
Woz misquoted 'Almost every app that I have is better on the iPhone' - lotusleaf1987
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/18/exclusive-woz-misquoted-almost-every-app-that-i-have-is-bette/
======
msie
It's amazing how commonly you can be misquoted by anyone, let alone a
reporter. You say something to someone, they'll interpret and internalize what
you say according to their beliefs and they could possibly construct something
entirely new when they "quote" what you say to another person.

~~~
ergo98
Actually in this case it sounds like the reporter wasn't to blame at all. Woz
is simply saying "What I _really meant_ was..."

Personally I don't get why his thoughts on things are given such importance.
Each Apple release he appears at some fan line to go "Hey, everyone remember
me! I'm the guy who was involved with Apple for a short period!". Not trying
to be cynical, but seriously I suspect he's a major irritation for Jobs.

~~~
sp4rki
Wow you dismiss Woz as non important when he not only made the product that
placed Apple in the spotlight in 1976, but also made the first mass
manufactured personal computer that could be attached to a display with no
modifications. You could very well say he's the raison d'être of Apple as we
know it.

You call his involvement (12 years as a company, and I believe 5 before Apple
Comps was incorporated) 'short' and his dismiss his opinion on a piece of tech
when he's probably part of the elite who's opinion actually matter. Hell Steve
Jobs was never a 'techy' so to speak, so if I had to take anyone's opinion
seriously (regardless I agree or not) about a piece of technology such as this
is Steve Wozniak.

~~~
ergo98
This is the soppy romanticized garbage that is so boring to debate with.

Yes, if you want to talk to someone about 1970s era personal computer
innovations, the Woz is almost certainly the goto guy. Granted.

Is he important? Sure, he is important to a certain era in Apple's history.
The part before the company would have dissolved as an ongoing enterprise if
it wasn't for some strategic rescuing by Microsoft.

Are his comments about pretty much anything in the modern era even insightful
or of particular relevance, beyond "this guy worked on the Apple I" colour
commentary? I don't think so. I suspect that the Woz's primary reason for
appearing in Apple lines and giving "grate on Steve Jobs" quotes is so the
reporter can bring up that he works for FusionIO.

But yeah, your Dyed in the Wool Woz fanclub membership card is in the mail.

~~~
sp4rki
So you think that the opinion (whatever it is) of a man that actually built a
personal computer in a time they were none and influenced what has become
today's commodity computer hardware has no value when discussing a piece of
technology?

I'm actually not a fan of Woz, far from it actually, but I give credit where
credit is due. The man deserves respect, and let's be honest, if he gets
coverage it's because people want to know what he has to say.

I'm sorry but I'd rather take Woz opinion (which I a lot of time disagree
with) and give it the weight it deserves because of what he's done, as opposed
to giving some .NET wunderkind more credibility than he should have.

But yeah whatever you have a bone to pick with Woz and that is your choice;
however I'm not going to waste any more of my time trying to explain to you
why Woz deserves respect and the fact that people want to hear his opinion,
which means people see value in it, regardless of what dislike you might have
with the man's persona.

~~~
ergo98
_I'm sorry but I'd rather take Woz opinion_...

That's nice, but a false dichotomy. I questioned the relevance of the Woz's
opinion, but that doesn't in any way come at the benefit of someone else's
opinion, much less some arbitrary ".NET wunderkind".

In this case, _after Android has already taken a pretty strong sales lead_ ,
the Woz tells us that Android is probably going to take the lead some day.
Prophetic.

 _But yeah whatever you have a bone to pick with Woz_... _regardless of what
dislike you might have with the man's persona._

Lame.

------
Samuel_Michon
_"according to Dutch paper De Telegraaf, Woz said that "Android phones have
more features," which would help Google's OS become the dominant smartphone
platform."_

Not exactly the most reliable source. De Telegraaf is the Dutch equivalent to
the National Enquirer.

A typical front page:
[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_76-4lWOs7m4/S8WXr8eFQNI/AAAAAAAACA...](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_76-4lWOs7m4/S8WXr8eFQNI/AAAAAAAACAs/FboOlZZ9Vgk/s1600/tlg_pdf_20100414_st_te_001_vptelegraaf_000515.jpg)

~~~
kragen
The National Enquirer is by far the most accurate newspaper in the US when it
comes to strictly reporting facts and never misquoting anybody. That's because
they are right-wing muckrackers, so every time they screw up, they get sued
for defamation, and lose.

They get sued for defamation all the time. They almost never lose.

A person I know has to deal with press interviews on a relatively regular
basis. Every time he reads an article for which he was interviewed, he says,
he finds misquotes in the article. Except the one time it was the Enquirer.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Well, in that respect De Telegraaf isn't like the National Enquirer at all.

What is De Telegraaf like then? It puts an emphasis on gossip, fear mongering,
photos of barely clad women, fringe science, the national pastime (soccer),
political scandal, the Dutch royal family, murder and sexual abuse cases, and
immigrants suspected of crimes.

I doubt that Woz knew what he was getting himself into when he was interviewed
by De Telegraaf.

~~~
ottbot
The Sun?

------
brudgers
> _"Wozniak called into Engadget to say that Apple would eventually catch up
> to some of the features Android has that Apple’s iPhone are currently
> missing"_

The ease with which people have come to accept the idea that the iPhone is
playing catchup in important areas shows how radically Android has altered the
marketplace.

Edit: If Wozniak actually said "eventually" that's not exactly high praise for
the iPhone roadmap.

------
martythemaniak
He still says he expects Android to be the dominant mobile OS. What exactly
was he misquoted on?

------
devmonk
Well, that's not all he's said:

[http://venturebeat.com/2010/11/18/apples-wozniak-calls-
the-w...](http://venturebeat.com/2010/11/18/apples-wozniak-calls-the-winner-
in-mobile-race-spoiler-it-isnt-apple/)

------
J3L2404
Paraphrase: Android will be like Windows, lots of marketshare - Still crappy

~~~
pkulak
Except that Windows 7 seems as polished to me as OS X. The knock on Windows is
that it's all closed down and proprietary, which can't really be said about
Android. OS X has less baggage than Windows, because it's newer, but in this
case Android is the newer OS. I think if Android gets hardware acceleration
and polishes a bunch of other little things up, it's going to be very
competitive.

~~~
hackermom
I know this question in itself is off-topic, but exactly _how_ is Windows 7 as
polished as OS X?!

~~~
pkulak
Because, as a Mac user, when I use Windows 7, I'm not bothered by it. That's
my test.

------
drivebyacct2
And who's fault is this? It's not hard to make a good app. I could implement
XMPP messaging in the Facebook app given a few hours and given a few days for
a couple other missing bits, I could get the feature parity down to nothing
between the Android and iOS Facebook app. Why this hasn't happened, despite
the explosive growth of Android, despite the fact that Zuckerberg is now an
Android-user, etc, I don't know...

but the unintelligent comments here and on Engadget are frustrating. Blame the
app developers, not the platform. That's just silly.

~~~
rchowe
It's not hard to make an app, but it's very hard to make a great app. Most
devs obsess about design the same way designers do and most designers can't
code very well.

~~~
drivebyacct2
Right, I didn't mean to imply otherwise. But when Facebook decides to give the
iOS app more attention than the Android app... well, I can't really blame that
on the platform.

Really? Someone drive by downvoting both posts without any discussion? Come
on, man up and have a discussion. I'm sorry that I don't accept "Android sucks
lol" as a reason for why the Facebook app is so much better on iOS devices.

It's the same darned reason that the design studio projects my class is
working on this year are all based on iOS devices for limited use-cases that
would be more easily deployed, serviced and cheaper with an Android solution.

~~~
rchowe
iOS is more polished and has more room for actual design. Android is a drastic
improvement on what was running on smartphones before, but the built-in UI
doesn't have the same fit and finish as the iPhone UI.

For example, look at the iPhone status bar (the bar at the top of the screen
that shows the battery, signal, and time). Now look at the default android
status bar. The iPhone one just looks better because all of the icons are the
same height. The android icons' goofy roundedness only almost fits with the
other standard UI elements. Designers/Developers on a polished platform will
make more polished apps. Designers/Developers on a rougher platform will tend
to make rougher apps. Note that there are exceptions, but this represents the
overall trend.

~~~
jrockway
_iOS is more polished and has more room for actual design._

And this affects integration of an XMPP library how?

 _Designers/Developers on a rougher platform will tend to make rougher apps._

So is this why you can't maximize any apps on OS X?

