Technologizer » Steve Wozniak

Jobs Appears Set for June Return to Apple

Ed Oswald — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:16:09 +0000

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told the paper in a conversation at the All Things Digital conference that CEO Steve Jobs sounds “healthy and energetic.”

Woz’s straight shooting about anything Apple leads me to believe that he wouldn’t be B.S.’ing us. Maybe the time off did Jobs well — after all, as sick as the iconic CEO has been at times over the years, running a company was probably not helping him get any better.

It’s been reported that Jobs has still remained active within business decisions at the company, even if it was from his home. Apple really hasn’t missed a beat since his departure in January -and it’s a good time as ever to take a break.

The economy is in the gutter, thus everyone is pulling back. Jobs famously last October joined an earnings call to quell investor worry, and said the company had plenty of cash and no debt to make it through the rough patch that was ahead.

So taking time off when nobody is about to make any risky moves was a good idea. Chances are when Jobs gets back into the swing of things towards the latter part of summer, we should start seeing the first inklings of some type of recovery.

There is a caveat to Woz’s statements: he never has asked Jobs directly how he’s feeling. But given he’s known the man for almost four decades, you’d think he would have a good read.

Here’s hoping for a speedy return for Jobs — even though he’s likely still not going to be at WWDC.

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5Words for March 13th, 2009

Harry McCracken — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:27:27 +0000

Happy Friday the thirteenth, everybody!

Mozilla releases new Firefox beta.

AOL gets CEO from Google.

StumbleUpon preps a URL shortener.

Cybercriminals get down to business.

Unlimited-VoIP-and-data carrier.

New iPod Shuffle teardown photos.

A little more Pre news.

An iPhone 3.0 wish list.

Poor Woz fractures his foot.

Regimes that repress the Internet.

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5Words for March 10th, 2009

Harry McCracken — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:41:42 +0000

Today’s headlines incline dancing news!

Even more Apple netbook rumors.

iPhone developers can’t renew contracts.

Woz can’t dance, still lovable.

Will these ten newspapers die?

Cydia’s unauthorized iPhone app store.

Craigslist: “erotic services” ads dwindling.

YouTube kills British music videos.

Palin hacker’s in bigger trouble.

Jimmy Fallon! Palm Pre! Together!

Broadbrand growth is on decline.

Eminem producers: no iTunes goldmine.

OLED: victim of crummy economy?

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5Words for 2/09/09

Harry McCracken — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:12:06 +0000

Happy Monday morning, Technologizer pals:

Is Amazon’s newest a King-le?

iPhone could become a Kindle.

Two e-book events happnening today.

Triple-core chips from AMD.

The Dalai Lama joins Twitter.

Hey, Woz is going dancing.

Some Apple Stores ban Facebook.

Amazon’s cheapo BlackBerry Storm deal.

Digital TV boxes getting scarce.

Microsoft preps new phone services.

Judge hands Psystar a victory.

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5Words for February 5th, 2009

Harry McCracken — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:23:23 +0000

What’s transpiring this fine morning?

Hey, Woz is gainfully employed!

Fake parking tickets install malware.

Lenovo struggles, dumps American CEO.

GoDaddy’s cheesy ads work, alas.

HP unveils a Netbook Linux.

Bill Gates bugs conference attendees.

The new Macbook’s running late.

Hankering for a 240GB iPod?

Microsoft joins celebrity gossip race.

Facebookers compile “25 Things” lists.

Will Snow Leopard track you?

Boy, Windows Mobile is behind.

Xbox 360 owners love NetFlix.

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Stevenote? Here’s Your Stevenote. Or, More Specifically, Your Woznote.

Harry McCracken — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:15:32 +0000

Call Steve Wozniak the anti-Steve Jobs. He’s far nerdier than Jobs ever was; he’s not a polished presenter; he has a zillion passions beyond Apple (Segway Polo, anyone?); and nobody’s ever going to spend any time worrying that he’s looking gaunt. But Woz was at least as important to Apple’s success in the 1970s and early 1980s as Jobs, and therefore hugely important to Apple as it exists today–since there might never have been an Apple that existed for more than a year or two if it weren’t for the genius of Woz’s Apple II design.

And even though Steve Jobs skipped this year’s Macworld Expo, Steve Wozniak didn’t. He did a demo of the Modbook, the modified touch-screen Mac tablet which is manufactured by Axiotron, a company whose board he recently joined. Woz’s demo of the Modbook was preceded by 20 minutes of presentation by Axiotron’s CEO, who gave a straightforward walkthrough of the product assisted by PowerPoint (er, Keynote) slides and who seemed to have problems with the booth’s amplification system. But Axiotron shoulda reversed things and put Woz onstage first, since his geeky glee in the Modbook was a far more potent sales tool than anything a CEO could say. And even if he’d had audio troubles (he didn’t) you would have been able to tell how much he liked the thing.

I wish Steve Jobs had been at this year’s Macworld Expo, but watching Woz show off the Modbook was far more enjoyable than anything Jobs could have done with the new 17-inch MacBook Pro. He said he liked it in part because it reminded him of the Newton; it’s hard to imagine a more anti-Jobsian sentiment than that.

Watching him say that the Modbook was a gadget in the spirit of early Apple computers, I believed him–hey, Apple I buyers also put their systems inside cases other than the one supplied by Apple–and felt tempted by the machine in a way I never was until I saw him playing with it.

Herewith, some photos of the Woznote:

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