Stargazing with Technologizer: At tonight’s DEMO Enterprise event in San Francisco, two old friends and geek icons.
Tag Archives | Steve Wozniak
A Guided Tour of Computing History
Steve Wozniak with George Stibitz's one-bit computer from 1936
On January 13th, the seven-year-old Computer History Museum will open its first truly full-blown permanent exhibit:, the 25,000-square-foot, $19 million “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.” It’s been a long time in the making: It features a spectacular collection of computers and related apparatus begun by DEC founder Ken Olsen and computing legend Gordon Bell back in the mid-1970s, which spent some time at Boston’s now-defunct Computer Museum before making its way to its current home in Mountain View, California, within walking distance of the Googleplex.
The museum invited reporters for a sneak peek of the new exhibit this morning, and while it’s a work in progress–we saw mainframes still wrapped, Christo-style, in protective plastic wrap–it was a remarkable experience. Part of what made it remarkable was our guide, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak.
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Jobs Appears Set for June Return to Apple
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
Happy Friday the thirteenth, everybody!
Mozilla releases new Firefox beta.
StumbleUpon preps a URL shortener.
Cybercriminals get down to business.
Unlimited-VoIP-and-data carrier.
New iPod Shuffle teardown photos.
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5Words for March 10th, 2009
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.
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5Words for 2/09/09
Happy Monday morning, Technologizer pals:
Two e-book events happnening today.
Some Apple Stores ban Facebook.
Amazon’s cheapo BlackBerry Storm deal.
Digital TV boxes getting scarce.
Microsoft preps new phone services.
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5Words for February 5th, 2009
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.
Bill Gates bugs conference attendees.
The new Macbook’s running late.
Microsoft joins celebrity gossip race.
Facebookers compile “25 Things” lists.
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Stevenote? Here’s Your Stevenote. Or, More Specifically, Your Woznote.
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.