomics

The UI should be spotless, so the user would want to tap them. Its buttons must be such that the user knows what they do at a glance, and most importantly, at the first time.

3. User's Needs

One might not know what one needs until one sees it on screen. Bear in mind what the user will and will not require on each page. Less clutter makes things a lot clearer, so do not fear white space.

4. Beauty

Transitions, animations and even the buttons every bit of visual feedback needs to be visually appealing, while fitting the theme of the app. Make sure the animations serve to clarify what the user could do with the apps.

5. Mobile = Tactile

The way the user gets to control touch is important. Make sure the control system you design is engaging yet touch-optimized. Make defaults intelligent, and yet easy to do away with, or easy to customize.

6. Iteration

Keep in mind to not plan too much, but keep playing with the design as much as possible and gauge the UI's effectiveness.

It is vital to think of every possible button/element on every screen.

7. Clarity

Make clear to the user what he/she has control over. Jargons would sound impressive to a hard-core techie, but they would lose value to one who has no idea what you mean.

8. Elegance

The implementation of all the above should be smooth. Not only would the user-interface be good to look at it should also be easy-to-use. One such way to do this would be to use buttons that are of 'tap-able' size.

9. Polish the App Icon

The icon represents your App, so make sure it shows the user what he/she can do with it.

10. Honest pricing

Although it is tempting to price the app according to the work you put into designing it, it would be best to price it according to how often the user would turn to it. Test often with subjects, who would give you honest, yet varied feedback.

Analysts shave iPad sales estimates

Some stock analysts are scaling back their estimates for iPad sales, in part due to the bargain-priced Amazon Kindle Fire.

Another reason for a possible slowdown in growth is because some buyers are waiting for the iPad 3, expected early in 2012. Some analysts also speculate that Apple has won the early adopter market but will find it harder to entice the next round of buyers.

ANALYSIS: Tablet throwdown: Amazon Kindle Fire vs. Apple iPad 2

So far this month, three analysts have trimmed their iPad forecasts for the current quarter, according to Investor's Business Daily. Keep in mind that all three expect strong iPad sales for this period, just not as much as they expected previously. Shaw Wu, of Sterne Agee, dropped his forecast to 13.5 million units from 15 million, the largest cutback. Michael Walkley, of Canaddord Genuity, lowered his target to 13 million, from 14 million. Mark Moskowitz, of J.P. Morgan, trimmed his estimate the least: to 13 million, from 13.3 million.

"Maybe the tablet market is not as big as people had thought," Wu said, quoted in the IBD story. "Remember all the talk about how tablets are going to take over PCs? I'm not in that camp. A lot of people were. Maybe not anymore."

Another variable is the expected success of Amazon's new Kindle Fire media tablet, despite having received mixed reviews by pundits and tech analysts. This week, Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt said that many reviewers "strategically misunderstood" the new tablet. Amazon is not trying to match the iPad, he says. Instead, it's creating a "large content ecosystem" that plays well with the low-priced Kindle. That combination, he says, "will more than make up for its technical inferiority to the iPad."

Part of the appeal is the price difference. The Kindle Fire, with a 7-inch screen, is $199; the 9.7-inch iPad 2 starts at $499.

But Forrester Research recently predicted that Amazon would sell about 5 million of the new models by Jan. 31, 2012, less than half of projected iPad sales, but enough to make it a very distant No. 2 in the tablet market behind Apple.

Analysts are still bullish on Apple's current quarter. Several, according to the IBD story, have boosted their profit and sales projections due to stronger sales of iPhones and Mac computers.

Apple Introduces New Emoticons, Emoji

It is reported that the latest version of iOS 5, can be availed with an installed library of emoji that can be turned on as an "international keyboard" in the device's settings. This is the company‘s latest software update to its iphone. The new Emoticons, Emoji will enable users to send cartoony pictures instead of text messages. Suppose you want to invite your friend for a party instead of sending her a text message, you can send her a cartoony image of two clinching mugs.

The Emoji

The Emoji, are said to be the elaborate cousins of emoticons, which are creative of colons, parentheses and other punctuation that after seeing into a text message or e-mail people use to drop a facial expression. However unlike emoticons, emoji do not need you to tilt your head sideways to understand the image. The Emoji are a kind of pictorial alphabet installed on a phone that can be displayed in place of the regular keyboard, making it easy to tap out a visual message. Outside their inherent Japan, emoji have been availed by the in-the-know smartphone users for some time via add-on applications. However now they may be on the verge of getting established.

Furthermore, Apple has not commented on its decision to add emoji, however it was most likely driven last year by a worldwide standardization of the format that was meant to ensure that an Image of a cute cat will still look similar on a different phone globally. The move has put emoji on the radar of many more iPhone and iPod Touch owners.

Apple Television Rumored to Come in 3 Sizes

Apple's full-fledged television set will arrive at the end of 2012 in three screen sizes, maxing out at 55 inches, a new rumor claims. Citing sources in Japan, Australia's SmartHouse reported this week that the new Apple television will also come in an entry-level size of 32 inches.

Apple Television

It did not indicate exactly what screen size the third model would feature, falling somewhere between the low end with 32 inches and maximum size of 55 inches.
The report said it's a "major Japanese company" that's involved in manufacturing Apple's rumored television set.

The report also said that the Apple television will feature Siri integration, allowing users to control the TV set with their voice. Powering the rumored television will be a new processor expected to debut in Apple's third-generation iPad, which the publication said will arrive "midway through 2012."

Presumably that processor will be an "A6" custom-built ARM-based CPU. Apple's anticipated high-end 55 inch model is expected to compete with "smart TVs" from established television makers like Samsung and LG. Those companies next-generation TV sets are expected to have new features like faster processors, a "combination of OLED display," and "Super HD" from LG, the report said.

Rumors of an Apple television set have picked up steam since the release of the authorized biography of Steve Jobs. In that book, Jobs hinted to biographer Walter Isaacson that Apple was at work on a completely new device that would feature "the simplest user interface you could imagine."

Reports have suggested that Apple's anticipated television set could arrive as early as mid 2012, while others have seen Apple announcing it in late 2012 for an early 2013 sale date.

Shortest Lived IT Products

 

 

Apple Power G4 cube

When a company invests in a product, it expects the product to do well, but some products fail to keep up with the company’s repute. Here are few products, which saw the daylight for a very short span of time.


Apple’s Power Mac G4 Cube, a sleek Mac desktop computer, was introduced in 2000 and discontinued in 2001. The Cube had a PowerPC G4 processor and an unconventional vertical slot for loading CDs or DVDs. It required a monitor with an ADC or VGA connection, and had an upgradable video card in the AGP slot. The Cube was criticized for being more expensive (it costed $1799) AND less-equipped than the Power Mac G4. The initial versions of the Cube had a manufacturing defect, leading to faint lines in the plastic case. Apple tried to boost the sales by offering more software with the Cube, lowering the price of the base model, and redesigning the unconventional CD-DVD drive, but none of these efforts could save the Cube. Apple announced that it was discontinuing the Cube in July 2001.

Apple Chooses Sharp for New iPad 3 Screens

Apple has announced that it will not be placing orders with Samsung for the new iPad 3 touch screens. Apple has decided to go with Sharp for the new LCD screens. The relationship involves Apple investing in some of Sharp's Japanese manufacturing facilities. Specifically, Sharp's Kameyama No. 2 plant in central Japan is tipped to manufacturer LCD panels for Apple's next iPad expected in 2012.

Apple IPad

Sharp, an existing supplier of iPhone and iPod touch panels will also be making panels for Apple's next generation iPhone. Apple is just looking to get a better deal on components, maybe to reduce selling prices to a more competitive range. Apple has new products on the way, like the iPad 3, the iPhone 5 and the rumored Apple iTV.