Book Review: The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs

If you are looking at the title of this week's book review, and thinking it sounds vaguely familiar, well we previosly reviewed The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, by the same author, Carmine Gallo.

When this book arrived, I was concerned that Gallo was trying to stretch the premise of Jobs-based books thin by going to the same well again. However, that is definitely not the case. Where the first title felt a little thin, relying frequently on Jobs' slides for filler, The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs is packed full of useful insight into Steve Jobs' thinking. For those of us who closely follow Apple, this title offers up some lesser-known stories from the Apple boardroom.

As an even greater surprise, the stories of several innovators big and small are used to highlight how Apple's methods can, and are used by others. Examples range from the guys behind the Flip video camera, to the creators of Zappos.com.

More than just an interesting read, the book can leave you fired up, as rather than putting Jobs on a pedestal, Gallo sensibly and with very little idol worship, shows how the same ideas can be applied to other industries, startups, and even your personal life.

A fast-paced, useful, and inspiring read, Gallo brings Jobs' skills down to earth for any of us to put into practice.

Book Review: iPhone Photography & Video For Dummies

If you haven't touched a Dummies book in ten years, a lot has changed. Gone are the phonebook-like black and white pages, and the silly humor. In are full color screenshots, and useful web resource links. With Angelo Micheletti's iPhone Photography and Video For Dummies not only will you pick up a few photo tips, but more importantly, you'll get excited about iPhone video and photos again. 

I know for me, the promise of video on the iPhone 3GS was a huge selling point. After a few test shots though, the feature has gone widely unused here. This book was just enough to remind me how powerful the photo and video capabilities of the iPhone are, and that's especially true of the iPhone 4. The book walks through what might be a refresher for many: "Oh, that's right, I forgot you could do a slideshow on the phone itself!" or "I can see the camera settings for iPhone pic in iPhoto '09?"

The information covered is slightly redundant if you read the book from cover to cover, but it is helpful if you are reading smaller portions or particular chapters.

Speaking of chapters, a personal favorite highlighted available accessories and apps to do more with your iPhone, including Gorillacam, which gives you the ability to take time lapse photos, and adds a self-shot timer. This info is hard to put into a book in a timely manner as apps are always coming and going, but it would've been nice to see a few more highlighted accessories and apps. 

The book covers a lot of ground that you probably already know, or knew and have forgotten, but it does it in a style that gets you excited about taking photos and video with the iPhone again.

Book Review: The Man Who Lied To His Laptop

Most of our book reviews here on TDL are in someway tied to learning more about technology, science, and the people who make it possible. This week's book is a bit different. The Man Who Lied to His Laptop is actually much more about human relationships, than anything to do with technology. The book, written by Stanford professor Clifford Nass (with Corina Yen) chronicles his experiments based on the discovery that people interact with technology in the same way they do with humans, even to the point of assigning stereotypes and "helping" computers to complete tasks out of a sense of obligation.

Nass takes the reader through his experiments in a step by step, yet exciting style. The book begins by outlining the initial discovery of the ways humans treat computers as if they were humans. This process in itself could fill a book, but rather than dwell on that aspect of the research, Nass shows how he used that as a springboard to try a whole litany of experiments aimed at discovering truths about human interactions:

I had people work with a piece of software for thirty minutes and then asked them a series of questions concerning their feelings about the software, such as "How likely would you be to buy this software?" and "How much did you enjoy using this software?" One group of users answered the questions on the computer they worked with; another group answered the questions on a separate but identical computer across the room.

In a result that still surprises me fifteen years later, users entered more positive responses on the computer that asked about itself than they did on the separate "objective" computer.

The book is divided into five lengthy chapters, each tackling a different aspect of human communication, culminating in chapter five's fascinating look at persuasion. While each chapter has a bullet-point summary of key points, it feels more like a recounting of the evidence to support the presented theories, rather than a book of key points to implement in your own life.

Regardless, The Man Who Lied to His Laptop offers an intriguing look at human nature through a series of clever computer-based experiments. Your interaction with others, especially in group settings, can only benefit from this book. 

Used Book Review: Inside Steve's Brain

Inside Steve's Brain. It is perhaps the best titled Apple-related book ever. Leander Kahney's 2007 book takes us on a trip that rather than painting Steve solely as a maniacal, fearsome leader as we've seen in other books, Kahney paints a picture of a more rational, driven genius.

However for me, the most interesting part of the book has little to do with Jobs. It's Kahney's insight into the design process of Jonathan Ive. In fact the book could've been subtitled inside Ive's Brain. Without living in the same enigmatic cloud as Jobs, Ive emerges as an approachable, but intense perfection. Yin to Jobs' yang. The book is our best look yet into the post-iPod, pre-iPhone period at Apple, with a great deal of time spent on the development and refinement of OS X, including Jobs' involvement literally at the pixel level when it came to icon design.

Kahney summarizes each chapter with a lessons learned style bulleted list. Unfortunately, as most have discovered in chronicling Apple, there are so many exceptions and asterisks, it's hard to find many business truths that hold true over the long term.

If you're looking for a calmer, insightful look into the way Steve Jobs operates, this is your book. Kahney never absolves Jobs of many of the legends, but rather paints a more measured, analytical picture of a complex man, and might give us some clues as to where the company is headed next.

(Amazon Link)

Used Book Review: Gil Amelio's "On The Firing Line"

 In our first installment of the used book review (hey why should new books get all the buzz!?) we're taking a look at On The Firing Line, written by Gil Amelio, with Bill Simon.

Gil Amelio was Apple's CEO just before Steve Jobs returned to the company. Amelio talks a lot about the way, from his perspective, Jobs made it back to the CEO seat. Given the secret nature of Apple today, it''s strange to get such a candid look behind the day-to-day operations of Apple. If you've only known the company under Steve's second tour of duty, it'll be even stranger to see things like the actual advertising budgets, discussions on product quality (including Gil's formula for when an issue rises to the level of a recall) and boardroom inner workings.

Gil was with Apple for 500 days. That hardly seems like enough time to warrant a 289 page book, yet with the exception of belaboring the point that nearly every existing executive was dysfunctional in Amelio's eyes, the book reads as a swiftly told story of corporate drama. The first few pages hook you into what turns out to be an interesting look inside the company, and probably the last book we'll see from an Apple CEO anytime soon.

Probably the most untold story that's gained from the book is that it was Amelio who tried and tried again to get Microsoft to agree to commit to the Mac platform for five years, rather than the commonly told story of Jobs making this happen seemingly from scratch by the time MacWorld 1997 rolled around.

It's a rare glimpse into Apple's corporate culture through the eyes of the CEO. Was Ameilo given a fair chance to turn the company around? Does he see faults in all directions except from himself? Frankly, with time, it doesn't matter as much to today's reader, as much as learning about things like the AppleMasters program, Mission Impossible advertising plans, etc.

Overall "On The Firing Line" is a worth a read to learn more about a version of Apple that's completely foreign to us today.