Insanely Great: The Life And Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything - Softcover

Levy, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140244921 ISBN 13: 9780140244922

Publisher: Penguin, 1995

Synopsis

January 1994 marks the 10th anniversary of this personal computer breakthrough. A household word now, the Mac phenomenon marked a watershed point in techno-popular culture as it pointed the way for all future machines. It raised the standard of what one could demand of a personal computer, raised the number of people who could master the use of a more capable, user-friendly one, and raised the stakes of what competing computer companies (like Bill Gates of the emerging Microsoft) could produce, sell and earn in the rapidly developing area of PC programming and research. It catapulted the computer industry into an uncharted territory, a mix of technics, economics and show biz.

About this title

From the Author

In Days of Apple's worries, a reminder of glory
This book is special to me. From the moment I saw the Macintosh (some time before its release), I was charmed, not only by the machine but the people who created it. Those people in the Mac team became my friends; the machine became my primary tool for writing, and my window into worlds of software and communication. The idea for this book came to me thirteen months before the Mac's tenth anniversary--a relatively short, and somewhat personal history of the Mac to come out just at it turned 10. Since I had been consistently covering the Mac, I already had much of the research done--I followed up with a series of interviews to fill in the holes. (Those interviews were a lot of fun.) I learned stuff I'd never known, and I think for the first time you get a sense of how the Mac really evolved, from ideas like Bush's Memex through Xerox PARC, throught the LISA. You get a sense of what Jobs did, and what the others did. You see why it almost failed, and how the Mac II was made. And in the special addition for the paperback, there's the story of the PowerMac. But most important in these days of Apple's precarious position, I'm happy to have documented why Apple really matttered, and how a computer could change your life.

About the Author

Steven Levy is the author of Hackers, which has been in print for more than fifteen years, as well as Insanely Great: The Life & Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything. He is also Newsweek's chief technology writer and has been a contributing writer to Wired since its inception. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140244921
• ISBN 13: 9780140244922
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320