Reviews for Insanely Great: Life and Times of the Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything

1. Nicely written, but more of a historical document now

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, January 12nd, 2008

   I bought this in 1996 from the Computer Literacy bookstore in Sunnyvale, and enjoyed reading its account of the development of the Mac: the inspiration, the mistakes, the personalities, the politics, the technical breakthroughs and the way in which it "changed everything". Recently, I pulled it off the shelf and read it again: this time around, it appears as more of a historical document, with some fascinating suggestions and guesses for future developments.
   
   It's interesting to see how some of these have come (almost) true - for example, on p285, there's a description of a plan for a hand-held device whose "display might turn into a metaphoric music store. By touching the pictures of various shelves, one could browse through a stack of compact disks. Touching one CD icon might fill the screen with the label image. Touching again might trigger a wireless call to the record company - and the response would be a brief snippet of one of the songs on the CD." It all sounds like a pretty accurate prediction of iTunes and other on-line music stores, but it's worth noting that this plan wasn't (at the time) Apple's - instead, it came from General Magic, a company partially formed by disaffected Apple engineers to "help create the spiritual successor to Macintosh". The other way this plan deviates from the on-line music stores that we've become familiar with is the way it ends: with the CD of your choice being physically shipped to your house. The use of the internet as a carrier for music seems to have been just beyond the radar at the time. Although this isn't perhaps surprising, it's remarkable how (even for a book written in 1994, at the dawn of the World Wide Web) there's no mention of the internet at all. Ironically enough, it was their reliance on a proprietary network (and the neglect of the Web) that was to be amongst the reasons for General Magic's demise not long after this book appeared.
   
   This is still an interesting read. Levy's a good writer (I enjoyed his Hackers and Artificial Life a long while ago), and rereading this book has made me interested in his book on the iPod, which I hope to get around to any day now.

2. An insanely important history

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, August 12st, 2000

   This book is destined to become a classic text, one which will be read by historians for centuries to come. Without this book a hundred years from now it is likely that only Bill Gates will remain in the public consciousness - renowned for inventing the computer. In much the same way as Mozart's genius was only really appreciated after his death Steven Levy's book will serve to ensure that future historians remember that it was lesser known and far more visonary individuals who created the leap in computing that made it personal. An essential and thoroughly entertaining read.

3. A brilliant potted history of the Macintosh computer

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 1999

   Written by the author of Hackers although you wouldn't have guessed it. This book is so good he should stick to non fiction. Gives a precise history of the beginning of Apple Computer, the revelation that was Macintosh and how it grew up. It is all the usual garage day stuff, Visicalc, Pagemaker and Xerox Parc, but somehow it is written in a way that is far more believable. Most books about the history of Apple are written to sound like fiction, this one is far better.Well worth it.

4. Great!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 1999

   This was a great book! I must've read it 10 times since I've gotten it. If you love Apple and the Macintosh, then you'll love this one!

5. This book accurately describes the introductoin of the Mac.

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 1999

   Steven Levy tells a gripping tale of the personal computer enviroment during the 80s, and details the advent of the GUI, or graphical user interface, which Xerox pioneered and apple popularized. Ever wonder where Windows came from?