BW interviews Woz

BusinessWeek has published an interview with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who later this fall plans on releasing his memoir I Woz: How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Along the Way, written along with a tech journalist. "I also describe how we'd work on projects for days at a time, going without sleep. But I found that I could come up with the clearest ideas in that sleepless state. For instance, I realized that color, if you could think of a way of doing it for no cost, might be good for computer games....The exact date and time when the world changed is in the book. That took place back when I was working on the Apple I. Every previous computer had a panel that looked like an airplane cockpit. Every computer afterwards had a keyboard. That was the change."

Woz also offered comments on the the success of the iPod: "Then there's the iPod. Its success is due to the fact that it's a satellite to a computer: The computer has become absolutely central to our lives," as well as Apple's other con-founder (and current CEO) Steve Jobs.

"Do you feel that Jobs ever ripped you off, perhaps in the case of the game Breakout that you invented and he claimed credit for with Atari? He was more concerned about money. In the case of Breakout, all he had to do was ask me. I had a job at [Hewlett-Packard] (HPQ) and didn't need the money. He was always into business, and I was into designing. And that's not a good vs. bad thing.... Steve turned down doing the foreword for the book. But there's nothing really bad about him in the book. He may have misinterpreted something."

by MacNN Staff