Month: February 2023

Enlarge / The original iPhone started at $499 for 4GB in 2007. (credit: Getty)

When we reviewed the first iPhone in 2007, one of our top complaints was that the phone was locked to AT&T. At the time, carrier lock-in discouraged Karen Green, a Verizon customer, from opening an iPhone she received as a gift. What was once a limiting inconvenience has led to Green making big bucks, as that unopened iPhone was recently auctioned for $63,356.40—10,477 percent more than the $599 it cost about 16 years ago.

The first iPhone's specs are laughable by today's standards and include 8GB of Samsung flash memory storage, a 2MP camera (decent for a camera phone at the time), and a 3.5-inch LCD screen.

As reported by Business Insider on Monday, Green sold the phone via LCG Auctions to fund her business after seeing how much other unopened first-generation iPhones had sold for recently. In August, one auctioned for $35,414, and in October, another unopened 2007 iPhone sold for $39,339.60. The auction for Green's phone, which closed on Sunday, greatly surpassed those sales.

Enlarge / Toyota has shown us plenty of electric vehicle concepts and renderings but last year built just 24,000 battery EVs. (credit: Toyota)

It's all change at the top of the world's largest car maker. Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder and CEO since 2009, is being replaced by former Lexus boss Koji Sato as Toyota's new president and CEO. Toyoda will assume the role of company chairman.

The management changes are seen in large part as the company responding to a need to embrace battery-electric vehicles, a huge growth area in the industry but one that Toyota has seemingly neglected in favor of hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

At a press conference, Sato and his new management team faced many questions about the company's BEV strategy—or lack thereof. BEVs are important to the company, but "this is by no means a rapid change of direction toward BEVs," Sato said.

Enlarge / SpaceX has built a site to launch the world's largest rocket in South Texas. (credit: SpaceX)

Everything is bigger in Texas, or so the saying goes. When it comes to investing in commercial space, it just might be true.

As part of the state's biennial budget process, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called on the state legislature to provide $350 million to create and fund a Texas Space Commission for the next two years.

"With companies seeking to expand space travel in coming years, continued development of the space industry in the state will ensure Texas remains at the forefront not only in the United States, but the entire world," Abbott stated in his budget document for the 88th Legislature. "Further investment will cement Texas as the preeminent location for innovation and development in this rapidly growing industry. Due to increased competition from other states and internationally, further planning and coordination is needed to keep Texas at the cutting edge."