false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170460116m/56827.jpg 56827 4 On October 23, 2001, Apple Computer, a company known for its chic, cutting-edge technology -- if not necessarily for its dominant market share -- launched a product with an enticing promise: You can carry an entire music collection in your pocket. It was called the iPod. What happened next exceeded the company's wildest dreams. Over 50 million people have inserted the device's distinctive white buds into their ears, and the iPod has become a global obsession. <I>The Perfect Thing</i> is the definitive account, from design and marketing to startling impact, of Apple's iPod, the signature device of our young century.<P><P>Besides being one of the most successful consumer products in decades, the iPod has changed our behavior and even our society. It has transformed Apple from a computer company into a consumer electronics giant. It has remolded the music business, altering not only the means of distribution but even the ways in which people enjoy and think about music. Its ubiquity and its universally acknowledged coolness have made it a symbol for the digital age itself, with commentators remarking on "the iPod generation." Now the iPod is beginning to transform the broadcast industry, too, as podcasting becomes a way to access radio and television programming. Meanwhile millions of Podheads obsess about their gizmo, reveling in the personal soundtrack it offers them, basking in the social cachet it lends them, even wondering whether the device itself has its own musical preferences.<P><P>Steven Levy, the chief technology correspondent for <I>Newsweek</i> magazine and a longtime Apple watcher, is the ideal writer to tell the iPod's tale. He has had access to all the key players in the iPod story, including Steve Jobs, Apple's charismatic cofounder and CEO, whom Levy has known for over twenty years. Detailing for the first time the complete story of the creation of the iPod, Levy explains why Apple succeeded brilliantly with its version of the MP3 player when other companies didn't get it right, and how Jobs was able to convince the bosses at the big record labels to license their music for Apple's groundbreaking iTunes Store. (We even learn why the iPod is white.) Besides his inside view of Apple, Levy draws on his experiences covering Napster and attending Supreme Court arguments on copyright (as well as his own travels on the iPod's click wheel) to address all of the fascinating issues -- technical, legal, social, and musical -- that the iPod raises.<P><P>Borrowing one of the definitive qualities of the iPod itself, <I>The Perfect Thing</i> shuffles the book format. Each chapter of this book was written to stand on its own, a deeply researched, wittily observed take on a different aspect of the iPod. The sequence of the chapters in the book has been shuffled in different copies, with only the opening and concluding sections excepted. "Shuffle" is a hallmark of the digital age -- and <I>The Perfect Thing</i>, via sharp, insightful reporting, is the perfect guide to the deceptively diminutive gadget embodying our era.<P><P> 1452656 24 10 2006 The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness total:107|5:21|4:31|3:47|2:8|1:0| 107 386 180 23 0 0 true false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 19 10:32:06 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 19 10:33:53 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Feb 25 11:04:24 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 11:09:53 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue May 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 02:15:10 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 02:15:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Aug 06 21:56:53 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 01 16:13:22 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Apr 05 18:28:01 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 05 18:28:44 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 23 11:25:37 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 05 17:23:22 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Feb 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 16:56:13 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 18:56:37 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed May 09 17:58:40 -0700 2007 Wed May 09 18:07:02 -0700 2007
I started using the shuffle function on my iPod more after reading this book, because of the author'...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 30 23:42:03 -0700 2007 Sat Dec 20 06:14:07 -0800 2008 The Perfect Thing with iPod history, probably the first take on iPod's story which gives credit to actual group of people responsible for iPod instead of giving an over-credit to Jobs as many literatures do. Then he continues on to how iPod goes through its business saga, came to ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Apr 06 16:56:05 -0700 2007 Fri Apr 06 17:01:30 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 true false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Aug 18 08:02:37 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 18 08:04:45 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat May 24 08:58:16 -0700 2008 Sat May 24 08:59:53 -0700 2008
No-one seems to say that Steve Jobs is easy to work for, but if you measure the man by the caliber of his products then he's not at the bottom of the list (this, from my exalted position!) ]]> 0 0 false false Tue Jul 10 05:13:21 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 10 05:14:55 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Tue Feb 19 14:43:48 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 14:44:48 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 14:44:48 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Apr 19 23:23:55 -0700 2007 Fri Apr 20 20:25:40 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Thu Jul 05 04:15:24 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 19 01:38:27 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Tue Nov 04 10:54:51 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 04 10:58:15 -0800 2008 1 3 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 22 06:40:02 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 15 07:16:56 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Sep 08 07:14:02 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 08 07:14:46 -0700 2007
One interesting thing: At least in theory, different copies (printings?) have the chapters in different orders....]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 15 18:25:31 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 15 18:25:31 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=56827