The Perfect Thing
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The Perfect Thing
''The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness'' is a book written by Steven Levy, an American journalist. It covers the growth of the idea of Apple's very own iPod, from its origins before its introduction in 2001 to its development to the iPod Nano and the fifth-generation video iPod. Synopsis In an author's note, Levy writes, Contents *Perfect *Identity *Origin *Cool *Personal *Download *Shuffle *Apple *Podcast *Coda Levy starts the book with a timeline of the iPod, running from October 2001 to October 2005. He then writes in a shuffled set of chapters, focusing on the "perfect" aspects of the iPod—the origins and the idea of the iPod, its ability to create an identity and a familiar community, its coolness factor, how it made music personal for individuals, and how it changed the music industry with Apple's iTunes Store. The book includes quotes, interviews, and anecdotes with such individuals as Apple's co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs; Micro ...
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Steven Levy
Steven Levy (born 1951) is an American journalist and editor at large for '' Wired'' who has written extensively for publications on computers, technology, cryptography, the internet, cybersecurity, and privacy. He is the author of the 1984 book '' Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution'', which chronicles the early days of the computer underground. Levy published eight books covering computer hacker culture, artificial intelligence, cryptography, and multi-year exposés of Apple, Google, and Facebook. His most recent book, ''Facebook: The Inside Story'', recounts the history and rise of Facebook from three years of interviews with employees, including Chamath Palihapitiya, Sheryl Sandberg, and Mark Zuckerberg. Early life and education Levy was born in Philadelphia in 1951. He graduated from Central High School and received a bachelor's degree in English from Temple University. He earned a master's degree in literature from Pennsylvania State University. Career In ...
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Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Following the company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO), Gates became a billionaire in 1987—then the youngest ever, at age 31. ''Forbes'' magazine The World's Billionaires, ranked him as the world's wealthiest person for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years consecutively from 1995 to 2007. He became the first centibillionaire in 1999, when his net worth briefly surpassed $100 billion. According to ''Forbes'', as of May 2025, his net worth stood at US$115.1 billion, making him the thirteenth-richest individual in the world. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Gates was privately educated at Lakeside School (Seattle), Lakeside School, where he befriended Allen and developed his computing interests ...
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Simon & Schuster Books
Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus authority ''Simon'' * Tribe of Simeon, one of the twelve tribes of Israel Places * Şimon (), a village in Bran Commune, Braşov County, Romania * Șimon, a right tributary of the river Turcu in Romania Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Simon'' (1980 film), starring Alan Arkin * ''Simon'' (2004 film), Dutch drama directed by Eddy Terstall * ''Simón'' (2018 film), Venezuelan short film directed by Diego Vicentini * ''Simón'' (2023 film), Venezuelan feature film directed by Diego Vicentini Games * ''Simon'' (game), a popular computer game * Simon Says, children's game Literature * ''Simon'' (Sutcliff novel), a children's historical novel written by Rosemary Sutcliff * Simon (Sand novel), an 1835 novel by George Sand * ' ...
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IPod
The iPod is a series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. from 2001 to 2022. The iPod Classic#1st generation, first version was released on November 10, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes was released. Apple sold an estimated 450 million iPod products as of 2022. Apple discontinued the iPod product line on May 10, 2022. At over 20 years, the iPod brand is the longest-running to be discontinued by Apple. Some versions of the iPod can serve as external USB mass storage device class, data storage devices, like other digital music players. Prior to macOS 10.15, Apple's iTunes software (and other alternative software) could be used to transfer music, photos, videos, iPod game, games, contact information, e-mail settings, Web bookmarks, and calendars to the devices supporting these features from computers using certain versions of Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows operating systems. Befo ...
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Technology Books
Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines, and intangible ones such as software. Technology plays a critical role in science, engineering, and everyday life. Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used during prehistory, followed by the control of fire—which in turn contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during the Ice Age, according to the cooking hypothesis. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age allowed greater travel and the creation of more complex machines. More recent technological inventions, including the printing press, telephone, and the Internet, have lowered barriers to communication and ushered in the knowledge economy. W ...
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2006 Non-fiction Books
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics A six-sided polygon is a hexagon, one of the three regular polygons capable of tiling the plane. A hexagon also has 6 edges as well as 6 internal and external angles. 6 is the second smallest composite number. It is also the first number that is the sum of its proper divisors, making it the smallest perfect number. It is also the only perfect number that doesn't have a digital root of 1. 6 is the first unitary perfect number, since it is the sum of its positive proper unitary divisors, without including itself. Only five such numbers are known to exist. 6 is the largest of the four all-Harshad numbers. 6 is the 2nd superior highly composite number, the 2nd colossally abundant number, the 3rd triangular number, the 4th highly composite number, a pronic number, a congruent number, a harmonic divisor number, and a semiprime. 6 is also ...
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Boing Boing
''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice won the Bloggies for Weblog of the Year, in 2004 and 2005. The editors are Mark Frauenfelder, David Pescovitz, Carla Sinclair, and Rob Beschizza, and the publisher is Jason Weisberger. One report named ''Boing Boing'' as the most popular blog in the world until 2006, when Chinese-language blogs became popular; it remained among the most widely linked and cited blogs into the 2010s. History ''Boing Boing'' (originally ''bOING bOING'') started as a zine in 1988 by married duo Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair. Issues were subtitled ''"The World's Greatest Neurozine"''. Associate editors included Gareth Branwyn, Jon Lebkowsky, Paco Nathan, and David Pescovitz. Along with '' Mondo 2000'', ''Boing Boing'' was an influence in the devel ...
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Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow (; born 17 July 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of its licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post scarcity, post-scarcity economics. Life and career Cory Efram Doctorow was born in Toronto, Ontario, on 17 July 1971. He is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. His paternal grandfather was born in what is now Poland and his paternal grandmother was from Leningrad, Russia (now St. Petersburg). Both fled Nazi Germany's advance eastward during World War II, and as a result Doctorow's father was born in a displaced persons camp near Baku, Azerbaijan. His grandparents and father emigrated to Canada from the Soviet Union. Doctorow's mother's family were Ukrainian-Russian Romanians. Doctorow ...
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Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of Book Publishing and Bookselling." With 51 issues a year, the emphasis today is on book reviews. History Nineteenth century The magazine was founded by bibliographer Frederick Leypoldt in the late 1860s and had various titles until Leypoldt settled on the name ''The Publishers' Weekly'' (with an apostrophe) in 1872. The publication was a compilation of information about newly published books, collected from publishers and from other sources by Leypoldt, for an audience of booksellers. By 1876, ''The Publishers' Weekly'' was being read by nine tenths of the booksellers in the country. In 1878, Leypoldt sold ''The Publishers' Weekly'' to his friend Richard Rogers Bowker, in order to free up time for his other bibliographic endeavors. Augu ...
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Michael Robertson (businessman)
Michael Robertson (born 1967) is the founder and former Chief Executive Officer, CEO of MP3.com, an Internet music site. In the years following his departure from MP3.com Robertson has launched several companies, including Linspire, SIPphone, MP3tunes, and Ajax13. He is also founder of OnRad.io, a search engine for radio and DAR.fm, a website for recording audio from internet radio. Robertson faced numerous lawsuits from major record labels due to copyright infringements from the company's "Beam-it" and "Instant Listening" programs. MP3.com settled the majority of these lawsuits for tens of millions of dollars. The company was later acquired by Vivendi Universal for $385 million. Robertson founded OS technology company Lindows, which later changed its name to Linspire after settling a trademark lawsuit with Microsoft. Linspire focused on creating an easy-to-use Linux-based operating system for desktops and laptops. In 2003, Robertson founded SIPphone, which developed free VOIP s ...
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University Of Utrecht
Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of 39,769 students, and employed 8,929 faculty members and staff. More than 400 PhD degrees were awarded and 7,765 scientific articles were published. The university's 2023 budget was €2.8 billion, consisting of €1.157 billion for the university (income from work commissioned by third parties is 319 million euros) and €1.643 billion for the University Medical Center Utrecht. The university's interdisciplinary research targets life sciences, pathways to sustainability, dynamics of youth, and institutions for open societies. Utrecht University is led by the University Board, consisting of Wilco Hazeleger (Rector Magnificus), Anton Pijpers (chair), Margot van der Starre (Vice Chair) and Niels Vreeswijk (Student Assessor). Close ties are harboured with ot ...
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Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar. He was a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 and adopted shortly afterwards. He attended Reed College in 1972 before withdrawing that same year. In 1974, he traveled through India, Hippie trail, seeking enlightenment before later studying Buddhism in the West#Emerging mainstream western Buddhism, Zen Buddhism. He and Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 to further develop and sell Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. Together, the duo gained fame and wealth a year later with production and sale of the Apple II, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers. Jobs saw ...
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