World News for Students of English

12-12-2014 15:00

Long before the iPod, the iPhone and the black turtlenecks, there was this – the Apple-1 personal computer.

This working model of the rare machine was sold by late Apple founder Steve Jobs right outside of his parents’ garage in 1976 for 600 dollars. Now, it’s about to go on sale at auction and is expected to fetch more than half a million dollars.

The so-called Ricketts Apple-1 personal computer, named after original owner Charles Ricketts, is the only known machine of that model documented to have been directly sold by Jobs from his family home in Los Altos, California.

And as original cofounder of Apple Ron Wayne explains, the creation of the Apple-1 was a historic milestone in personal computing.

“It was monumental because until that time Jobs and Wozniak were the members or participants in a computer club where they took business machines and took bits and pieces and distilled them down into personal computer applications, but not very efficiently. And what Woz did, was to sit down and design extremely efficient circuit specifically arranged to serve as a personal computer. This had never been done before. And while it was very low-powered, incredibly low power, nonetheless it was a machine focused for personal use. The first time it had ever been done. And that was the basis of it.”

The Ricketts Apple-1 will be sold as part of Christie’s inaugural exceptional sale in New York later this month.

Difficult words: turtleneck (a sweater that has a high, round close-fitting neck), rare (there are not many of something), late (dead), milestone (point in time when something changes), monumental (of great importance), distill (break into parts), efficient (quick and useful), circuit (a complete and closed path around which electricity can flow), inaugural (marking the beginning of an institution), exceptional (special).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com