Of course Steve Wozniak didn’t have to wait in line for an iPhone 4S – one call and he has one. But Woz enjoys the thrill of waiting like everyone else and the surprise of getting the new phone on opening day, at least according to him.

“Well, I actually have iPhones delivered to my house,” he said. “I’ve gotten so used to loving to wait in line, overnight – it has meaning. The product has meaning, it is so good, it’s an important part of our life. And this is just my way of recognizing it. I want to be a part of this direction, great products.”

And yes, he rode his Segway to the store.

He checked in yesterday evening, so it looks like he camped overnight –

The Woz is a big Foursquare user, in fact, all of his tweets are actually cross-postings of Foursquare check-ins. It was fitting that with his check-in to the Apple store on Thursday, Wozniak unlocked the “Jobs” badge on Foursquare. The “Jobs” badge is an achievement that the app gives you for 3 separate check-ins to Apple Stores.

Apparently, Wozniak used his time spent waiting to do a little work on his white iPad as well as talk to other Apple customers, take photographs, and sign Apple products.

Wozniak is no stranger to publicity (see Dancing with the Stars), and this type of things is a total media attention draw – but you’ve gotta think that there’s some truth to his statements about loving the experience.

Here are a couple of clips of Wozniak at the Apple Store, courtesy of CNN and TechCrunch -

Do you know anyone who stood in line for the iPhone 4S? Let us know in the comments.

That’s the word from Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder, who launched the company with Steve Jobs from a garage in 1976.

He talked last night following the death of Jobs, saying that “we’ve lost something we won’t get back.” Like most of the people commenting on Jobs’ death, Wozniak cited the incredible vision and outside-the-box thinking that made Jobs an icon of the tech world.

But Wozniak goes a little deeper, and remembers the times the two had back when things were just getting off the ground.

“We were just the lucky partnership,” says Wozniak. He was lucky to have me in the beginning, but I am…incredibly lucky to him for everything in my life.”

“He gets a reputation for being a strong leader and for being brash – but to me he was always so kind, such a good friend.”

Wozniak is noticeably emotional following his statement. Check out the video below –

According to the AP, the last time Woz saw Jobs was about three months ago, right before Jobs unveiled the iCloud.

What are your fondest memories of Steve Jobs? How great is his legacy? Let us know in the comments.

The Woz hasn’t talked about it on Twitter or his site. His tweets from the past 24 hours are all Foursquare Check-ins.

That’s not to say he’s been silent on the matter. The truth is that he and Jobs aren’t as close as they once were, but TheNextWeb was able to get some quotes from a phone interview Bloomberg conducted with Wozniak (presumably aired on television).

According to the report, Woz said Jobs “wanted to be an important person” and “wanted to do it by having a company”.

“I’m not close enough to him now to tell you what his reasons were for resigning,” he’s quoted as saying.

On the company’s culture of secrecy, Woz is quoted as saying, “A lot of people have been hurt by it when they’ve been affected, but I’m totally behind it. I like to have new products developed without being influenced by outsiders. It’s been one of the greatest things for Apple’s success.”

“Steve was very fast thinking and wanted to do things, I wanted to build things. I think Atlas Shrugged was one of his guides in life,” another quote said.

“He’s probably going to be remembered for the next 100 years as the best business leader of our time,” he added. “He will watch the company for a while, hope its on such a good track.

Despite concern (reflected in Apple’s stock prices) that the company might not be be able to maintain its luster without Jobs, Wozniak seems to think it will be just fine. “For a company as large as Apple, corporate culture doesn’t change overnight. The quality of the people doesn’t change,” he’s quoted as saying.

Tim Cook is taking over the CEO position.

There’s nothing indicating that Apple is seeking his return. He’s been away from the company nearly a quarter century. Still, the prospect is certainly an interesting one.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has done an impressive job of turning Apple into the force it is in the technology industry today. People will dispute many things about the company, but I don’t think many will dispute that.

Jobs is on indefinite medical leave from the company’s day-to-day operations, leaving COO Tim Cook as acting CEO. Things seem to be running fairly smoothly.

Image from Woz.org

Another interesting quote from Wozniak: “My thinking is that Apple could be more open and not lose sales…I’m sure they’re making the right decisions for the right reasons for Apple.”

A more open Apple would certainly alleviate a lot of the criticisms about the company.

Browsing at Wozniak’s Twitter timeline, he seems to really enjoy Foursquare, as nearly every tweet this month is Foursquare-related.

Wozniak currently works at Fusion-IO as Chief Scientist. He’s been there since 2008.

Bing vs Bing

I wrote about this here as well, but Fortune Magazine extended an offer to Microsoft for his services (which may equate to no value). He claims to have had the Bing brand established since ’83.

Bing is the penname of a "business humorist" who saw an opportunity for some publicity and to have a little fun at the same time. Microsoft is playing along. The company shared the following letter to Bing on the Live Search Blog:

Dear Bing (the Author),

Bing.com

Bing’s Fortune of Disease

MG Siegler at Tech Crunch is sharing a screenshot of a fortune from a fortune cookie that translates the word "disease" to "bing" in Chinese.

Apple Co-founder Digs Bing

Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak (also of Dancing with the Stars fame) is reportedly a "big fan" of Bing so far. "That was the most astounding software demo I’ve every seen," he is quoted as saying ("big fan" was quoted as well).

According to this article at Yahoo Finance, Woz is still withholding judgment until he gets a chance to really use Bing though.

The Bing Landing Page

Bing has a placeholder landing page up now. This was nowhere to be seen at this time yesterday. There’s not much to it as the search engine awaits full launch. Right now (for me at least) it simply says, "Bing & decide," apparently the tagline they’re going with. It does reflect the company’s description of Bing as a "Decision Engine." Other than that, it just says "coming soon…" and links to a demo video.

Bing on Google

Bing is already being advertised on Google. A search for "bing" on Google returns a top position sponsored link for the search engine. Interestingly enough, it’s the third natural result.

A day after its announcement, Bing is still one of the top trending topics on Twitter. The Bing results in a Twitter search are rolling in incredibly fast. I wonder how long it will be before the chatter dies down a bit.

Update: Woz has survived another round of Dancing with the Stars for all of you who want to stay up to date without having to watch the show.

Original article: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak appeared on Dancing with the Stars last night and came in last place. Now he wants help getting votes.

Naturally he’s turned to social media. There’s a Tweet stream set up:

And a Facebook Page:

There are other sites dedicated solely to voting for Wozniak on Dancing with the Stars.  "With sites like VoteWoz.com and Woz.org supporting the Silicon Valley icon, he’s hoping that he’ll get enough viewer votes to push him past other Dancing contestants like Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson, rapper Lil’ Kim and Bond girl Denise Richards," says Sharon Gaudin at ComputerWorld.  Wozniak  even says there’s an iPhone app on the way.

With Apple’s rabid fan following, this should be quite a test of just how effective social media marketing can be. On the other hand,  even a MacWorld reporter had this to say about it:

"I have just spent the last four and a half minutes, brow furrowed, teeth gritted, watching the entirety of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s first appearance on Dancing with the Stars, which we reported on last month. How was it? 

In a word: MY EYES.

Maybe his Dancing with the Stars success is too much for even social media to help. Do you think by calling on fans through new media he has a shot?

To clear up one possible misconception: Hotswap’s used cars are not limited to rusted-out junkers from two decades back – the default front page currently displays a Lamborghini Gallardo and a Dodge Viper.  To address another issue: the videos are fairly good-looking, and load at a reasonable pace.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled Hotswap coverage.  In an interview with Reuters, Wozniak said, “I like what they’re doing.  It’s definitely a step forward.”  Of course, this man knows a thing or two about technological innovations, and if his Wikipedia entry can be believed, he’s also a bit of a car nut.

All the better, then, that Wozniak plans to give Hotswap’s founders “ideas that come into my mind.”

As it stands now, would-be buyers can sort cars according to color, body style, price, mileage, and zip code (don’t blame Hotswap or me if there aren’t any Lambos for sale in your area).  Things don’t work perfectly – I’m seeing cars in Tennessee and Texas when I search within Kentucky – but the site’s still very young, and video would appear to be the next logical step in this market.