The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness

Steven Levy

ISBN 10: 0743285220 / ISBN 13: 9780743285223

Published by Simon & Schuster, 2006

About this Item

284 pages. 8.50x5.50x0.75 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # 0743285220

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743285220
• ISBN 13: 9780743285223
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.41 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

A Newsweek technology columnist traces the creation and popularity of the iPod, discusses such topics as Apple's unlikely position at the forefront of the technology, the iPod's role in changing the face of recorded music, and the contributions of CEO Steve Jobs and his team. 100,000 first printing.

Reviews

For the iPod's fifth anniversary, Newsweek technology writer and longtime Apple Computer enthusiast Levy (Insanely Great) offers a brightly written paean to "the most familiar, and certainly the most desirable, new object of the twenty-first century." Combining upbeat reportage about the device's origins and development with higher-minded ruminations about its place at "the center of just about every controversy in the digital age," he explores how the iPod "set the technology world, the business world, and especially the music industry on its head." Levy discusses its place in the "movement of portable cocooning" begun by the Sony Walkman, exploring how the ubiquitous white buds are affecting social connections. The book's in-no-particular-sequence chapters—intended to evoke the iPod's shuffle function—don't build much momentum, and there's more about Apple CEO Steve Jobs and his leaps over design and technical hurdles than the average user may need to know. But Levy's zeal and insider anecdotes ("I once found myself in a heated discussion with Bill Gates about the nature of cool") carry things along. Apple fans and iPod owners will enjoy Levy's exploration—and will probably forgive his gushing about the iPod's "universally celebrated, endlessly pleasing, devilishly functional, drop-dead gorgeous design." (Oct.)
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