Woz on MacBook Air, 3G iPhone... Reporters

[MacRumors]

Apple's co-founder, Steve Wozniak, spoke at a broadband conference in Australia. In a Q&A session with journalists, Wozniak spent some time relating his thoughts about some of Apple's newest products.

In general, he had similar thoughts and concerns as many readers have had on Apple's iPhone and MacBook Air. Specifically, Woz found that lack of 3G on the iPhone to be surprising:

“I don’t understand why it would be a battery issue. I get as much life on my 3G phones as I do on my non-3G phones. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m not paying close enough attention. But I don’t think that’s it though.”

On the MacBook Air, while he likes the design, he remains uncertain if it will fit into his lifestyle:

The MacBook Air … actually I like it. At first, I thought, it’s so feature-missing, and I use … I burn DVDs a lot to pass files to other people. I watch movies on airplanes. I need one that will go an entire flight and switch batteries, when there’s sometimes no power on the plane.

Ironically, Woz also relates how his comments on Apple may get taken out of context:

[Jobs] calls me and he says he doesn’t like something that I was reputed to have said. But he gets it out of context. A reporter’s seized on a comment and strung along with that. I’m very positive on Apple, but I’ll also point out things that could be better, or aren’t the way I’d like them to be.

To that point, several journalists have picked up this story with a very negative slant:

- Wozniak slams iPhone, MacBook Air
- Woz finds flaws in Apple's latest offerings
- Wozniak 'disappointed' by Apple iPhone
- Former Apple founder vents over iPhone's pitfalls


Article Link

 

[Roller]

Woz has always said what he really thinks, and I mostly agree with his comments, which certainly weren't completely negative.

 

[swingerofbirch]

I didn't realize Jobs and Woz still talked. I wonder what their relationship is like. Obviously somewhat close if Jobs is calling Woz out on stuff.

 

[Blue Velvet]

Steve Wozniak's Woz-Aura completely neutralises the Reality Distortion Field, you see.

 

[footOdorProblem]

Former Apple founder vents over iPhone's pitfalls

First they change his name to Wiz, and now he's no longer a founder of Apple?? Sounds like a bunch of haterz.

 

[freediverdude]

I just wish the press wouldn't take his comments and then use the words "slams" or "vents" or things like that. Those are pretty harsh to use as the headline, and once you read the real comments, you see he isn't angrily slamming Apple as the headline is implying. People should want to read his comments because they are interesting, not because they're being misled by a headline.

 

[kwood]

I love the media always slanting the story whichever way they want to get ratings and readers.

 

[hob]

Why isn't

Steve Wozniak 'quite likes' new Apple products

so interesting as

STEVE WOZNIAK CALLS STEVE JOBS AN IDIOT!!1!!11



I would be more interested in sensible reporting of the facts!

Then again, if you see anything on the news that you have some expertise in - do you notice how many flaws there are in the reporting. So what about the stuff we have no idea about?

 

[Popeye206]

The Press.... UGH!

Seems it does not matter if it's Apple, Politics or some silly issue... the News Press and the Trade Press seem to always look for some way to over sensationalize a situation and make it seem worse than it really is... or a bigger deal than it really is. I really wish the press would get back to just reporting and not sensationalizing news. UGH!

 

[autrefois]

"Wiz finds flaws in Apple's latest offerings"

We're off to see the Wizard
The wonderful Wizard of Woz
We hear Woz is a wiz of a wiz
If ever a wiz there was

First they change his name to Wiz[...]

The original article has "Woz" right, it's just a typo on Macrumors.

 

[iStefmac]

Those 4 articles should infuriate anyone who cares about the accuracy of news.

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I have always thought that it was interesting how the media portrays things. It goes to show how headlines can be sanded a certain way to gain readers.

 

[DaBrain]

Seems it does not matter if it's Apple, Politics or some silly issue... the News Press and the Trade Press seem to always look for some way to over sensationalize a situation and make it seem worse than it really is... or a bigger deal than it really is. I really wish the press would get back to just reporting and not sensationalizing news. UGH!

Sad to say, but we live in a world of HYPE!!!

 

[DMann]

Journalism

I just wish the press wouldn't take his comments and then use the words "slams" or "vents" or things like that. Those are pretty harsh to use as the headline, and once you read the real comments, you see he isn't angrily slamming Apple as the headline is implying. People should want to read his comments because they are interesting, not because they're being misled by a headline.

Unfortunately, journalism has the primary goal of SELLING. These negative headlines are what sells their stories, as the great majority of our population is primarily moved by controversy, scandal, and anything which can be potentially shocking. This libelous behavior is what makes journalism so sleazy and despicable, and yet, serves as advertisement in a potentially positive light, drawing the attention from those who initially were not considering purchasing a product, and inadvertently helping them to learn more about its positive features which they were previously unaware of. In this case scenario, there is no such thing as 'bad' publicity.

 

[twoodcc]

wow, that's the media for you. and probably ruining it for us, since he'll probably be more reluctant to talk next time.

but it's good to hear what he thinks on the products

 

[Digital Skunk]

Different Types of Press

The online world is usually full of the muckraking, sleazy type of reporter. I hope many don't get them confused with the real press, the ones that have a lot more to loose if they break the code of ethics, which the online reports and magazines do all the time.

I like Woz a lot because he isn't caught up in the "Gotta love Apple" trap and he hates Kool-Aid. I love that he reputes the lack of 3G in the iPhone while the bone head reports say that it's a good thing.... whatever..! The iPhone's lack of 3G, AT&T's goofy EDGE network and the missing software make it a flop for real users. If you can get by with all of that and you like the toyish features of the iPhone then great.

The same thing with the MacBook Air. I love it, and would recommend it to anyone that already has a main machine, but I hope that the next version gets a removable, or higher capacity battery, and a faster HDD, or cheaper SSD.


Woz will tell the truth, while 90% of the media world will praise Apple's tech imperfections.

 

[jeffsab]

The online world is usually full of the muckraking, sleazy type of reporter. I hope many don't get them confused with the real press, the ones that have a lot more to loose if they break the code of ethics, which the online reports and magazines do all the time.

As a member of the "real" press, I appreciate that at least some people are aware that there are usually big differences between working at a national newspaper and sitting around the house in your pajamas and blogging. (Or even doing stand-ups in front of fires for your local evening "news" broadcast, for that matter.) Unfortunately this lack of distinction among many readers/viewers, especially the younger ones, is causing some "real" news outlets to lower their standards to better compete.

 

[sjo]

“I don’t understand why it would be a battery issue. I get as much life on my 3G phones as I do on my non-3G phones. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m not paying close enough attention. But I don’t think that’s it though.”

like a lot of ppl have been pointing out, that and the fact that generally wlan consumes more battery than 3g makes the battery excuse jobs been giving pretty ridiculous.

 

[Lord Sam]

Geez, Woz must be at least a little bit pissed that he didn't stick with his old company. I guess Stevie J must be a hard person to work with, and Woz is more a programmer/hardware designer/behind the scenes person than a big personality who takes credit for everything. No prizes for guessing who that might be. But you do have to admit that Jobs has a talent for the public stuff.

 

[nagromme]

One additional Q: how thick/bulky is that 3G phone that gets the same 8-hour battery life as an iPhone? And are we comparing battery life for talking (beside the point) or for Web access? Because looking at usage stats, it seems people are browsing from their iPhones with Safari a LOT more than from phones with substandard mobile browsers. As such, those other phones will never NEED much battery life for Web browsing. Put that same 3G in an iPhone where browsing is actually effective, and see if it becomes an issue.

Technology marches on: if 3G a year ago would have been impractical in an iPhone, that doesn't mean the same problems continue this year. Jobs announced the 3G iPhone over a year ago--I don't think there's any secret agenda against 3G. I'm sure, though, that the decision to wait until a new generation of 3G chips could be discussed over many pages, and that Jobs's single sentence explanation was of course an oversimplification of the issues.

 

[inkswamp]

Journalists have gotten incredibly lazy and often look for a narrative in the news instead of just reporting the facts. It's really unfortunate. I think that's a self-defeating approach to reporting. I work in the news media so I know this from my own experiences but it does seem that reporting about Apple gets a surprising amount of negativity.

Back in 1998, when the first iMac came out, I set up a spoof web page as a joke about the shape of the iMac, implying it looked like a toaster. (Wow! The Internet Archive actually collected the page and I was able to retrieve it and repost it for anyone interested in seeing it.)

The page got a lot of attention and traffic at the time and prompted a reporter from the Associated Press to contact me and interview me about the direction Apple was going (as if a joke on the Internet made me some kind of authority, but whatever.) My responses to her questions were all very positive, but I said I wasn't so sure about the lack of a floppy drive. The reporter ended up reporting me as skeptical about the iMac and cited my concerns about the lack of a floppy drive. And that was the extent of the use of my comments. All the positive were discarded and she focused solely on the one negative.

 

[Doctor Q]

... Apple's co-founder, Steve Wozniak ... likes the ... very negative slant ...

Shame on Woz for liking negative stories. Unless I took this claim by MacRumors slightly out of context.

In some cases, articles report his opinions correctly, but the headline writers concentrate on the negative side.

 

[chr1s60]

As far as his statement about 3G, he is wrong. Many tests have been done and shown that 3G chips do drain the battery life faster during certain types of usage. Up until the most recent 3G chips, the battery life on an iPhone would have been horrible when combining 3G with the large touchscreen.

At this point Woz should know that they media will take any little negative they can find and run with it.

 

[Fast Shadow]

I don't trust the judgment of any man who'd get into bed with Kathy Griffin. The fact is that Woz and Jobs both bailed out of Apple at one point. But it was Jobs who returned, put an entire company on the verge of failure onto his back, and carried it up a mountain to where it is now: One of the most powerful brands in the world. Jobs, not Woz.

I didn't realize Jobs and Woz still talked. I wonder what their relationship is like. Obviously somewhat close if Jobs is calling Woz out on stuff.

They're still friends, or at least casually so. IIRC they were together for the iPhone launch at the Apple store in SF.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I don't think Woz was incorrect on his statement about 3G. It's not like he has anything to gain from saying that the phone should have had 3G. In fact it should have had a lot of things that make it a poor choice of a cell phone.

Besides... I would place money on Woz knowing more about technology than most of the users here do. I would have rather the phone been locked into a better network though. AT&T's network is garbage.