| iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It |  | Author: Steve Wozniak
Creator: Gina Smith
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
List Price: $14.95
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Rating:  136 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0393330435
Dewey Decimal Number: 621.39092
EAN: 9780393330434
ASIN: 0393330435
Publication Date: October 17, 2007
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Product Description
“‘The Woz’ built the first [personal computer]—by hand, by himself.”—USA Today Before slim laptops that fit into briefcases, computers looked like strange vending machines, with cryptic switches and pages of encoded output. But in 1977 Steve Wozniak revolutionized the computer industry with his invention of the first personal computer. As the sole inventor of the Apple I and II computers, Wozniak has enjoyed wealth, fame, and the most coveted awards an engineer can receive, and he tells his story here for the first time.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 136
 iwozard of oz July 1, 2010
Brandon Marvel (taylor, MI, US)
I got this book because the history of the PC has always interested me and I got to say this is a great book. the seconded UPS dropped it off I started reading it and I did not let it down until it was yesterday morning reading the final sentence, I'm not going to lie I'm not much of a reader normally so if it's a book I don't put down it's speaking something. In the book at some points the guy is definitely not humble, he kind of has a I'm the best I was first I'm #1 kind of aditutude but he doesn't sound like that mean of a guy. If you have any intreats in the PC or computers or any of that you must read this book.
An awesome book for computer lover June 29, 2010
Ren
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I haven't finished this book, but I love it a lot. I'm like Woz in some perspective. i'm a programmer, I love coding, I love software, a lot.
This book shares a lot of interesting story of making early computers and Apple. I'm sure you'll love this book if you're still reading comments here :)
Interesting story March 23, 2010
Travis J. Reddell (Alexander, AR)
Wozniak tells an interesting story, but not as much about Apple as you would think. Maybe he sees other things in his life as more important than Apple, but I thought the "How I invented the personal computer" part would be more detailed. All in all, I would recommend this book to a friend.
 and I thought it was the other Steve who was the jerk !! January 25, 2010
J. Joseph
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Okay, well he's a nice jerk, but still...
This book typifies Apple the computer and Apple the company to a "T". Style and image and little real substance. In the main, that goes for Apple users as well.
Yes, Woz did some cool stuff, but so did many of the other pioneers of the the mid-70s era. And his stuff was by no means so revolutionary as he claims.
He goes on for several pages extolling his two-chip floppy card. Well, if he'd simply used a real floppy controller chip like the others (such as the Western Digital 17xx series FDCs used in the TRS-80) his drive might have actually worked. Because of his el-cheapo approach, he couldn't use the reliable FM and MFM encoding. Instead he was forced to use Group Code Recording, which is supposedly self-clocking. Yes, it works OK, but ***only when the drive is new***. When the head drifts out of alignment, the clamping mechanism starts slipping, or if the drive speed goes off, his amateurish scheme fails big time. I happen to know because I worked for several years as a disk duplicator for a big-time software publisher, and I saw for myself the people in the customer support department tearing their hair out and climbing the walls taking calls and processing returns from irate customers with their piece-of-**** Apple drives.
His info on the TRS-80 on pages 208 and 209 is completely wrong. It didn't earn the moniker "Trash-80" for nothing (spontaneous reboots, key bounce, lousy cassette, etc), but it was hardly as primitive as he describes.
He gloats because his Apple II can go up to 48K and the "Trash-80" only goes up to 4K. HA! In 1977 the first Model Is were sold with 4K (when many other computers only had 1K or 2K), but all could be later upgraded when 16K chips became available.
Contrary to Woz, the TRS-80 also had a "real" keyboard. Unlike the Apple, you could install a numeric keypad in the main unit. So much for being the greatest ever "business machine" (I must admit though that Tandy skimped on lowercase letters, just to save $1 in hardware)
Yes Woz, the TRS-80 does graphics. Sure, they're block graphics in black and white, but with CPUs as slow as they were back in that day, that's all you can do well. The Apple had sharp color graphics, but all it could do was static displays because the piddling 1 Mhz 6502 could push all those pixels around. The '80 had many wonderful games with objects zooming all over the screen, you should check it out.
He says the Apple could be programmed in machine language or BASIC, and that made it a business machine (Visicalc came later). Not the TRS-80, which is BASIC only. Wrong. Look back into all the articles in 80 Microcomputer having to do with coding in assembler, and moreover, how to interface BASIC with m/c subroutines in protected memory. The Apple has no means of protecting memory, it's all or nothing there, no flexibility.
Speaking of BASIC, only Tandy had the good sense to include Microsoft Basic in their machine. Compare Applesoft vs. TRS-80 Level II feature for feature. No contest, the Woz machine doesn't do complex strings, no double-precision floating point, file handling is a joke. Yes, Apple had Visicalc first, but that was only because Bricklin picked the Apple completely at random as his development target -- it says so in Accidental Empires by Robert Cringely. But Visicalc was not everything, there are hundreds of business apps besides, and in this day they were mostly written in BASIC, and the "Trash-80" was the only computer with a REAL BASIC.
This exemplifies Woz's whole approach to the Apple -- cheap cheap cheap. Cheap CPU, cheap disk drives, cheap software. Typically Apple: cheap in everything but $$$.
Woz completely omits the fact that to buy an Apple you had to buy it through mail-order (at least until later when they got some dealers). Of course he doesn't mention that Radio Shack was the first computer retailer EVER where you could bring it in for servicing or upgrading, buy approved accessories and software, and get training. Apple users had to settle for "user groups" for support. Since we're talking about Apple users here, perhaps I should say "user groupies".
Much is made of the Apple's presence in the educational market. Fact is, the TRS-80 had a greater market penetration here. It's not well known because Tandy was famous for not disclosing its sales figures. Here again Apple propoganda reigns supreme.
Which reminds me, it was Tandy's massive advertising efforts that were the coattails that Apple rode to the market on.
I hope all these specific examples show what this book is about: Woz's self-loving ego. I'm sure he's a nice guy and all, and there were some good things to the Apple (color hi-res 80-column screen, sound, slots), but he wasn't all that, child.
If you want to read a really good, even heroic, story of an inventor-genius, read this one: Copies in Seconds by David Owen. How a Lone Inventor and an Unknown Company Created the Biggest Communications Breakthrough since Gutenberg - Chester Carlson and the Birth of the Xerox Machine. And do get the hardcover, after you read this tale you'll be glad to have the deluxe version.
Woz could learn more than a thing or two about writing from this book.
A fun historical view for nerds and humans January 20, 2010
Matthew E. Johnson (Wallingford, VT)
The book starts off with an almost offensive ego-centric 'I was the first' type of thing and lacks humility but, when he starts getting technical and juicy about details, it's really fun! I think Steve Woz was right in there with the true innovators. I'd like to read about some other actual inventive people of the time, but his details are amazing, and basic enough to be accessible. If you're just an Apple fanboy or a computer everything lover, this will get you inside the feel of those times...which were pretty darned exciting if you ask me. Wozniak's delight at his and others breakthroughs make this a good and fun book to read.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 136
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