Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak praises Android phones

Being a co-founder of Apple, you’d of course expect Steve Wozniak to have an iPhone. Indeed, the man who incidentally hasn’t worked for the company for some 25 years is famed for waiting in line for hours at the launch of every new Apple smartphone.

With his connections to the Cupertino company clear to all, it may come as a surprise to some that in a recent interview, he appeared to be singing the praises of Android phones. That’s right, phones running Android, the smartphone OS that another Apple co-founder, the late Steve Jobs no less, once vowed to “destroy” because he considered it to be a “stolen product.”

Wozniak, on the other hand, appears to be a little more diplomatic about the iOS rival. In the interview with TDB’s Dan Lyons, Wozniak said, “My primary phone is the iPhone. I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do.”

Wozniak says that voice commands work better, as does Android’s built-in navigation system.

Voice commands? That’ll be Siri then, Apple’s recently-acquired voice-activated virtual assistant. Interestingly, Wozniak says he’s been using Siri long before Apple before bought it and that since then, it doesn’t perform as well.

He said: “I used to ask Siri, ‘What are the five biggest lakes in California?’ and it would come back with the answer. Now it just misses. It gives me real estate listings. I used to ask, ‘What are the prime numbers greater than 87?’ and it would answer. Now instead of getting prime numbers, I get listings for prime rib, or prime real estate.”

Wozniak says that that while Android phones aren’t as simple to operate as Apple’s iPhone, “if you’re willing to do the work to understand it a little bit, well I hate to say it, but there’s more available in some ways.”

While Wozniak also complained about poor battery life with the iPhone 4S, he didn’t give Apple’s smartphone a total dressing down. “The people I recommend the iPhone 4S for are the ones who are already in the Mac world, because it’s so compatible, and people who are just scared of computers altogether and don’t want to use them”. “The iPhone is the least frightening thing. For that kind of person who is scared of complexity, well, here’s a phone that is simple to use and does what you need it to do.”

Despite his views on both operating systems, one thing seems certain: when it comes to getting hold of prime numbers greater than 87, Wozniak will be sticking with his Android device.

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