iWoz

How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Along the Way

By: Steve Wozniak, Gina Smith

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

The mastermind behind Apple Computer sheds his low profile and steps forward to tell his story for the first time.

Before cell phones that fit in the palm of your hand and slim laptops that fit snugly into briefcases, computers were like strange, alien vending machines. They had cryptic switches, punch cards, and pages of encoded output. But in 1975, a young engineering wizard named Steve Wozniak had an idea: what if you combined computer circuitry with a regular typewriter keyboard and a video screen? The result was the first true personal computer, the Apple I, a widely affordable machine that anyone could understand and figure out how to use.

Wozniak's life before and after Apple is a "home-brew" mix of brilliant discovery and adventure, as an engineer, a concert promoter, a fifth-grade teacher, a philanthropist, and an irrepressible prankster. From the invention of the first personal computer to the rise of Apple as an industry giant, iWoz presents a no-holds-barred, rollicking, firsthand account of the humanist inventor who ignited the computer revolution.

©2006 Steve Wozniak (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.

Great book for those in electronics fields

What did you love best about iWoz?

Woz was an electrical/computer engineer at heart. I have that in common with him, so a lot of our viewpoints on things were similar.

Not only that, his values in life are very admirable. He was really just a nice guy and all of his stories were just sort of cute in a way. Like they make you feel good. Even though this guy has been through some bad times, the book just always makes things sound so nice. I really appreciated the reader because he sounded like what I sort of think Woz would sound like. Just all in all, very relatable and very intriguing.

What other book might you compare iWoz to and why?

Obviously the Steve Jobs autobiography because they are slightly similar. However, this book is an autobiography, which changes the tone quite a bit. Also, there are a lot of personal opinions in here that were largely left out of the Jobs book. I have yet to find a good follow-up for this book in terms of the genre. It appears to be a one-of-a-kind.

What does Patrick Lawlor bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The voice acting. Sometimes he read a sentence just-the-right-way and it totally changes the meaning/feeling of it and Woz-inizes it. It was so powerful at some points that it felt like you're chilling with Woz and he's telling you his life stories. Very great voice actor.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed several times. Made me look nearly insane walking around the street but it was so so worth it. Several of the jokes were somewhat technical where if you understand what he's working on (for instance, older computers, Discrete Logic, etc.) it's a lot funnier.

Any additional comments?

If you know an EE or a Comp.Eng. they will probably love this book.

pretty average

I am a huge fan of apple and was interesting in learning about the early days and how the computer era started. I agree with most reviewers on key points:
1) Woz comes off as one of the most self centered egotistical people on the planet in the first half of the book. He is the greatest at everything. At points this gets truly nauseating and I almost gave up and was going to give this the lowest rating possible.
2) He is pretty funny, and I guess I take his self-centeredness with a grain of salt given how real he seems on many recent TV interviews, but still when he does illegal things and says this was a joke and funny, it makes you wonder if the Jobs reality distortion really stops with Steve Jobs and if Woz has a similar issue.
3) more than the first half of the book is pre-apple. For people with an interest in his role in Apple, you are paying for a lot of boring stuff, and basically 4-5 hours of “I was a boy genius and the greatest at everything” before you get to at least what I found interesting.
4) 2nd half of book better. The contrast between him and Jobs is most interesting, and he is more engaging and appealing in the 2nd half. Unfortunately, he really did not do anything interesting after Apple II. Pretty amazing still that a guy could be such a genious that he did everything of substance by the time he was 28 and the lived off that for the rest of his life.
4) the reading/audio was good.

Great Book For Very Technical People

This is not for everyone. If you are a programmer or engineer this is a great book. If you have no interest in how a circuit works it is probably not for you.

Great book - excellent story from Steve's view

I really enjoyed this book. I did find the the flow a bit off with repeats of prior material in odd places. But, I was in gradeschool in mid-late 70's and was a geek as early as 2nd grade so this was like a trip down memory lane for me. I remember arranging to stay after school to spend 30 minutes in the school library just to work on the Apple. It was enjoyable to learn about this computer and inventor from the inventor's own words. It also put to rest some of the news clips/reports that didn't seem quite right at the times they were released to the public. "I am a PC" now and have been for many years, but the Apple and Commodore were my introduction to computers.

Really Technical

Would you try another book from Steve Wozniak and Gina Smith and/or Patrick Lawlor?

I don't think I will get the opportunity, but even if I did I would not choose to listen to another book by Woz.

Were the concepts of this book easy to follow, or were they too technical?

The concepts were very technical and unless you are a programmer or some other technical genius, you will not enjoy this as much as you think.

What aspect of Patrick Lawlor???s performance would you have changed?

He did a great job narrating. I don't think that he could have made this any better, he was exdcited when he neede to be excited and must have understood the material much more than the average reader.

What else would you have wanted to know about Steve Wozniak and Gina Smith ???s life?

I was looking for a companion to the Steve Jobs book that I had listened to just before this one. I was expecting that I would get more information about the relationship and the genesis of Apple.

Any additional comments?

If you can follow it, it can be entertaining, but the technical stuff really made me "check out" from time to time.

Does not disappoint

Does not disappoint. Not Jobs - it's not supposed to be. I read this and then the Jobs book and I was very pleased. This was a much better story, any kid that can learn like he did has a spot in my heart.

Excellent for Engineers

Would you listen to iWoz again? Why?

This book was unexpectedly great. I really enjoyed listening to it. As en engineer I felt I could relate to Steve and he inspires to continually follow your passions. He reminds how to create something new, design and build systems. Lastly it was very interesting to hear his version of the history of Apple and the development of the first home computer.

You can't get the full Apple Story without Wozniak

What made the experience of listening to iWoz the most enjoyable?

Wozniak's upbeat, non judgmental, and positive tone.

Any additional comments?

There are to many books about Apple's History, most of which are crappy and littered with falsehoods. The real story comes with a combination of Walter Isaccson's Steve Jobs Biography and iWoz. The two childhood friends are as different as night and day, but both were essential to the founding of Apple and the development to the first practical personal computer. Woz, was the engineering brains, and Jobs was the business brains, and both are required reading for the complete picture of the PC revolution.

Sent from my iPad :)

Pretty interesting

I think you have to be a bit of an Apple geek to really get in to this book. It was ok.

Perfect

What did you love best about iWoz?

Inspiracional, educacional. Pone en contexto el "porqué, cómo y que más" en la vida de Wozniak. Da una perspectiva diferente en la vida de una persona a la que le gusta "crear" cosas.