Woz says Samsung Gear VR 'makes me emotional'
Technically Incorrect: The Apple co-founder seems to be moved by Samsung's virtual reality. He also seems sad that Apple hasn't shown its VR skirts yet.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
He's out there. And he has feelings.
For you, it might be bird-watching or even love.
For someone at Google or Facebook, it could be world domination.
But Steve Wozniak has one thing that currently is making him tingle deep inside.
Receiving the Alltech Humanitarian Award at a conference in Lexington, Kentucky, last month, Apple's co-founder bared his excitement.
As Tech Republic reports, Woz spoke of the Samsung Gear VR with these words: "It takes you to other worlds. It's so real. It's everywhere you look. That one gets me emotional."
It seems, then, that he's not one of those prone to nausea while enjoying virtual reality. Instead, he's simply prone to heightened forms of emoting.
Which, perhaps, makes him a touch sad that Apple hasn't released anything virtual yet.
"I hope Apple is working on a VR that's advanced compared to the ones we're seeing," he said.
I wonder if it's a priority for a company that seems more emotional about watches and cars currently. You know, real things for real people.
I suspect Apple will wait till VR technology has been well developed by others before stepping in. Of course, the company could surprise us next week at its Worldwide Developers Conference, but I doubt it.
VR is certainly the thing for those who believe they already see the next big thing. Many say it's the future, but there's still something fundamentally disturbing about all of humanity wearing masks.
In other remarks, Woz said he wasn't scared of Google's artificial intelligence. The company's goal, he said, is a good one. Even if Google gets to know everything about us along the way.
"Everything we develop, it's to help us in some way so we can do less mental work," he said.
Ah, so it's all about relaxing our minds, not having machines take them over?
Perhaps. The result, though, is that it's going to make us fundamentally different. And that was when Woz admitted he was scared, after all.
"What is a person?" he said. "What are you? You are all the connections in your brain. What if all those things have been mapped out on the web and it remembers better than your own mind does? Are you here, or are you out there more? It's a scary thought."
I think Woz is out there more, with or without the web. But that's not a scary thing; Woz revels in speaking his mind at all times.
The future? Well, yes, that is scary. Once the machines have mapped all the connections in your brain, what's left?
Not much of the exciting, creative, surprising you, I suspect.