Stevenote? Here’s Your Stevenote. Or, More Specifically, Your Woznote.
By Harry McCracken | Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 1:15 pm
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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Macworld: Steve Has Entered the Building | Appml Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 12:02 am[…] version of the MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, I missed his presentation (which Harry McCracken at Technologizer nostalgically swooned over), but I did catch some of the eager MacHeads clamoring for an autograph […]
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Macworld: Steve Has Entered the Building — What I Would Buy Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 8:33 am[…] version of the MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, I missed his presentation (which Harry McCracken at Technologizer nostalgically swooned over), but I did catch some of the eager MacHeads clamoring for an autograph […]
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The Roundup: Macworld / CES Edition! : Week of January 8th 2009 | The iLife Says:
January 9th, 2009 at 9:08 am[…] From : Technologizer Stevenote? Here’s Your Stevenote. Or, More Specifically, Your Woznote. Tuesday, January, 6, […]
January 6th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Woz RULES!!!
I always love seeing Woz out and about at Apple stuff.
January 6th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Keep an eye out for http://www.en2go.com – > another company with WOZ on the board.
KRONiS.us
January 7th, 2009 at 1:54 am
How could Apple I buyers have put their computers into cases other than the one supplied by Apple? The Apple I was sold as a logic board only, with not only no case, but no power supply or keyboard, either!
BTW, as much of a fan of Woz as I am (I still have a “Woz signature edition” Apple IIgs :), seeing his presentation made me think it was something only a geek could love. In this case that’s ok, since the Modbook is mainly a geek-appeal device, and Woz is geek #1 himself. He loved showing off all the little fiddley-bits and details, which plays straight to the techie’s harts, but quickly cause your average mainstream user’s eyes to glaze over. Again, not a problem for this product’s audience, but in the larger picture computers aren’t just for geeks and nerds anymore. (Silly rabbits 🙂 — and they were clearly there, too, seeing all those bunny ears on people’s heads…)
January 13th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Captain Crunch got Woz off the ground. Read the story.
A phreaker was pivotal in making Apple happen.
True story.