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Stephen Wozniak was born and raised in San Jose, California, U.S.
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Stephen Wozniak built his first computer when he was 13 years old and was an electronics prodigy in high school.
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He graduated from Homestead High School in 1968 in Cupertino, California. Then he went to the University of Colorado for one year. However, he eventually returned home since the out of state tuition became too expensive for his parents to afford. After his return to California, he attended a local community college and then the University of California, Berkeley.
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1971 was the end of Wozniak's junior year of college and he has taken up a summer job at HP. In his free time, he attended the Homebrew Computer Club where he first met Steve Jobs.
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Before focusing his attention on Apple, he was employed at Hewlett-Packard (HP) where he designed calculators.
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Wozniak designed the "Blue Box", a device for phreaking (hacking into the telephone network without paying for long-distance calls) that he and Jobs, a student at his old high school whom he met about his time, began selling to other students.
Moreover, Wozniak's blue box design earned him the nickname "Berkeley Blue" in the phreaking community.
Here is a video about Jobs and Woz discuss the blue box and Apple:https://youtu.be/vM-sOAH0ny8 -
Steve Jobs had been bent on trying to start his own computer company and convinced Wozniak to join. They both sold some of their possessions to raised money and they assembled the first boards in Job's bedroom and later in Job's garage. Wozniak and Jobs decided on the name "Apple" shortly after Jobs returned from an apple orchard in Oregon.
Here is a link about the history of Apple:https://youtu.be/mUleUOD8sFc -
In 1975, Wozniak began designing and developing the computer that would eventually make him famous. It was the first time in history that a character displayed on a TV screen was generated by a home computer. Apple I, also known as Apple computer 1 was released by the Apple Computer Company (now Apple Inc.) in 1976. The Apple I was Apple's first product.
Here is a link about the demonstration of Apple I:https://youtu.be/4l8i_xOBTPg -
Their initial capital came from the sales of the kit, so they decided to produce a finished product, the Apple II. It included a built-in keyboard and support for a color monitor. The Apple II, which combined Wozniak's brilliant engineering with Jobs's aesthetic sense, was the first personal computer to appeal beyond hobbyist circles.
Here is a link about the demonstration of Apple II:https://youtu.be/CxJwy8NsXFs -
In 1980, Apple went public to instant and significant financial profitability, its market value exceeded $1 billion, making Jobs and Wozniak both millionaires.
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The Apple II's intended successor, the Apple III, was a commercial failure and was discontinued in 1984. According to Wozniak, the Apple III "had 100 percent hardware failures", and that the primary reason for these failures was that the system was designed by Apple's marketing department, unlike Apple's previous engineering-driven projects.
Here is a link of the demonstration of Apple III:https://youtu.be/B7MPyk9Nxjk -
The Beechcraft Bonanza A36TC which Wozniak was piloting crashed soon after takeoff from the Sky Park Airport in Scotts Valley, California. The crash left him temporarily with traumatic amnesia (unable to form new long-term memories), and he was forced to go on a sabbatical.
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After recovering from the plane crash, Wozniak enrolled back at UC Berkeley to complete the degree. Wozniak's name was well known at this point so he enrolled under the name Rocky Raccoon Clark, which is the name listed on his diploma, although he did not officially receive his degree in electrical engineering and computer science until 1987.
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Wozniak returned to Apple product development, desiring no more of a role than that of an engineer and a motivational factor for the Apple workforce.
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Wozniak believed that the company was hindering him from being who he wanted to be and that it was "the bane of his existence".Moreover, he missed "the fun of the early days". As other talented engineers joined the growing company, he no longer believed he was needed there, by early 1985, Wozniak left Apple. He then sold most of his stock.
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Wozniak designed the Apple Desktop Bus, a proprietary bit-serial peripheral bus connecting low-speed devices to computers. It as introduced on the Apple IIGS in 1986 as a way to support low-cost devices like keyboards and mice, allowing them to be connected together in a daisy chain without the need for hubs or other devices.
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After Wozniak left Apple, the Apple II platform financially carried the company well into the Macintosh era of the late 1980s; it was made semi-portable with the Apple IIc of 1984, was extended with some input by Wozniak in the 16-bit Apple IIGS of 1986, and was discontinued altogether in 1992.
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Wozniak's second lifelong goal had always been to teach elementary school because of the important role teachers play in students' lives. Eventually, he did teach computer classes to children from the fifth through ninth grades and teachers as well.
Here is a link of Wozniak's speech on TED:https://youtu.be/PwSyjz1off4 -
In 2001, Wozniak founded Wheels of Zeus (WOZ), to create wireless GPS technology to help everyday people find everyday things much more easily. WOZ was closed in 2006.
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In October 2017, Wozniak founded Woz U, an online educational technology service for independent students and employees. The next year, Woz U was licensed as a school with the Arizona state board. Here is a link that talks about Woz U: https://youtu.be/NJa-dKEFm6g
