Steve Wozniak Takes Apple's Side Against FBI, Is Unsure About Apple Watch
Apple co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak agrees with CEO Tim Cook's stance on the FBI fiasco but isn't too happy with the company's Apple Watches.
On Wednesday, March 16, Wozniak held an Ask-Me-Anything session on Reddit, revealing a wide variety of information, from what he thinks about Apple's fight with the FBI to what his favorite fast food chains are.
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Wozniak, who left Apple in 1985, is regarded as one of the pioneers of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s. During the Reddit AMA session, Wozniak spoke about the controversial and divisive topic of Apple's showdown with the federal government over hacking the iPhone used by one of the suspects in the San Bernardino mass shooting in December 2015.
14 people were killed and more than 20 sustained serious injuries in the terrorist attack in which suspects Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik opened fire at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California as employees enjoyed a holiday party.
Apple, which has previously worked with the government to gain access into iPhones used by suspects in criminal trials, has decided not to comply with the FBI's orders to unlock Farook's iPhone. According to Cook, the government's order to create a code that would crack the phone would ultimately "put millions of people at risk."
According to Wozniak, who wrote that he "come[s] from the side of personal liberties," he has twice written what could have become viruses but decided to throw all of them away. "These are dangerous, dangerous things, and if some code gets written in an Apple product that lets people in, bad people are going to find their way to it, very likely," he said.
"I always try to avoid being a snoop myself, and it's rare in time that we can look back and say, 'How should humans be treated?' Not, 'How can the police run everything?'" he wrote during the session.
Though Wozniak admitted that he is a fan of Cook's leadership at Apple, he did reveal that he has some doubts about Apple's latest offering, the Apple Watch. Pointing out that the wearable device ranges in price from $500 to $1100, he said, "The band's the only difference? Well this isn't the company that Apple was originally, or the company that really changed the world a lot."
