[telecom] 1972 blue box created by Steve Wozniak to sell at auction for £50,000

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The device that paved the way for Apple: 1972 'blue box' created by

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By Tim Collins, Daily Mail online, 1 December 2017

The revolutionary device was used with a keypad tethered to an ear piece. It fooled a phone company's switchboard by reproducing its specific tones. As a result, the user was able to get overseas phone calls without paying. Helped Wozniak and Jobs produce the first ever Apple 1 computer 4 years later.

A humble-looking device that is credited with starting the digital revolution has emerged 45 years later to reveal Apple's fraudulent beginnings.

The ground-breaking digital blue box was developed by Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak in 1972 and was the inventor's first printed circuit board.

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Neal McLain

Note that the keys are laid out like a calculator, not a touch-tone dial. 7 8 9 4 5 6 1 2 3 * 0 #

The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.

- Honoré de Balzac

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