A one-off red Mac Pro and solid gold EarPods designed by Apple VP of design Jony Ive and industrial designer Marc Newson were part of a recent Sotheby's auction to raise money for RED, the AIDS charity headed by U2 front man Bono. It can be inferred that the CEO of "smart thermostat" maker Nest (and former Apple VP) Tony Fadell is the buyer of both items, according to two recent Twitter posts by portrait photographer Kevin Abosch.
Two pictures posted to Abosch's Twitter account show Fadell with the items. The Mac Pro sold at auction for $977,000, while the rose gold EarPods sold for $461,000. In total, the RED auction raised more than $13 million (Bono's own contribution put them over the top), before the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - the philanthropic foundation of Microsoft's founder - matched the amount, bringing the total to $26 million.
Fadell is sometimes called "one of the fathers of the iPod." He served as senior VP of the iPod division at Apple from 2006 to 2008. In 2010 he launched Nest. Nest designs and manufactures thermostats and smoke detectors which communicate through Wi-Fi and are programmable using a smartphone.
Source: 9to5Mac
