Rare video of Steve Wozniak from 1984 talking about computing, starting Apple and the Mac
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Steve Wozniak talking about the then-new Macintosh and lots of other Apple (and early computing) lore when he visited the Cleveland Apple club back in 1984. It's always great to see these old videos digitized for posterity, and this one is chock full of Apple stories.
The video is nearly two hours long, so grab a snack, get comfy and settle in for a slice of computing history.
he didn't just invent the apple computer. he invented the personal computer as a concept. he was the first to press a key and see the letter appear on the screen in front of him. he is probably the single most under-appreciated inventor in all of history.
I agree it's a shame really. Sad how Steve Jobs overshadows him, in a lot of people's eyes. Wozniak is one of, if not the best mind of out time. You can tell he has a true passion for technology and engineering, by the way he speaks. I could listen to this man all day.
True although I don't think he wanted the fame.
I look at him as a successor to Alan Turing. He matched engineering brilliance to Turing's mathematical brilliance.
wrong. Xerox alto from 1973 was able to typing with keyboard. it was a fully functional computer. it was just not designed for private use.
@@mitoluil9380 that's why he said personal computer. and that became a whole industry of its own.
I don't understand why in apple movie made Steve Wozniak a bad guy in public speaking. This guy is amazing talking in public since a while.
Because movies stereo type really smart people as introvert nerds.
steve jobs wanted to control the mac an he succeded with closed system and apple "eco system" Wozniak wanted to improve computers and allow every one to explore and really make a personal computer, I didn't even know that Wozniak had a lethal accident and lost memory preventing wozniak to work for 2 years during both discontent of the way the company was going ,but he is nothing like the young wozniak now, It just makes me wonder if Steve has something to do with it, because he took control of apple at that time, and fuck it up,also he fired the person who went for him ,at the end apple became a super expensive brand closed system and not better than other things out there and it would have been nothing without Jhony Ivy, at that time of Wokniak accident Jobs was in a position of I wanted all and I'll do whatever to make it happen even ignoring her own daughter.and potentially getting rid of everyone who potentially dstrubes his own ways even his close friend and cofunder.
Steve Wozniak DID NOT join Apple! He is the reason Apple exists! Change the TITLE!
Well said! One does not join something they found. John Sculley joined apple, Woz created it.
AntMan 72 technically he did rejoin thou, he quit apple in 1981 when he just got airplane accident, he came back in 1983
@Fred Virtuoso Or, more accurately , he joined *with* Jobs and Ron Wayne to create Apple.. but, OK, without Woz there would no have even BEEN any Apple. Same , though, without Steve.. They both complemented each other..
He was into computer geek clubs where sharing knowledge was common. If it wasn't for Jobs he would had continued to give away his work. Already some started to built on it.
nor really, he was one of the main elements there.
I hate how Jobs gets most of the credit for Apple. Woz deserves more credit, he designed the Apple II single-handed.
+B.T. Antares Without Steve Jobs the Apple I would be like the Xerox graphical interface...a prototype forgot in the closet. Woz is great, programming is great, but there would be no Apple Computer inc. without Steve Jobs. The programming is one part of the process, you need more than that to shape an industry. Jobs is a visionary, if his neighbor was doing painting, he would have change the way we see painting.
+Melomaneist The second part of your statement is a maybe at best .. He met a great technical visionary and then sold the vision .The part about the painting . No. If he could have done that , He would have.
So the first part of my statement got a Yes? and the second one a maybe? the average is ok then haha.
Melomaneist There is no averaging . Cute. haha
There is average in everything...it is mathematical...it minimize your chance to be wrong
Man this guy is so genuine and cool... And I LOVE hearing about all those pranks!! LoL!!
Woz hasn't change much he still has those humorous one liners. This were the final years at apple.
i know steve jobs was always the mouthpiece for apple and to an extent the personal computing revolution in general but i much prefer listening to woz talk about computers. sure you can tell he's not exactly a trained public speaker but his enthusiasm and passion for what he does is so obvious that it really supplants that awkwardness.
Woz' is Apple. He never had to join anything in his life.
@@josephblasioli6962 😆
Apparently he didn’t want to do some “ floating point “ programming on the OS so Bill Gates was hired to do it instead.
Look... I respect Woz. I really do. But I don't think Apple would be what it is today if it was all upto Woz. He is a good humanitarian. But business become worth billions and live on because the person running the business had a massive ambition and ego and what not. It's true.
@@UKpowerunleashed and what is Apple today? A money making machine for Apple. What has the iPhone been lately except paying insane amounts of money for the status of having the latest version?
Right around 32:00 minutes he mentions that students recorded the live pranks calls that went around the world. Somewhere these tapes still exist.
would be so fun to discover ^^
It's not just The Woz, it's "The Great and Powerful Woz"
Woz is insanely hilarious, you never stop watching him, lot to learn and lot to laugh :)
I would have easily paid to watch this interview. Thank you guys.
genius at work! wow this old films are gold!
It’s so much fun listening to his stories
Great video. Liked the c-span quality of it. I've heard the prank stories before so if you want to skip the pranks start at the 41 minute mark. That's when the juicy genesis of apple starts.
To me, the beginning of the video (@2:10) is extremely revealing. It really does clarify what was going on with Steve Jobs. The words of a young and vibrant Wozniak with what seems to be, even if in a humurous way, a clear chip on the shoulder. "He's the greatest showman in the world (nailed it!) ... all I am..." False modesty all way. Even as an older man he still constantly produces contradictory thoughts. I guess there must be some sort of recognition-justification-crticism going on in his mind. Whether Jobs would have made it if he hadn't bumped into Wozniak is something to ponder on. He could have just as well become the best car salesman in town. However, I have little doubt that Wozniak's contribution to computing would have prevailed even if were in a more anonymous or less grandiloquent way. Closest thing to a 'nerd God' if such a thing can be conceived. Thanks Woz.
Woz was willing to give his plans for the Apple 1 to HP and they wouldn't take it and he even gave out his designs to the Homebrew Computer Club. Woz wasn't able to find interest and may have kept going, but with Jobs they clicked early on and were a solid team. Jobs was the right sales guy and making the business contacts while Woz was the genius behind the product. Another person who Woz credits is Mike Markkula who was the investor and third player in the Apple partnership but never gets mentioned.
I think the reason Jobs is glorified more is because of his success in the later years, coming back and "help save" apple. Having the right business plan in those later and product such as the IPod, Iphone, ect..
My guess is he's probably glorified because his level of success also appeals to a broader audience. He not only marketed well enough to impress by standards of design but created a legion of followers willing to cross swords with anyone on any Apple matters. A true General. Not saying his products aren't good, they are. I've used them both for pesonal and professional reasons. However, I've always been impressed with the level of disonance that a lot of people feel when talking about Apple products. They will go to great lengths to justify purchase even twisting facts beyond any real evidendential value. I'm sure it's been a case study for some psychologists out there. But hey, happens with lots of brands. Human nature, I guess.
Spot on. It's like Woz ever so slightly trying to undermine Job's role. Woz is a great inventor and left his mark in history of personal computing, but Job's had a much bigger influence on not just computer industry.
Carlos Villaverde this was in 1984, when Jobs was a young, selfish rising star. I wonder how Woz would be if he is still working at Apple when Jobs returned in 1997. Unfortunately we'll never know, whenever Woz talk about the late Jobs it was always about the young Steve Jobs.
Woz is intelligent in so many ways besides being just a tech geek. He sticks to the principle of “if you can’t say something nice…” he never says anything bad about Jobs, he just tells the true story and lets you figure it out for yourself.
Thank you for uploading, this incredible time capsule, brilliant!
Inspirational in everything Steve was talking about... A true inventor and genius who made things moving for all of us! Only if he would be so underestimated and left behind. Thank u for posting this!
lol he's completely different from the awkward geek the movies are trying to picture him
This was 1984 though. Woz had been around interacting with corporate big wigs for quite a few years by then. He's a scholar so he learns by listening and observing others. He definitely picked up all those traits over the years. Though I'm sure in '75 he was quite a different person.
This isn't just a history of Woz, but a history of the evolution of personal computer systems and hardware. What a wonderful talk.
In high school, I wrote thousands of lines of BASIC code in various dialects, though mostly in Apple ]['s Applesoft, that were never typed in. Steve pursuing his dream allowed me to build mine.
Those were the days! ... And what was/is your dream, may I ask? :)
Programming computers. At least then.
This is like... the best video ever
This lost video really made my day. Steve detailed everything , typical as an engineer. I remember my first encounter with Apple 2E in 1982 , wrote a BASIC program to find squareroot and joined the computer club at school. Then went to college , glad they had a lab full of 2E's and a Mac . Wow ! I learned to use Intel chip, during my Digital Comp Interface class. For personal gaming, I bought a Commodore 64 , what a machine. joined local Buletin Board System and started learning new computer terms.. Managed to graduate in Comp. Sc. As they said, The 80's was the BEST era for Computer evolution, Apple, Music & Movies. Steve was the real nerd, prankter and computer genius!
Steve Wozniak is one of the great mind
hes legend.
So nice to watch this at this time and reflect on what USA was and how people treat each other. It was a high and beautiful time.
He is a great speaker
Who’s the one who really changed the world with computers? iWoz
1984... 100 meg of HD was huge. Now... 1 trillion bytes is common. 5 meg RAM... 30 years later.... gigs of RAM. amazing.
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
You can tell Woz and Jobs spent A LOT of time together. His inflections are very similar to Steve's
I admire that Wozniack has not been and is not interested in much money.
Indeed he is an electronics engineer and also professional teacher.
I also admire him.
Carlo Awood No you don't. If you cared you'd know how to spell his name
Steve Wozniak is a man who single handedly created an incredibly sellable product. And Steve Jobs is a genius for managing to sell it
he should write book about long term experience and his wisdom is pretty valuable to all generation.....!!!!!
He has his own book. It's good read.
@TECOC341 Pawan Nirpal iWoz
This man hasn't changed yet. That's what I love about him.
Its funny that Woz is still using that same speach today. Made one speach and stuck to it. ^^
a true story about the past doesn’t change
I was wondering why tv shows from the 80's looked horrible but movies from the 70's were 1080p quality and I saw a UA-cam comment that said that film didn't have a set quality.
MIND BLOWN!
very interesting video, thank you very much for this much information


this Man is really funny and BRIGHT!
Really great talk!
The Woz; A Legend!!
Inspiring!
He is extremely bright... I 'm jealous.
Don't be jealous, be inspired! 🧐👍
Man, what a legend. Also, that AI question at the end. Times haven't changed. LOL.
not too many movies made of this man
0penpress yeah it's kinda annoying that all apple films revolve around steve jobs not the woz
Ok people, stop saying “Jobs wouldn’t have been anything without Woz” or “Woz is Apple” or “Steve Jobs is the real genius” blah, blah, blah, it’s as simple as this, without Woz there wouldn’t have been any Apple products and without Jobs there wouldn’t have been Apple”. Woz wanted to be an engineer for life at HP and Jobs didn’t want to work for anyone but him. So it was just the perfect match, period.
Wow, he sounds totally different compared to now.
Apple's next product is navigation for sailors... it's called the iiCaptain.
The last question is about A.I. Artificial Intelligence. And this is in 1984 from what I understand, the year of the iconic Mac Superbowl introduction.. Woz responds brilliantly. Coincidentally, you can see there is a Macintosh on the table next to Woz but it never gets mentioned!
real engineer !!! WOZ
Have a dream and work on it every day and night! Self driven cars - loading...
~ That took place before I was born lol
Amazing! Thanks for the video
TRS80 color computer had 16K RAM but you could buy more and piggy back it for 32 K. Cassette for saving data/programs, hooked up to a TV, color, cartridge on the side for game cartridges. and good ole BASIC.
I bet you played Megabug and Project Nebula on that Tandy.
I was put in a class for smart kids that year and eventually we had a couple Macintoshes in the backroom.
It takes two Steves to have an apple.
I wish the audio was touched up a bit
People have to understand that Steve Woz is an Engineer primarily. And a brilliant one. Steve Jobs didn't wasted his passion and efforts. They are a TEAM.
47:50, influence of MITS on Wozniak. Very interesting.
he is great, and hero.
Joining? He created it!
Please edit the title, Woz didn't 'join' Apple...
+shomolya How do you mean???
shomolya Oh yeah, he did!!! S. Jobs did all the managment and marketing, but he did have a clear vision and he realized it in the end, even if he didn't have the tech knowledge that Wozniak did...
Woz was Employee #1. Jobs was Employee #0
Meaning????
Darin Pearson
Steve (Jobs) wanted to be Employee #1, but they told him he couldn't have it. So he asked to be Employee 0 (programming joke, 0 comes before 1).
I'm a big fan of him since the early 90s, from books, and will problably see him in front of me in a speech at the maker faire China 2 days later. One thing I just don't get it: I can see him on books, presentations, movies, youtube records, etc. But nearly every video here about him is filled with comments complaining of his unfair treatment by the society (or maybe more preciesly, the public news network and venture capital etc).
Question is, if he really gets so welcomed by the engineering community, why's there still these comments about his "misfortunate"? I mean, a really top specialist in the IT industry should easily become a famous star, via today's media networks. Maybe the era of Apple II is too faraway for us to recall, or he is just that kind of geek guy who just stick to his own world of creations?
Wow, his whole life story.
What wrong with that? I found it very interesting.
This is a real pioneer.so many of them around the 60s and 70s mostly engineers. I wonder if they are re emerging Bo's in teh software space.
It was brilliant when Steve found the traffic cones 😂
Cool, thanks.
Woz was the best, wasn't he? 😂
At what point did Apple/Woz come up with an operating system, and what was it called? Triumph of the Nerds tells the story of CPM and Microsoft getting an OS for IBM. They already had basic, (earlier for Altair).
Dan Blizerian?
woz didn't join the apple.......he is one of the co-founder of apple.with ronald wayne and steven jobs
"Byte into an Apple..........................Retail $666.66*"
Sweet advertisement!!
333
+Sasha Harney I don't get that vibe from Woz at all. He is a wizard but not an occultist. Now Steve Jobs? Who knows what that dude was into? He was the money/marketing guy so I wouldn't be surprised if he was into some odd stuff.
Ha! The thin piece of copper wire around the base of the school projector plug gag... I thought I was the only whacky Anarchist who would do something like that in school :-) When the school first got Apple computers, all they would do was play music and output ASCII art on boot... Good business for the service techs...
One guy at the end asked Steve about if Apple was exploring artificial intelligence yet. His answer was Apple is taking it step by step. They did. 40 years later it's finally happening. 2024 is the year :)
Not even close to a PDP8. The thing was still using core memory, while the Apple I was using DRAM.
Woz allowed Jobs to be Jobs.
Really? Woz did the wiring on the board and Jobs built the dream. Woz is like the inventor of the video camera, his vision is about watching the news with television. Jobs's vision is more important, Jobs vision is about using the camera to built a new medium of expression...the film industry. This is why Jobs is so important in the history of computer. He created the goal behind the tool he didn't built. Inventor are important, visionary are even more...
You have a basic mind.
You are the one with the basic mind, since you understand the importance of only one of them. You only focus about the inventor and you don't get the importance of transitioning from a prototype to a final product. For my part, I understand the importance of both. I will compete with you about C++ programming anytime my friend. Let's see who is the basic mind. Are you in Big Data? I bet my C++ Machine learning Deep learning algorithm is more powerful than your ;-) The problem with people like you is that they absolutely need to hate Jobs, while those praising Jobs will also get the important contribution of Woz.
+Tarkovsky Bresson You know someone has no idea what they are talking about when they refer to algorithms as "powerful".
Alicia Kankainen You know someone is a Steve Jobs hater when he desperately try to prove you wrong with insignificant details. Regular people would be more constructive and add interesting technical element to the discussion. An algorithm compute output Y from input X. If my Y is more accurate than yours, then yes, my algorithm is more powerful. ...and by accurate, I mean an output 'Y succeeding to replicate very closely the true value Y. I think you need to learn a little bit about the process of algorithm selection.
Apple = (Woz * Jobs). "Joining apple" Give me a break he created Apple.
Wow. This guy could talk. What do they call this event? "Listen to Steve talk for 2 hours"?
Haha yup. Listen to him now, he's got that same energy
LOL, I was excited when I saw this video was two hours because all the others I’ve found about him were 15 minutes. Yet, when I got to the end I wanted another 5 hours to know everything about his life.
Cool tidbits I never heard about the Woz elsewhere. Ohio state? what other college's did he attend before graduating from UC Berkeley? Sounds like he learned FORTRAN in one of his college courses if he didn't already learn and know it on his own.
+daviangel De Anza community College in Cupertino.
0:31:55 - does any of these recording exist today?
I much preferred working on a Apple II series. How anyone could stand working on the first few Macs are a mystery. Those things where so slow and buggy. Crashing about every 30 minutes.
Often between keystrokes there where long seconds of wait time. The worst was AppleTalk, extremely slow. Not until the Apple iifx was the Mac enjoyable to use.
Woz should have worked out too,, probably could have competed in that field as well
wow 4 tht time 4k ram?
Joining Apple? WTF, he created Apple!
16k ram wow
WOZ, CLEVELAND ROCKS!!❤🎉😅
27:49, my approach to school .
Try reading the chapters that aren't covered in the course... /facepalm
now he speak faster than that time
After listening to this guy I'm convinced we live in a matrix.
He was going to reference a book and stopped himself, saying he’d come back to it. Wondering, did I miss that part? Curious what book he was going to talk about.
Where's the original video. Higher quality anywhere?
+Matt Orfalea This video is probably older than _you_ are. This _is_ high quality.
The first hacker
Woz did the wiring on the board and Jobs built the dream. Woz is like the inventor of the video camera, his vision is about watching the news with television. Jobs's vision is more important, Jobs vision is about using the camera to built a new medium of expression...the film industry. This is why Jobs is so important in the history of computer. He created the goal behind the tool he didn't built. Inventor are important, visionary are even more...
no.....woz is the technology genius who can build anything....jobs is a guy who makes it look good asthetically, and both saw the potential of computers....jobs was also good at conning people that he is the real genius behind computers....when in reality xerox were the geniuses that developped the mouse and gui...gates was the genius for making usable computers affordable for every tom dick and harry....woz was the genius of invention....jobs was the genius sales man...thats the top and bottom of it..jobs was just a salesman...if jobs never happened ...gates would have done it....well he was already close to doing it...juust that jobs got to xerox before he did.
bobsy bobsy You obviously hate Jobs, it make your comment kind of biased. No experts ever claim to know the top and bottom of it. You don't make a living out of technology in Silicon valley just because you are the salesman. You need to wear many hats.
I dont actually hate anyone...i mean nobody on earth...god knows what gave you that impression...i am just honest...you are clearly very young and impressionable and hero worshipper...not my problem im afraid...i see clearly..you are just of weak mind and probably watch a lot of televison and adverts and things like that...whereas i dont ..i just read the facts and watch documentaries on you tube....you are a marketting mans dream..keep spending my friend..one day you may even make me wealthy
bobsy bobsy Wrong assumptions...I am a mathematician and a computer programmer. I don't watch television, I read math PDF. Let's compete with C++, Java and Python anytime. I don't watch documentaries on ''UA-cam'', I directly talk with the Silicon Valley guys. Master and PhD degree represent 10 years of hard work so, no, I am not very young. Try to replicate the Apple I & II. After 2 years on it you will succeed. Now try to sell it and built the market. You will need to be a Paradigm Shifter to succeed and Paradigm Shifter are very rare.
wrong again.....i dont assume...its clear you are a muppet...case closed.
Thumbs UP for the video. Thumbs DOWN for the title..... The Woz did not "join" Apple. He "co-founded" it with Steve Jobs.
Steve Woźniak is Polish
Wrong...he’s American
It was wonderful for him to emphasize the fact that he used his Blue Box as a means of accessing and exploring the gates in the Bell Telephone system, NOT as a device to steal their services. This is an important fact, and I wish Walter Isaacson had mentioned it in the Jobs biography.
A technical héro
What next? The I person!
But basically, Woz just used pre-existing components and found ways to eliminate some steps/chips in the processing. And added more memory. And with Jobs' schmoozability, they sold tons of product before they even had them built. haha
Two guys working an a garage turns into a billion or trillion dollar company. The Uhmerkin dream!
This can be turned into a tv show. Each episode a prank.
1:01:15
worst trade in history of human beings
just HODL
Amazing caring man.
A true genius.