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Get the New Book 'Apple: The First 50 Years' for 30% Off on Amazon
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bLackjackj
macrumors 65816
On Amazon US! Can we please clarify..everywhere else it’s $US50.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
WarmWinterHat
Suspended
SRQrws
macrumors 6502
I read it for about an hour yesterday on my Kindle and am really enjoying it so far. So many stories have been told already about Jobs and Woz working out of Steve's garage, but I'm getting a kick out of details like the development of the Mac icons and fonts along with learning about the original floppy drives and RAM specs. And there are vignettes about the engineers and operations people other than Jobs and Woz. Very quick and interesting read so far.
Quicksilver867
macrumors 6502
Absolutely. My local shop was undergoing renovation and pointed me to Bookshop.org. Do it!
For those considering purchasing... I was really surprised at how cheap and thin the paper is in this book. I had this expectation it would be premium because of the subject matter, but it is really low quality. Had I known this, I would have gone for the kindle version...
I can imagine Apple's answer to your comment: "We opted for thin paper to minimize our environmental footprint."
I've been following David Pogue since he wrote for Macworld in the 90's. I'm going to check this out from the library. If I like it, I'll buy one at the local book store (not so much to boycott Amazon, but just to ensure good print quality)
I would agree with the reviews regards quality. It has an almost photocopied feel to it at times, especially the poor quality of any photos.
Not the right book for me unfortunately as I expected more of a product oriented history book, whereas this is primarily a biography of Apple, the company.
Not the right book for me unfortunately as I expected more of a product oriented history book, whereas this is primarily a biography of Apple, the company.
konstantnn
macrumors newbie
While this is a very detailed and interesting book on the topic, it does not provide any meaningful new information for anyone remotely interested in Apple products.
The book has nice pacing and relevant stories all up until the iPhone. Then, it disassociates and branches out into many different topics with really irrelevant pacing (covering the iPhone X and Liquid Glass before the death of Steve Jobs). This is not a chronological book then?
But, more importantly, the information in almost all of the chapters past 2007 is not novel. It’s oversimplified, and underwritten.
And that is an issue, because we already have many books that cover the development of the iPod and iPhone. In this book, there were a few new facts, like the names of certain designers, three office stories, and two product trivia facts — but every other topic, was covered both in Fedell and Kocienda and Isacsson books on Apple 2000-2007.
Some of the most dramatic product shifts, debates, and clashes happened after the death of Jobs.
Like in 2012 — with the firing of Apple’s ad agency and abrupt shift in Marketing style (covered in a Samsung lawsuit), or in 2013 — with the iOS 7 redesign (This book has a dedicated chapter on Squircle iOS 7 icons, and uses a WRONG icon shape, while the whole point of the whole chapter was the new shape? So many missed details like this, from the weird Microsoft Office font over the modern iPad lineup, to the misaligned Rings graphic on the Watch, to the bad stitching on the Cupertino map on the beginning)
What about the trash-can Mac Pro and the clash the design studio had with the leadership on that? What about the 2014 Apple Watch launch that was fashion focused (New Yorker had a brilliant 20 page expose on this topic in 2014, interviewing Ive and Marc Newson, and Alan Dye, with so much insight and incredible stories about the studio that were so relevant to the shaping of modern Apple, and all of it was missing from this book.)
This historic era brought the 12” MacBook, the notebook that changed the way Apple builds notebooks forever (and not primarily in the negative way people interpret it today). Its developement shaped so much of every Apple product since, yet it was mentioned not a single time in this book?
What about the leadership switch, the launch and design process of products like the failed AirPower, Dynamic Island, AirPods Max, E.Hankey’s departure, the whole industrial design shift in 2021 with the iMac/MacBook Pro… So many key points that defined the past 10 years of Apple, without a single word of them.
Even still with it’s 800 pages, this is a broad overview book with recycled information from the books of past Apple employees and Steve’s biography. And a couple of interviews just because.
This is not a book that provides meaningful knowledge to people interested in Apple, and dissapoints with its premise — this book should be titled Apple 40.
The book has nice pacing and relevant stories all up until the iPhone. Then, it disassociates and branches out into many different topics with really irrelevant pacing (covering the iPhone X and Liquid Glass before the death of Steve Jobs). This is not a chronological book then?
But, more importantly, the information in almost all of the chapters past 2007 is not novel. It’s oversimplified, and underwritten.
And that is an issue, because we already have many books that cover the development of the iPod and iPhone. In this book, there were a few new facts, like the names of certain designers, three office stories, and two product trivia facts — but every other topic, was covered both in Fedell and Kocienda and Isacsson books on Apple 2000-2007.
Some of the most dramatic product shifts, debates, and clashes happened after the death of Jobs.
Like in 2012 — with the firing of Apple’s ad agency and abrupt shift in Marketing style (covered in a Samsung lawsuit), or in 2013 — with the iOS 7 redesign (This book has a dedicated chapter on Squircle iOS 7 icons, and uses a WRONG icon shape, while the whole point of the whole chapter was the new shape? So many missed details like this, from the weird Microsoft Office font over the modern iPad lineup, to the misaligned Rings graphic on the Watch, to the bad stitching on the Cupertino map on the beginning)
What about the trash-can Mac Pro and the clash the design studio had with the leadership on that? What about the 2014 Apple Watch launch that was fashion focused (New Yorker had a brilliant 20 page expose on this topic in 2014, interviewing Ive and Marc Newson, and Alan Dye, with so much insight and incredible stories about the studio that were so relevant to the shaping of modern Apple, and all of it was missing from this book.)
This historic era brought the 12” MacBook, the notebook that changed the way Apple builds notebooks forever (and not primarily in the negative way people interpret it today). Its developement shaped so much of every Apple product since, yet it was mentioned not a single time in this book?
What about the leadership switch, the launch and design process of products like the failed AirPower, Dynamic Island, AirPods Max, E.Hankey’s departure, the whole industrial design shift in 2021 with the iMac/MacBook Pro… So many key points that defined the past 10 years of Apple, without a single word of them.
Even still with it’s 800 pages, this is a broad overview book with recycled information from the books of past Apple employees and Steve’s biography. And a couple of interviews just because.
This is not a book that provides meaningful knowledge to people interested in Apple, and dissapoints with its premise — this book should be titled Apple 40.
Lioness~
macrumors 601
Thanks, will have that in mind, when and IF I will feel indpired to buy it and read it at some time. Kindle version it will be.
But for now, Apple with Cook is totally un-inspiring to me, so I honor my own opinions and feelings, and ignore the company as much as I can these days.
Which doesn't mean I disregard how much Apple have meant to me, but I don't have to buy the whole 🍏-'package' today - I surely don't.
Guess the quality of the book mirror where Apple are today 😉
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