wozniak

Woz: Apple's tax practices are stinky

Steve Wozniak thinks like Mitt Romney.

Well, a little. It's not that he quite believes corporations are people too. It's more that he thinks corporations should be taxed like people too.

Corporations like Apple, for example.

At a conference in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Woz told Sky News on Thursday: "Criticism of Apple's tax policies is extremely warranted, in my mind, but my explanation is rather long and difficult."

It's a pity he wasn't asked to testify before the Senate last week. Its members seemed to have all day to listen to Tim Cook. … Read more

The untold story behind Apple's $13,000 operating system

SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS, Calif. -- In the common retelling of Apple's history, it was Steve Jobs' and Steve Wozniak's second computer, the Apple II, that launched their fledgling company toward stratospheric growth and financial success. The machine's triumph as a single platform for business software, games, artistic tools -- and more -- set the stage for the later debut of the first Mac, and later OS X and iDevices.

What many forget -- or may not even know -- is that when the Apple II was introduced at the inaugural West Coast Computer Faire in April, 1977, it suffered from what, in retrospect, was a glaring shortcoming: It had no disk drive. … Read more

Vintage video of Apple's Woz discovered in a basement

Some 1984 videos of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak talking about Apple's early days have surfaced on YouTube, showcasing the tech icon's deftness at tech humor.

The footage, filmed at a meeting of the Denver Apple Pi computer club, is filled with Wozniak's anecdotes about building the Apple I and Apple II and playing pranks, and includes a look at him leading a spoof of "The Pledge of Allegiance" that features the line "One notion under Jobs," a reference, of course, to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. There's also footage of Apple employee No. 6, Randy Wigginton, talking about the nerve-racking days before the launch of the Mac. … Read more

Nobody wants to buy Steve Wozniak's old house

After a several months-long lull, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's old house is back on the market.

The six bedroom, seven bathroom, Los Gatos, Calif., home, which Wozniak built in 1986 though sold off years ago, is back on sale for slightly lower $4.395 million. It's even having an open house this weekend, notes the house's real estate agent over at the San Francisco Chronicle, which spotted the listing on real estate site Redfin.

This is the latest sale attempt of the house, which last changed hands in 2009. Records show that the house originally sold back … Read more

Wozniak warns Apple must stay 'cool' -- or else

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has a warning for Tim Cook and his executives: stay cool, or you'll have trouble.

Speaking to Bloomberg in an interview published today, Wozniak said that while Apple is still "really good at setting a standard with a new device," it's starting to lose its standing as the coolest company in the technology industry.

"We used to have these ads, 'I'm a Mac and I'm a PC,' and the Mac was always the cool guy," Wozniak told Bloomberg. "And ouch, it's painful, because we kind of … Read more

Unlocking Ma Bell: How phone phreaks came to be

Imagine a day when it cost an arm and a leg to use the phone, especially for long-distance calls. Then imagine that buried deep within the telephone network infrastructure was a flaw -- a hole that allowed those who were aware of it, and capable of exploiting it, to make all the free calls they want.

These days, phone calls are free -- or nearly so -- and hackers put their energies into computer networks, jailbreaking iPhones, and other more modern pursuits. But back in the 1950s and 1960s, a new group of people emerged, people who were fascinated by … Read more

Woz: Apple now 'somewhat behind'

Steve Wozniak is worried.

He is worried on behalf of "we," as he still refers to the company he co-founded with Ashton Kutcher.

The lovely thing about Woz is that he tends to express his worries fully and spontaneously.

Currently, he is worried that Apple is falling behind when it comes to smartphone features.

I am grateful to Apple Insider for quickly translating an interview Woz gave to Germany's Wirtschafts Woche, in which he may well have been lying down on a chaise longue in order to bare his concerns.

"Currently we are in my opinion...… Read more

Wozniak slams scene in Kutcher's 'Jobs' biopic

Probably only a handful of people know what Steve Jobs was really like. And one of them is Apple co-founder and longtime friend Steve Wozniak.

After watching the first publicized clip from the Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher, Wozniak has said it's all wrong, according to Gizmodo.

"Not close...we never had such interaction and roles...I'm not even sure what it's getting at...," he wrote to Gizmodo.

The movie, titled "Jobs," is about Jobs' life from the 1970s through the 1990s. The cast of characters includes Josh Gad as Wozniak, Matthew … Read more

Woz: Microsoft might be more creative than Apple

It's something that might almost seem obvious.

But it takes someone of Steve Wozniak's wonderful unedited disposition to say it: Microsoft might currently be more forward-thinking than Apple.

In an interview with TechCrunch's affable rabid soccer fan (Spurs is his team) and forward-thinker Andrew Keen, Woz was very open to the idea that Redmond might have been spending quite some time lately trying to create more "wow" products than Apple.

Woz was moved less by Surface, it seemed, than by the idea that Microsoft was working on technology that made simultaneous translations. Yes, a lot … Read more