Reviews

The Apple Revolution: Steve Jobs, the Counterculture and How the Crazy Ones Took over the World by Luke Dormehl

psteve's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed this book, but much of what was really interesting in it, I already knew. But then I do know the entire history quite a bit, just as one who has paid attention. This book is most enjoyable about the early days of Apple, when it was small groups of people creating Apple products. I'd like to know more about various design and software decisions in making the iPod and iPhone. Lots of other potentially fascinating stuff is left out; the Newton only gets a few pages, HyperCard none, and OS X, which has certainly been a huge part of the success of Apple over the last decade, is also not mentioned. Maybe I was hoping for a different book, but the subtitle doesn't really describe the book he wrote, especially in the last few chapters. Still, more fun, especially the first half, than many Apple histories.

halfmanhalfbook's review

4.0

As with all books about Apple, the focus can tend to be on Steve Jobs, CEO and founder of the company, and this book has lots about Jobs. But Dormehl has managed to also take in details about Apple computers, Microsoft, Xerox and the wider social and technological changes that took place in the late sixties and early seventies that gave us the products that enable me to write this and for you to read it.

There is a lot of detail in the book and it is written in an engaging and interesting way; but there is not so much detail that it is unwieldy. It does not criticise Jobs for some of the decisions that he made, nor does it look at him with rose tinted spectacles. There is a little on Pixar, and a chapter on NeXT, but the primary focus remain on Apple.

I thought that it was a good read overall, and perhaps should be read alongside with Walter Issacson's book on Steve Jobs.