Steve Wozniak

Stephen Gary Wozniak (English pronunciation: /ˈwɒzniæk/; San Jose, California, August 11, 1950), ^{(p18) (p27)} also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American computer engineer, programmer, philanthropist, and technology entrepreneur. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., which later became the world's largest information technology company by revenue and the world's largest company by market capitalization. Through his work at Apple in the 1970s and 1980s, both he and Steve Jobs, the company's co-founders, are widely recognized as two leading pioneers of the personal computer revolution.

In 1975, Wozniak began developing Apple's first computer, the Apple I, which became the first computer released by Apple when he and Jobs began shipping it the following year. He initially designed the Apple II in 1977, known as one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers while Jobs oversaw the development of its foam-molded plastic case and early Apple employee Rod Holt developed the power supply. switching. With software engineer Jef Raskin, Wozniak was highly influential in the early development of the original Apple Macintosh concepts from 1979 to 1981, when Jobs took over the project after Wozniak's brief departure from the company due to to a traumatic plane crash. After leaving Apple permanently in 1985, Wozniak founded CL 9 and created the first universal programmable remote control, released in 1987. He went on to pursue various other business and philanthropic ventures throughout his career, focusing primarily in technology in K-12 schools.

As of November 2019, Wozniak has remained an Apple employee in a ceremonial position since he retired in 1985.

Early Years

Wozniak Yearbook Photo of the Homestead High School

Steve Wozniak was born and raised in San Jose, California, the son of Margaret Louise Wozniak (née Kern) (1923-2014) of Washington State ^(p18) and Francis Jacob &# 34;Jerry" Wozniak (1925-1994)) of Michigan. ^(p18) His father, Jerry Wozniak, was an engineer for the Lockheed Corporation. ^(p1) he graduated from Homestead High School in 1968, in Cupertino, California.

The name on Wozniak's birth certificate is "Stephan Gary Wozniak," but his mother said she intended it to be spelled "Stephen," which is what he goes by. ^(p18) Wozniak has mentioned that his last name is Ukrainian and has discussed his Ukrainian and Polish ancestry. ^(p129–130)

In the early 1970s, Wozniak's blue box design earned him the nickname "Berkeley Blue" in the phreaking community.

Wozniak has credited watching Star Trek and attending Star Trek conventions as a young man as inspiring his founding of Apple Inc.

Career

Apple Origins

In 1969, Wozniak returned to the San Francisco Bay Area after being expelled from the University of Colorado Boulder as a freshman for hacking into the university's computer system and sending hoax messages on it. again at De Anza College in Cupertino before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971.^(p1) In June 1971, as a self-taught project, Wozniak designed and built his first computer with his friend Bill Fernandez.^(p1)Envisioning useful microprocessors, displays and keyboards, and using a punch card and just 20 TTL chips donated by an acquaintance, they named it "Cream Soda" in honor of his favorite drink. A journalist stepped on the power cord and blew up the computer, but it served Wozniak as "a good prelude to my thinking 5 years later with the Apple I and Apple II computers". At Apple, he worked at Hewlett-Packard (HP), where he designed calculators. It was during this time that he left UC Berkeley and became friends with Steve Jobs.

Wozniak was introduced to Jobs by Fernandez, who attended Homestead High School with Jobs in 1971. Jobs and Wozniak became friends when Jobs summered at HP, where Wozniak was also employed, working on a mainframe computer.

Wozniak Blue Box at the Museum of Computer History

Their first business association began later that year when Wozniak read an article titled "Little Blue Box Secrets" from the October 1971 issue of Esquire, and began building his own "blue boxes" Jobs, who handled sales of the blue boxes, managed to sell about two hundred for $150 each, splitting the profits with Wozniak Jobs told him more He later told his biographer that if it hadn't been for Wozniak's blue boxes, "there wouldn't have been an Apple."

In 1973, Jobs was working for the arcade game company Atari, Inc. in Los Gatos, California. He was assigned to create a circuit board for the Breakout video game. According to Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, Atari offered $100 (equivalent to $576 in 2019) for each chip removed in the machine. Jobs had little knowledge of circuit board design and struck a deal with Wozniak to split the fee equally between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Wozniak reduced the number of chips by 50, using RAM for the representation of the bricks. Too complex to understand at the time, the fact that this prototype also had no scoring mechanisms or coins meant that Woz's prototype could not be used. Jobs was paid the full bonus anyway. Jobs told Wozniak that Atari gave them only $700 and that Wozniak's share was therefore $350 (equivalent to $2,016 in 2019) ^{(p147–148, 180)} Wozniak he did not find out about the actual bonus of $5,000 (equivalent to $28,797 in 2019) until ten years later. Though appalled, he said that if Jobs had told him about it and said he needed the money, Wozniak would have given it to him. ^(p104–107)

In 1975, Wozniak began designing and developing the computer that would ultimately make him famous, the Apple I. On June 29 of that year, he tested his first working prototype, displaying some letters and running sample programs. It was the first time in history that a character displayed on a television screen was generated by a home computer. With the Apple I, Wozniak was working largely to impress other members of the Palo-based Homebrew Computer Club. Alto, (pp. 35–38) a local group of electronics hobbyists interested in computers. The club was one of several key centers that established the home hobbyist era, essentially creating the microcomputer industry for decades to come. Unlike other custom Homebrew designs, Apple had an easy-to-achieve video capability that drew a crowd when introduced.

Apple's Formation and Success

Apple Computer 1 original 1976 in a briefcase. From the Sydney Powerhouse Museum Collection

On March 1, 1976, Wozniak completed the basic design of the Apple I computer. (pp. 5-6) He alone designed the computer's hardware, circuit board layouts, and operating system. Wozniak originally offered the design to HP while he was working there, but was denied five times by the company. Jobs then advised Wozniak to start his own business building and selling bare Apple I printed circuit boards. (pp. 4 -6) (pp. 35-38) Wozniak, at first skeptical, was later convinced by Jobs that even if they were unsuccessful, they could at least tell their grandchildren that they had run their own company. To raise the money they needed to build the first batch of circuit boards, Wozniak sold his HP scientific calculator while Jobs sold his Volkswagen pickup truck. ^{(p4-6) (p35-38)}

On April 1, 1976, Jobs and Wozniak formed the Apple Computer Company (now Apple Inc.) along with administrative supervisor Ronald Wayne, whose involvement in the new company was short-lived. The two settled on the name "Apple" shortly after Jobs returned from Oregon and told Wozniak about time spent in an apple orchard there.

After the company was formed, Jobs and Wozniak made one last trip to the Homebrew Computer Club to give a presentation on the fully assembled version of the Apple I. (pp. 39–40) Paul Terrell, who was starting a A new computer store in Mountain View, California, called the Byte Shop, saw the presentation and was impressed with the machine. (pp. 66–67) Terrell told Jobs that he would order 50 units of the Apple I and pay $500 each. one on delivery, but only if they came fully assembled, since I wasn't interested in buying bare PCBs. (p. 7) (pp. 66–67)

Together, the duo assembled the first boards at the Los Altos home of Jobs's parents; initially in his bedroom and later (when there was no more space) in the garage. Wozniak's San Jose apartment was filled with monitors, electronic devices and computer games he had developed. I sold the Apple for $666.66. Wozniak later said that he had no idea of the relationship between the number and the make of the beast, and that he came up with the price because he liked 'repeating digits'. They sold their first 50 system boards to Terrell later that year.

In November 1976, Jobs and Wozniak received substantial funding from a then-semi-retired Intel product marketing manager and engineer named Mike Markkula. (p10) At Markkula's request, Wozniak resigned from his job at HP and became the vice president in charge of research and development at Apple. Wozniak's Apple I was similar to the Altair 8800, the first commercially available microcomputer, except that the Apple I had no provision for internal expansion cards. With expansion cards, the Altair could be connected to a computer terminal and programmed in BASIC. By contrast, the Apple I was a hobbyist machine. Wozniak's design featured a $25 CPU (MOS 6502) on a single circuit board with 256 bytes of ROM, 4K or 8K bytes of RAM, and a 40-character by 24-row display controller. Apple's first computer lacked a case, power supply, keyboard, and display — all components that had to be supplied by the user. Ultimately, around 200 Apple I computers were produced in total.

An Apple II computer with an external modem

After the success of the Apple I, Wozniak designed the Apple II, the first personal computer with the ability to display color graphics and an integrated BASIC programming language. Inspired by "the technique that Atari used to simulate colors in his early arcade games", Wozniak found a way to put colors on the NTSC system using a US$1 chip, while colors in the PAL system they are achieved by "accident". when a dot appears on a line, and he says to this day he has no idea how it works. During the design stage, Jobs argued that the Apple II should have two expansion slots, while Wozniak wanted eight. After a heated argument, during which Wozniak threatened that Jobs should "go find another computer," they decided to go with eight slots. Jobs and Wozniak introduced the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire in April 1977. Wozniak's first article on the Apple II appeared in Byte magazine i> in May 1977. It became one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced personal computers.

Wozniak also designed the Disk II floppy disk drive, released in 1978 specifically for use with the Apple II series to replace slower cassette tape storage.

In 1980, Apple went public for significant and instant financial returns, making Jobs and Wozniak millionaires. The intended successor to the Apple II, the Apple III, released the same year, was a commercial failure and was discontinued in 1984. According to Wozniak, the Apple III was "100 percent hardware failure," and that the main reason for these failures was that the system was designed by Apple's marketing department, unlike previous projects driven by Apple engineering.

During the early design and development phase of the original Macintosh, Wozniak had a major influence on the project. Later named the "Macintosh 128k", it would become the first mass-market personal computer with an integral graphical user interface and mouse. The Macintosh would also usher in the desktop publishing industry with the addition of the Apple LaserWriter, the first laser printer to feature vector graphics. In a 2013 interview, Wozniak said that in 1981, "Steve [Jobs] really took over the business." project when I had a plane crash and I wasn't there".

On February 7, 1981, the Beechcraft Bonanza A36TC that Wozniak was piloting crashed shortly after takeoff from Sky Park Airport in Scotts Valley, California. The plane stalled while climbing, then bounced down the runway, breaching two fences and crashed into an embankment. Wozniak and his three passengers, then-fiancée Candice Clark, her brother Jack Clark, and Jack's girlfriend, Janet Valleau, were injured. Wozniak suffered severe injuries to his face and head, including the loss of a tooth, and also suffered for the next five weeks from anterograde amnesia, the inability to create new memories. He had no recollection of the accident, and had no recollection of his name while he was in the hospital or the things he did for a time after he was released. He would later say that the Apple II computer games were what helped him regain his memory. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation report cited premature takeoff and pilot inexperience as probable causes of the accident. ^(p28–30)

Wozniak did not immediately return to Apple after recovering from the plane crash, seeing it as a good reason to leave. Infinite Loop characterized this time: "Leaving the semi- coma had been like flipping a reset switch in Woz's brain. It was as if in his thirty year old body he had regained the mind he had at eighteen before all the computer madness started. And when that happened, Woz discovered that he had little interest in engineering or design. Rather, in a strange way, he wanted to start over & # 34;.

UC Berkeley and US Festivals

Wozniak in 1983

Later in 1981, after recovering from the plane crash, Wozniak re-enrolled at UC Berkeley to complete his undergraduate degree. Because his name was well known at this time, he enrolled under the name Rocky Raccoon Clark, which is the name that appears on his diploma even though he did not officially receive a degree in electrical and computer engineering until 1987.

In May 1982 and 1983, Wozniak, with the help of professional concert promoter Bill Graham, founded the company Unuson, an abbreviation for "let us unite in song," which sponsored two US Festivals. USA, with "EE. USA" pronounced as the pronoun, not as initials. Initially intended to celebrate the evolution of technologies, the festivals ended up being a technology expo and a rock festival as a combination of music, computers, television and people. After losing several million dollars at the 1982 festival, Wozniak declared that unless the 1983 event turned a profit, he would end his involvement with rock festivals and return to designing computers. Later that year, Wozniak returned to to Apple's product development, wanting nothing more than an engineering role and a motivator for Apple's workforce.

Back to Apple Product Development

Andy Hertzfeld, Macintosh software designer, and Wozniak, at an Apple User Group Connection meeting in 1985

In the mid-1980s, he designed the Apple Desktop Bus, a proprietary bit-serial peripheral bus that became the basis for all Macintosh and NeXT computer models.

Starting in the mid-1980s, when the Macintosh experienced slow but steady growth, Apple's steering committee, including Steve Jobs, increasingly disrespected its flagship and revenue source Apple II — and Wozniak along with her. The Apple II division—other than Wozniak—was not invited to the Macintosh launch event, and a very angry Wozniak was seen in the parking lot. Although Apple II products provided about 85% of Apple's sales in early 1985, the company's annual meeting in January 1985 made no mention of the Apple II division or its employees, a typical situation that frustrated Wozniak.

Final Exit of Apple's Workforce

Even with the success he had helped create at Apple, Wozniak believed that the company was preventing him from being who he wanted to be, and that it was "the bane of his existence." He liked engineering, not management, saying he missed "the fun of the early days." As other talented engineers joined the growing company, he no longer believed he was needed there, and in early 1985, Wozniak left Apple again, stating that the company had "headed in the wrong direction for the last five years." He then sold most of his shares.

The Apple II platform financially carried the company well into the Macintosh era of the late 1980s; made semi-portable with the 1984 Apple IIc, extended, with some input from Wozniak, by the 16-inch Apple IIGS bits from 1986, and was discontinued entirely in 1992.

Post-Apple Career

Following his career at Apple, Wozniak founded CL 9 in 1985, which developed and brought to market the first universal programmable remote control in 1987, dubbed "CORE".

Beyond engineering, Wozniak's second lifelong goal had always been to teach elementary school because of the important role teachers play in students' lives. Eventually, he taught computer classes to children in grades 5 through 9, as well as teachers, and Unuson continued to support this by funding additional teachers and equipment.

In 2001, Wozniak founded Wheels of Zeus (WOZ) to create wireless GPS technology to "help ordinary people find everyday things much more easily". In 2002, he joined the board of directors of Ripcord Networks, Inc., joining Apple alumni Ellen Hancock, Gil Amelio, Mike Connor and Wheels of Zeus co-founder Alex Fielding in a new telecommunications company. Later that year, he joined the board of directors of Danger, Inc., the maker of the Hip Top.

In 2006, Wheels of Zeus closed and Wozniak founded Acquicor Technology, a holding company for acquiring and developing technology companies, with Apple alumni Hancock and Amelio. He was Fusion-io's Chief Scientist from 2009 to 2014. In 2014 he became Chief Scientific Officer of Primary Data, which was founded by some former Fusion-io executives.

Silicon Valley Comic Con (SCVC) is an annual pop culture and technology convention at the McEnery San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California. The convention was co-founded by Wozniak and Rick White, with Trip Hunter serving as executive director. Wozniak announced the annual event in 2015 along with Marvel legend Stan Lee.

In October 2017, Wozniak founded Woz U, an online educational technology service for students and self-employed workers. In December 2018, Woz U was licensed as a school by the Arizona state board.

Although he permanently left Apple as an active employee in 1985, Wozniak chose never to retire from the official employee list and continues to represent the company at events or interviews. He today receives a stipend from Apple for this position, estimated in 2006 at US$120,000 a year.He is also an Apple shareholder. He maintained a friendly relationship with Steve Jobs until Jobs's death in October 2011. However, in 2006, Wozniak stated that he and Jobs were not as close as they used to be. In a 2013 interview, Wozniak said that the Macintosh original "failed" with Steve Jobs, and that it wasn't until Jobs left that it became a hit. He called the Apple Lisa group the team that had ousted Jobs, and that Jobs liked to call the Lisa group "idiots for making [the Lisa computer] too expensive." To compete with Lisa, Jobs and his new team produced a cheaper computer, one that, according to Wozniak, was "weak," "lousy," and "crappy." and "still at a fairly high price tag". "He did it by cutting RAM, forcing you to swap disks here and there," says Wozniak. He credited the eventual success of the Macintosh to people like John Sculley "who worked to build a Macintosh market when the Apple II disappeared."

Patents

Wozniak at Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Center, Australia, 2012

Wozniak is listed as the sole inventor of the following Apple patents:

• United States Patent No. 4.136.359: "Microcomputer for use with video screen" which was included in the Hall of the Fame of National Inventors.
• U.S. Patent. U.S. No. 4.210.959: "Controller for disc magnet, recorder or similar"
• U.S. Patent. U.S. No. 4.217.604: "Stop to digitally control the PAL color screen"
• U.S. Patent. U.S. N.o 4.278.972: "Digitally controlled color signal generation devices for use with screens"

Philanthropy

In 1990, Wozniak helped found the Electronic Frontier Foundation, providing some of the organization's initial funding and serving on its founding Board of Directors. He is the founding patron of the Tech Museum, Silicon Valley Ballet, and the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. In addition, since he left Apple, Wozniak has provided all the money and a lot of on-site technical support for the technology program at his local school district in Los Gatos.A.U.Son. (Unite Us In Song), an organization Wozniak formed to organize the two US festivals, now has the primary task of supporting his educational and philanthropic projects. In 1986, Wozniak lent his name to the Stephen G. Wozniak Achievement Awards (popularly known as "Wozzie Awards"), which he presented to six Bay Area high school and college students for their innovative use of computers in the fields of business, art, and music. Wozniak is the subject of a film production made by students of his friend's (Joe Patane) nonprofit Dream Camp foundation for high-needs youth titled Camp Woz: The Admirable Lunacy of Philanthropy.

Honors and Awards

Wozniak speaking at a conference in Paradise Valley, Arizona in 2017

• In 1979, Wozniak received the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award. In 1985, both he and Steve Jobs received US President Ronald Reagan's National Medal of Technology.
• He later donated funds to create the Woz Lab at the University of Colorado in Boulder. In 1998, he was named a member of the Computer History Museum "by co-founding Apple Computer and inventing Apple I personal computer."
• In September 2000, Wozniak was included in the Hall of the Fame of National Inventors, and in 2001 he received the 7th Heinz Annual Prize for Technology, Economics and Employment.
• The American Humanist Association awarded him the Isaac Asimov Science Award in 2011.
• In 2004, Wozniak received the fifth annual technology award at the Telluride Technological Festival.
• He was awarded the Global Award of the President of Armenia for High Contribution to Humanity through IT in 2011.
• On February 17, 2014, in Los Angeles, Wozniak received the 66th Hoover Medal from the president and executive director of IEEE, J. Roberto de Marca. The award is awarded to an engineer whose professional achievements and personal efforts have promoted the well-being of humanity and is administered by a board representing five engineering organizations: the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; the American Society of Civil Engineers; the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers; and the Electronic Engineering Institute.^{[chuckles]required]}
• The Chapter of the New York City Youth Presidents Organization presented its 2014 Trayectoria Award to Wozniak on 16 October 2014 at the American Museum of Natural History.^{[chuckles]required]}
• In November 2014, Industry Week He added Wozniak to the Hall of Fame of Manufacturing.
• On June 19, 2015, Wozniak received the Legacy for Children Award from the Children's Discovery Museum in San José. The Legacy for Children Award recognizes a person whose legacy has significantly benefited the learning and life of children. The purpose of the award is to focus Silicon Valley's attention on the needs of our children, encouraging everyone to take responsibility for their well-being. The candidates are nominated by a committee of notable community members involved in child education, medical care, social and human services and the arts. The city of San Jose named a street "Woz Way" in his honor. The direction of the Children's Discovery Museum in San José is 180 Woz Way.
• On June 20, 2015, the Association of Old Students of Cal (UC Berkeley Association of Old Students) awarded Wozniak the 2015 Student Award. "We are honored to recognize Steve Wozniak with CAA's most esteemed award," CAA President Cynthia So Schroeder '91 said. "His invaluable contributions to education already UC Berkeley put it among the most outstanding and respected Cal students."
• In March 2016, High Point University announced that Wozniak will act as its Innovator in Residence. Wozniak was the graduate speaker at High Point University in 2013. Through this ongoing partnership, Wozniak will connect with High Point University students on a variety of topics and will regularly visit the campus.

Paul Allen and Wozniak at Living Computer Museum in 2017

• In March 2017, Wozniak was included by the British company Richtopia in number 18 of its list of the 200 most influential philanthropists and social entrepreneurs.
• Wozniak received in 2021 the IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award "for being a pioneer in the design of consumer friendly personal computers".

Honorary degrees

For his contributions to technology, Wozniak has been awarded several honorary Doctor of Engineering degrees, including the following:

• University of Colorado Boulder: 1989
• North Carolina State University: 2004
• University of Kettering: 2005
• Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale: 2005
• ESPOL University in Ecuador: 2008
• State University of Michigan, East Lansing 2011
• University of Concordia in Montreal, Canada: June 22, 2011
• Armenian State University of Engineering: November 11, 2011
• University of Santa Clara: June 16, 2012
• Universidad Camilo José Cela in Madrid, Spain: 8 November 2013

In the media

Steve Wozniak has been mentioned, depicted, or interviewed countless times in the media from Apple's founding to the present. Wired magazine described him as a person of "tolerant and naive self-esteem" what an interview with "a non-stop sing-song voice".

Documentaries

• Steve Jobs: The Man of the Machine (2015)
• Camp Woz: the admirable madness of philanthropy – a 2009 documentary
• Geeks aboard – a 2007 documentary
• The Secret History of Piracy – a 2001 documentary film starring Wozniak and other phreakers and hackers.
• Nerd Triomph – a 1996 PBS documentary series on the boom of personal computer.
• The formative moment of Steve Wozniak – an original short film from March 15, 2016 by Reddit Formative Moment

Feature films

• 1999: Silicon Valley Pirates – a TNT film directed by Martyn Burke. Wozniak is played by Joey Slotnick, while Jobs is played by Noah Wyle.
• 2013: Jobs – a film directed by Joshua Michael Stern. Wozniak is played by Josh Gad, while Jobs is played by Ashton Kutcher.
• 2015: Steve Jobs – a feature film by Danny Boyle, with a script written by Aaron Sorkin. Wozniak is played by Seth Rogen, while Jobs is played by Michael Fassbender.
• 2015: Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates: Competition to Control Personal Computer, 1974–1999: National Geographic Channel original film for the series American Genius.

Television

Wozniak during the shooting Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List

• After seeing her performance in Saratoga, California, Wozniak started dating comedian Kathy Griffin. Together, they attended the Emmy Awards 2007, and later made many appearances in the fourth season of their program Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Wozniak is on the program as his appointment for the awards of Producers Guild of America. However, on an apparition of 19 June 2008 The Howard Stern ShowGriffin confirmed that they were no longer dating and decided to remain friends.
• Wozniak portrays a parody of himself in the first episode of the television series Code Monkeys; interprets the owner of Gameavision before selling it to help finance his next company. Later he appears again in episode 12 when he is in Vegas at the annual video game convention and sees Dave and Jerry. It also appears in a parody of the "Get a Mac" ads that appear in the final episode of the second season Code Monkeys. Wozniak is also interviewed and presented in the documentary Hackers Wanted and the BBC.
• Wozniak competed in season 8 Dancing with the Stars in 2009 where he danced with Karina Smirnoff. Although Wozniak and Smirnoff received 10 combined points from the three 30 judges, the lowest score of the night remained in the competition. He later posted on a social media site that believed that the vote count was not legitimate and suggested that the judges of Dancing with the Stars They had lied about the count of votes to keep it on the show. After being informed about the method of judging and counting the vows, he retracted and apologized for his statements. Although he suffered a pull in the tendon of the corva and a fracture in his foot, Wozniak continued to compete, but was removed from the competition on March 31, with a score of 12 out of 30 for an Argentine Tango.
• On September 30, 2010, he appeared as himself in the episode of Season 4 The Big Bang Theory The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification. While dinner at The Cheesecake Factory where Penny works, Sheldon approaches him through telepresence in a Texai robot. Leonard tries to explain to Penny who Wozniak is, but she says she already knows him. Dancing with the Stars.
• On September 30, 2013, he appeared with the first employees of Apple, Daniel Kottke and Andy Hertzfeld on the television program John Wants Answers to talk about the film Jobs.

Personal life

Wozniak and his then girlfriend Kathy Griffin in 2008

Wozniak signs a Modbook at Macworld Expo in 2009

Wozniak lives in Los Gatos, California. He applied for Australian citizenship in 2012 and has stated that he would like to live in Melbourne, Australia in the future.Wozniak has frequently been referred to by the nickname 'Woz'. or "The Woz"; he has also been called "The Wonderful Wizard of Woz"; and "The Second Steve" (in regards to his first business partner and lifelong friend, Steve Jobs). "WoZ" (short for " Wheels of Zeus ") is the name of a company Wozniak founded in 2002; it closed in 2006.

Wozniak describes his impetus to join the Freemasons in 1979 as being able to spend more time with his then-wife, Alice Robertson, who belonged to the Order of the Eastern Star, which is associated with the Freemasons. Wozniak has said that he quickly rose to a third degree Freemason because, whatever he does, he tries to do it well. He was initiated in 1979 at Charity Lodge #362 in Campbell, California, now part of Mt. Moriah Lodge #292 in Los Gatos. No longer involved today: 'I became a Freemason and I know what it's about, but it doesn't really fit my tech/geek persona. Even so, I can be courteous to other people from other walks of life. After our divorce was filed, I never attended again, but I did contribute enough for a lifetime membership".

Wozniak was married to slalom canoe gold medalist Candice Clark from June 1981 to 1987. They have three children together, the youngest born after their divorce was finalized. After a high-profile relationship with the actress Kathy Griffin, who described him on Tom Green's House Tonight in 2008 as "the biggest techno-nerd in the Universe", Wozniak married Janet Hill, his current wife.

As for his religious views, Wozniak has called himself "atheist or agnostic".

He is a member of a Segway Polo team, Silicon Valley Aftershocks.

In 2006, he co-authored with Gina Smith her autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invent the Personal Computer, co-founded Apple and had fun doing it. The book made the New York Times bestseller list.

Wozniak's favorite video game is Tetris for the Game Boy, and he scored highly for Sabotage. In the 1990s, he submitted so many Tetris high scores to Nintendo Power that they no longer printed his scores, so he began submitting them under the reverse name "Evets Kainzow". Prior to the Game Boy's release, Wozniak called Gran Trak 10 his "favorite game" and said that he played arcade while developing hardware for the first version of Breakout for Atari.(pp103-104) In 1985, Steve Jobs referred to Wozniak as an "addict"; to Gran Trak 10.

Wozniak has expressed his personal disdain for money and the accumulation of vast amounts of wealth. He told Fortune magazine in 2017: "I didn't want to be around money, because it could corrupt your values... I really didn't want to be in that category of 'more than you could ever need' &#3. 4;. He also said that he only invests in things "close to his heart." When Apple first went public in 1980, Wozniak offered $10 million of his own stock to early Apple employees, something Jobs refused to do.

Wozniak has the condition prosopagnosia, or face blindness.

Views on artificial superintelligence

In March 2015, Wozniak stated that while he had originally rejected the writings of Ray Kurzweil, who claimed that artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence in several decades, Wozniak changed his mind: 'I agree. that the future is scary and very bad for people.. If we build these devices to take care of everything for us, they will eventually think faster than us and get rid of slow humans to run businesses more efficiently". Wozniak stated that he had begun to identify a mixed sense of apprehension about artificial intelligence, while continuing to support the advancement of the technology.

In June 2015, Wozniak changed his mind, saying a superintelligence takeover would be good for humans: "They're going to be smarter than us and if they're smarter than us, they're going to realize who need us... We want to be the family pet and be taken care of all the time... I came up with this idea a few years ago and started feeding my dog steak and chicken every night because &# 39;do it to others' ".

In 2016, Wozniak changed his mind again, stating that he was no longer concerned about the emergence of superintelligence because he is skeptical that computers can compete with "intuition" human: "A computer could solve a logical endpoint decision, but that's not the way intelligence works in humans." Wozniak added that if computers become super-intelligent, "they will be humans' partners over all other species forever."