Apple to the Core

BY EDEN MAXWELL

Editorial

President’s PDA

MWSF 2004 Report

Computer
Connections

Web Design Part 3

Studio Artist 2.0

Squeezing the Apple

Apple Confidential
2.0

Qaptain Qwerty’s
Qorner

From My Keyboard

Volunteer for
Express!

While the official gift-giving holidays are over for this year, here�s a present you will want for yourself, and anyone else you know who wants the inside story of one of America�s most innovative and successful businesses.

Apple Confidential 2.0 ($19.95) by Owen Linzmayer, from No Starch Press, examines the tumultuous history of America's best-known Silicon Valley start-up - from its legendary founding almost 30 years ago, through a series of disastrous executive decisions, to its return to profitability - and including Apple's recent move into the music business. Linzmayer digs into forgotten archives and interviews the key players to give readers the real story of Apple Computer, Inc.

Here�s a brief and prescient excerpt about the two bad boy Steves:

�Shortly after returning to college in the fall of 1971 - this time at UC Berkeley - Wozniak began his first commercial venture with Jobs. The two peddled �blue boxes� designed by Wozniak based on information contained in the October 1971 issue of Esquire. These handheld electronic boxes allowed illegal phone calls to be made free of charge by emulating signals used by the phone company. Jobs supplied $40 in parts and sold the boxes door-to-door in dorm rooms for $150, splitting the profits with Wozniak. In keeping with the spirit of �phone phreaking,� Wozniak assumed the name Berkeley Blue and Jobs, Oaf Tobark.

"During one demonstration, Wozniak called the Vatican posing as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and asked to speak to Pope Paul VI. Informed that the pope was sleeping but would be awakened, Wozniak lost his nerve and hung up. Following several close calls with the police and a gun-toting buyer, Jobs and Wozniak quit the business after selling approximately 200 blue boxes.�

This updated and expanded edition includes tons of new photos, timelines and charts, as well as coverage of new lawsuit battles, updates on former Apple executives, and new chapters on Steve Wozniak and Pixar.

�He was the only person I met who knew more about electronics than me.� - Steve Jobs, explaining his initial fascination with Wozniak

�Steve didn�t know very much about electronics.� - Steve Wozniak

Steve Jobs (left) examines a �blue box� that Steve Wozniak (right) designed after reading about such devices in an issue of Esquire magazine.