Would you like a slice of Apple history?

 

                                                                        Picture courtesy of Sotheby's

     This is the Original contract signed by apple founder Ronald G. Wayne along with Steve Jobs and Ronald G. Wayne. It is planned for it to go to auction on the 13th of december to go to action and its estimated value is 150K. Would you pay so much for it? Many historians and Apple "fans" would. Apple's original partnership agreement, signed on April 1, 1976, by Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Apple's "forgotten founder," Ron Wayne. According to Walter Isaacson in his new "Steve Jobs" biography, Jobs signed the document in lower-case letters, "Wozniak in careful cursive and Wayne in an illegible squiggle." The three signed the document in Wayne's apartment and split the profit in the company not equally: Jobs and Wozniak both got 45%; Wayne, who came to the confab late as a consultant of sorts, got a 10% share. He later received an additional $1,500 payment. Bad move, right? His stock options today would be worth more than $30 billion. Many people say its history and others say is not that valuable. What do you believe? How much would you pay for if it was so valuable to you?

                                                                     -Gustavo

Google Offers Indoor Maps for Android

Photo Credits Here

Google is bringing its mapping technology to the great indoors.  With the launch of Google Maps 6.0 on Tuesday, users of mobile devices running Android OS 2.1 and anything newer will have the ability to use Google Maps not just to get directions to an Ikea, Macy's, or to several airports, but also to figure out how to navigate the places and find housewares, ATMs and their airline boarding gates inside the building.  There are a few problems though.  For example, the release is limited. Google's launch partners include 18 U.S. airports, including some of the biggest, such as Chicago O'Hare International, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and San Francisco International airports.  Some large stores, such as Ikea, Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Home Depot, have already been mapped, but other stores such as Target and Wal-Mart haven't been. There aren't nearly as many malls mapped as shoppers would like this holiday season though.  In upcoming years who knows, peoples phones may be telling them every turn to make, the directions, and even when to start and stop moving so that they can go everywhere and anywhere, inside or out, with their eyes closed.

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Jacob Saslavsky

Jacob's Lead and Nut Graph

Lead - When you walk into an apple store to buy your new iPhone, most people think something like I am so excited to get my new iPhone.  What most people do not think about is how hard it must be to orchestrate the process of getting the products into all of the stores on time.  For people like Laurie Weinstein this process is their life.

Nut graph – Laurie Weinstein is the director of product distribution for the Americas for apple.  She always has work getting apple products to stores and dealing with the difficulties associated with the job.

Weekly Geek and Poke

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-Beck Goodloe

World of Warcraft Gold to Equate to the Dollar?

On August 9, 2011, Treasure Secretary Timothy Geithner proposed that the US turn WOW gold into legal currency. Recently, this proposal has raised controversy, as many republicans object to the move. “This is nothing but wealth redistribution,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Nearly all of World of Warcraft wealth is held by the nations poorest 5%. Making World of Warcraft Gold into legal tender is part of a radical socialist agenda that we must stop at all costs.” Democrats have come to Geithner’s aid though. Together, they have begun a campaign to marry the dollar to WOW gold. “World of Warcraft has an economy that is strong and trustworthy, and attaching our economy to this one is an important step in getting our country back on track,” explained Geithner. “By marrying the dollar to World of Warcraft gold, we may be able to achieve the economic strength enjoyed by Dwarven Miners, or the Blood Elves.” High-level gamers have also begun to jump into the argument, many of whom vehemently oppose the idea. Their reasons? WOW gold is too valuable and combining it with the US dollar would only drag down the idea. To back their argument, the gamers told us that +3 enchanted shoulder pads would cost millions of US dollars, whereas it runs for 500 gold in WOW. Despite the opposition, analysts predict that the idea will pass through Congress quickly, but there is no telling what will happen in the senate, or even how the President will react. Until then, we will just have to wait and see how things play out.

Check out the whole story here!

-Beck Goodloe

Ben's Nut Graph and Lead

Lead: As you walk into the light clean office of the director of communications, you get a sense of how things are run. Papers in neat stacks and nothing is out of place. The great view from the window shows the rolling trees and the hills of Austin. This is the office of PR and communications head, Kathy Thrift.

Nut Graph: Kathy Thrift is the director of communications at the Texas County and District Retirement System; a pension fund that deals with almost every county in the state of Texas. She deals with public relations and controls the flow of almost all public information that represents the fund. As technology advances, Kathy’s job is to implement new technologies into the workplace and display the ideals and views of the company. She wants to use these new technologies to make it easier for users of the fund to become interactive with their plan, get updates, and learn new information.