| The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness |  | Author: Steven Levy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 602,713
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.4
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0743285239
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.5
EAN: 9780743285230
ASIN: 0743285239
Publication Date: September 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The iPod has become a full-blown cultural phenomenon, giving us a new vocabulary (we shuffle our iTunes on our nanos), revolutionizing the way we experience music and radio through the invention of podcasting, opening up new outlets for video, and challenging the traditional music industry as never before. The design itself has become iconic: there is even a shade of white now called iPod White. Steven Levy has had rare access to everyone at Apple who was involved in creating the iPod -- including Steve Jobs, Apple's charismatic cofounder and CEO, whom he has known for over twenty years. In telling the story behind the iPod, Levy explains how it went from the drawing board to global sensation. He also examines how this deceptively diminutive gadget raises a host of new technical, legal, social, and musical questions (including the all-important use of one's playlist as an indicator of coolness), and writes about where the iPhenomenon might go next in his new Afterword. Sharp and insightful, The Perfect Thing is part history and part homage to the device that we can't live without.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
 Not bad... June 22, 2010
D.E. Wray (Tokyo)
"The Perfect Thing" is a very light, shallow, but entertaining treatment of various aspects of the impact of the iPod product written by a "technology reporter" who does not seem to know much about his topic. The book is much better than iPod, Therefore I Am, but is akin to it in that both are written by entirely uncritical fanboys. It would be nice to see a volume on portable digital audio players written by someone both savvy and neutral, but this is not one.
Nice mixture of history and fashion May 23, 2010
Bas Vodde (Singapore)
"The perfect thing" is everything about iPods. The author is Steven Levy, a technology journalist of Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution fame. I hadn't heard much about the book and was hesitant on whether I should read it or not. I was looking for some easy reading about technology and decided this might be it. In the end, I was not disappointed, the perfect thing is not the perfect book, but it did provide me with what I was looking for in it.
The book consists of a bunch of chapters which are shuffled. So your version of the book might have the chapters in a different order than mine. All chapters are independent stories related to the iPod. The chapters are (in my order): perfect, personal, cool, download, podcast, origin, apple, identity and shuffle.
Part of the chapters dealt with the fashion and social reaction to the iPod. Personal discusses the history of personal music and how it influenced our culture. How some socialist fight it whereas others embrace it. Cool discusses how iPod has become a fashion statement and how trends of coolness work. Podcast covers the history of podcasts and how this "personal radio" has influenced our culture. Identity talks about how what you have on your iPod is who you are.
The other part of the chapters deal with the history. Personally I found these more interesting than the fashion ones. Origin covers the origins of the iPod, how it was created, who was involved and where the ideas came from. Apple discusses the history of apple and especially Steven Jobs and how the iPod has been one of his key successes in his comeback to apple. Other chapters also talk about history of the iPod design, history of podcasts, history of the walkman etc.
The book is easy reading. Its written well and doesn't dive incredibly deep in the different subjects, but touches lots of subjects very broadly (a journalist book...). Still, I enjoyed reading it, the writing style was funny and the content was informative. Its not as good as Hackers... but it is definitively worth reading.
I was thinking of a 3 or 4 stars rating. 3 stars because the book did what I expected it to do -- an easy reading book about technology. 4 because it was written well and surprised me somewhat. In the end, I decided to go with 4 stars. Worth reading if you like iPods and Apples.
 The catalyst that made it happen August 12, 2009
Mariusz Skonieczny (ClassicValueInvestors . com)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Apple took off with the success of iPod in 2001. Before iPod, Apple was mainly popular among computer enthusiasts who were viewed by the general public as geeks. Then, iPod made it cool to be associated with Apple. The author explains just how important music is to people. A person's music collection defines oneself. Others can make judgments about someone else by looking at their music collection in their iPod. A great collection determines a person's status. Acceptance and status are extremely powerful forces especially among teenagers. The author also argues that popularity of iPod created a "halo effect" that boosted sales of other Apple products. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in Apple.
- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market
 Not "Hackers" June 23, 2009
Marvin R. Doering (Lemay, Missouri USA)
I have read Mr. Levy's book "Hackers" several times. I found the information he supplied regarding the early days of computing very entertaining and of interest to me. This new book just hasn't grabbed my attention. I stopped after about 15 pages as it seems more like an Apple advertisement than an historical presentation. I realize there is not as much meat here to write about, but I really don't know why he bothered. It is not that interesting a subject, and probably was done just to cash in on his previous successes.
2009: Out of date now, but covers teh origins April 25, 2009
Dave Millman (San Jose, CA USA)
Other reviewers have covered the contents of this book pretty well. I just read it (April 2009), and wanted to offer two criticisms from a 2009 perspective:
1. As you would expect from a book published in 2006, there is no mention of the iPhone or iPod Touch, which were introduced in Summer 2007. Unfortunately for this book, the iPhone and Touch rather masterfully complete the iPod family, combining playback with communication and portable web browsing. I haven't yet seen an industry observer who understood how well Apple has rounded out their iPod product line with the Touch (touch control, big screen, WiFi, browsing, music, App Store) and iPhone (all that plus phone).
2. Although he acknowledges the depth, simplicity and market leadership of iTunes, Levy treats iTunes as an iPod feature. But without iTunes, iPod is just a deluxe, expensive MP3 player, much like the Mac is a deluxe, expensive computer. iTunes is why iPod has 70% market share in MP3 players: iPod + iTunes is a whole product, with enjoyable music shopping and simple downloads. Creative and Microsoft and others have copied and continue to copy iPod, but nobody else has come close to the whole product.
Summary: enjoyable read, but dated and getting less comprehensive by the day.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
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