Cult of Mac’s Adam Rosen reports on a clip from the 1998 documentary “Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance,” in which Steve Jobs describes how Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and he built the first digital “Blue Box” and how its power influenced them:
Via: Cult of Mac
MacDailyNews Note: Today is Washington’s Birthday in the U.S.A., a federal holiday and, as such, the U.S. markets are closed for the day. We expect to be posting throughout the day, but lighter than usual.
Washington’s Farewell Address, September 19, 1796
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
So what is Apple working on today that will fool the system?
Lots of things Apple has done to fool the system, from the Apple ][ fooling memory with the expansion slots, fooling the diskette writing process to save on electronics, the Lisa, the original Mac OS, all the way through iPhone and iPad.
It’s not fooling anyone or anything. It’s about the magic of technology, of going against the system , the status quo. Rebel against what the world has embraced for something that maybe completely different and hopefully better. The iPad is a perfect example of this. Before its arrival there was more doubt than support for the device and yet it’s quickly proving to be what may prove to be the first computer that represents 21st century computing. That’s their blue box of 2010.
Ever heard of Facetime? I have it in my iPod touch 4gen. You don’t think Apple wants people to call each other with that? That’s one way to screw the phone companies.
Cheating telcos out of revenue by building a box to fool a computer system isn’t something I’d tell everyone on video tape, that’s for sure.
That’s because you’re thinking, “Oh, cheating telcos out of revenue… That’s bad!” Which is what the telcos want us to think. Steve Jobs is looking at a bigger picture than that, and always has been.
As for 13-year-old the video clip: If they haven’t come after him by now…
As a matter of fact, the not only came after them, they caught them. And they were duly punished.
You think the phone companies dont/didn’t know about this?? They were the ones that shut the BlueBoxes down!
The guy demonstrating the blue box had the most amazing hair. lol
Was that a guy? I looked again, but I’m still not sure….
I had to pause the video to figure it out. He has a 5-o-clock shadow which leads me to believe it is a guy. I’ve never seen a fade with curled (old school leave in style) side burns and a mullet combined.
The gender is MALE. I cannot tell about his tendencies.
He is also warring a black turtleneck, maybe jeans.
Wasn’t that Ina Fried?
Jobs n’ Woz; innovating the telephone since the 1970’s!
Now the box that he uses to control the telephone companies is called… iPhone.
Was about to say that haha, or at least with the iPhone and technology like skype combined 🙂
Kind of eerie that the bluebox actually looks like an iPhone. Even down to the packaging it came in.
Funny that the visual accompanying the description of the phone system is a picture of a PG&E electrical transformer station, not a phone installation.
Funny how the blue-box in the video looks like the box my iPhone 3GS came in.
Not so funny how much younger and healthier SJ looks in the video.
I looked a lot better 14 years ago too.
The phone company has gotten a lot more out of Steve Jobs than he ever got from phone phreaking.
It is NOT George Washington’s birthday in the US. Washington was born on Feb 22, which is Tuesday (tomorrow) in the US. It is actually President’s Day in the US today (Feb 21). How could you get that so wrong, MDN? Where are you living?
Monday is Washington’s (observed) is the official name of the holiday
http://www.opm.gov/Operating_Status_Schedules/fedhol/2011.asp
Presidents Day??? Do we really need a Federal Holiday for the likes of Millard Fillmore or Franklin Pierce???
Please say your sorry to MDN, and then go back to where ever it is YOU live.
Millard Fillmore? What about George W. fricking Bush and Richard Nixon? President’s Day is a very bad joke. Taking a gigantic dump in a public place would be a perfect way to celebrate this holiday .
The day is a combination of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. At one time we got both days off. Now it is one day that can be on a Monday or Friday.
Will Steve and Apple be forgiving when hackers that break into Apple’s resources and point to Steve’s blue box indiscretions on the phone company as their defense?
touche!
“we gave them to our friends…” actually they SOLD them! A minor point, Jobs is awesome. It’s weird, but how different — and worse — would the world be if he had never been born?
And if there had been no Bondi Blue boxes ….
Already then he was using his lovable hyperbole, “the BEST blue box…” 😀
Can we only imagine a world where there had “been no Apple.” I shudder to think.
control the telephone companies . . .
So, the iPhone is the Blue Box II?
I love the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comic book in the video. I still have all of them. Actually the guy in the video looks like Phineas Freak.
well do not forget you pals Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton
@ MDN
I’m encouraged that you prominently link to Washington’s Farewell Address. But your politics say you haven’t read it lately. Washington warned, in not uncertain terms, against today’s norm of hyperpartisanship.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention, which in different ages & countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. … and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.