Used Book Review: Apple Confidential

This edition of the Used Book Review takes us back to 1999 and Owen Linzmayer's Apple Confidential. (not to be confused with his 2004 follow-up, Apple Confidential 2.0)

Rather than follow a linear history of the company, Linzmayer has dedicated chapters to different milestones in Apple's history. One chapter, delves into the rise and fall of the Newton, while another chronicles the purchase of NeXT, and Steve Jobs' return to Apple. The book is peppered with fun facts that will be fresh to the new members of the Apple family, and will bring back several "Oh yeah, I remember that!" moments for the Apple veterans. Sidebar information occasionally distracts from the flow of reading the book, but fits nicely with the book's style of presenting charts, timelines, and priceless quotes from Apple's history. It really is a quick way to get up to speed on all things Apple, and should be required reading for anyone blogging about Apple today (we won't name any names.) Clever extras include a multipage look at old Apple product codenames, and a where-are-they-now (or at least in 1999) of all of the people whose signatures adorned the inside of early Macintosh cases.

Apple Confidential ends just after the announcement of the original iMac. If you're looking for a bit more on the early days of Jobs' second stint at Apple, seek out 2.0 instead. If you want to enjoy a fun fact-filled look at the first 20 years of the company, especially the Macintosh age, this is the book for you. While we looked at the original title, all indications are 2.0 is just as fact-filled and nostalgic.