Steve Jobs’ First Device Allowed Illegal Free Phone Service

todayifoundout.com

14 points·O__________O··5 comments

However you might feel about stealing from Ma Bell, let's remember that Jobs also stole from his supposed close friend Steve Wozniak.

(tl;dr: Wozniak helped Jobs finish a difficult piece of work Jobs was doing for Atari, in exchange for 50% of the payment Jobs was getting from the client. Jobs got paid $5,000. He told Wozniak that he'd gotten paid $700, and hence Wozniak's cut was $350, rather than the $2,500 it should have been.)

Source?

There are several. If I remember correctly the story is featured in Woz’s book iWoz, but also in Job’s official biography. There is also a mention in the Wikipedia article of breakout: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakout_(video_game)

I am sure there are many more sources out there.

Slightly clarification to OC’s remarks. The original contract was for $700 (so Jobs didn’t lie there). However, what Jobs kept secret is that there was a substantial bonus for reducing the amount of chips needed. Wozniak was specially good at optimizing the amount of chips in a circuit so the end design used substantially fewer chips and hence the bonus was much bigger than the amount agreed before.

Thanks for the clarification. Keep in mind too that the difference, $2150, would have been a _lot_ more money at the time. Roughly equivalent to $12k today if I can believe these sketchy-looking online inflation calculators.

This story is more concerning than the one about the phreaking device which was a common theme in the scene at the time. Many such hackers can grow up working in ethical businesses--I wouldn't have as much confidence in someone who cheats a close friend. I would say such a person can't have friends or be trusted more than a contract can enforce.

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