Apple Book Reviews
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Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders by Jim Carlton (Order from Amazon.com) The title of this well-researched tome succinctly enumerates the causes of Apple's past troubles. To quote from the book, "It really is unbelievable...how many opportunities...Apple squandered over the years. Time after time, somebody would step forward with a great idea to break Apple out of its hole. And time after time, Apple would shoot it down." If you're a Mac fan, it's demoralizing as Carlton recounts all those blown opportunities, including licensing the Mac back in 1985, porting the Mac operating system to Intel, and merging with other corporations. As you might expect from the West Coast technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal, this book focuses heavily on boardroom politics and managerial foibles. This is both the book's greatest strength and weakness. As a business case study the book is a definite success, but the story plods along in too much financial and market share detail for mainstream readers. |
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Apple T-Shirts by Gordon Thygeson (Order from Amazon.com) This fascinating new book chronicles the history of Apple Computer using photographs of Apple t-shirts. The end result is a lavish, 204-page, hardcover, coffee table book with over 1,500 full-color photographs, most explained with interesting behind-the-scenes stories that you'll find nowhere else. Travel down memory lane spotting favorite shirts from the past, from ones celebrating new product introductions to ones complaining about staff cuts. |
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The Cult of Mac by Leander Kahney (Order from Amazon.com) If you think you've been bitten bad by the Apple bug, wait till you read about how far some people have gone to express their devotion to the Macintosh. Long-time Apple journalist Kahney has compiled and expanded his Wired News blogs into a thoroughly entertaining full-color 268-page hardcover. The uninitiated may mock the gusto with which geeks profess their love for a box of bits, while "the rest of us" can justify our extreme devotion to the Mac with a knowing wink of self-recognition and the relief that at least we're not as bad as those with Apple logo tattoos, warehouses full of old hardware, Classics converted into bongs, or the obsession of videotaping every Macworld Expo keynote. |
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Defying Gravity: The Making of Newton by Markos Kounalakis with photos by Doug Menuez (Order from Amazon.com) This 200-page hardcover is the official photo-journalistic chronicle of the making of Apple's Newton MessagePad. It offers a rare inside look at the people and politics responsible for creating a revolutionary new high-tech device at one of Silicon Valley's most freewheeling companies. It's a bit fawning and stops at Newton's August 1993 introduction, but this coffee-table book is destined to become a collector's item since Apple ceased Newton development. |
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Digital Retro by Gordon Laing (Order from Amazon.com) Take a visual stroll through the early days of personal computing, from 1975's seminal MITS Altair to 1988's failed NeXT cube, before the market bifurcated between Mac and Windows users. This 192-page paperback examines 40 classic computers of yesteryear, each depicted from all sides with full-color photography and annotated with original specifications and pricing. Laing's text also reveals many juicy tidbits about the companies and personalities that dominated the industry in its infancy. Given the author's British background, the coverage of many obscure models from the UK is to be expected, though they may not be appreciated by American audiences. I found the inclusion of video game systems a curious choice, too. My only major criticism is that the text accompanying the splendid photos is unnecessarily small and difficult to read. |
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Infinite Loop by Michael S. Malone (Order from Amazon.com) This 597-page hardcover provides the most exhaustive look at Apple Computer to date. Editor of Forbes ASAP, Malone is at his best when recounting the history of Apple and putting it in perspective of the personal computing industry at large, but his attempts to probe "the sheer complexity of Steve Jobs's soul" and interpret the motivations of others by playing amateur psychiatrist are presumptuous and distracting. Malone often comes across as just plain mean-spirited as he pulls no punches when accurately assigning blame for the company's many mistakes. Not nearly as depressing as Jim Carlton's Apple, Infinite Loop is a worthwhile read for the true Mac fan and provides enough insight into Cupertino's machinations to overcome its typos and factual errors. |
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Mac Toys by John Rizzo and Scott Knaster (Order from Amazon.com) Not only does this 364-page paperback tell you a dozen different cool things you can do with your Mac (control appliances, broadcast Internet radio, emulate arcade games, etc.), it goes into detail explaining the nitty-gritty of how to pull off these projects. Mac Toys is full of practical information with specific product recommendations and step-by-step software instructions anyone can follow. I also appreciate the handy references to useful freeware and shareware that might otherwise escape your notice, as well as the coverage of obscure hardware products that are off the radar of most Mac stores. The book is a little pricey, but worth every penny. |
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On The Firing Line by Gil Amelio and William L. Simon (Order from Amazon.com) Everyone has an opinion on how to save Apple. Pick up this paperback to get inside the mind of Gil Amelio, who headed Apple for 17 months. Amelio tells all about why he accepted the CEO post, the mess Spindler had left, and his frustration trying to manage selfish executives. He recounts his accomplishments and failures. There's plenty of blame to spread around, and Amelio names names but accepts much responsibility. Most intriguing are the revelations about secret negotiations with Gates and speculation on Jobs' role in his ouster. A little light on details, but a great read for any Apple watcher. |
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Revolution In The Valley by Andy Hertzfeld (Order from Amazon.com) Subtitled "The Insanely Great Story of How The Mac Was Made," this 291-page hardcover was written by the original Mac's brilliant software wizard, Andy Hertzfeld. That turns out to be this book's greatest strength and also its biggest weakness. Compiled from postings from Hertzfeld's folklore web site and augmented with the reproduction of original notes and historical photos, Revolution provides an insider's first-hand account of the Mac's creation, from Jef Raskin's 1979 conception through Steve Jobs' resignation in 1985. For the most part, it's a thoroughly entertaining read, though better editing could have eliminated much of the repetition in the piecemeal presentation and provided explanations of the technical hacks Hertzfeld recounts. Revolution's in-the-trenches vantage succeeds in making you feel you are part of the Mac team, but for the full story of what was going on at Apple and the industry at large, it's best balanced with additional reading. |
