Irony alert: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak 'sings Android's praises'

The story: The late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once promised to wage "thermonuclear war" on Google's Android for what he considered to be "grand theft" of the iPhone's operating system. But in an interview with the The Daily Beast, the company's other co-founder, Steve Wozniak, "sings Android's praises," confessing that he's a "big fan of Android phones," and that he thinks Android has leapt ahead of Apple's iOS in many ways. "My primary phone is the iPhone," says Wozniak. "I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do."

The reaction: "Sacrilege!" says Deborah Netburn at the Los Angeles Times. The "iPhone-vs.-Android debate" will "rage eternal," just like "the Rolling Stones vs. the Beatles" and "the Yankees vs. the Mets." But we should all admit that despite some seemingly suspect praise for Android, Woz "still thinks most users would prefer the iPhone to the Android because, in the end, it's easier to use." Plus, says Suzanne Choney at MSNBC, "it's Wozniak's engineering analysis, detached and unbiased," that shapes his opinions. And remember, Wozniak is "pals from way back" with Google's Andy Rubin, the executive in charge of Android (and a former Apple employee). "No one should be troubled by this."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up