iWoz
Let me start off by saying that I am not an Apple fanatic. I started out an an Apple II way made in high school, but never really got hooked on them. I was a Tandy user for the most part. Maybe it was the price. Maybe it was the fact I could ride my bike to Radio Shack and play with them, whatever the reason, I still don’t own any Apple products, but that might change as I decide between the iPhone and the Blackberry.
iWoz is the story of Steve Wozniak, engineer, teacher, inventor of the personal computer, pilot, and co-founder of Apple Inc. Personally, I have a hard time with just the title of the book. iWoz, how original along side iCon (Steve Jobs book), iPod, iMac, iPhone, and iDon’t Get It, all I can think of is I Robot. Is that a bad thing?
iWoz is written by Steve from his point of view. And his point is often much more interesting than conventional history would have you think. The book follows Woz from his early childhood with an engineer father, through young adulthood, and through on to current day Woz. Along the way he expresses himself with humility and candor, something I found refreshing when compared to some of the very dry Apple histories.
My favorite part of the book is seeing how, through his whole life, he just wanted to be an engineer. Everything else was simply extra and he was quite content to make great electronics, and maybe play a practical joke along the way. Woz also sets a few things that are considered Apple lore straight as he saw them. Woz’s skills as a teacher are seen clearly as, along with Gina Smith, he takes some of the most complex events in computer history and presents them in a way that is easy to understand.
iWoz is more than a fanboy book, it’s a great read about a time in computer history that it seems fewer and fewer people truly understand..