Steve Wozniak ventures out
Steve Wozniak's patent number 4,136,359—which became the Apple IIe computer, introduced in 1977 for $1,300–helped launch an entire industry. Wozniak left Apple, the company he cofounded with Steve Jobs, in 1981 and returned to college at the University of California–Berkeley. Since then, he has formed a number of small technology companies, promoted music and cultural festivals, and taught fifth graders how to use computers. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2000 and is currently helping promote an inventors competition sponsored by the organization. Wozniak spoke recently with U.S. News's Richard J. Newman at Splashlight Studios in New York City.
What was the first thing you ever invented?
The first thing I invented was a TV jammer that let me fuzz up the TV picture in college. I liked to play with the psychology of the people watching TV. They'd move their bodies because they thought that's what would make the TV work. You know, technology has always been hand in hand with jokes and pranks. I also invented the first universal remote control, some arcade games, and I'm now working on GPS tracking tags.
How are things for inventors these days?
I believe strongly in the inventing process. The hard work of invention is having so many details in your head at once. It's stressful, the hours are long, and you're always close but never quite there. New changes in our life usually come from an independent guy in his garage, usually with very little money. It's very hard to predict what's going to come. But independent inventors will always be with us.
Could I do the Apple again? It's getting harder. Labs with ready-to-go equipment are less common, at universities or corporations or even at home. The minute you get an idea, you want to rush home and wire it up. But some of that stuff is getting harder to find.
What kinds of technologies appeal to you today?
The technologies that appeal to me are the ones that are very centered, that make the product a little bit smaller, or give it a little nicer shape, like the iPod.
What would you like to fix about modern technology?
I'd make smart phones smarter. The Treo 650 is the smartest phone, right? But every phone has a computer inside. And everything with a computer inside crashes. If you make the slightest slip on a button you have to go back and start over. It's so difficult to get back where you want.
What do you think about BlackBerries?
I don't like two letters on a button, but I don't use one. Everybody I know who uses a BlackBerry likes it, so to me that means it must be good.
What do you think about "convergence," the idea that all of these computerized gizmos are merging into one or two devices that will handle everything?
My whole life I stood against convergence. I prefer one thing that works on its own. I finally decided last year that a phone and a camera together works. I'm starting to relax my thinking from the old days. But a camera without a flash bothers me on cellphones . . . . A PDA, a phone, a camera: I want to choose each of those on my own. I don't want to choose the camera I want by the cellphone I buy.
What kind of car do you drive?
In the garage, there's a 2004 Mercedes SL 500 convertible. I don't drive it much, but I love it.
Mainly I drive a Prius. It's a 2004. The Prius has been very special to me. I was talking with the chairman of Chrysler recently, and I heard him say that hybrids don't make sense. I said, "Wait a minute, you get a second engine, and a bigger car. That makes sense to me."
But the Prius puts technology above humanity. They could have done the opposite and made it a better car. For instance, you should be able to use the control console to do what you want to do, instead of having to visit three different points to do what you want to do. In the Prius, you push a button backward to go forward and then push it forward to go backward. It's not the way you would think naturally. Why have a phone built in but not be able to store the information in it that's on your own phone?
I'm also known for my Hummer. The big one [the H1]. It has a satellite TV dome and a satellite communications dome. I took my 9-year-old to see it at the dealership, and I saw in his face I'd be a superdad if I bought it. So I bought it.
What was teaching like?
For about eight years I taught fifth graders near Los Gatos, where I live in California. I wouldn't let the press near. My memories are good. We always had a lot of fun in my class. I was a friend to them, not an ordinary teacher. I wanted them to realize that anything you think you can do, you can do. I focused a lot on the lower kids. Computers then were still special, and I mainly taught them how to make their homework look good. If your teacher likes it, you'll feel good, and it'll make you try harder. I also taught them some programming games. And I taught them how to win at tick-tack-toe. You think you can't win at tick-tack-toe, right? Well, you can.
Why don't you go back to teaching?
Computers aren't special anymore. They're in every class. And these days, the 10- and 11-year-old kids, I realized I couldn't get into their world. They silently go into their rooms and get all this information.
So, do you worry about the social and societal implications of all this technology, of the Internet, of kids who are growing up living their lives online?
When the first computers came out, everybody said, well, 90 percent of our brainpower is untapped. This might change that. Everybody thought "Whoa." But there isn't a new type of brain. Technology hasn't affected it that much. Inside of human beings there are needs. People have needs that are going to get met. But human beings are born to discover and create new things. We have no more hours of smiles than frowns now than the caveman had. We're never going to get there. Still, we should never turn ourselves away from technology.
What do you think about controversial technologies, like cloning?
I don't care about cloning. There's nothing we can do to stop it. What if there's a treatment before we're born that could make us stronger and bigger? Some people would remain organic people.
Anything that bugs you about modern technology?
Well, look at my new Razr phone. Know what this is? [Points to a small device dangling from the phone.] I'm the only one in the world who has a phone like this, because I figured out how to put it on. It's the screen wipe. And it gets in the way, sometimes I can't fold the phone closed, but I still put it on.
What else is in your pockets?
[Digs into left pants pocket, produces a small ordinary chain and a metal ring.] This reminds me that I obey the laws. The laws of physics. [Holds the chain inside the ring and drops the ring, which falls to the table.] If I drop it, it falls. [Repeats] If I drop it, it falls. [Repeats.] If I drop it . . . [This time, the ring gets wrapped in a knot and hangs from the chain. Wozniak smiles.] . . . Do you know the difference between a magician and a mathematician? A magician will never tell you how a trick works. [Then he explains the magic trick.]
I like having a camera in my cellphone. But it's not the camera I want, so I carry this around. [Produces a superslim Sony Cybershot 5-megapixel camera.] I take a lot of pictures and E-mail some of them to friends. But only the good ones. I believe in quality. Like with joke lists. I don't send bad jokes.
This ring is a gadget. It's a Japanese ring, made from compressed metals that are blended together. They're compressed in as many as 30 separate sessions. You can choose the metals yourself and have the ring custom-made. This one I bought off the shelf.
Then there's this: [Taps a mood ring on his right pinky, which begins changing colors.] Let's see if I can get back in a good mood again. OK . . . there. [Turns mood ring off.]
And I love this watch. I don't really need a watch, because my cellphone is a watch, right? But I wanted this watch. It's an analog watch that's completely digital inside. See the hands? But it works with complete digital precision. If you turn this button to fast-forward the hour hand, it automatically moves forward by exactly one hour, to the exact second. It's beautiful.
My favorite trick is a mouth-flashing device. You put it in your mouth, over your teeth. Then you push a button with your tongue, and it starts flashing. It's very dramatic at night.
And here's my iPod Nano. It's so scratched up you can't even see the screen anymore.
What's on your iPod?
Lots of Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Springsteen, Roseanne Cash, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Joe Ely, John Prine, John Hiatt.
What concerts have you seen recently?
I saw Arlo Guthrie recently. He used Macs in a concert down in Santa Barbara. I saw him with his son. He laughed heartily at my jokes. It's the 40th anniversary of "Alice's Restaurant." It was the first time he played "Alice's Restaurant" in years.
Tell me about your current company.
The company I started is to make a very low-cost GPS radio system for monitoring pets and children. The trick is getting the cost down. You need a small battery that will last for a year, and total process intelligence in a small tag. We failed at the consumer market, so we're aiming at the commercial markets. You could buy it for a dog, but you'd have to spend $400 on it. That won't work in the consumer market.
Would you change anything about the Internet if you could?
If I were designing it from the ground up, I'd want to have better security of data, so that it could be traced back to the real senders. Like encryption. And I wish our government had a policy that everybody could get high-speed Internet.
Do you worry that control of the Internet is being consolidated into a few portals, like Yahoo! and Google, that will dominate the market for information?
Human beings don't want a ton of portals. We want a few trusted ones.