The Apple Ii Age

An engrossing origin story for the personal computer—showing how the Apple II’s software helped a machine transcend from hobbyists’ plaything to essential home appliance. Skip the iPhone, the iPod, and the Macintosh. If you want to understand how Apple Inc. became an industry behemoth, look no further than the 1977 Apple II. Designed by the brilliant engineer Steve Wozniak and hustled into the marketplace by his Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, the Apple II became one of the most prominent personal computers of this dawning industry. The Apple II was a versatile piece of hardware, but its most compelling story isn’t found in the feat of its engineering, the personalities of Apple’s founders, or the way it set the stage for the company’s multibillion-dollar future. Instead, historian Laine Nooney shows, what made the Apple II iconic was its software. In software, we discover the material reasons people bought computers. Not to hack, but to play. Not to code, but to calculate. Not to program, but to print. The story of personal computing in the United States is not about the evolution of hackers—it’s about the rise of everyday users. Recounting a constellation of software creation stories, Nooney offers a new understanding of how the hobbyists’ microcomputers of the 1970s became the personal computer we know today. From iconic software products like VisiCalc and The Print Shop to historic games like Mystery House and Snooper Troops to long-forgotten disk-cracking utilities, The Apple II Age offers an unprecedented look at the people, the industry, and the money that built the microcomputing milieu—and why so much of it converged around the pioneering Apple II.

Draws on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs, as well as interviews with family members, friends, competitors, and colleagues to offer a look at the co-founder and leading creative force behind the Apple computer company.

"Around the world, millions of people hijack cars in Grand Theft Auto, role play fantastical heroes in World of WarCraft, and crush candy on phones as small as wallets yet nearly as powerful as desktop computers. Long before video games became a multi-billion-dollar industry, a small group of hackers created the Apple II, a PC that contained less memory than the average size of a Microsoft Word document and turned heads by outputting graphics in color. Some users tapped its resources to design productivity software. Others devised some of the most influential games of all time. From the perils along the Oregon Trail and the exploits of Carmen Sandiego to the shadowy dungeons of Wizardry and Prince of Persia s trap-filled labyrinth, Break Out recounts the making of some of the Apple II s most iconic games, illustrates how they informed the games we play today, and tells the stories of the pioneers who made them."--Page 4 of cover.

Part of the new Ladybird Expert series, Quantum Mechanics is a clear, simple and entertaining introduction to the weird, mind-bending world of the very, very small. Written by physicist and broadcaster Professor Jim Al-Khalili, it explores all the key players, breakthroughs, controversies and unanswered questions of the quantum world. You'll discover how the sun shines, why light is both a wave and a particle, the certainty of the Uncertainty Principle, Schrodinger's Cat, Einstein's spooky action, how to build a quantum computer, and why quantum mechanics drives even its experts completely crazy. 'Jim Al-Khalili has done an admirable job of condensing the ideas of quantum physics from Max Planck to the possibilities of quantum computers into brisk, straightforward English' The Times Written by the leading lights and most outstanding communicators in their fields, the Ladybird Expert books provide clear, accessible and authoritative introductions to subjects drawn from science, history and culture. Other books currently available in the Ladybird Expert series include: · Climate Change · Evolution For an adult readership, the Ladybird Expert series is produced in the same iconic small format pioneered by the original Ladybirds. Each beautifully illustrated book features the first new illustrations produced in the original Ladybird style for nearly forty years.

Early in recorded human history, the literacy rate was as low as one percent, and reading materials were available to only the elite. How times have changed! In Information Age Tales, author Brad Bradford chronicles these changes, documenting how technology growth continues to change the world, upsetting the balance of power on almost every continent. Information Age Tales recaps the history of speech, languages, writing, and memory and describes how these revolutions paved the way for today’s age of cyberspace. He shows how history may be repeating itself as knowledge-sharing information technology such as Facebook and Twitter have a global effect. Bradford presents an information technology trail that includes concepts such as the following: • Water monkeys may have been our ancestors. • Fearsome Mongol warriors played a positive role in the rise of Western Civilization. • Hindus in India and the Arabs unveiled long-hidden numerical tools needed for modern science to emerge in the West. • Interchangeable parts appear more than four centuries before Eli Whitney won his historic patent to manufacture muskets with them. Information Age Tales imparts stories revolving around the wonders of the written word and shows the role technology has played in the rise of past civilizations.