A science project that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs built for his 8th-grade science fair sold at auction for $34,375.


Jobs was attending Cupertino Jr. High when he designed the project, which is titled "What is the SCR?" The lot includes a display board built from plywood with three explanatory panels and a 10-page report with the same title.

The left panel has a wooden model of a "typical silicon-controlled rectifier with its four alternate layers of P- and N-Type semiconductor material," while the center test circuits demonstrate the basic principles and characteristics of the silicon-controlled rectifier, as well as how it is most widely used. The right panel has a diagram and description of a 25-amp silicon-controlled rectifier.

The project is labeled with Jobs' name, and the accompanying report is titled "What is the Silicon-Controlled Rectifier by Steve Jobs, Science, Mrs. Yakel, Feb. 29, 1968."

A note included on the project instructs judges to plug in Circuit II and the oscilloscope to see it operate, and it asks them to "please unplug!" the device after testing it.

Jobs' science fair project came from John Chovanec, Jobs' stepbrother. Chovanec's mother, Marilyn, married Paul Jobs in 1990 and continued to live in the Jobs family home in Los Altos. After Paul Jobs died in 1993, Steve Jobs declined to collect some of his personal belongings that remained in the home. Chovanec apparently asked Jobs to collect the items several times and at one point said he would keep the items himself instead. "Fine, but I don't want to be bothered about it again," Jobs reportedly responded.

Chovanec previously sold other items from Jobs' early years, including posters, magazines, bow ties, a desk, and more. A 1977 Apple Computer poster sold for $659,900, while an Apple–1 Byte Shop wooden case owned by Jobs sold for $254,375. The bow ties sold for $113,580.
This article, "Steve Jobs' 8th Grade Science Project Sells for $34,375" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple announced new Mac mini machines this week, and the lower-end models include the first M6 chip. The M6 era will be a little complicated, because few Macs are going to get it. We won't have M6 Pro or M6 Max chips, which shakes up the Mac lineup for the next couple of years.

Devices With M6

The ‌Mac mini‌ is the first Mac with an M6, but the chip is going to come to a couple of other products in the lineup.

• MacBook Pro - The 14-inch entry-level MacBook Pro could be updated with an M6 chip in October 2026.


• iMac - The 24-inch iMac is also expected to get the M6 chip, likely around the time the ‌MacBook Pro‌ is updated.


• MacBook Air - The MacBook Air could get the M6 chip in early 2027.


• iPad Pro - The next iPad Pro could get the M6 chip.


• iPad Air - A future version of the iPad Air is likely to adopt the M6. Apple usually keeps the ‌iPad Air‌ processor one generation behind the ‌iPad Pro‌.

M6 Pro and M6 Max

Apple isn't going to make M6 Pro or M6 Max chips, according to Bloomberg, so the M6 will be the first standalone Apple silicon chip that won't have more powerful variants.

Instead of manufacturing M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, Apple is speeding up its chip development timeline to bring the M7 Pro and M7 Max to market more quickly. The M7 Pro and M7 Max will have technologies that support on-device AI and GPU-intensive software, so they better meet growing demand for processors with those capabilities.

M5 Makes Up the Gap

Macs that would have used an M6 Pro or M6 Max chip are going to be stuck with the M5 Pro and M5 Max until the M7 family is ready. That means the high-end OLED "MacBook Ultra" we're expecting in late 2026 or early 2027 is going to use the same M5 Pro and M5 Max chips that are in the current ‌MacBook Pro‌ models. It's also possible it will get the M5 Ultra.

The new ‌Mac mini‌ also got the M5 Pro instead of an M6 Pro chip. The new Mac Studio announced alongside the ‌Mac mini‌ uses M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips.

Short Life Span

The M6 isn't going to be around for long, because Apple plans to launch the M7 in the first half of 2027. The M7 Pro and M7 Max will follow at the end of the year.

M6 Features

The M6 is Apple's first chip built on a new 2-nanometer process that increases transistor density on a smaller die. The process change improves performance and efficiency.

It has a 12-core CPU with what Apple says is the world's fastest CPU core, a larger 12-core GPU with Neural Accelerators for each core, a new Dual 16-core Neural Engine, and up to 170GB/s memory bandwidth.

The GPU has updated shader core architecture, Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and 50 percent higher geometry rates for complex graphics.
This article, "Which Macs Will Get an M6 Chip and Which Won't?" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Tim Cook shared an inside look at the work he is doing behind the scenes as he prepares to step down as Apple's CEO next week. Cook has been preparing incoming CEO John Ternus for the transition over the last several months, and today he introduced Ternus to popular Pokémon character Pikachu.


Cook said he and Ternus met with the Pokémon team to talk gaming. The accompanying video features Pikachu exploring the Apple Park campus, including dancing under the rainbow arch and picking an apple from the orchard.


It's not clear why the Pokémon team was at ‌Apple Park‌, but Cook first met Pikachu in September 2025 on a trip to Japan for the reopening of Apple Ginza in Tokyo.

There are several Pokémon-themed games available on Apple's platforms, including Pokémon GO, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, Pokémon UNITE, and Pokémon Champions.
This article, "Pikachu Visits Apple Park, Meets Tim Cook and John Ternus" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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