Andy Kessler of Tech Ticker recently recorded a video interview with Steve Wozniak about the early days of personal computing:

We were gonna have machines that could out-calculate our companies’ huge million-dollar computers, and we the programmers … were gonna change the world with revolutionized education. We always spoke of the word “revolution” — all these big social changes we were going to bring … I wanted to help it happen. What I had to offer was my technical talents. I could build machines for these other people who wanted to use machines to better humanity … I thought, why don’t I design a computer from the ground up [with] every optimization where you save parts and you make things work, do more jobs than they did, work faster… and I added my color idea. The Apple II was this hot design that I came up with.

The full interview is embedded below.

Henry S. Courbis of ReactiveMicro.com recently posted pictures of the EDD Plus clone he’s working on. The card is currently in testing, and looks very promising. Check out Henry’s product news for all the latest details.

If you find the EDD Plus intriguing, you can learn all about it at Dave Touvell’s Apple2Info.net where you can also download a copy of the Essential Data Duplicator software (necessary to utilize the EDD Plus), schematics, source code… all the essentials you might say, pun intended.

Everyone has their favorite operating system, and the holy wars among each camp continue indefinitely. Among the modern candidates — Mac OS X, Linux, Windows XP, and Windows Vista — one OS is conspicuously absent: GS/OS. Ken Gagne offers five reasons why this 16-bit, 15-year-old operating system is superior to Vista and Mac OS X.

Bill Martens of Call-A.P.P.L.E. posted via usenet newsgroup comp.sys.apple2 that the Beagle Bros Software Repository has been reorganized and updated with a new modern look.

Bill’s original post is attached.

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Glenn Jones of A2RetroSystems has a small batch of his popular Uthernet card available for sale, at $89 USD, plus shipping. Only 22 cards were left at the time of this post, and I predict those will go pretty fast.

The Uthernet is an Ethernet card for slot-equipped Apple II series computers.

Gerard Putter has updated his 8-bit Apple II emulator, Virtual ][, for Mac OS X to version 6.0! There are many improvements listed, but this release drops support for Panther (OS X 10.3) users.

What’s new in Virtual II 6.0

• Added a feature that lets you record the action on the Apple II screen as a QuickTime movie.
• Added a new module: DiskIIViewer. It allows the Mac OS X “Leopard” Finder to present Apple II disk images in QuickLook and Cover Flow.
• Improved the quality of high resolution rendering.
• The “Search Disk Images” window now shows the results while typing, just like Spotlight.
• The “Search Disk Images” window now shows all diskette names with the selected file system (it used to omit empty disks).
• Added an Applescript command to make a snapshot of the Apple II screen and save it as a file.
• Added an Applescript command to dump (part of) the Apple II memory into a file.
• A mounted Mac folder (DOS) can now hold up to 200 KB (was 140 KB).
• The numeric keypad “enter” key of the mid-2007 iMac keyboard is now correctly recognized.
• Fixed an issue in the Spotlight module that could cause hdv disk images to be ignored.
• Fixed an issue that caused the program to crash if multiple virtual machines used the same serial port.
• This version requires OS X 10.4 “Tiger” or OS X 10.5 “Leopard”. It does not run on OS X 10.3 “Panther” anymore.

Due to demand, Briel Computers has announced immediate availability of the popular 4MB GS RAM card, for $59 USD. As the name implies, this is a memory card for the Apple IIGS, and is similar to the model originally designed by Vince Briel and sold by Garberstreet Enterprizes.

James Littlejohn, of Littlejohn Systems has posted product information and pictures of his new LittlePower II, LittlePower IIc+ and BussTap accessories for Apple II computers.

The LittlePower II is nearly identical to the original LittlePower adapter, but this model is intended for the original Apple II, II+ and IIe series. The LittlePower IIc+ (with an appropriate mini-ATX power supply) completely replaces the stock internal unit, leaving room for all kinds of expansion possibilities; an internal battery pack or some type of mass storage are feasible now.

The BussTap may not seem very exciting at first, but it’s the starting point for several other products that will include new developer tools and expansion add-ons, like slot extenders and switchable external slots. Every hardcore Apple II user has probably wished their Apple II had more slots.

Expect these items to be available from ReactiveMicro.com soon.