‘I’m in trouble’ says Woz’s wife


Philip Elmer-DeWitt is a senior editor at Fortune.

"Someday this little computer," she heard her husband say, "will be my best friend."



Steve Wozniak had just pulled his iPhone out of his pocket when he told a group of Apple (aapl) investors in Los Angeles Friday that the device -- or one of its successors -- would someday be his closest companion.

Sitting in the audience two rows back, his wife, Janet Hill, whispered under her breath: "I'm in trouble."

Wozniak spoke -- rapidly and with infectious enthusiasm -- for about an hour on the last day of the first Apple Investor Summit. Among the revelations (at least to me):

  • That although Steve Jobs' adoptive family was a great and loving one, "somehow Steve didn't like his family at all, and couldn't wait to get away."
  • The last time he spoke to Jobs was by telephone. "I'm gonna die," Jobs told him. Wozniak tried to cheer him up, not realizing that his old partner meant it literally.

Wozniak, who clearly prefers his iPhone, suggested that every Apple executive should be forced to own and use a Google (goog) Android phone "so they know what they can do."

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