“I hate to seem dense or out of the loop, but for the life of me I can’t think of many really useful applications for the located-based encryption technology being touted by Steve Wozniak’s company,” David Coursey writes for eWeek. “It does, however, help me understand why the Apple co-founder is known as ‘the other Steve,’ the one who had his day in the sun and left.”
Coursey writes, “While Steve Jobs, generally considered the less charming (unless he really wants to be) of the two Apple boy geniuses, has bounced from success (Macintosh) to success (Pixar) to success (iPod), Wozniak gets recent credit for things such as concerts and TV remote control devices. His new company grew out of – I swear – a desire to create a better invisible dog fence.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Cousey does quite a job on poor Woz in this one. A funny read, even though we always pull for Woz no matter what crazy thing he’s trying.
Woz will have the last laugh…
Who cares? Woz is cooler than Jobs anyday.
All Woz has done for the last 20 years is spend the money Steve makes for him, with increased stock values.
Whatever happened to Woz’s wearable computer project?
he thinks steve jobs is less charming.. er.. steve jobs was/is the marketing king at Apple.. BECAUSE he was charismatic.. but.. i guess he was a jerk 99% of the time..
another thing to note .. this guy thinks the Mac was a success.. wow.. most journalists think the Mac bombed..
Woz is in the oh-so enviable position of being able to tinker away at whatever captures his fancy. He already changed the world once and made a fortune doing it. That’s more than most of us will ever be able to say. If he wants to help me find my dog, that’s OK by me! Besides, he still does tons for education. He’s earned enough good karma for three lifetimes. You go Woz!
Coursey said, “for the life of me I can’t think of many really useful applications for the located-based encryption technology being touted by Steve Wozniak’s company.”
Lucky for us, Coursey is the journalist, not the inventor. He may not be able to think of any useful applications of this technology, but surely Woz will.
Jobs was (and still is) the marketer. Woz was (and still is) the inventor.
Even if he seems a bit off-track I say give Woz a chance, Those old Apple folk have a habit of being 10+ years ahead of everyone else.
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Yeah, Woz has figuratively and financially earned the right to do whatever he pleases for as long as he wants. Though this latest project does not sound like much, who knows where his genius will take him…..
Yea, let’s see now… Apple’s doing well, iPods are HOT, hmmmm… what else can I do – I know, I’ll bag Woz coz I have nothing else bad to write about about Apple or it’s founders.
[Sure the author is entitled to an opinion, but many inventions start out being a “what the hell is THIS for anyway”, only to take off later or be used for a slightly different purpose. Maybe creation is 50% imagination, and 50% pissing people off.]
I NEED a better invisible fence!
Hell, Slashdot has articles about the original iPod which ask “Who would ever buy such a device? OVERKILL!!!”
Journalists get paid to write articles, not to use logic to assess potential values in the future. This same guy may be praising whatever Woz comes up with 3 years from now.
Pete,
I don’t want to just come out and call you an idiot, but you sure make it hard. Woz has done more good in this world than you ever will have the opportunity to do.
He has for many years volunteered at schools to help students learn. And that’s just one of the unselfish things he has done. And he doesn’t sti around like a loser cutting other people down based on his ignorance of the facts either.
Get a clue.
If Woz had any interest in music the iPod would have been invented ahead of its time.
(Just kidding, bearded one.)
Brought to you by the magic word “wife” — a reminder: Just what have you done for yours lately?
(I got mine a mini and she’s putting it to good use trying to imitate one of the silhouette dancers.)
It may be that the likes of Care director Margaret Hassan will be found before they are murdered by terrorists by just this kind of secure technology.
Eric:
“Pete,
I don’t want to just come out and call you an idiot, but you sure make it hard. Woz has done more good in this world than you ever will have the opportunity to do…Get a clue.”
lol… no hope there. Let the fool on the hill speak to himself, we don’t have to listen…
I can think of lots of applications for something like this. It will just depend on the pricing and how they implement it. Let’s see. Putting one in your car if you live in the US would be good. If it gets stolen you can find it right away. Lots of cash spent on anti-theft systems for cars. If they make it small enough a lot of spouses will be checking on their other half (that might actually be a bit scary for some). Putting it on the collar of a dog that runs away a lot sounds hoky but actually I think there would be a good market for that too. etc. etc.
Woz is an affable, courtly, and all-around nice guy who established a brave new world with Jobs in a lifetime past. Apple and Mac are not ‘inventions’, they are ideas implemented, needing destructive change, nurturing, renewal … or they, like everything else, just dies. Jobs has kept the idea alive through painful, unrelenting and ingenious work. Woz has been utterly on the sidelines and marginalized in what Macintosh has become, so save your nostalgia for someone else. His Wheels of Zeus is not a serious venture, though a parade of Sillycon Valley has-beens and wanna-be’s treat it as the next alchemy.
Build a statue of Woz in some SV town square … and move on.
He made the software for his own companies protection, and decided it was a good idea.. I think its a great idea too, for companies, makes complete sence to me, if you dont want data access outside of your office, other than making the network private this is about all you can do, I think its awesome, and definatly has its place!