Steve Wozniak, Apple critic and the original Wozni-hacker

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 04 March 2008 16:20

Opinion and Analysis

In Sydney this week at a broadband event, Steve Wozniak let loose with his views on the iPhone, the MacBook Air and Apple TV – while also saying Australia’s new ‘broadband’ plan is just ‘adequate’.

Sadly, we weren’t in Sydney for a local broadband conference where the star attraction was Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Famous for being the technical brains behind the Apple I and Apple II computers, which were remarkably open devices, then leaving Apple when Steve Jobs decided to make the Mac a much more closed system (as Jobs wanted to avoid Mac clones in the way Apple II computers were cloned by all and sundry), Wozniak also holds a unique place in the world of Apple.

Still a paid employee, although not actually working at Apple anymore, Wozniak can happily criticise Apple’s direction, and Steve Jobs’ decisions, without being immediately sacked, as he has done many times, as his place in Apple’s history makes him virtually bulletproof.

Wozniak is also clearly immune to the Steve Jobs ‘reality distortion field’, as he happily blasts Apple’s decisions on a relatively regular basis, although Wozniak has defended himself saying that most of his pronouncements have effectively said the same thing Apple or Jobs has said.

We weren’t at the broadband conference because of another Australian technology conference happening in a different state, although we’d have happily attended otherwise – it certainly is a shame to have missed out on seeing and hearing the legendary Steve Wozniak in person.

Happily, however, there were a range of other journalists there, many of whom were able to record his thoughts on Apple’s iPhone, the MacBook Air, and the Apple TV.

So, what did Wozniak say? Please read onto page 2.