I’m a fan of biographies to begin with, so I knew I’d really enjoy this book. And enjoy I did. This crazy roller-coaster tale of the life of Steve Jobs grabbed me from the first chapter and the only thing that prevented me from finishing this faster was the sheer size of the book. It was too large for me to lug around when I left the house.

(I’d have purchased the Nook version, but I was appalled that the actual hardcover only cost me $5 more than buying the pixels.)

Steve Jobs’s accomplishments are well-known. He was the creative mind (genius? maybe…) behind all of Apple’s successful products and a few of the not-so-great ones. He was one of the men who gave us Pixar’s beautiful and touching movies.

I knew he was impossible to please and a viscous taskmaster of a boss. What I didn’t know was how much of an ass he was.

Stubborn, spoiled and sometimes stinky, Jobs screamed, sulked and cried until he got what he wanted. He screwed over his friends, berated his employees, and blatantly favored his son over his daughters. He even purposely parked in the handicap spot at Apple rather than have his own CEO spot. As he whirled like a manic-depressive Tasmanian devil through Silicon Valley, Hollywood and beyond, Jobs was surrounded by the most indulgent and enabling supporting cast ever assembled. But he possessed some kind of Svengali-type power that kept these people on his side and fully participating in his distorted reality.

The author, Walter Isaacson, kept me reading and more surprisingly, CARING about this gigantic diva, even when he did things like use his wealth and connections to get a new liver sooner in Tennessee rather than wait longer on the California transplant list. Isaacson did a great job explaining what made Apple products so innovative without bogging the text down with tech talk. He also gave a nice peek into the world of the super-wealthy, a world where sitting President Bill Clinton stays in one of Jobs’s houses while he visits Chelsea at Stanford.

The appearances by another Bill, Bill Gates, were my favorite parts of the book. I enjoyed seeing their relationship grow and mellow through the years.

You already know Steve’s rise began in his parent’s garage, and you know it ended prematurely in October of 2011. This book will fill you in on all of the juicy stuff in the middle.

PS: I’m a PC.

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September 5, 2004

Because of that time I spent with Steve’s Apple II…

10 PRINT “I learned to flood a screen with my name which eventually lead me to flooding the internet with my words and leaving a secretary’s job to become a web designer.”
20 GOTO 10

>RUN

Because of that computer, I played Oregon Trail and died of dysentery more times than anyone ever should.

And so because of Steve Jobs I grew up unafraid of computers.

Because I grew up unafraid of computers, one day I had the courage to crack open a PC and look inside.

Because of Steve Jobs I can hold more music than a girl should ever own in the palm of my hand.

Because of Steve Jobs I have 2 years worth of photographic memories IN MY TELEPHONE.

Thank you, Steve Jobs. The world is a less creative place without you.

It is the original iPhone, and about six months later, the iPhone 3G came out. A bunch of the movers & shakers jumped to that model. The 3GS came out this June, and a lot of people made that jump as well.

Me? I still have the original, which is fine except…

It doesn’t really work as a phone well anymore. I’m missing calls and voicemails and getting late texts, which is seriously bugging me because it makes me look like I’m blowing people off.

My signal is rarely strong anymore. I can be in Applebees with Mom, who’s also AT&T (regular cellphone) and she’ll get 5 bars and I have 2. I can be standing next to WM and his iPhone (3G) and he’ll have 4 bars and I’ll have 1.

I can’t help but think of my sweet little Samsung phone which worked like a champ for over 3 years and took much better photos.

Anyway, the purpose of this whine is that I’m wondering with all the hype over the 3G and the 3GS if Apple knew all along that the regular model was wonky.

I’m doing a system restore this morning. I hope it helps because I’m THISCLOSE to giving up the apps and geek cred and going back to a regular old cell phone.