“Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Jobs in 1976, says he’s a big fan of Android phones. Woz says he still thinks Apple’s iPhone is the best overall smartphone, but he says there are ways in which Android has leapt ahead of Apple,” Dan Lyons reports for The Daily Beast. “‘My primary phone is the iPhone,’ Woz says. ‘I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do.'”
Android phones aren’t as simple to use as the iPhone, but they’re not that much more complicated, and ‘if you’re willing to do the work to understand it a little bit, well I hate to say it, but there’s more available in some ways,’ Woz says… ‘There’s not as big a difference [between iOS and Android] as there was between Mac and Windows,'” Lyons reports.
MacDailyNews Take: And, why do you think that is, Woz? Because it’s a stolen product, that’s why. A bastardized iPhone. Shouldn’t an “Apple employee,” even one who hasn’t done a thing for decades, still value his company’s intellectual property at least a little bit? Oh, that’s right, R&D is free, nobody’s work is their own, and everything should just be shared anyway (dripping sarcasm).
Lyons reports, “Woz says he recently spoke to a developer at Foursquare who said Apple’s bureaucratic approval process slows app developers down, whereas on Android, developers can get programs out faster and work on making tweaks and revisions in less time.”
MacDailyNews Take: That’s great, Woz. Here’s what else you get when you settle for a knockoff:
• Insecure: Malicious Android apps double in six months – December 14, 2011
• Android permissions flaw allows eavesdropping, data theft, location tracking – December 2, 2011
• You bank on your pretend iPhone? Are you nuts?! Android malware up 472% since July – November 16, 2011
• Android security threats surge with infected ‘Angry Birds’; iPhone and iPad users unaffected – November 15, 2011
• Apple’s iOS unaffected by malware as Android exploits surge 76% – August 24, 2011
• McAfee: Google’s Android number one in malware – August 23, 2011
• Android malware records phone calls; iPhone users unaffected – August 2, 2011
• Symantec: Apple iOS offers ‘full protection,’ Google Android ‘little protection’ vs. malware attacks – June 29, 2011
• Malware apps spoof Android Market to infect Android phones – June 21, 2011
• Google forced to pull several malware-infested apps from Android market – June 8, 2011
• Android malware sees explosive growth; even faster than with PCs – April 27, 2011
• Virus-laden apps infest Google’s ‘open’ Android platform; iPhone unaffected – March 3, 2011
• Security firm warns of new Android trojan that can steal personal information; iPhone unaffected – December 30, 2010
• Trojan infects Android smartphones; iPhone unaffected – August 10, 2010
• Millions of Android phone users slammed by malicious data theft app – July 29, 2010
• Unlike proactive Apple, reactive Google doesn’t block malware from Android app store – June 4, 2010
• Malware designed to steal bank information pops up in Google’s Android app store – January 11, 2010
“Then there’s Siri, Apple’s new voice-recognition software. Woz says he’s been using Siri for a long time and used to love it when it was an independent application created for the iPhone,” Lyons reports. “But ever since Apple bought Siri and built the software into the iPhone 4S, it doesn’t work as well as it used to. ‘I used to ask Siri, ‘What are the five biggest lakes in California?’ and it would come back with the answer. Now it just misses.'”
MacDailyNews Take: See, Woz, forgets things easily. He has to ask Siri to name the five biggest California lakes daily. Tomorrow, when he asks yet again, Siri should just tell him to fsck off.
Lyons reports, “Worse, a lot of the time Siri says it can’t make a connection to the back-end servers that power the system. ‘With the iPhone 4 I could press a button and call my wife. Now on the 4S I can only do that when Siri can connect over the Internet. But many times it can’t connect. I’ve never had Android come back and say, ‘I can’t connect over the Internet.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Woz doesn’t know how to work his iPhone 4S.
Settings > Siri > OFF.
Now try to call your wife, Woz. See? Voice Control from your iPhone 4 (which debuted with iPhone 3GS back on June 19, 2009) is still right there. As always, Voice Control does not require Internet access. Granted, Apple needs to make Siri automatically only use the network when necessary, but, gee whiz, er… Woz, that’s why they call it a “beta.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Because Woz doesn’t know how to work his iPhone 4S, his opinion on how other smartphones work compared to it is meaningless.
And, Dan Lyons —— who hasn’t yet figured out a reliable way to slam Apple now that Steve’s gone (Lyons will be registering deadsteve.net later today to begin “ghost” blogging – right after he reads this) —— for taking advantage of poor Woz, a kind and trusting soul, Dan Lyons remains a royal asshole.
Woz is turning out to be another attention whore. I guess he wanted that job at apple really bad. Maybe Tim should give him something to do so he shuts the f up.
Wozniak sometimes gives clueless comments, but there is no basis that he does it intentionally to be “attention whore”. According to all accounts, he has no malice.
He was on Dancing with the Stars and My Life on the Dlist. People don’t go on “reality” shows who don’t have any desire to get attention.
I think Woz just wants to have his fun. Be it reality shows, or trolling Siri…
I have to assume you are being sarcastic. By all accounts, Woz has the least attention demanding personality imaginable.
I don’t know Woz, but he does seem to like the limelight. Standing in line at the Apple Store for iPhones, etc., might seem to make him the average Joe, but it could be that he likes the attention.
Woz is in need of attention for sure… In fact if he wasn’t he would not have been a presenter of the keynote 2012 AAPL Investor Summit.
Obviously you do not watch television, gcaptain! Seen “The Big Bang Theory” lately? There’s Woz. Know who Kathy Griffin is? There’s Woz. (Or at least USED to be.) This guy has begged Apple to let him back in, and they have–one and all–told him to fsck off. A genius of electrical engineering? Unquestionably. An unabashed supporter of the company he helped create? Absolutely NOT. Attention Whore is much too nice an eponym for him.
I’ve said this for decades. Woz was only ever the mechanic.
Woz always a nerd, kinda like an idiot savant.
Apple Should hire Woz, and then they can place him under NDA and that will keep him quiet..
It’s not about Woz’s need for attention, it’s about plain stupidity or perhaps an axe to grind (more likely). Given his significant role in the early evolution of Apple, he does himself and Apple a major disservice blathering/fawning to the Press about the great features of stolen intellectual property. File this under “pathetic fool finds new low”.
IMHO, the Woz is way past his use by date. What other in-duh-vidual, who has not been involved with a company for eons – except as an attention whore – is given so much press. I would hazard to guess that there is none of his original technology floating around any of the current Apple products. Yes, he deserves recognition for being literally forced to agree to create a profit oriented company with Steve Jobs but after that I think (again IMHO) his use by dated has been exceeded. Who gives a fat rats what he thinks anymore? The Woz Worshipers?
Let the flames begin!
Cheers!
And let’s not forget that Woz titled his biography “iWoz” — when he had absolutely nothing to do with any of Apple’s i-devices. It’s one thing to want to be in the limelight, or to talk about his past accomplishments with Apple. It’s quite another to pretend that he contributed to Apple’s more recent successes.
He should have titled the book, “iWas.”
At the time I thought that was the self-deprecating double meaning intended, but nowadays I’m not so sure.
MDN: “Yeah, I know you co-founded the company that I’ve made a career out of defending. But, your opinion is meaningless..” lol…
Yes, when you don’t know how to work to work your iPhone 4S and then criticize it because of your ignorance, your opinion on how it compares with other, clearly derivative devices is meaningless regardless of whatever rudimentary personal computer you designed or company you “co-founded” (more like dragged kicking and screaming to sign on the dotted line by the real founder) way back when.
lol
What do you think you’re laughing at, I’d love to hear it.
You think that someone who doesn’t know how to work a device is equipped to judge it against other, derivative devices?
Or you think that because he’s a “co-founder” his opinion matters even though he does not know how to work his device?
What do you mean by “he doesn’t know how” to use it? Should he have to turn Siri off? Shouldn’t it “just work”?
The iPhone doesn’t really come with an instruction manual…because it doesn’t, in theory, need one. Woz isn’t lying about his experience.
There is nothing wrong with the man saying what’s on his mind..no matter how random. I’m a punch drinking fanboy too..but Jesus fellas, calm down!
The difference between Apple and other companies is that Apple will actually play with their competetor’s products and respect the good things. Unlike Ballmer who has banned anything apple in his house and office.
finally… a voice of reason.
It means it’s a beta. Look up the word. It has meaning.
Right now, Siri beta overrides Voice Control. When you turn Siri beta off, Voice Control works the same as it always has — just like Woz’s beloved iOS knockoff, the world’ most insecure mobile OS: Android.
1 Love Siri when it’s operational, but is down too often. Looking forward to an update.
Jesus, and Superior being… (nice names, btw)
Siri is in BETA. It is NOT perfect yet. So it may not always “Just Work”
It usually does, but sometimes there’s a bug that prevents Siri from connecting to the network until you restart your phone. I’ve already encountered it a few times, and it’s quite annoying.
Siri is awesome. It’s just in Beta. I dont expect it to be perfect. And I cannot wait for iOS 5.1 which will (Hopefully) Take Siri out of beta, and fix some of those bugs.
I believe the laughter was with you not at you. Sensitive much?
A little bitchy today, are we? The lol was a compliment. You show as much insight as the Woz. Go back to bed and start over later.
Woz hit his head way too hard when he crashed his plane, but we already knew that.
And Dan Lyons certainly is a royal asshole plus he’s an ugly mutherfscker, too.
I detest Dan Lyons myself, but MDN, as usual, was careful only to highlight the tidbits of the article to make Woz look bad, dismissing some legitimate points that were made. Shame, but typical of MDN.
Bullshit.
“Good points” are common place. It is useless to put all of it in this blog entry with comments like “We agree”, “Correct”, and so on.
Mark… you don’t like what you read? Cool… Then don’t read it!
When you don’t think for yourself, you get an ‘expert’ to agree with you, to sell your point. Stuff like this can be equivalent to gossip.
Damn right he got that right. Go Woz! Tell it like it is. We want the unvarnished truth, not some sugarcoated babble that Apple’s PR department puts out.
Apart from a fixation on outdated 3.5″ screen sizes, the thing that bugs me about iOS is the complete lack of customability when it comes to setting calendar weeks. I mean come on how hard would it be to let me pick Monday as the start of the week, but noooo….
We’re not all complete morons.
Also if you send mail by triggering new mail from your address book, the mail app won’t append ‘smart names’, just the person’s bare email address. But if you select the person from the recipients list in the mail app, his name appears. How retarded is that?
Thats because the week does start on Sunday – all you people and your customization don’t integrate well with society, I bet you don’t even change your clock for daylight savings time..
Ugh don’t get me started..
The week starts with Monday in many parts of the world. That’s why Saturday and Sunday are called the weekEND.
your work week starts on Sunday? Shit, I better call my payroll department..they have been getting this work week (how people define time) thing all wrong!
If the “we” in your statement includes you, then yes, you are all complete morons.
“Apart from a fixation on screen size”
Project much?
LOL, beat me to it!
——RM
Woz sucks. Screw him
The MDN take says it all, I have nothing to add, except that I’m very disappointed in Woz, and Lyons of course, as expected, remains a Total whore.
Woz speaks in disrespect for whom he was rooted to.
Sue him and remove him from payroll.
I tried to ask the same question which Woz asked Siri, surprisingly it did answered my question correctly. I just can’t believe Woz said something like he never used an iPhone and he has less understanding on Siri. Moreover, it’s just the beginning of Siri era. Just like the App Store first established. Rome isn’t build in a day. Slowly will be better. Besides, it’s just a beta version. With the beta version is doing so well now, I can see a bright future for Siri. Android does have function similar to Siri, but just isn’t lively enough and need to stick with keywords.
These Woz words will go viral… And the fruitcake will be everywhere explaining his apologies. Cut him from payroll… Or has it been done already since Jobs passing hence his tears and actions todate.
When I see the name Dan Lyons, I must divert my eyes, he offends me so much. So much so that writing the end of this comment has been terrifically difficult since this post contains said offensive name.
No wonder Kathy Griffin dumped him! Where’s his Apple loyalty lie?
MDN’s take is stupid. Siri should NOT have to rely on being connected to any network in order to dial a phone number from my contacts, create a calendar event, etc.
And to “advise” Woz to turn off Siri just to use Voice Control to call his wife? Absolutely stupid, and completely counter to what Apple is supposed to be about – a seamless technical experience where the user doesn’t have to change a bunch of settings to get something done.
I can’t count the number of times I have tried to use Siri when I have great signal and 3G, only to be told that she can’t access the network. Ridiculous.
You’re on AT&T too, huh?
That must be why MDN wrote, “Granted, Apple needs to make Siri automatically use the network only when necessary…”
You people who only see what you want to see are the fscking problem in this world.
If “MDN’s take is stupid,” then you’re calling yourself “stupid,” because you fscking agree with it, even if you don’t even know it.
You know how I call my wife? I tap the phone icons, tap “Favorites”, and tap the first entry in the list. Way faster than any voice control.
Seriously, there’s no reason to use Siri to dial the phone unless your hands aren’t free. And often in those cases you shouldn’t be talking on the phone anyway.
——RM
Agreed. That Siri has to connect in order to dial somebody in my contacts list is a bug.
I also expect it to be resolved by Apple. Siri *is* beta-ware, and Apple isn’t stupid – they’ll fix that. Woz made a valid point: That is something that needs improvement.
As for Woz himself, he earned the right to be an important voice in tech. For the rest of his fucking life. None of us would be here on a “Mac Daily News” website but for the contribution he, along with his friend Steve Jobs, made to the world. Like it or not, all of us will just have to put up with him, because he *earned* it. IMHO, of course.
‘Woz’, was, but is longer relevant to much of anything. Enjoy your Android!
Woz waz!
Woz is giving good comments on android because he wanted to be part of android execs since apple doesn’t want him to be with them.
And Woz wonders why he hasn’t been asked to come into the office to work since 1987. Apple pays him to NOT come to work.
Picking on Woz? Really, MDN?
Woz enjoys tinkering with gadgets. Many of the geniuses who made the digital age possible do. So obviously, he is going to have some reservations about restrictions in the iPhone, and some positive feelings about the hackability of Androids.
And there clearly are some big usability problems with Siri. Saying it’s beta software is a really lame excuse, especially when your editors constantly lambast Google for using the exact same lame excuse.
So you are persecuting the hero who built the Apple I and Apple II, co-founded Apple, on an Apple fan website, because of your overaction to some of his comments?
Apple actually does create great products that change the world. You can appreciate Apple without all that misplaced hate and blind ideology and ridiculousness.
I agree. Lambasting people who don’t agree with you, is a disservice to this site. For Pete’s sake, show some self confidence in your own beliefs and opinions. Show some deference for once. Just because Woz had some criticisms to share, doesn’t mean Apple is going to suddenly fall to Android. Apple is a big boy… it can handle a little criticism, especially from someone like Woz. Very often it’s critisim that can help drive innovation and improvement.
Well, aren’t you the mature adult Mr.HoityToity.
he is paid – if you go out and publicly state things against the company you earn from – i think you should be viewed as a traitor – YES ?
Androids works and – yeah some things are nice about it – but it doesn’t make matters better – QUESTION remains is it GOOD COMPETITION or STOLEN ?
Where is Oracle on all this ?
Why can Microsoft strike licensing deal with phone makers over WINDOWS 8 but run ANDROID ? BIZZAR to me…
If you want a geeky toy to tinker with Android excels. Like the hot rod of the 50s you’re never quite done fixing it the way you want it. If you want a tool to get things done get an iPhone.
He certainly has a point with Siri. All this talk about Siri stealing search hits from Google and being an ace up the sleeve, and it needs to be disabled if you want you reliably use voice commands to call someone? Give me a break. You’d all be slamming it if this happened to Android.
Beta is really no excuse, and it goes against Apple’s usual philosophy. We all make fun of Google’s perpetual beta offerings for good reason. You don’t attach so much fanfare to a beta product. If you can use beta as an excuse for Google, you certainly shouldn’t for Apple either. Apple should be better than that.
With an exponential growth of iOS devices, how is already unreliable network connectivity going to improve? It won’t be easy.
Unlike you, I have an iPhone 4S.
You do not need to disable Siri if you want to reliably use voice commands to call someone.
You would only disable Siri if you had no Internet access, as Apple has not yet made Siri automatically only use the network when necessary because Siri is still in beta.
Siri’s plenty reliable, compared to the jokers I got to put up with at the dock, and she tunes out the barge pumps.
Siri’s beta ’cause she has to be. Network entities are not like other things, they evolve; so kick her out of the nest I mean lab and she’ll flutter awhile then get her wings and soar. Time will tell if she survives in the wild. I like her chances though as when the other birds arrive she’ll have Thor’s hammer to their peashooters.
Yer right about the slams, as many people do like their toys better. And which they respect as practically part of their own selves, so you’ll often see the sad spectacle of fan boys in a lather over some putdown like it was an insult to their own manhood, and it might be at that.
What is MDN drinking today? Talk about harsh, crude Takes. Wasn’t humorous at all, just childish.
Guys lay off, Woz is a geek, geeks like Android because they can tinker.
Big deal!
I’m convinced that Woz is an idiot savant.
Woz is yesteryear, living off another forgotten millennium. People stopped using the Apple II, fatso. You and that idiot orangutang from Kenya are both as good as history.
WOZ was Was
Nice! Why do you sully this site with your stupidity. Sad to be intimidated by someone so badly you would revert to racist blather. What does the President have to fo with this? How old are you? Your parents should restrict your computer usage. This is a site for adults. Not for insecure children trying to act tough.
What a mindless, ignorant, fscking moron you are. Crawl back under your rock.