Enlarge / I mostly recognize this early laptop from its resemblance to a similar-looking computer in the film 2010 . It's up for auction along with hundreds of other old Apple computers. (credit: Julien's Auctions)

If you've been thinking your home or workspace is perhaps deficient when it comes to old Apple hardware, then I have some good news for you. Next week, a massive trove of classic Apple computing history goes under the hammer when the auction house Julien's Auctions auctions off the Hanspeter Luzi collection of more than 500 Apple computers, parts, software, and the occasional bit of ephemera.

Ars reported on the auction in February , but Julien's Auctions has posted the full catalog ahead of the March 30 event, and for Apple nerds of a certain age, there will surely be much to catch your eye.

The earliest computers in the collection are a pair of Commodore PET 2001s; anyone looking for a bargain on an Apple 1 will have to keep waiting, unfortunately.

Enlarge / The 8BitDo SN30 Pro is now supported on Apple platforms. (credit: 8BitDo )

The 8BitDo SN30 Pro has repeatedly been called one of the best controllers for playing retro console games, particularly those originally made for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)—which makes sense, since its design is based on the SNES controller.

Now that controller works much better on Apple platforms like the Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV thanks to new firmware updates from 8BitDo. That's great news for folks who want to play 16-bit classics on their Macs, but the lack of retro console emulators on the iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV makes it a bit of a waste on those platforms.

Granted, the firmware update applies to more than just the SN30 Pro. 8BitDo's Ultimate Controller 2.4g, Pro 2, and Lite SE also got the firmware update—as well as the SN30 Pro variants, the SN30 Pro Plus and the SN30 Pro for Android. The Ultimate Controller, Pro 2, and Lite SE aren't so much meant as retro controllers as just good all-arounders, and so that's welcome for folks who enjoy games on Apple Arcade and the like.

Enlarge

If you've been eyeing some specific Apple devices but either missed your chance to snag record-low prices during the holidays, or in the case of the newest Mac Mini, haven't seen a substantial discount yet, today's Apple deals might be what you've been waiting for.

The M2-powered 512GB Mac Mini is at its lowest price of $700 , typically $800, while the Apple Watch Series 8 and second-gen SE are matching their lowest recorded prices of $329 and $220 , respectively. Those looking for a pair of AirPods can get the latest noise-canceling AirPods Pro for $200 ( $250 ) or forego noise cancellation and add about 90 minutes of battery life with the third-generation AirPods for $150 ( $170 ), both of which are discounted to prices we haven't seen since Black Friday. You can also nab a four-pack of Apple AirTags for $90 , which is $10 off their usual price.

Apple's 2023 Mac mini. If you've seen one, you've seen them all, but it's what's on the inside that counts. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Apple Mac Mini (2023) M2, 8GB RAM, 512GB storage for $700 ( $800 )

Apple's 512GB Mac Mini desktop computer, released January 2023, is seeing its biggest discount, down from $800 to $700. Equipped with Apple's M2 processor and 8GB of RAM, we found the Mac Mini to be cool, quiet, energy-efficient and packing enough power for anything short of serious gaming and heavy-duty rich media content creation. Gamers who want a Mac Mini (for the few games that run on them) and folks working in professional edit bays or the like should look to the M2 Pro-equipped Minis. Otherwise, this model is plenty capable of editing photos and videos from your phone, creating documents, and general browsing.

Enlarge / Apple CEO Tim Cook. (credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images )

A new report in the Financial Times claims that Apple CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams overrode design team objections to move forward with a new mixed-reality headset before designers believed the technology was ready. That said, the report isn't detailed enough to provide a nuanced picture of what's going on inside the company.

Here's the picture it does paint: A once-influential industrial design team is losing agency as executive departures and other factors have led to the team reporting to the company's operations chief instead of a top-level design executive.

We've written quite a bit about the gradual departure of famed design chief Jony Ive, who was a close collaborator with former CEO Steve Jobs. In addition to Ive, though, Apple also lost Ive's successor, Evans Hankey .

Enlarge / Employees work on an assembly line in the mobile phone plant of Rising Stars Mobile India Pvt., a unit of Foxconn Technology Co., in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, India, on Friday, July 12, 2019. (credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images )

Apple and its manufacturing partner Foxconn were among the companies behind a landmark liberalization of labor laws in the Indian state of Karnataka last month, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Their successful lobbying for new legislation means two-shift production can take place in India, akin to the two companies’ practices in China, their primary manufacturing base. The law gives the southern state one of the most flexible working regimes in India as the country aims to become an alternative manufacturing base to China.

Karnataka’s move is an attempt to seize the opportunity created by companies that are seeking to end an over reliance on Chinese manufacturing, following months of COVID-19 disruption that has shaken global supply chains.

Enlarge / This is not the brand-new Apple Watch "Pro," just the current model, so you'll have to imagine the titanium, the larger size, and the nearly $1,000 price. (credit: Apple)

Numerous Apple-watching outfits have reported that the company is working on a rugged, fitness-minded " Apple Watch Pro, " to be announced at its September 7 event . The device could be even more of an upgrade than some expect, as the latest rumor has the wider, more square-shaped "Pro" watch requiring all-new bands.

Weibo user "Uncle Pan," who has shared accurate information before on AirPods and MagSafe cases, posted Monday from Guangdong that an Apple Watch with a 47 or 48 mm screen will be offered this year. The new band will be wider, indicating a likely square design, Uncle Pan wrote. The user embedded an image from Twitter account Apple Hub, which offered a quirky rendering of the rumored Pro design and cited a price "close to $1,000."

Uncle Pan's post conflicts with Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who reported in late July that while the Pro watch will be larger than existing Apple Watch models, it will not be squared or feature flat sides.

Enlarge (credit: Kentaroo Tryman | Getty Images )

Small businesses are cutting back marketing spending due to Apple’s sweeping privacy changes that have made it harder to target new customers online, in a growing trend that has led to billions of dollars in lost revenues for platforms like Facebook.

Apple last year began forcing app developers to get permission to track users and serve them personalized adverts on iPhones and iPads in changes that have transformed the online advertising sector.

Many small companies which are reliant on online ads to attract new customers told the Financial Times they did not initially notice the full impact of Apple’s restrictions until recent months, when price inflation squeezed consumer demand in major markets worldwide.