If you know anything about Apple, then you'd know that before Jonathon Ive and his design brilliance came The Woz - Steve Wozniak. Woz was the guy that created the first consumer computer. I've got a signed copy of Steve Wozniak, Inventor of the Apple Computer[Affiliate Link] and thought I'd share a few thoughts.

Title: Steve Wozniak, Inventor of the Apple Computer[Affiliate Link]
ISBN: 0945783086
Author: Martha E. Kendall
Publisher: Highland Publishing Group
Price: $12.95 USD from Amazon[Affiliate Link]
Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary

Steve Wozniak, Inventor of the Apple Computer is a bit like how I'd imagine Woz to be; low key. Framed as a series of short chapters focussing on specific parts of Woz's life like his time at Apple, his marriages, his teaching career. It tells of his incredible generousity and how, despite his substantial wealth, he has remained true to himself. If you're interested in Apple history - read it. If you like "feel good" stories - read it. In fact - just read it.

Review

I really enjoyed reading Steve Wozniak, Inventor of the Apple Computer. Although it's only a short book and took just a couple of days to read it's chock full of great stories. Despite the temptation, there's no slagging off against other people who were there when Woz started Apple and even after he left.

The author, Martha E. Kendall, has written a number of other biographies. She's chosen simple language to tell Woz's story and whenever a technical term is used it's italicised and defined in a glossary at the back of the book. This gives the impression of a book written as a school text.

You'd expect a story of one of the 20th century's great inventors to be a large glossy tome. But like Woz it's all quite low key. The pictures are black and white, the book is small and is published by a relatively small firm.

Steve Wozniak, Inventor of the Apple Computer is a great read. If you're looking for an in-depth character analysis then this isn't the place to look for it. However, it's still a great book.

If you read the book and want more then make sure you visit Woz's web site. You'll learn a lot more of some of the things that are just mentioned in the book. You can also order autographed copies from the site as there are still a few left.

 Apple • Steve Wozniak

Just for something a little different I thought I'd throw in a movie review.

The Pirates of Silicon Valley tells the stories of Apple's and Microsoft's births.

What: The Pirates of Silicon Valley
Why buy? History lesson, great story
Why pass? Might only appeal to nerds
Score (max 5) 4
Buy from Amazon [Affiliate link]

The story is interesting as when one considers the current positions of the two organisations and how they got to where they are today. Both Gates and Jobs are totally single-minded about their goals to build great computers and successful companies. Interestingly, they stood apart from other computer companies of the time because of the obsession with software. While IBM believed that the hardware would be the cashcow, Gates conversations with the creator of the Altair that his box was little more than flashing lights without his software was quite prophetic.

As a movie, I found it enjoyable. The portrayals of Jobs (by Noah Wyle of ER fame) and Gates (by Anthony Michael Hall) are very good although I wonder if the negative aspects of the two protaganist's personalities were overplayed. You get the impression from this movie that neither Gates or Jobs were particularly nice people.

While the main characters were great, the main supporting roles of Steve Wozniak (by Joey Slotnick), Steve Ballmer (by John Di Maggio and Paul Allen (by Josh Hopkins were excellent. Ballmer comes across as a crass sycophant with Wozniak and Allen being played quite sympathetically.

Important and funny events like Wozniak and Jobs' relationship with Captain Crunch and their famous blue boxes, Woz's Joke of the Day, Gate's arrest for speeding and his famous meeting with IBM when he licensed them an operating system he didn't have are all there. But it's the portrayal of the two men that most stand out.

The story is played out as one of Jobs being ultimately betrayed by Gates. While there has always been a lot made of the possiblity that Microsoft copied the Mac OS in the first release of Windows it can't be denied that the work of the visionaries of Xerox PARC make them the true forefathers of the modern GUI. While this given fleeting attention Gate's comment in the movie that Jobs was only annoyed because Microsoft stole it before Apple might be the most telling.

Now, I wasn't there in the '70s when all this happened. So, I can't vouch with the accuracy of the story but it seems to gel with what I've read.

As the movie is not available as far as I know in my part of the world I puchased it from Amazon [Affiliate link] it and converted it with Viddy Up and watched it on my iPhone while commuting between work and home.

 Movie • Pirates of Silicon Valley

I was just browsing the iTunes Store and caught this little gem.

Apparently the name "Dick" is a rude word in the Appleverse.

 iTunes • Political Correctness

OK - so I've been a little slack with the blog and haven't posted in way too long. After studying and doing my recent exam on the early New Testament Church at Ridley, I had a massive backlog of stories to write for APC, Australian Macworld, PC Update and The Age. I;m nearly caught up so I have a moment or two for some blogging and social networking.

Over at Hydrapinion, I've just published a story on some free iPhone apps.

 freebies • iPhone apps

I picked up my iPhone 3G about a week after the Australian release and have, for the large part, been really happy with the phone. The one nagging software hassle has been with Safari that seems to be very unstable for me. I seem to be able to crash it at least a couple of times per day. In particular, it doesn't seem to like me trying to scroll and zoom a page until it's completely finished loading the page.

My main beef has been with my carrier. Optus is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singtel, which is owned by the government of Singapore. Optus' cellular network, it seems to me, is oversubscribed and there seems to be little likelihood that the network will be augmented to the required degree.

So, in order to test my theory I've contacted Optus and had my iPhone carrier unlocked. The support tech on the phone, john, was very helpful and after i'd supplied my phone number and IMEI he informed me that my phone would be unlocked within 10 working days and that i'd receive an SMS telling me when the process was complete. Given that I anticipate an overseas trip next year this will make life easier as I'll be able to use a local SIM card and save on international roaming costs.

It also means that I can do some testing with different Optus SIM cards to see if the iphone is being speed-limited to "protect" the Optus network.

 iPhone unlocking • Optus