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iWoz

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 3,123 ratings · 367 reviews

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...more

Hardcover, 313 pages

Published September 1st 2006 by W. W. Norton & Company

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Nov 21, 2012 Ken rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

iWoz was a good autobiography of an interesting man. Many comments in other reviews mention the self-centered and/or patronizing sound, but it may not be his intention, and for those who know him, it may not be seen that way. Maybe the editors should have told him how it was coming off to strangers, but I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. It may be that he possesses genius of a level that crowds out some social conventions, so he doesn't know that explaining things that are very techni...more

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Jun 06, 2012 Jackie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I gave up.

Edit: To give this a bit more depth, let me explain. Steve Wozniak is a brilliant man, a kind man, a wonderful man. I'd love to have him as a friend, family member, coworker (I said the opposite of Jobs when reading his biography). He just simply cannot write. Every page reads like an excited little boy who just came home from school (And then I built this project. And then I pushed the on button. And the lights didn't work. But I learned a lot. And I tried new project for the science...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Gale Jake rated it 2 of 5 stars

Woz...One hell of a big ego, almost too mich to bear.

Although this book is an interesting glimpse at the early Apple days and the Apple I and II, many of Woz's claims did not ring true for me.

I was with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1973 to 1983 (2nd largest computer company at the time) and many of the "1sts. or breaktgroughs" claimed by Woz had been already done by DEC and others.

In my opinion, Apple' s world game-changer was the Lisa. Its graphics windows user interface and its s...more Woz...One hell of a big ego, almost too mich to bear.

Although this book is an interesting glimpse at the early Apple days and the Apple I and II, many of Woz's claims did not ring true for me.

I was with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1973 to 1983 (2nd largest computer company at the time) and many of the "1sts. or breaktgroughs" claimed by Woz had been already done by DEC and others.

In my opinion, Apple' s world game-changer was the Lisa. Its graphics windows user interface and its subsequent use on the Mac completely changed how humans interact with computers.

I was working at DEC's home office in the early 80's as we were struggling with creating a common user interface. When I saw the Lisa announced and demoed at a Philadelphia computer conference I reported.back to DEC that I had seen the future and its name was Lisa.

I stated that when the price could be reduced from $10,000 to the $3k level that it would sell in volume, and it did with the GUI implemented on the Macintosh.

Microsoft Windows 95 lagged way behind when launched at a later date, never to catch up with the elegance of the Mac. (I bought the first model) It was my 2nd PC, DEC's Robin being the first. And, of course there was DEC's PDP 8, having most of the features in the late 60s that Woz claims to have invented. Remember that one?

This (mp3 in my case) book is an interesting story of Apple and its early computers, but is primarily an inside look at Apple co-founder Steve Wozniack's significant technical and prank talents, personality and view of life by his not so humble self.

There are many bright engineers and many good ideas. Those who happen to succeed the first time around forget that with all the other ingredients equal, what makes 90% of the difference in becoming rich and successful is timing and luck. Woz is smart not smarter, but his main component of success was that he was lucky at the right time. And had the $ and ego to prove it. OK for a speed-read and then toss it. Yuk.(less)

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May 01, 2008 Deanna rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

Recommended to Deanna by: brother-in-law (but even he wasn't impressed with the book)

Ok, I do have to admit that I haven't finished the book (nor do I want to at this point - but someday I may pick up where I left off.) I was first interested in reading this because I thought that the guy who invented Apple "must" be a pretty interesting guy. Maybe he is...but it doesn't come across in this book. He comes across as the most arrogant, self-centered, self-important person EVER! I know that autobiographies are about one's life - but I guess I am more drawn to people who can give an...more

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Mar 12, 2008 Brooks rated it 1 of 5 stars

What a goody-two shoes. I was not very impressed – a little light on the insights. The only areas he went into detail was on some discoveries – like when he built a middle school science project that used logic circuits, the original Apple II board, his work with Attari, and his design for a universal remote. He went through two divorces and raised two kids and we have a total a few paragraphs on these events. The one area I wanted to know more about was the start up of Apple. He goes into some...more

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Sep 15, 2007 James Williams rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who loves Woz, and reads at a third grade level

Steve Wozniak is one of my heros. He's a brilliant engineer who changed the world just by doing what he loved to do and doing it well. His sense of humor is legendary and wonderful. I love me some Woz.

So I pre-ordered iWoz as soon as I heard about it and couldn't wait for the Amazon box to arrive at my door.

Boy was I disappointed. The writing for this book is atrocious. It uses small words and basic, repetitive sentence structure. It's boring to read. The stories are interesting but definitely...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Gayle rated it 2 of 5 stars

A personal memoir, and a important counterpart to all the Svengali-like portrayals of Steve Jobs as the evil genius behind Apple. Because in the beginning there were the Two Steves, each a necessary part of the original Apple, and in this book, Steve Wozniak steps out from behind Jobs' shadow with a grin and a wave.

Woz is a study in stereotypes--a brilliant engineer who thinks in electrons, and a socially-inept geek who can't talk to girls. A guy who wants to change the world for the better, and...more

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May 07, 2013 Pablo Honey rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a worthy read for anyone interested in early personal computers and Steve Wozniak's development of the Apple I and Apple II, though people looking for a history of Apple the company or a general history of the PC revolution may be disappointed.

As mentioned in other reviews, this book basically reads like an extended conversation with Wozniak, which is both good and bad. The writing is straight forward and easy to follow, but it definitely could've used some editing (for example, when Woz...more This is a worthy read for anyone interested in early personal computers and Steve Wozniak's development of the Apple I and Apple II, though people looking for a history of Apple the company or a general history of the PC revolution may be disappointed.

As mentioned in other reviews, this book basically reads like an extended conversation with Wozniak, which is both good and bad. The writing is straight forward and easy to follow, but it definitely could've used some editing (for example, when Wozniak discusses his amnesia after a plane crash, he mentions that he didn't even realize his dog was missing -- someone had boarded it while he was in the hospital -- twice within two paragraphs). It is a pretty quick read nonetheless.

He writes about growing up in California, his early interest in math, science, and especially electronics, and his proclivity for pranks. He writes about feeling like a hippy but ultimately being an outsider in their group because he wouldn't do drugs. He writes about building a "blue box" which allowed the user to make free phone calls and then, along with his friend Steve Jobs, selling them for a tidy profit. Although he states he never used the blue boxes himself for personal phone calls (because that would be stealing), he grudgingly admits he sold them to people who did and therefore makes what he and Jobs did illegal. The fact that he even considered this a gray matter made me question his perspective a bit.

It's not until around halfway through the book that Wozniak discusses the reason most people probably picked up the book -- creating the Apple I (and later the Apple II) and co-founding Apple Computer with Steve Jobs. At this point you figure he's going to get into the nitty gritty of the early Apple years, but it never really happens. It's clear that Wozniak's goal was to, once and for all, go on record as being the sole creator of the original Apple computers, and to make note of all the engineering innovations he came up with during their creation -- repeatedly, to the point of sounding rather boastful, as if everything he did was completely original and head and shoulders beyond what anyone else had ever done or would do. I have no doubt Wozniak is a great engineer but even I know he's giving a rather one-sided perspective. For example, he talks about creating the first Apple BASIC (explaining how he'd based it on HP BASIC and decided to save time by not including floating point math capability), but doesn't mention that due to its limitations, it was replaced a couple years later by a BASIC licensed from Microsoft (yes, that Microsoft).

Even as Apple grows and becomes a big company, he never discusses his day-to-day role or what happened there other than a few short asides. He spends several pages lamenting how Apple tried to push aside the Apple II to make way for the Apple III, and how that ultimately failed because the III was designed by marketers, not engineers. But that left me with the question, "Why wasn't Wozniak involved with the III?", which was never answered. Nor is the evolution of the Apple II discussed, other than Woz mentioning at one point that the IIc was his favorite version.

He also doesn't discuss Steve Jobs much (fair enough, this is Woz's book), and when he does Jobs invariably comes off quite badly, such as pre-Apple when Jobs is at Atari and convinces Wozniak to create a hardware prototype of the game Breakout in only four days. Wozniak does it and splits what Jobs tells him is a $750 payment, only to note that he later discovered Jobs was actually paid in the thousands for it. Or, after Wozniak quits Apple to head a universal remote start-up and has a design company he knows from his Apple days come up with the prototype, Jobs learns of this and (apparently upset over an article stating the Wozniak quit because too much attention was paid to the Macintosh development and not enough to the Apple II), smashes the prototype and tells them to send it back to Wozniak.

Overall it was still a worthwhile read and recommended for people interested in this era of computers.(less)

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Apr 26, 2013 Jason Butz rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you're reading this, you owe it to a guy named steve. If you're peering at this through a finger-smudged screen, thank Steve Jobs. If you have a crumb-filled keyboard in front of a display, you owe Steve Wozniak.

According to his own account in iWoz, everything in his life groomed him for his role in shaping the personal computer. His father was an engineer for Lockheed that instilled him a love of technology and a strong moral compass. He could see from a young age that computers were somethi...more If you're reading this, you owe it to a guy named steve. If you're peering at this through a finger-smudged screen, thank Steve Jobs. If you have a crumb-filled keyboard in front of a display, you owe Steve Wozniak.

According to his own account in iWoz, everything in his life groomed him for his role in shaping the personal computer. His father was an engineer for Lockheed that instilled him a love of technology and a strong moral compass. He could see from a young age that computers were something great, even though in those days the main way to interact with them was enigmatic switches and lights. He never had the money to play with them directly, so he read about them, learned the logic behind the chips they used, and made a game out of improving the design of each new computer. He did this for years, playing a secret game of making the designers look like fools by tweaking their designs and reducing the complexity and cost of the design without sacrificing function.

It was years before his put this to practice with Steve Jobs in the Apple 1 and later the Apple II, but when he did it was breathtaking. He applied all the tricks he had learned in his years to put together the first computer that the average person could use, one that out of the box interfaced with a TV and keyboard. More importantly, the Apple 1 just worked, as soon as you got it, unlike the kit computers of the day like the Altair 8800. After the Apple 1 came out, other companies took notice and started imitating it. This continued on with the wildly successful Apple II, which inspired the IBM PC, the granddaddy of just about every computer in the universe.

Early on Steve describes how he decided that it was more important in his life to be happy and have fun rather than be rich and powerful, which explains a lot of the decisions he made in life. He intentionally never held onto his position as the founder of Apple, being more interested in designing technology than steering the fledgling company. This doesn't stop him from offering his criticisms aspects of Apple history, though often this is just to present his side of events. Whether or not he meets his own definition of success is somewhat open to interpretation. He certainly had fun, just like he claims on the cover, but like so many he has never lived up to the innovation he achieved early in life, a problem unique to visionaries like himself, but overcome by his comrade Steve Jobs who returned Apple to its former glory after faltering in the 90s.

This book, which is awkward to attempt to start a sentence with, is a love letter to technology, and filled with detailed descriptions of how he overcame obstacles and engineered things from a TV jamming prank machine to the Apple II's fantastic floppy drive. His enthusiasm for these projects after all these years highlights his true ambition. It's not power and fame he seeks, it's fun and the thrill for coming up with an elegant solution to a tricky problem.(less)

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Feb 12, 2013 Matt Bibby rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was an interesting read. I wanted to get a different view of Apple, one that didn't center around Steve Jobs and I feel I got that. In fact, I think he did a little too good of a job there. One of the main reasons I wanted to get a different perspective is to see the relationship between Woz and Jobs. This book talks about Jobs, but as it goes on and Apple begins, he is hardly mentioned. I can understand his reasoning behind this, as I'm sure there would be resentment toward the man th...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Kevin Rubin rated it 3 of 5 stars

This turned out to be a fun book to read. Steve Wozniak is a pretty immature and unsophisticated writer, but what got through was his enthusiasm.

He covers growing up with his father encouraging his own curiosity and interest in engineering and electronics, explaining electronics and helping him build things like crystal radios and other circuits.

Then gets into his college life, his blue box years hacking the phone system (and sounds like it took him a long time to realize it was stealing) and th...more

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Nov 03, 2012 David Natiuk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: computer, history, non-fiction, biography

I really enjoyed Steve's book. It made me want to be an engineer so much that I actually opened up and played with my son's SNAPCircuits set! I think I missed my calling. But seriously, Woz is a fascinating character... a mix of brilliant engineer, and positive free-spirit, change-the-world man.

I was growing up at the time of the computer revolution and I'm now curious about the computers behind all those video games I used to play. The story of Wozniak's original creations and advancements tie...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Tim OC rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent book by the Cocreator of Apple Computer with Steve Jobs. In fact Steve Wozniak was the technical inventor and Steve Jobs was the Businessman and Sales guy also had much to do with Vision for a company. Steve Wozniak was the technical brains behind the first computer, the book goes into all of what led up to inventing the first computer and that was truly very interesting. I remember back in around 1975 when on the radio I heard stories of some guy who was breaking into phone lines and...more

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Jul 15, 2012 JC rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, my-firsttime, kindle

Honestly, I couldn't have told you who Steve Wozniak was before I picked up this book. I'm not an Apple fan boy and had no idea that he and Steve Jobs founded Apple. So why did I pick this book up? First off, it just showed up on my Kindle so not sure where it came from, but I also was interested in how Apple started.

Steve Wozniak is quite an odd man. He seems very proud of himself and makes multiple claims about he was the first to do many things. Is that in fact the case? It's tough to say fo...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Shannon rated it 5 of 5 stars

It has been many years since I've read Robert X. Cringely's Accidental Empires (which I whole-heartedly enjoyed), and have seen the documentary Triumph of the Nerds (narrated by Mr. Cringely). I've always been interested in the history of the big names in programming, and when I saw that there was a new autobiography out from one of the pioneers, I was actually the very first one to get the book from my local library (seriously).

Wozniak has a very simple writing style. Sure, there is a lot of te...more It has been many years since I've read Robert X. Cringely's Accidental Empires (which I whole-heartedly enjoyed), and have seen the documentary Triumph of the Nerds (narrated by Mr. Cringely). I've always been interested in the history of the big names in programming, and when I saw that there was a new autobiography out from one of the pioneers, I was actually the very first one to get the book from my local library (seriously).

Wozniak has a very simple writing style. Sure, there is a lot of tech-talk in the book, but it does not dominate it, and he has a great ability to break down very technical jargon, into easy to understand language (which is probably what made him a great 5th grade teacher, after he left Apple- something he always wanted to do).

I had no idea that the US music festival was his, and to hear his passion for it, was very inspiring. It was very entertaining to hear how he created the first dial-a-joke phone line (and not to make money, just for fun!). He also designed the game Breakout (while Jobs was at Atari,and he was at HP- again, just for fun and for very little money) He doesn't delve too deeply into his personal life (his 3 marriages, his plane crash), but he does have very sweet anecdotes about his kids (again, it does not dominate the tome).

He de-bunks a lot of myths about himself and Apple, such as he did not drop out of college, he and Steve Jobs did not create the Apple in a garage (that's more of the history of HP), and he did not leave Apple because he was disgruntled (he left to start a company designing a universal remote- and technically he's still never left, as he's still drawing a salary from Apple).

He gives a lot of advice to future inventors and engineers, and demonstrates how to be true to the vision you have for yourself.

I would recommend this book to anyone, techies or non-techies alike. He explains what binary digits are almost to the point of annoyance (how hard is it to remember it's 1's and 0's?), and when he does go into detail on how he created his first computers (transistors, resistors, DRAM, PROM, Motorola 6800, 6502 microprocessor), he doesn't mire you with too much technical jargon, and very quickly explains why he did what he did.

For those of you who have heard of the Homebrew Computer Club, the Cream Soda Computer, phone phreaking or breadboarding, its right up your alley. For the rest of you, it's still a great read. Highly recommended!(less)

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Jun 17, 2012 Loy Machedo rated it 3 of 5 stars

Loy Machedo’s Book Review – iWoz by Steve Wozniak

One of the most important legacies a person can leave behind is either an invention, a book or a revolution. In the case of Steve Wozniak, he has left us with all three with each one having its own impact at various levels.

His autobiography titled ‘iWoz’ is a fairly honest, no-nonsense conversational styled confession about the 55 years he spent on this planet. However, the book has its share of surprises.

What I liked about the book.
Wozniak came...more

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Jun 28, 2011 Jack Treml rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was a little shocked with Woz' casual arrogance throughout his narrative. Several instances of this attitude shine through from his recollections of his childhood and the founding of Apple in the mid 70s, clear up to more recent work with the US festivals. Overall, this autobiography is written from a very personal perspective and in a conversational tone that was easy to read, but didn't suggest that much thought went into his past. On the positive side, it does a great job of providing a win...more

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Jun 22, 2011 Peter McCarthy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Nothing really interesting in this book. Woz is a great happy guy and you would be too if you owned the Apple stock he owns. He is a philanthropist, he cares about people and he wants to make the world a better place. His struggles in life are completely glossed over (two divorces, failed business ventures post Apple) and you get his recollections of life from when he was a kid, in college, during his early days at HP and of course the genesis of Apple Computer and its flagship product. My guess...more

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Mar 27, 2011 Ken rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

One of my favorite literary genres is the origin story. How did a great thing get invented, how did a great person become great. This one is the story of how Steve Wozniak invented the personal computer at a very young age, and helped found Apple Computer.

This is a very breezy read, pretty obviously dictated and barely edited. It’s like sitting in a room with Steve Wozniak as he tells you his life story, with some diversions and some humorous anecdotes thrown in. I finished it in a weekend, and...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: autobiobraphy-memoir

wozniak was most definitely a player and made a huge difference in the early years of development of the personal computer, and the book is an excellent history of this developmental period as well as giving readers a solid explanation of how the pc works. kudos. beyond that though (although that alone is a good reason to read the book!) it is amazing how smart and clever (in a most positive meaning) this computer engineer is while at the same time having such a juvenile understanding of life. j...more

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Dec 01, 2010 Mike Ogilvie rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a great book for anybody at least mildly interested in techno-geek stuff, the history of our information age, or if you just like a good autobiography.

I knew previously that Steve Wozniak was part of the force behind building the original Apple PC products. But I actually had no clue that he is all but single-handedly responsible for inventing the world's first Personal Computer. As an I.T. aficionado myself, that story line was inspiring. It's very uplifting for anyone who's got great i...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Jim Lyke rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book has a great personal appeal to me, as I lived through the personal computer revolution, and I related to the story. The first 1/4th of the book was very annoying as a narrative and frustratingly didactic to me (it isn't just because I have a PhD in electrical engineering, because I have found some thoroughly engaging narratives on the principles of digital logic and basic electronics). The writing style was very difficult to tolerate in general. I have tried to finish every book I star...more This book has a great personal appeal to me, as I lived through the personal computer revolution, and I related to the story. The first 1/4th of the book was very annoying as a narrative and frustratingly didactic to me (it isn't just because I have a PhD in electrical engineering, because I have found some thoroughly engaging narratives on the principles of digital logic and basic electronics). The writing style was very difficult to tolerate in general. I have tried to finish every book I start (I haven't succeeded always), so it was by sheer determination that I weathered the early parts of this book.

When I say I lived through the computer revolution, I simply mean that I was a hobbyist during the time when the first personal computers were beginning to be created, and remember the famous cover story of "Personal Electronics" that talked about the first (was it Altair?) computer that you could build yourself. At any rate, the Apple II was magical, and anyone who had one became the source of envy by the other geeks and nerds (I don't know if those terms were actually used in those dates, the late 1970s). The Apple was clearly an "elegant best of breed", and we could not possibly have imagined where Apple would one day go when we watched the flashing of simple color block graphics and listened to crude mimicry of polyphonic sound.

At any rate, I think the context of my own interest explains in part why I thought the rest of the book was actually worth reading. In it, I learned how someone without formal education managed to outflanked teams of professionals and create unique expressions of computer products. Today, we can put billions of transistors on a chip, but in the era of an Apple 2, only about 5-10 thousand. Wozniak obsessed over the details of every single logic gate and transistor. I saw through the almost childish narrative style a true brilliance.

I loved listening to his "seat-of-the-pants" style of developing very complex systems, from scratch, under unbelievable schedule pressures. I try to imagine how it was humanly possible to design a PONG-like game from bare implements in a 48-hour sleepless marathon with Steve Jobs tirading in the background. While Jobs had the genius of vision, Wozniak had the determination and drive and genius of implementation. This is the much under-rated ability to translate napkin sketches into real working machinery.

The question of Wozniak's role in the evolution of the personal computer is not as binary (oops) as some other reviewers might have suggested. The inevitability of the personal computer was probably secure, with or without Wozniak. What he did would have probably happened inside of a decade even if the Apple 2 never existed. His genius in engineering short-circuited the innovations needed, but I believe those innovations would still have occurred. In no way, however, would I wish to diminish the blockbuster that he created in the Apple 2. Probably most of you will not remember the Ohio Scientific Challenger, the Exidy Sorceror, or the scores of other "also-rans" made by mortals with considerable but still inferior gifts.

I think equally interesting was iWoz's personal discovery of liberal ideology in a clearly conservative upbringing. He was initially politically incurious and simply joined a Republican local organization because that seemed like what he should have done based on his father's influence. His critical discoveries came through reflections on the origins of the Viet Nam conflict, and he was shocked to learn that his government could ever be party to actions that were inconsistent with the history textbooks of his childhood. His subsequent revulsion put him in conflict with his father and iWoz remains staunchly critical of the imperialistic tendencies of government, even I though (if I recall correctly) he does not wish to be labelled as "democratic" or "republican".

As for downsides in the book, besides the frustrating narrative style, I felt that the whole prankster ethos he seemed to embrace was a bit over the top. He recounted many of these with obviously great relish. I simply couldn't believe he wasted so many hours on jamming TV sets in student lounges, a behavior that to me seemed borderline socio-pathic. While these tales of misdeed did expose some interesting insights (such as the failed "middle finger" poster stunt as a team-building experience), I think if I had been reading the book with one of those rating knobs used in "focus groups", I would have been turning it to "danger, red" during most of those passages.

You get the idea from the style of narrative that "Woz" is simply an innocent nerd, who lived by very simple and consistent principles. This purity and innocence put him in direct conflict with the complex, explosive personalities of others in his life, including Steve Jobs. I was surprised by how many other reviewers slammed him as egotistical and narcissistic. Isn't that what most autobiographers are? I have read works of individuals where I did pick that up (Steve Wolfram comes to mind), that sort of "I alone, in the race of humans, was uniquely gifted to have arrived at the conclusion that...". But I just didn't personally get that feeling from iWoz. I don't think I can re-read the book, it's just too annoying (that's why 3-stars), but I felt a lot more respect and appreciation for his human qualities after I finished.
(less)

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Jan 31, 2013 Bob Oliver rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the majority of this book. But what I enjoyed was the part a lot of the reviewers complained about. I was fascinated with Steve's childhood and the forces and events that led him to co-found Apple. I couldn't get enough of the technical details and descriptions of the state of technology in the early days of computing. The quirky style of writing gives you insight into the way Wozniak thinks and was very valuable in understanding him. If it sounded more polished, it wouldn't be...more

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Mar 03, 2012 Bill rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-books

Note - Potential spoilers below.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. It was definitely interesting learning about Woz's early life and his perspective on the founding of Apple and his relationship with the company over the years. I was not aware that he was the sole creator of both the Apple 1 and the Apple 2 (at least according to him) - I guess I had always assumed it was joint development effort with Steve Jobs. In Woz's version of the story, he was the sole creator of both platfor...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Ben Gillam rated it 3 of 5 stars

(Possible spoilers below)

I found out about this book after reading a blog post about the upcoming jOBS movie about the life of Steve Jobs but in that article they quote Steve Wozniak as saying that some scenes are not accurate and for the "real" story to read his book.

So I did.

Popular culture would have us believe that Steve Jobs was the real "ego" and that Wozniak was in the shadows actually making the computers and being shy and humble . But this book will make you realise just how much of a...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Doc Kinne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Woz has amazingly distinctive writing style - so distinctive it might be distracting. Woz has spent the last several years teaching fifth graders, and most of the rest of his life explaining some pretty fantastic electronic designs to people whose background was not electronics. So, the book has a tone of being written in a highly converstional style seemingly for a fifth grader to read. I didn't get the impression that this was exactly intentional, just the way that Woz wrote.

Once you get past...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Steve Wozniak is an absolutely fascinating individual, and he tells the story of his life in this book.

Of course, Woz is mostly known for founding Apple and creating the first Apple computers. That whole period -- when computers moved from large, remote, almost mysterious devices, to desktop-sized machines that almost anyone could own -- is amazing, and it's great to hear first-hand stories from someone who helped make it happen.

For most people, that might be the best part of the book. Me? I thi...more

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Apr 24, 2012 John Ferry rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm a longstanding Mac user, but to be frank I only bought his book because I stumbled across it at a bargain price. I have just finished the book and I was pleasantly surprised.

I read the recent biography of Steve Jobs and Steve W seems like his polar opposite. His interests are engineering, music and having fun and he comes across as good hearted and generous. I think Gina Smith has done a good job in preserving Steve W's voice and capturing his fundamental decency and honesty. I know it's Woz...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Gypsy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

iWoz is a MUCH easier book to read than the Steve Jobs biography. I picked up this book because I was so irritated with Steve Jobs through the things I read in his biography, that I really needed to hear from another voice from the people that created the Apple computers.

This book came out in 2006, 5 years before Job's authorized biography was published. It was written in the first person so it feels like you're having a cup of coffee with Woz himself & just listening to him tell you his st...more

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Aug 23, 2011 Hriday rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am not an Apple fan boy. I liked this book.

I agree with most other reviewers who claim that this book does sound a bit braggy, i know it all types but hey, it is Steve Woz! I also agree that the writing style is not very literary but again, the co author has left it the way Woz would probably talk. This book doesnt claim to be a literary masterpiece nor is it lining up for the Booker/Pulitzer. Try Orhan Pamuk or Salman Rushdie if all you want is literariness. This is a book for Engineers/Techn...more

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“Artists work best alone. Work alone.” — 11 people liked it

“when you don't have the hardware resources, you have to take advantage of what you have inside the chip” — 3 people liked it

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