Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak Discusses iPhone vs. Android

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:48:40 +0000

Steve “Woz” Wozniak is one of the iPhone’s biggest fans, but he is also one of the device’s biggest critics as well. His opinions are closely monitored since he co-founded Apple. However Steve Wozniak sees that Google Android has some advantages of the Android operating system over the Apple iPhone. Below is what Wozniak had to say about the iPhone vs. Android.

“My primary phone is the iPhone,” stated Woz. “I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do.”

Woz said that he believes voice commands work better on Android and the built-in navigation system is another advantage. He also said that Android is not as simple to use as the iPhone, but believes that they are not that much more complicated. Woz said “if you’re willing to do the work to understand it a little bit, well I hate to say it, but there’s more available in some ways.”

Woz is a bigger fan of the Motorola Droid Razr over the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. One of the reasons why Wozniak is a fan of Android is because he is friends with the head of Android, Andy Rubin. He was also on the board of directors at Rubin’s old company, Danger Inc. “I’ve known Andy a long time, and I respect him a lot,” said Woz.

The Siri feature on the iPhone 4S has not been working too well for Woz lately. “I used to ask Siri, ‘What are the five biggest lakes in California?’ and it would come back with the answer. Now it just misses. It gives me real estate listings. I used to ask, ‘What are the prime numbers greater than 87?’ and it would answer. Now instead of getting prime numbers, I get listings for prime rib, or prime real estate,” stated Woz.

[The Daily Beast]

Full Steve Jobs Billion Dollar Hippy Movie Is On YouTube [VIDEO]

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:12:17 +0000

The BBC has created a documentary for former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs. The entire video is currently on YouTube, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is taken down soon enough so I would watch it right away. The documentary features interviews with Steve Wozniak, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and Stephen Fry.

Apple Founding Contract Sells For $1.6 Million At Auction

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:58:42 +0000

Last month I wrote about how the founding contract of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was for sale on auction. The contract was signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. Ronald Wayne had a chance to become a partner at Apple in 1976, but ended up selling his 10% stake in the company for $800. Today 10% of Apple would be worth $36.4 billion. In 1994, Ronald Wayne sold the founding contract of Apple for a few thousand dollars. Wade Saadi bought the contract from Wayne and sold it on Sotheby’s this week. The contract ended up selling for $1.6 million even though it was valued at $150,000. [BusinessInsider]

Apple Founding Contract Signed By Jobs, Wozniak, and Wayne Going For Auction Next Month

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:45:00 +0000

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) co-founders Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne had drafted a three-page contract that established Apple Computer Co. The contract was drafted up and signed on April 1, 1976. This contract will be auctioned in New York next month and is expected to receive bids for as high as $150,000 according to Sotheby’s.

“This is a foundation document in terms of financial history, social history and technological history,” stated Sotheby’s head of books and manuscripts Richard Austin. The contract was initially owned by Wayne.

Wayne met Jobs while he worked at Atari Inc. Jobs asked Wayne to persuade Steve Wozniak to join Apple. By persuading Wozniak to join, Wayne earned a 10% share in Apple. On April 12, Wayne decided to withdraw as partner of the company. His withdrawal from the company was documented by a County of Santa Clara as an amendment to the contract. Wayne received $800 for his withdrawal and he received another payment of $1,500 later on.

The consigner bought the Apple documents in the mid-1990s from a manuscript dealer than acquired them from Wayne. “It was right before Jobs rejoined Apple,” said Austin. “At the time, everyone thought that Apple was pretty much finished.”

The owner is selling the documents due to the worldwide news coverage of Steve Jobs’ death. If Wayne kept his stake in Apple, it would be worth $2.6 billion today. Wayne wrote two books called “Adventures of an Apple Founder” and “Insolence of Office: Socio-Politics, Socio-Economics and the American Republic
.” He is currently semi-retired in Nevada.

[Bloomberg]

Fusion-io Goes Public, Raising $233 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:08:13 +0000

Fusion-io is a memory module company that helps make data centers run more efficiently. Fusion-io went public on the New York Stock Exchange today. Interestingly, the NYSE actually depends on Fusion-io’s technology for their own data center energy needs. Fusion-io raised $233 million through their IPO.

Fusion-io plans on using the money to expand in other markets. Fusion-io shipped over 20 petabytes of enterprise-class memory to over 1,000 customers. Fusion-io made $125 million in the month ending March 31. This is up 5 times from $25 million a year ago. Fusion-io currently has about 430 employees.

Fusion-io was founded in 2006 by Flynn and Rick White. Steve Wozniak works as Fusion-io’s chief scientist. Fusion-io raised $115.5 million over the last three rounds of funding.

[VentureBeat]

Fusion-io Planning $150 Million IPO

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:22:10 +0000

Fusion-io is a company that makes storage software for enterprise servers. The company plans to raise $150 million in an IPO of common stock. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is the chief scientist of Fusion-io. One of Fusion-io’s OEM partners include HP, IBM, and Dell. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and Credit Suisse are underwriting the IPO. The filing did now specify how many shares Fusion-io was planning on selling or the expected price. Fusion-io intends on listing the common stock on the NYSE under the symbol “FIO.” [Reuters]

Wozniak Would Never Say Android Is Better Than iOS

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:32:35 +0000

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was misquoted in the Dutch paper De Telegraaf. Supposedly they quoted was as saying that “Android phones have more features” and this would help Google Android become the most dominant smartphone platform. This sparked an iOS vs. Android debate across the web. Fortunately Engadget called Woz to have him clarify what he meant.

Woz had given the De Telegraaf reporter a lengthy demonstration of voice commands on the iOS vs. the Android. He pointed out that Android offered the ability to say “Navigate to Joe’s Diner.” He said that Apple would catch up to these advanced features through the acquisition of Siri and Poly9. He also said that he would “never” say that Android was better than iOS.

“Almost every app I have is better on the iPhone.” He did say that based on what he has been reading, he does expect Android to become more popular. He said he expects Android “to be a lot like Windows… I’m not trying to put Android down, but I’m not suggesting it’s better than iOS by any stretch of the imagination. But it can get greater marketshare and still be crappy.”

[Engadget]

Apple 1 Computer Being Auctioned May Sell For Well Over $150K

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 08:15:40 +0000

Above is a picture of an Apple 1 computer that may sell for between $160,000-$250,000. The Apple 1 has three capacitors, 8KB of random access memory, a printed circuit board with rows A-D, and an Apple 1 motherboard. This was one of the first computers ever made by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). This Apple computer was one of the originals built by co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

The computer retailed for $666.66 because Wozniak liked repetitive numbers. About 200 of these computers were sold before the company started working on the Apple II. This was the 82nd Apple 1 that was made and it was done in the garage of Steve Jobs’ parents house. This computer will come with the original packaging, manuals, cassette interface, basic tape, early documentation, and a letter from Steve Jobs. This computer will be auctioned through Christies on November 23 in London.

[New York Times]

Woz’s T-Shirt: I Went Drinking With Gray Powell and All I Got Was A Lousy iPhone Prototype

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 22:27:00 +0000

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in 1976. Apple is a company that built hype around their product through secrecy and controlled leaks to the media. Gizmodo recently bought a stolen and unreleased iPhone, then posted pictures and a video on the Internet.

The stolen phone belonged to Apple engineer Gray Powell and he was “devastated” by what happened. Wozniak himself decided to have some fun with the situation by wearing a funny T-shirt that says I went drinking with Gray Powell and all I got was a lousy iPhone prototype. “I’d laugh if the same thing were done to me,” said Woz in an e-mail communication with CNET. [CNET]

Analyst: About 700,000 iPads Were Bought On The First Day

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 03:16:49 +0000

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has sold about 700,000 iPad devices on the first day. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak joined a pre-iPad vigil at 6PM Friday at Valley Fair mall in San Jose. And Apple CEO Steve Jobs greeted customers at the Apple store on University Avenue in Palo Alto.

Some customers that were able to get their hands on the $699 64GB device attempted to resell it on Craigslist for $1,000.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster initially expected that about 300,000 iPads would be sold during the weekend. The numbers were revised upwards to about 600,000-700,000 on the first day. [MercuryNews]