iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon

I love Woz and Jobs both, I love Apple, I love their story, but I was really disappointed in this book. In the end, I didn't get anything out of it that I think I hadn't already gotten from various magazine articles that I read over the years. The grade reading level is about 3rd grade which put me off a great deal to start with. In all, it seemed like they were trying to find enough material to make a book so kept regurgitating the same points over and over. I think it might have gone better for him had he had a good interviewer helping him tickle out infformation from the past. Maybe a ghostwriter might have helped it along because I do believe that he has an interesting and important story to tell; it just didn't make it to this book.

I had hoped this book was going to provide with some previously unknown, to me, insights around Apple's rise to prominence.
However all I got was a true engineering genius's account of his genius.
Too bad. Coulda', shoulda' been an interesting read.
:(

This read is directed to very young geeks. Written in child's language.

I am an engineer and lived through the same time. I even worked for HP for 25 years.
I binge read this book and couldn't put it down because i was connected to the time, the vocation and had some identification and some differences. It was a very personal read.

The book had a strange voice to it. A kind of childish repeating - even literally repeating quality.
The authors concern seems to need to explain in simpler terms some of the technical issues.
I actually would have liked to see the details as I could probably understand them. Perhaps an appendix.

All in all I liked the book and the person and hope some day to meet Woz as I think we share some similarities and differences.

I bought this book because I read the book about Steve Jobs (excellent book), and I wanted to read Wozniak's point of view. He is incredibly arrogant and comes across as kind of a nut-job. It seems like he wrote this book himself, and never had a real writer proof read it for him. Throughout the book he repeats himself several times, and basically tells a couple of stories more than once. It is very obvious why Jobs was the one to take Apple to the heights of success, and not Wozniak. He sounds like a sniveling little girl who can't handle the fact that Jobs got the recognition for Apple's successful products.

A great aspirational book for anyone interested in STEM. My 19-year-old son devoured this book and loved all the intellectual parts but the anecdotes also. His favorite was the prank phone calls Woz's buddies hacked to the pope and got through to the Vatican. This book was an EPIC gift for my brilliant, but misunderstood in high school, son. He believes in a happily ever after again. Sigh!

I had no idea about Steve Wozniack. I thought he was out of the industry. Boy, was I wrong. He is still a leader in his industry and a very amazing person. This was a very entertaining and educational book. I feel that all 9 to 11 year olds could learn something from this and it should be required reading in 5th grade. At least 6th grade. Any parent of a child interested in gadgets should also read this book. It made me wish I had had his drive to keep on going through trials I had tried when I was a kid. This man is a genius and was as a child. It started with him being allowed to make strange inventions at home. Parents: lighten up. Let your kid experiment on your old equipment. .

I began reading this book as a follow-up to the excellent Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. What a great book this was! Steve Wozniak was the sole engineer who designed/invented the Apple computer, the first personal computer that worked with a keyboard and TV monitor. If you know anything about Steve Wozniak, you know that he is a down-to-earth and very honest regular guy. The wonderful thing about this book is that this is way the book reads and flows. Therefore, it's a very enjoyable and quick read.

Steve tells how his father explained engineering principles to him in such a way that he understood them completely and absorbed the information. This became the foundation of his passion and interest in engineering.

"The Woz" explains every step in his quest to design a personal computer, since he couldn't afford to buy one. He always kept redesigning this computer on paper, trying to utilize as few chips as possible. In between, we hear about his beloved job at Hewlett-Packard, building a "blue box" (device that makes free long distance phone calls), creating a dial-a-joke service, designing a game for Atari, and inventing the first universal remote. This man is brilliant, and Steve Jobs knew it.

Wozniak discusses the working atmosphere at Apple, his marriages, owning a movie theater, funding the US Music Festival, his love of being a father and becoming a computer teacher at his kids' school.

This is an excellent book told in an honest and informative fashion. In addition, it is the perfect companion to reading the Steve Jobs book.

This is a really fun, fascinating, and very informative book. You will learn many things by reading this book. You will learn about the history of personal computers. You will also learn a lot about learning. This is a must read for all students. If you are studying engineering, math, and/or computer science, you will especially like this book. Steve Wozniak had a passion for learning, a natural curiosity and a tireless focus. I found it difficult to put the book down at times.

You learn about "the blue machine", "phone phreaking", and some wild ideas like creating a dial-a-joke line.

Steve does clear the air about some common misconceptions about Apple's history. You learn a bit more about the Apple II in Apple's history. You learn that some at Apple have not always been given the credit they deserve. Everything from reminding us that Ron Wayne, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak founded Apple, to Steve Wozniak designing the Apple I and Apple II by himself, to the iMac and iPods being designed by Jony Ive.

You learn about Steve's interests other than engineering. Pulling pranks, flying planes, setting up and funding US Festivals (music festivals) and teaching the 5th grade.

Steve offers advice for anyone who might "see the future". If you are lucky enough to know what the next big thing will be. Steve doesn't see the biggest & greatest ideas coming from a committee or some company. As it was with Steve, he sees someone working tirelessly alone, that will produce the biggest advancements.

It is an awesome and very interesting book. One of the best books I have read in awhile!

I had read previous books about
Steve Jobs this was my first book reading about co-founder and creator of the first personable usable computer in the world and that is by California public High School grad, his father of Polish heritage that is Steve Wozniak. Inspirational, what a story a life he has held many different hats, an inventor, computer engineer, teacher and now he is himself as an entrepreneur. For anyone who wants to know the other side of Apple and who created the Apple 2 computer that would be this book, learning about how Woz wanted to design a computer that would be available to all humanity.