✍🏼 Jobs ad

August 28, 2023

IN THIS ISSUE

✍🏼 Steve Jobs' handwritten ad fetches big bucks at auction

🛰️ SpaceX Crew-7 arrives safely at the space station

🌇 Silicon Valley elite want to build a new city

🎾 AI-powered commentators coming to the U.S. Open

UP FIRST

Steve Jobs' handwritten ad goes up for auction

The lot, signed by 'Steven Jobs,' fetched much more than expected

A draft ad for the first Apple computer, handwritten by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, fetched $175,759 at a recent auction – six times more than expected.

The piece of paper also includes Jobs’ signature in lowercase print, along with his parents' home address and phone number.

According to Apple historian Corey Cohen, the tech specs of Jobs’ draft for the ad line up with the original ad for the Apple-1, which first appeared in the July 1976 issue of Interface Magazine.

“This first marketing blitz granted Apple the requisite funding to evolve from ‘two guys in a garage’ to two of the most influential figures of the late 20th century,” the RR Auction listing says.

As ads go, you couldn’t get simpler, with the penned content containing little more than the tech specs of Apple’s first computer. It’s certainly a far cry from the company’s iconic 1984 ad that appeared eight years later.

SPACE STATION

SpaceX Crew-7 arrives safely at the space station

The crew hail from four countries, with two members heading to space for the first time

SpaceX has once again used its reusable rocket system to send four more astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

The crew includes one woman and three men from the U.S., Denmark, Japan, and Russia.

SpaceX’s Crew-7 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the early hours of Saturday aboard a Dragon spacecraft and arrived at the orbital outpost on Sunday.

After an autonomous docking procedure, the four crew members entered the ISS facility where they were greeted by the seven existing inhabitants. Four of those are members of Crew-6 and will be returning to Earth in the coming days following a six-month stay in space.

Following Saturday’s launch, NASA chief Bill Nelson described the Crew-7 mission as a "shining example of the power of both American ingenuity and what we can accomplish when we work together.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Silicon Valley elite want to build a new city

It could offer homes, jobs, and facilities to tens of thousands of people

A group of Silicon Valley billionaires are believed to be backing a secretive company that has been buying up land near San Francisco as part of a reported plan to build an entire city from scratch.

According to the New York Times, some of those pushing the project include the likes of Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, and Marc Andreessen, co-founder of one of the Valley's most famous venture capital firms, and also the co-founder of the old Netscape browser.

Reports suggest that the pitch shown to potential investors says the new city would be a bustling metropolis capable of generating thousands of jobs and be as walkable as Paris or the West Village in New York City. It could also play a part in easing the housing shortage in the Bay Area.

Flannery Associates, named by the Times as the company behind the project, has reportedly spent as much as $800 million in recent years on multiple land purchases – including thousands of acres of farmland – so that it can build the new city. But before any construction can begin, it’ll need the green light from local officials.

COMING SOON

AI-powered commentators coming to the U.S. Open

But it seems that the jobs of human commentators are safe ... for now

AI-powered commentary is coming to the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, which starts in New York tomorrow.

The technology, which will feature on the tournament’s official website and app, has been developed by IBM using models built, trained, and deployed with WatsonX, the tech giant’s AI and data platform.

"Fans accessing the U.S. Open digital experiences this year will be able to experience every singles match, across all 17 courts, with detailed audio narration and captions accompanying each video, thanks to the power of IBM's WatsonX generative AI, specifically trained on the language of tennis," IBM said.

The company also collaborated with the Wimbledon Tennis Championships a couple of months ago to deploy the same AI-powered commentary for some of the matches there, though mainstream broadcasters – up to now – are choosing to retain human commentators for the big matches on the show courts.

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