On occasion, I will get a request to review a product, and based on the initial description sent to me by a PR flack, I just know that I am going to hate it. That was my initial impression of the book The Apple Revolution by Luke Dormehl. Fortunately, I ultimately found the book to be much more enjoyable to read than I originally anticipated.

The book is yet another retelling of the Apple / Silicon Valley story with a focus on Steve Jobs. The Apple Revolution is subtitled "Steve Jobs, the counter culture, and how the crazy ones took over the world,"; which describes the book's premise very well. Dormehl had to write the book within the confines of history, so he travels down the well-trodden path of Steve Jobs as stinky hippie founder, genius behind the Macintosh, pariah who founded NeXT as revenge for being ousted from Apple, deep-pocketed visionary who bought Pixar and triumphant leader of Apple after his return in 1997.

Despite the fact that this is a story that has been told many times, Dormehl uses a combination of literate writing and a profuse number of personal interviews with many of the original characters to bring a fresh perspective to The Apple Revolution. Ultimately, the book is not a deep dive into the personal life of Steve Jobs like Walter Isaacson's classic biography of the man, but a well-reasoned treatise on how the times helped to shape Jobs and eventually resulted in him being the person whose vision and singleminded pursuit of perfection shaped our culture today.

Dormehl's prose reads like the script of a good documentary, not surprising as he has a background in both journalism and documentary filmmaking. Since his specialty is pop culture, he was the perfect author to explore the connection between the counter culture of the '60s and '70s and the eventual rise of Apple to its dominance in the personal electronics industry.

The fruits of Dormehl's interviews are apparent not in pages-long descriptions of something that Jobs or his contemporaries may have done, but in short, to-the-point statements that help to bolster an argument or prove a point. TUAW's Michael Grothaus is quoted twice in the book, primarily for his perspective as an Apple employee during five years in the 2000s when the company was riding the success of the iMac and iPod to create the new computing paradigms -- the iPhone and iPad -- that are feeding the company's bottom line today.

Unlike Isaacson's biography of Jobs, The Apple Revolution has no photos of the many players who have helped to shape our current cyberculture. And there's no reason to include those images; anyone with access to the Web and a bit of curiosity can easily search for any number of pictures or wiki entries about those who became heroes of The Apple Revolution.

At 532 pages, The Apple Revolution is not a quick afternoon's read. Dormehl turns a story that we already know the outcome of -- that of Steve Jobs and Apple -- into a compelling page-turner that includes just enough unique details to keep even the discerning Apple historian happy. For example, at one point Steve Jobs was being considered for NASA's ill-fated civilian astronaut program and was turned down in favor of teacher Christa McAuliffe, who perished in the 1986 explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. That's something I had never known until reading this book.

I won't ruin the book for other potential readers, but there are other little gems to be found in the pages of The Apple Revolution. It's a great read, and a must for the bookshelf of anyone who has found their life to have been benefited by the many fruits of the Apple tree.

TUAW Bookshelf: The Apple Revolution originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW Bookshelf: The Apple Revolution originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPod is the member of the Apple family that is overshadowed by the newer, more popular kids on the block. Yet it was the iPod that was the "gateway drug" for many of today's Apple fans, opening the eyes of a generation to how consumer electronics should be built and used. Author, blogger and early morning podcaster Tim Chaten has just published an iBook that celebrates the history and future of Apple's media consumption device. iPod Evolution (US$7.99 launch price, regular price $9.99) is currently available for pre-order and will be available for download on January 31, 2013 -- the first day of Macworld/iWorld.

In iPod Evolution, Chaten explores the life cycle of the iPod by looking at the devices from a number of different viewpoints: hardware, software, marketing, fitness, accessories, and "beyond Apple" (the MFi program and hardware/software mods).

The hardware evolution of the various models of iPod make up the first part of the book. Chaten does his best to make the descriptions of the changes in iPod hardware over the years as interesting as possible. For each device, there are charts showing storage capacities for different generations; the size, weigh, and materials making up each generation; a description of the battery life; screen type, depth, and resolution; the case colors available (where applicable) and the physical interface used to interact with the device.

Gallery: iPod Evolution by Timothy Chaten

Chaten includes a number of photographs in this section, making it easy for the reader to discern the differences between models. That's important for the reader who may have picked up the book in order to learn more about a vintage iPod, especially one of those ancient Classics from the early 2000's.

Each chapter of the book begins with a nice dark gray header page that includes a stylized image of an iPod of one type or another. The book itself is in a two-column landscape orientation that's easy to navigate through. Chaten often puts the second column to good use by including a photo. He notes that he'll be providing a free update to the book soon, adding videos and more photos.

There were a few chapters that I thought were outstanding. Chapter 8, on generational similarities, points out that the first generations of most iPod devices were pure and unsullied, the third generations were market failures, and the most recent generations are refined both in hardware and software.

Chaten points out a little-known mode in Chapter 9 -- diagnostic mode -- that all non-iOS iPods with a screen can be booted into. It's a useful way of finding out more about your device as well as helping in troubleshooting.

While many Apple devices including the iPod touch can easily export screenshots, that's not the case with the iPod classic, mini (remember it?), and nano. As such, it's necessary for authors to take actual photographs of the device screens with a camera. While most of the screenshots are well done, some of the images taken off of iPod classic screens are fuzzy and show some keystone effect. Having had the same issue when publishing an iPod book in the mid-2000s, I know that Chaten did the best possible job getting those screenshots.

Some other topics are covered that I don't think I've seen documented anywhere else. For example, the FM radio built into the fifth, sixth, and seventh generation iPod nano is a little-known tool that is really pretty impressive -- especially when you realize that it will display song, artist and station info for those stations that support Radio Data System.

Especially effective in the latter part of iPod Evolution is the use of galleries. Tapping on these iBook widgets takes you through a virtual slideshow made up of several images. It's a great way to see related screenshots one after another, and I wish that Chaten had chosen to use them throughout the book, particularly in early chapters where he sometimes drops a few screenshots on a few pages where one gallery would provide a much easier way to view those images.

His last chapter reminds the reader that the iPod was the device that taught Apple many things, specifically in the realm of pricing and distribution. Without the iPod's impact on the public psyche and Apple's corporate culture, newer products like the iPhone and iPad may never have become the successful icons we see today. Even the book's title, iPod Evolution, is a subtle reminder that many of Apple's current products include a bit of iPod DNA in their design and construction.

All in all, iPod Evolution is a great resource for anyone who owns or collects iPods, or who is interested in the history of this now relatively neglected Apple family member. Chaten writes in a friendly, conversational style that is very readable. While the book may not appeal to everyone, iPod Evolution is certainly the definitive history and reference for the iPod family.

TUAW Bookshelf: iPod Evolution originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 26 Jan 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW Bookshelf: iPod Evolution originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 26 Jan 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I've been working on a book for the next version of iPhoto for a while now. I have some friends who have been working on a book for the next version of iWork since last August, too. Matter of fact, my iPhoto book has a publishing date of March 31, 2013. These books are being written for Pearson, the largest publisher in the world. I also have a book in the works about iOS 7 with another publisher. That is scheduled to be published on October 7, 2013.

I know, it's going to be an exciting year for Apple software releases, right? Maybe a lot of you hope I'll leak what the big new features of the next version of iPhoto will include or how my friends are enjoying playing around with the beta of the soon-to-be new version of iWork '13 and iOS 7? I could probably sell those secrets for thousands of dollars (or maybe millions if I can get Samsung interested!) The only problem is that I, nor my friends, nor my publishers have any proof that these products are actually real. We've never seen a beta. We've never been told by Apple that these are going to be released.

I'm writing this article because time and time again I see it reported that some tech site has found evidence of a book about an unreleased Apple hardware or software product has been prematurely listed on Amazon. The tech site takes this as proof and pretty soon other tech sites are reporting on this "evidence." The book has a release date and ISBN after all. It must be real.

No. I can tell you with absolutely certainty that these prematurely leaked books are never signs of any upcoming Apple products.

"But then how can you be writing a book on the next version of iPhoto," you might ask?

The answer is, while I am writing a book on the next version of iPhoto (right now the the publisher and I are calling it iPhoto X), I'm actually writing a book on the current iPhoto '11. Then, when Apple actually unveils the next version of iPhoto, I'll spend 2-3 weeks learning all the new features, update the manuscript, and hopefully have it on store shelves within 4-5 weeks of the new version being released.

This is what publishers of all consumer technology books do. Publishing is a very competitive world. Consumer tech books particularly, besides having a lot of competition, have a relatively short shelf life. A book on the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 is only sellable until the next iPhone and the next iOS. So it's to the publisher's advantage to get a book out on a piece of software or hardware as close to the actual release date of that product as possible.

Since Apple never releases betas of their desktop apps, authors like me begin writing the books on the (hopefully) upcoming software so we can have the book as completed as possible when the new version does actually come out. Writing a tech book takes a lot of work from a lot of people -- not just the author. After I finish the first draft of a manuscript, my primary editor needs to look it over and suggest corrections and/or changes if necessary. Then the developmental editor has a go at it. Then the technical editor takes a look and does the same. After that I take another look, make any changes, and then it's back to my primary editor, developmental editor, and the technical editor again. If everyone is happy then the manuscript goes to the copy editor and finally back to me. That doesn't even include the art director who needs to set and proof the images in a book (and with a tech book you have a lot of images).

If a publisher would wait to commission a tech book on a product until the day it was actually announced, that book wouldn't hit shelves for probably 5 to 6 months. That's a lot of lost sales. So it's very practical for publishers to do it the way they do: commission and write the book before any announcement, make sure that book is as good as it can be, and then update it when the new product actually comes out. This way benefits readers and stockholders alike as the readers are sure to get a completed, technically accurate, knowledgable book since the publisher and author can spend more time writing the new bits instead of rushing to get the whole book out quickly. The stockholders in the publisher are sure to get a steady stream of sellable books while the subject is still relevant.

Of course, both I and my publisher are hedging our bets. A new iWork '12 didn't come out in 2012, so my friends writing that book have a great manuscript on iWork '09. But they can't do anything with it until they can update it with iWork's new features when the new version actually ships. That means the authors won't be making any royalties for a long while on a work that has been virtually completed. Another danger is that you write a book on the next version of a product based on its current iteration, but then the next version of the product turns out to be radically different. Then most of your work would have been for nothing, and you need to start all over. However, since this rarely happens (although it did from iMovie HD to iMovie '08) it's usually in the publisher's interest to bet a product won't be radically different because the extra five months of sales that you would need to sacrifice to wait for certainty would cost you a lot.

Now about those Amazon leaks. In order to get a publishing contract finalized between an author and a publisher, among other things, you need a title, a release date, and an ISBN. Publishers usually plan their book release schedules a year in advance so they have a reasonable idea where their sales are going to come from. Once your contract is finalized, your as-yet-to-be-written book is then entered into the publisher's database. Occasionally these databases will be sent to Amazon or other distributors where the books will be listed. I'm sure by March you'll see my upcoming book on iOS 7 show up on some international Amazon site. It'll probably have an October publishing date. Again, this means nothing. My now titled iPhoto X book (last year it was titled iPhoto '12 -- and then that never actually shipped. Bummer.) will probably show up too. It'll even have a cover. I've seen it. Of course this cover is just a placeholder showing the current iPhoto so the art team can get as much of the book finished now as possible. But these dates especially are flexible and aren't there based on any input from Apple or knowledge about its plans. They're there for contractual and scheduling purposes only and can (and will, frequently) change.

So don't get too excited from now on when you see books for unannounced Apple products "leaked" on Amazon. Sure, I guess it is possible (anything is, right?) that Apple decided to break with protocol and give some lucky author and publisher an advanced copy of some software so they could write a book on it. But you need to ask yourself, why would they do this? What's in it for Apple? Apple doesn't get a cut of books sales about their products (unless it's on the iBookstore -- but even cuts of fiction books go to Apple then). And as Apple's help info always goes live online when a new product ships, they don't need the help of third-parties educating customers the day a product goes live.

So sorry to squelch the hopes of those of you who always get excited about these book leaks, but at the very least I hope this clarification will save some tech journalists unneeded keystrokes typing up a story that wasn't.

Sorry folks, book publishers don't know Apple's plans originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sorry folks, book publishers don't know Apple's plans originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Publishers can also submit screenshots of the book, which will be particularly useful for multimedia content produced via iBooks Author. Just like screenshots for the App Store, Apple is very specific on what formats it will accept: 1024 x 768 or 768 x 1024 pictures in the RGB color space, formatted as .jpeg, .jpg, or .png.

The iBookstore has altered the way it handles pre-orders for content. Now publishers are able to make content available for pre-order without submitting a book cover or any other assets until up to two weeks prior to publication. Covers, book assets, and custom previews must be submitted two weeks prior to publication.

The addition of promo codes and screenshots brings iBookstore content more in line with the offerings on the App Store and will no doubt be extremely useful tools to publishers of all sizes, from the biggest publishing houses down to budding self-publishers.

iBookstore adds screenshots, promo codes, and more for publishers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iBookstore adds screenshots, promo codes, and more for publishers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One question on many people's minds has been how Apple and the textbook publishers were able to agree on such a low pricing scheme for textbooks. After all, high school textbooks usually cost $75 each, and thus far publishers haven't been well-known for offering electronic versions of published works at a discount; in fact, in a lot of cases ebooks have cost more than their paper versions despite presumably lower distribution and production costs. So, not that anyone's complaining, why the lower prices?

AllThingsD asked that question of McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw, and it turns out to have a simple answer. Schools will usually hold onto the paper versions of textbooks for about five years, meaning the publishers are only recouping about $15 per year anyway. Via the iBookstore, textbooks can be sold directly to students (who may or may not be offered payment vouchers from their schools), and from the publishers' perspective, the beauty of this arrangement is that those books can't be re-used or re-sold.

After Apple takes its 30 percent cut, publishers will only take $10.50 from a $15 textbook sale, but that's $10.50 they can get from every student, every year, and without the heavy production and distribution costs associated with making and shipping the often giant-sized paper versions of textbooks.

It's obviously too early to tell whether this will work out to be a lucrative arrangement for textbook publishers, but just looking at the way the numbers shake out, at the very least it seems that, contrary to initial appearances, $15 isn't such a shockingly low price for textbooks after all.

Why McGraw-Hill is selling iBooks for $15 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Why McGraw-Hill is selling iBooks for $15 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has posted a video of the education event it held earlier today. The video is available for streaming on Apple's site, or you can download a higher quality version from iTunes.

This is Apple's first public event since October's introduction of the iPhone 4S. In this video you'll see the debut of iBooks 2.0, iBooks Author, the iTunes U app, and Apple's partnership with textbook publishers to offer electronic textbooks directly to students for just US$14.99.

Apple posts video of education event originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple posts video of education event originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Setting up an account to publish books to the iBookstore has always been free, and the new iBooks Author tool has brought that fact into the spotlight. Self-publishing books to the iBookstore does still have a few hurdles you have to leap through, however. As AppleInsider points out, for iOS and Mac developers in particular, one hurdle is that existing iTunes Connect App Store accounts won't allow you to upload books to the iBookstore; instead, you'll need to set up a separate Apple ID associated with iBooks Author.

Account setup also requires you to input credit card information and have a US-based tax ID -- for individuals self-publishing content, a Social Security number will suffice. For some odd reason, iBooks also require an ISBN (a requirement the Kindle Store doesn't have), and those aren't cheap. In the US, purchasing a single ISBN from Bowker costs $125, or you can buy them in discounted packs. Personally, I have no idea why they're allowed to get away with those prices; ISBNs in my country are available for free.

Speaking from personal experience, setting up a publisher account on the iBookstore is a lengthy and somewhat unintuitive process -- but nowhere near as slow and frustrating as dealing with traditional publishers. Developers not being able to use an existing iTunes Connect account to publish iBookstore content is a bit baffling, however, and hopefully it's something Apple will address.

iBooks Author accounts are free, existing developers need a new account originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iBooks Author accounts are free, existing developers need a new account originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just a couple days after European antitrust regulators launched an investigation into allegations of ebook price fixing among Apple and several major book publishers, the US Department of Justice is now joining the fray. Computerworld reports that DOJ acting antitrust chief Sharis Pozen is "investigating ebook industry practices."

While Pozen provided no additional information and didn't specifically name Apple, the pattern so far has been decidedly unfavorable to Apple and its iBookstore. A class action lawsuit alleging price fixing was filed in August, the European Commission has launched antitrust probes, and two US state Attorneys General have already begun their own investigations targeting Apple's ebook pricing.

The class action suit has alleged that Apple and several major book publishers have conspired to drive up ebook prices in order to prevent Amazon from underselling the iBookstore.

U.S. Department of Justice joins Apple ebook pricing investigation originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

U.S. Department of Justice joins Apple ebook pricing investigation originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Littered with cartoons and code samples, it's meant to convey the basic philosophy of creating well-structured code that helps document itself. You can read about naming variables, laying out programmatic structures consistently, knowing what's worth commenting about, and more.

There's a lot of useful information scattered within, and many of the examples and illustrations are quite good. Unfortunately, the writing does not match up to the quality of the information on offer.

I wished the authors had slowed down a bit, better motivated the reader regarding points they were making, and spent time to explain the "why" in greater detail. The book feels rushed and offers a surfeit of passive voice and odd constructs. This is a shame, because the authors had a winning concept. A book about superior communication skills in code should have presented those same skills in its writing.

The material here will probably work well as a support to seminars, which can easily use the structure, examples, and illustrations independently of the written text.

"The Art of Readable Code" costs US$34.99 for a print version, $27.99 for ePub, and $38.49 combined. It is available from O'Reilly Books.

Dev Juice: The Art of Readable Code originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dev Juice: The Art of Readable Code originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After reading his biography, I'm no longer convinced that Steve Jobs would have liked me if we'd ever met in person. At least not at first. More likely, he'd have torn me a new one in our first meeting and told me that I sucked and everything I did was worthless. Then, in our second meeting, he'd have parroted my ideas back at me as though they were his own. It was apparently one of his signature moves, and it probably would have made me want to throw a chair at him.

But even if I had been provoked that far, he most likely would have just bellowed that I should have thrown a better chair.

Reading biographies is perhaps a different experience for me than it is for most people, since I spent most of my Master's thesis examining the concept of truth in biographical works. Most of the memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies I've read have fallen into one of two categories. Either the text was something designed to lionize its subject and make him or her seem larger than life, or else the writer had taken pains to focus on only the parts of the subject's life that fit into a clean narrative arc while leaving everything else on the cutting room floor, an approach that leads to easy and almost cinematic storytelling but leaves out much of the facts.

Neither approach to biographical writing strikes me as particularly true; in fact, almost every biography I've read seems to contain about as much actual truth as an episode of Star Trek. The tendency to over-praise or over-dramatize is both pernicious and pervasive throughout the various forms of biographical texts.

Walter Isaacson's 656-page profile of Steve Jobs falls in neither category. It is quite possibly the truest biography I've ever read. In the process of telling the unvarnished truth about Steve Jobs, it dispels much of the myth and magic surrounding the man and his legacy. It does not depict Steve Jobs as the information age's equivalent of Moses descending from Mount Sinai with an iPad in each hand. It would have been easy for some misinformed hack to portray Jobs that way in a quick cash-in "unauthorized" biography soon after Jobs's death, but it also would have been closer to fiction than biography.

What Isaacson gives us instead is a portrait of a man with keen insight, brilliant powers of observation, and a stubborn determination to "put a dent in the universe." However, the biography also depicts a man with deep flaws, some of which arguably contributed to his early death. It humanizes a man who's spent much of the past decade as a living legend in multiple arenas, and it gives valuable insight into the person Steve Jobs was, not just the icon he became.

After reading his biography, I get the sense that no matter how brilliant Steve Jobs was or how many fundamental shifts in our landscape he spearheaded, in the end, he was as human as the rest of us. It's a testament to Isaacson's skill as a biographer that readers can at last obtain the picture of Steve Jobs as a human being rather than a legend.

Jobs's reputation as a control freak was legendary, yet he relinquished all control over the contents of his biography. It's a surprising move from a man who insisted on so much control over all of his life's projects -- the Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad were all born and thrived partially because Jobs refused to cede control over them. Jobs explained his motivations to Isaacson for his atypically hands-off approach to the biography. Partially it was because he wanted his children to know him better, flaws and all. It was also because he wanted to make sure that only someone possessed of all the facts about his life would write his story. "When I got sick, I realized other people would write about me if I died, and they wouldn't know anything. They'd get it all wrong. So I wanted to make sure someone heard what I had to say."

Jobs's biography manages to allow him to get the last word in many debates. Many of the people who have toasted both him and his achievements will find themselves bearing the brunt of his last barbs against them. Some, like Jobs threatening to go "thermonuclear" on Android, have already been outed. Others are a bit more deeply buried within the text, but once found they're both candid and a bit stunning.

"IBM was essentially Microsoft at its worst," Jobs said, reminiscing about the early days of the personal computer revolution. "They were not a force for innovation; they were a force for evil. They were like AT&T or Microsoft or Google is." My jaw dropped at this quote, but another later on in the book was more alarming. Immediately after heaping praise on his successor, Tim Cook, Steve said, "Tim's not a product person, per se." Considering that at many other points in the book Jobs heaped scorn on people like Bill Gates or John Sculley whom he also considered more concerned with profits than product quality, his unfiltered opinion of Cook's product sensibilities definitely raised an eyebrow.

Much of the biography will be familiar to hardcore Apple enthusiasts. Chapters on the birth of the Macintosh will be familiar to anyone who's read Andy Hertzfeld's recollections at folklore.org, and if you're a regular TUAW reader there won't be too much in the chapters about the iPod, iPhone, or iPad that you haven't already read. Older Apple fans will likely find the earliest chapters about the founding days of Apple not much more than a refresher course. But I suspect that few people will be able to read the entire book and not discover some surprising fact about Steve Jobs that they didn't already know.

If you come into Steve Jobs already hating him, the biography gives you plenty of reasons to hold onto that opinion. If instead you view Jobs as a personal hero, there are plenty of episodes within his life story that might make you reconsider that opinion. Isaacson doesn't shy away from describing Steve Jobs's darker moments or personality deficiencies, some of which border on the downright despicable. To put it lightly, Steve Jobs was not a "people person."

One of his ex-girlfriends read about Narcissistic Personality Disorder in the DSM and said, "It fits so well and explained so much of what we had struggled with, that I realized expecting him to be nicer or less self-centered was like expecting a blind man to see." Even his closest friends, like Apple design guru Jonathan Ive, noted that Jobs often exhibited a vicious and unnecessary lack of empathy for those around him. The fact that so many people all over the world have been lauding him since his death, both friends and dogged competitors, speaks to the complex and paradoxical nature of Steve Jobs, a man whose greatest goal was to establish empathy between people and technology but who often displayed precious little empathy of his own.

Isaacson's biography of Jobs isn't a character assassination by any means (though I do wonder why the first third of the book dwells so often on Jobs's body odor during the 1970s). That said, I still feel terrifically sorry for any employees who find themselves at the mercy of a supervisor who uses Steve Jobs as a managerial handbook, just like the legions of young would-be entrepreneurs trying to emulate the callous Mark Zuckerberg they saw in The Social Network.

If anyone comes away from reading Steve Jobs thinking that being a leader makes it okay to be an asshole, they'll have missed about 99 percent of the point. Anyone can cut an employee to shreds or throw epic temper tantrums at the slightest provocation, but replicating Jobs's intuition, perfectionism, dedication, and vision is arguably something that only one person in seven billion can manage to pull off.

Steve Jobs is at its core the study of the man himself, but along the way it's also a fascinating history of the genesis, near-death, and resurgence of Apple. It also describes the birth, near-death, and ascendancy of Pixar, with fascinating details I've never read before. As the book follows Jobs through the personal computer revolution, the birth of the Macintosh, his "wilderness years" at NeXT and Pixar, and his return to Apple and subsequent paving over of the landscape for the music industry, cell phones, and tablet computing, Steve Jobs's biography also offers incredibly detailed insights into how our world shifted from the hobbyist computing era of the mid-'70s to the ubiquitous techscape we live in today. Steve Jobs didn't enact any of these revolutionary changes singlehandedly -- his biography takes pains to make that clear -- but he was most assuredly at or near the center of all of them.

Though the book makes his flaws obvious to readers, it also makes clear that we would be living in a very different world if Steve Jobs hadn't set out to put a dent in the universe. Anyone with even a passing interest in Apple's history, and anyone who's ever wondered how so very much about the technology landscape has changed so fundamentally in just 35 years, owes it to themselves to read this book.

Review: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs' originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Review: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs' originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs has been released a couple hours early on the Kindle Store, and its release in the US iBookstore is expected at midnight. The US iBookstore is still showing the book as available for pre-order as of this writing, but it should be available for download within the next couple of hours.

Multiple details of the biography have leaked out over the past week via multiple media outlets, and a 60 Minutes interview with Walter Isaacson provided some fascinating insights into both the biography itself and the man who was its subject.

Along with many other members of the Apple-loving world, I am very much looking forward to reading it, and I will have a review of the work up on TUAW as soon as I've finished reading it. Look for that review later on in the week -- with a print length of 656 pages, it might take me a day or two to read through the whole book.

Thanks to the readers who tipped us!

Update: The biography went live on the iBookstore an hour earlier than expected, so it's now available.

Steve Jobs biography released early for Kindle, iBookstore (updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Steve Jobs biography released early for Kindle, iBookstore (updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On today's episode of The Daily Lawsuit: law firm Hagens Berman has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple and five of the major book publishing houses. The suit claims Apple and these publishers have conspired to raise prices on ebooks.

According to the suit, Amazon's loss-leading pricing for ebooks, designed to drive sales of its Kindle e-reader device, may have led to consumers having an established expectation of low ebook pricing. Allegedly, Apple and the major publishers named in the suit have colluded to raise ebook prices significantly over Amazon's lower prices under the so-called agency model.

Under the agency model, ebooks are sold directly to consumers (rather than being sold to retailers as under the old model), with retailers splitting revenues from sales. In the case of Apple's iBookstore, Apple's cut is the same as for most of its other online services: 30 percent.

The suit alleges that Apple's pushing of the agency model has meant that competitors like Amazon are now unable to price ebooks lower than Apple's set prices, which has resulted in driving the price of ebooks higher than ever before -- in some cases, electronic media is more expensive than traditional printed copies. We've looked at iBookstore pricing before, but the situation in 2010 didn't seem to reflect what's described in this suit. The price of ebooks certainly isn't higher than the cost of printed copies in many non-US countries, either; in New Zealand, I could buy three ebooks off the US iBookstore for the cost of one trade paperback from a brick-and-mortar retailer. That pricing situation is the same or worse in the UK and Australia.

According to Hagens Berman, "The lawsuit seeks damages for the purchase of e-books, an injunction against pricing e-books with the agency model and forfeiture of the illegal profits received by the defendants as a result of their anticompetitive conduct, which could total tens of millions of dollars." Well, good luck with that; from what we've been seeing so far, the iBookstore hasn't exactly been a smashing success.

Apple involved in class-action lawsuit over ebook pricing originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple involved in class-action lawsuit over ebook pricing originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhoto '11 is an easy Mac app to begin using and play with, but a difficult one to master.

In his newest book for Apress, TUAW blogger Michael Grothaus takes his knowledge of iPhoto '11 and presents it in such a way that anyone can learn to use the app, not only for organizing and editing their photo library but also for creating albums and keepsakes or sharing those photos.

Part of the Apress Technology In Action series, Taking Your iPhoto '11 to the Max is a 241-page illustrated guide to the app. Available in both paper (US$29.99 SRP) and e-book ($20.99) formats, Michael's expertise as a photographer and writer shines in the book.

Michael begins the book at the point where most new Mac users stop -- they figure out how to import their photos into iPhoto and then use the app as the electronic equivalent of a shoe box to store their pictures. Michael begins educating readers at this point in a very understandable way, taking them through the steps of marking and searching their photos using keywords, and describing the detailed information that can be found in EXIF data imported from the digital camera.

Continue reading Taking Your iPhoto '11 to the Max: A power guide to Apple's photo app

Taking Your iPhoto '11 to the Max: A power guide to Apple's photo app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Taking Your iPhoto '11 to the Max: A power guide to Apple's photo app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We posted that Random House had made a deal to finally get their books in the iBookstore. Well, it's in the process of happening. This morning the Random House published-Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larsson is available for purchase and the first two books are even at decent prices.

Now we'll have to wait and see if Random House's other imprints, and there are around twenty-five of them, make it there as well. My guess is that they will. Maybe there's hope for the iBookstore after all.

By the way, along with the Apple store, the Random House site is down as well. I have a feeling this will come up at today's event.

The iBookstore gets Random House books originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The iBookstore gets Random House books originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to a tip from our old friend Nik Fletcher at Realmac Software, Apple has recently put a number of Apple Developer Publications books into the iBookstore for free. This makes it simple to grab these books, which range from "The Objective-C Programming Language" to "iOS Application Programming Guide," for reading on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

As our resident developer and iOS guru Erica Sadun points out, it's "kinda dumb" to have the books running on the device you're trying to develop for. It would be nice if Apple eventually made a version of iBooks available for Mac OS X. Although, as commenter Nick points out, once you have the books downloaded, you can open them with any app that supports the EPUB format, like Adobe's Digital Editions product.

You can also get a Mac-compatible version of the books by going to the developer site and then selecting the PDF option to download them. The PDFs can also be used on the iPad or iPhone, but since Apple has done the work to convert these documents into nice EPUB-formatted iBooks, why not take advantage of their effort?

By my count, there are six books available. To grab them, launch iBooks on your device, tap the Store button, tap the Search icon and then type in "apple developer publications." The books range in length from 44 to 200 pages, and they are great references to use with many of the other developer books from Pearson and Peachpit Press that can also be purchased in the iBookstore.

Apple posts free developer documentation for iBooks users originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 19 Dec 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple posts free developer documentation for iBooks users originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 19 Dec 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Sorry Google Books, I'm sticking with iBooks

Sorry Google Books, I'm sticking with iBooks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sorry Google Books, I'm sticking with iBooks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading TUAW's Holiday Gift Guide: Interactive books for children

TUAW's Holiday Gift Guide: Interactive books for children originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW's Holiday Gift Guide: Interactive books for children originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pearson's stable includes such imprints as Addison Wesley, Cisco Press, IBM Press, Que, Prentice Hall, Pearson IT Certification, and Sams. The titles are divided into sections, including Apple Gadgets & Technology, iOS Development, Internet & Web, IT Certification, Programming and Software Development, Social and Web Marketing, Software Applications, and Web Design & Creation.

Peachpit's library includes the Apple Training Series, which is the "official" series of books used in Apple Certification training. I was pleased to see that the Apple Training Series books were discounted: the Mac OS X Support Essentials v 10.6 title that normally sells for $58.49 on the Peachpit site in paperback or for $46.79 in Adobe Reader format is now only $34.99 in the iBookstore. Peachpit books are also divided into sections, including Bestsellers, New Releases, Apple & Apple Certified, Web, Adobe, Photography, Video & Audio, and Graphic Design.

For the many techies who own iPhones or iPads, the addition of Peachpit and Pearson books to the iBookstore is going to be a godsend. Unfortunately, it's also another reason to spend a lot of money on those technical books that you've been waiting to read on your iPad.

[via Macsimum News]

Peachpit and Pearson tech books now available in iBookstore originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Peachpit and Pearson tech books now available in iBookstore originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple iBookstore has opened in Australia originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple iBookstore has opened in Australia originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Kindle store currently advertises that they have over 700,000 books, magazines, and blogs available for download. Apple hasn't released statistics on the number of currently available books, so an accurate comparison isn't easy to make, but it's a safe bet to say that once you eliminate the ability to load .pdf files, the availability of e-books from the iBookstore pales. At launch, it was reported that the iBookstore contained somewhere between 46,000 and 60,000 titles, 30,000 of which came from the Project Gutenberg library of free out-of-copyright books. However, since these are also available on the Kindle, we can reduce both sides of the equation by 30,000. This brings the number of titles at launch for the iBook to a generous 30,000. That's a big difference, but outside of raw numbers, there are many factors constraining a massive increase in iBookstore sales.

Continue reading The iBookstore six months after launch: One big failure

The iBookstore six months after launch: One big failure originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The iBookstore six months after launch: One big failure originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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