Hasta La Gadget!

Kanye West received Apple mice signed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as late Father’s Day gifts.

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Ford CEO Alan Mulally took the stage today during the opening presentation of the company’s Further with Ford conference and answered questions about going green and electric vehicles. As for what Ford has planned for its future, Mulally says that the company is “really committed” to electric and hybrid vehicles, as well as alternative fuels.

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The highly-anticipated biopic on the late Steve Jobs will see a nationwide theatrical release on August 16. JOBS, as it’s called, was initially shown at the Sundance Film Festival back in January with a release date later in April. However, the film was eventually delayed with no rescheduled date disclosed. However, it seems we’ll finally

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Today several bits of a couple of speeches made by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and another Macintosh legend have surfaced via a friendly holder of several VHS recordings of a 1984 meeting of the Apple Pi computer club. These tapes recorded Woz and Apple Employee #6 Randy Wigginton speaking at the Denver Apple Pi computer club back on October 4th 1984, and are being digitized and cleaned for your enjoyment this weekend. Don’t miss the “Pledge of Apple Allegiance”, whatever you do.

These videos were submitted initially to Tuaw where a reader by the name of Vince Patton notes that he’s in the process of making sure all of the tapes are transferred and that watchable video is produced from the source material. These videos are all being displayed at Patton’s YouTube channel where you can enjoy them in kind – we’ll also be embedding each of them in this post, of course.

First you’ll see an epic moment in the history of computing that you’ll be glad you took the time to click. Here Woz leads the club in the Pledge of Apple Allegiance, complete with the following lines:

I pledge allegiance
to the logo
of corporate marketing in Cupertino.
And to the computers
for which it stands:
one notion
under Jobs –
indispensable
hardware and software for all.

Make sure you commit that one to memory, dear readers.

Next you’ve got Woz speaking on pranking a hotel, hacking a Video on Demand box, and re-numbering a telephone. Immediately following that, you’ll find a video about additional pranks and wild times Woz had as a college students, including a choice note about how he’d used a TV jammer more than once.

A bit of a break from Woz for a moment, you’ve got Randy Wigginton speaking about the aversion of a near disaster 6 days before the original launch of Macintosh. He goes through the heart-pounding several days before Macintosh had to be launched as a software package, explaining that at 2 o’clock in the morning on the day they had to send the final build out at 6 o’clock in the morning (four hours later), the situation should very well have given their team all panic attacks: “nothing worked.”

Once again with Woz you’ll find a description of how the Apple II was created. This should enlighten your life even if you never used that magical machine, complete with its massive floppy disk drive and connectivity with the epic Koala Pad. This machine was many users of my generation’s first encounter with an Apple product, as the big A had a rather important link with grade schools at that time.

With one good turn comes another – next you’ll see Woz speak about the creation of the Apple I (which of course was created before the Apple II). Inside you’ll have found a fabulous note about how the Apple I worked with 4k dynamic RAM built-in even though it was more difficult to design for – and how no other system worked with that advanced feature for a year (or even two) after they’d done it. This is an absolutely unthinkable situation today.

Below you’ll see Woz speak on how Steve Jobs formed Apple Computer knowing full well he’d have to lose some money before he made any.

Woz returns with more information about how he was put on probation at the University of Colorado for “Computer Abuse”. Such is the life of a young genius, yes?

Finally, (for now), you’ll see Woz recall the point at which he was forced to quit his job at HP and put his efforts toward Apple full-time. This is an iteration of the story of Apple’s creation that we’ve never seen before today, spoken by none other than one of the two men who founded the company. Consider that for a moment, won’t you?

We’d like to thank Patton for his work in translating this all to digital video this week and look forward to the rest of the media without a doubt. Let us know if you hear any other hidden treasures in your viewing of these clips, too!

Weekend Watch list: rediscovered VHS tapes of Woz speaking at 1984 Apple Pi club is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

File this under “Steve Wozniak says the dardnest things.” The co-founder of Apple is at it again and is criticizing Apple over its cool factor. Wozniak says that while the company is good at “setting a standard with a new device,” Apple is ultimately starting to lose its cool vibe that they’ve been going after for so many years.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Wozniak says that without features to outclass competing devices, Apple is having to rely more on its appeal as a premium brand. He says that the company should consider opening up its ecosystem, by allowing Windows Phone and Android devices to use Apple’s iTunes music app.

Plus, the company has tuned it down a bit when it comes to taking risks and introducing completely new products that no one has seen before. Lately, the company has been rehashing older products in a way by simply introducing better specs in their devices. Wozniak says that this lack of innovation and its closed-down ecosystem is starting to make Apple uncool.

Furthermore, Wozniak addressed the iWatch rumors and said that he’s looking forward to such a product if it turns out to be true. He’s been wearing an iPod Nano watch for a couple of years and enjoys the experience. By improving Siri, the iWatch could be a great product, according to Wozniak. And as for the Woz’s take on BlackBerry, he says that company will eventually have to switch to Android if it wants to successful.

[via Bloomberg]

Steve Wozniak says Apple is losing its cool factor is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.