Apple:

> Starting today, Apple is celebrating the holidays at Apple Store locations and apple.com with the launch of the Holiday Gift Guide and personalized holiday cards from Today at Apple.

Here’s a link to the gift guide. Be sure to click on all five category buttons. The one labeled “All Gifts” is misleading, since there are things in other categories that aren’t listed in All Gifts.

There’s also this downloadable Keynote template you can use to make holiday cards, if that’s your thing.

And if you are in New York City:

> Customers in New York can receive free, onsite engraving of new AirPods purchased or picked up at Apple Fifth Avenue.

Happy Holidays!

Christian Martinez, Los Angeles Times:

> On Tuesday, John Moran Auctioneers will auction off a functioning Apple-1 computer hand-built by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and others in a Los Altos, Calif., garage in 1976. The system was the rock upon which the trillion-dollar Apple empire was built.

And:

> The unit is dubbed the “Chaffey College Apple-1″ because its first owner was identified as a Chaffey professor. It was unearthed from the Rancho Cucamonga home of a former Chaffey student who had purchased it from the professor for $650 in 1977.
>
> The student, who wishes to remain anonymous until after the sale, held on to the computer for the next four decades.

Fascinating that the Apple 1 has become a collectible holy grail. Guessing this has to do with Apple rising from being doomed to one of the biggest companies in the world, changing the world several times over, redefining marketplaces with products like iPod, iPhone, iMac, and Apple Watch, to name a few.

Worth following the headline link to check out the picture of the computer, in its original Byte Shop, koa-wood case.

Even better, follow this link to the auction itself and put in a bid.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

> The United States Justice Department today announced that it has arrested Ukrainian Yaroslav Vasinskyi for his involvement with REvil, a group that executed ransomware attacks against businesses and government entities in the United States.

And:

> REvil in April targeted Apple supplier Quanta Computer and stole schematics of the design of the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models that were later released in October. The schematics unveiled MacBook Pro features like additional ports and the design of the notch, and REvil extorted Apple by threatening to release additional documents if the Cupertino company didn’t pay a $50 million fee.

And:

> REvil continued on with its illicit activities and in May, was responsible for a cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline that caused gas shortages on the East Coast of the United States. In July, REvil took advantage of a vulnerability in management software designed for Kaseya, targeting between 800 and 1,500 businesses worldwide.

Also interesting, from Krebs on Security:

> The U.S. Department of State is now offering up to $10 million for the name or location any key REvil leaders, and up to $5 million for information on REvil affiliates.

Here’s a link to the indictment itself.

José Adorno, 9to5Mac:

> Apple introduced the new line of MacBook Pro last October during its “Unleashed” event. With impressive improvements over the most recent Intel chips and even the M1 processor, the company has been very successful with the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.
>
> With that in mind, lots of tech companies are upgrading their staffs’ Macs with the incredibly powerful M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64 GB of RAM.

The reasoning is captured in this tweet from Twitter’s John Szumski:

Read José’s post for more examples but, in a nutshell, this is tech companies doing the math and recognizing that a new, high-end MacBook Pro would easily pay for itself in time savings.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen this sort of no-brainer purchase equation with Apple gear. One example this reminds me of is when Apple first rolled out the LaserWriter, one of the very first mass market laser printers. Back then, loaded Macs and LaserWriters became no-brainer purchases for high-end art departments. Game changers.